“How I wish I could have read this book when I was starting out in pastoral ministry forty-five years ago. Phil Newton offers practical wisdom that will help pastors young and old. It will be a special encouragement to pastors just starting out in the ministry. These forty questions cover the full range of questions pastors face. Dr. Newton offers tested wisdom that is both biblical and practical. I hope you will buy two copies—one to read and one to give to a young pastor. Outstanding!” -- Dr Ray Pritchard, President, Keep Believing Ministries
“Imagine being able to sit down and talk to a friend who has faithfully pastored for over forty years, and in a series of sessions, you have the chance to hear him share from Scripture and personal experience what he has learned along the way. Phil Newton is a friend and a mentor in ministry, so I can hear his voice as I read these pages. In this book, Phil comes alongside pastors to talk about everything from navigating your first year, to handling opposition, to tending your own soul, to planning a sermon series, to evaluating when it may be time to leave a church. I trust this resource will be a means of great encouragement to fellow pastors!” -- Matt Mason, Senior Pastor, The Church at Brookhills, Birmingham, AL
“There is something for pastors at every stage of ministry in this book. For the future pastor, there is a roadmap to show him what lies ahead. For the young pastor, there's wisdom to help when the curves grow hard to navigate. For the veteran pastor, there's help to know which road to take next. This will be required reading for all my pastoral interns from now on. My longtime friend Phil Newton is a trusted voice who knows every pothole in pastoral ministry because he's had to drive through every single one on the way to decades of faithful local church leadership.” -- Jeff Robinson, Lead Pastor, Christ Fellowship Baptist Church, Louisville, KY
“As I began to read Phil Newton’s book, 40 Questions About Pastoral Ministry, I put my highlighter down. I gazed at the fluorescent yellow manuscript pages on the desk before me and came to the realization that highlighting everything is highlighting nothing. However, when I read this book, I also quickly became aware that it was penned with a quill dipped in the author’s own blood. It was authored from wisdom of four decades of faithful pastoral ministry and walking intimately with Christ. Like a typical Phil Newton expository sermon, every word in this book matters. You cannot compose a work like 40 Questions About Pastoral Ministry as the byproduct of a research project. Writing this particular memoir and manual of biblical shepherding, takes a lifetime. In these pages, Phil keenly unfolds what Scripture teaches regarding ministry, including the foundational considerations of the pastorate, pastoral development and health, and pastoral practices. Each of these categories is fleshed out by biblical, historical, and personal examples that demonstrate the timeless biblical and theological principles outlined. Very few resources of this sort strike the right balance of grace and truth, and of admonition and encouragement. While maintaining the high bar that Scripture gives for pastoral ministry, Phil likewise expresses God’s promises of grace and provision for those whom he calls.
“In the mold of such classics as Richard Baxter’s Reformed Pastor and C. H. Spurgeon’s Lectures to My Students, many generations have someone to assume the responsibility for writing a timeless, biblical pastoral manifesto. I praise the Lord that Phil Newton is among those who have assumed this burden for our generation and the generations to come, if the Lord tarries. Fellow pastors, do not just skim through this book. Live with it and allow it to guide you to depend more deeply on the perfect Chief Shepherd, who needs no manual of instruction.” -- Brad Walker, Senior Pastor, First Baptist Church of Sparta, TN
“With more than forty years of experience, Phil Newton is well prepared by God to pose and answer these forty questions. Each answer is biblically grounded and theologically framed, rich in examples of those who pastored before us and flows out of his own extensive and even painful experiences. Perhaps most important, he reminds us that “love is a mark of pastoral ministry”—something none of us can afford to forget as we serve the bride of Christ. Throughout his book, Newton reveals that he is always aware of the hope of the Church—Jesus Christ and the mission of the Church—making disciples. Very much worth reading and keeping as a resource near at hand.” -- Richard A. Shenk, PhD, Assistant Professor of Theology, Bethlehem College & Seminary
“You hold in your hands one of the most important books on the practicality of pastoral ministry I have ever read. Additionally, I don't know of a better, wiser, more experienced pastor to write a book as this than Phil Newton. He has lived the content of this book for four decades of faithful ministry and has become a model to others pastors in the process. 40 Questions About Pastoral Ministry is easily accessible, thoroughly biblical, and immensely practical. It needs to be read and re-read by every new pastor as well as the most seasoned pastor who needs a clear and compelling reminder of God's call, plan, and design for his undershepherds. I heartily commend this book and the man who wrote it.” -- Brian Croft, Senior Pastor, Auburndale Baptist Church; Founder, Practical Shepherding
