Product Description

After nearly fifty years in ministry, Letters to Timothy is John Bisagno’s retirement gift to younger and older pastors alike. A voluminous and comprehensive work, it is full of useful advice to ministers covering the “things that might have fallen through the cracks in seminary.” This book is a practical manual covering all aspects of pastoral life for clergy in churches of all sizes, locations, and denominations.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #632604 in Books
• Published on: 2001-06-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 383 pages

About the Author
John R. Bisagno has spent nearly fifty years in ministry, pastoring for 35 years. Retired from the First Baptist Church in Houston, Texas, he plans to continue preaching both in the United States and abroad. He will also spend more time with his wife of 45 years and their children and grandchildren.

Customer Reviews

Excellent resource and encouragement for pastors!
This is an excellent book for getting down to the basics of pretty much everything in pastoring and ministering in a church. It is not exhaustive by any means, but grapples with the most basic and difficult areas thoughfully throughout a host of varying issues related to leading the congregation

This book is excellent for a new minister, a great book for those with some experience, and could be used as a reference for seasoned leaders to get "another viewpoint" on a particular issue. I highly recommend this book! If you are looking for sound wisdom and practical advice in leading and pastoring people, as well as something to provide tremendous encouragement to you personally in your call to minister, this would definely fit the bill.

A Practical Must-Have for Every Seminary Student
If you are considering going into full-time ministry this book is chock-full of practical advice on service schedules, your personal calendar, working with committees, funerals, weddings, and many more areas of service they do not teach you in seminary. In addition to all of these "nuts and bolts", the book has a strong spiritual core, emphasizing your own devotion and time with God.
This book would help someone with a romantic view of ministry consider the real life challenges. It would help seminary students round out their training. And, it would help anyone in ministry learn from a master.
As a female, the assumption that the minister and deacons are male was annoying but understandable considering the background of the author. I am very grateful for this useful book!

Very wide, very shallow
The nation's first mega church was First Baptist Houston. Hitting 5,000 members in the 1970's, they were pastored by John R. Bisagno until 1999. Bisagno discipled Rick Warren, and the two of them have paved the way for other Southern Baptist Churches to become mega churches. Letters