“Combining rich insights from years of pastoral experience with a theologically-shaped and biblically-informed approach to ministry, Phil Newton has provided readers with a welcomed addition to Kregel’s 40 Questions series. Ministers need not agree with Newton's theological and ecclesiological convictions to profit from reading this thoughtful and applicable handbook on pastoral ministry. 40 Questions About Pastoral Ministry will serve as a valuable resource and helpful guide for pastors at various stages of their ministries. I am delighted to recommend this fine work.” -- David S. Dockery, President, International Alliance for Christian Education
“Whether one is an experienced pastor or one just starting in ministry, having a ministry coach is extremely helpful—someone to whom we might ask questions, gain insight, and find a way forward in tricky ministry situations. In picking up 40 Questions About Pastoral Ministry, you have the voice of an experienced pastor-coach: someone who has followed Jesus in the midst of the challenges of ministry and someone who offers wise counsel to the most common questions we might have. Phil Newton has produced a goldmine of pastoral wisdom that should be a go-to book for pastors in every stage of ministry. I know that I will be pulling it off my shelf time and again to hear from my ministry coach!” -- Dr Sean Michael Lucas, Chancellor's Professor of Church History, Reformed Theological Seminary
“It’s one thing for Christian leaders to be admired from afar. It’s another thing for one’s fellow elders and a host of pastors of other congregations in one’s own city to regard a man as a living example of what a biblically faithful pastor is supposed to look like. By God’s grace, Dr. Phil Newton is such a man. In 40 Questions About Pastoral Ministry you will read with great profit what I and many other pastors have experienced first-hand from Phil's life and ministry. This brother is a pastoral ninja.
Over the past 20 years Phil and I have become dear friends. When I spend time with him, I walk away knowing he loves Jesus, loves me, and loves local churches. In this volume he imparts to fellow pastors not only the gospel of God but also his own life as well (1 Thess. 2:8).
Pastors, I double-dog-dare-you to prayerfully digest this abundantly wise counsel from a seasoned soul-physician whose eyes, for decades, have been fixed on the Wonderful Counselor.” -- Jordan Thomas, Pastor, Grace Church, Memphis
“Since I began in pastoral ministry, Phil Newton has generously shared his extensive wisdom with me and encouraged me along the way. With 40 Questions About Pastoral Ministry, I rejoice that his biblical knowledge and wisdom is now readily available to many others. This book is a treasure trove of doctrinally-sound wisdom and insight formed as the result of Phil's careful study and faithfulness through the challenges and joys over the long-haul of pastoral ministry. If you are a pastor, desire to be a pastor, or simply want to better understand what the Scriptures teach about this biblical office, read this book. And, when you finish, keep it handy as you will want to come back to the wisdom in this book for years to come.” -- Josh Manley, Senior Pastor, RAK Evangelical Church, Ras al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates
“Pastoring seems to be getting harder not easier. Consequently, it’s a necessity now more than ever for pastors to have more experienced collogues in ministry they can turn to with questions. Phil Newton, a humble, experienced pastor with a long-term ministry in one church has written 40 Questions About Pastoral Ministry to help answer some of those questions. Whether you’re a young or old pastor, a new or experienced pastor, or alone or one of many pastors, you will benefit from hearing Phil answer your questions. So, pick up this book, and let Pastor Newton encourage you.” -- Juan R. Sanchez, Senior Pastor, High Pointe Baptist Church, Austin, Texas
“Pastors are called by God to serve the people of God. Pastors are formed into faithful and effective servants that God desires them to be through the process of understanding the very responsibilities that their calling assigns to them. Crucial to their development is being mentored by a seasoned pastor who joyfully accepts his assignment. Phil Newton uses his pen in this volume to mentor pastors as he raises forty essential questions about pastoral ministry and seeks to answer them biblically, theologically, and practically. His wise and winsome answers have been formed from more thrity-five years of serving as a pastor. I have admired his ministry for more than twenty years. Phil does not just know how to be a shepherd, he walks with the Chief Shepherd. I can’t think of a better person to mentor those who are called to pastoral ministry whether they are early in their development or have been serving as a pastor for years. They all will benefit from 40 Questions About Pastoral Ministry.” -- Keith Whitfield, Provost Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary
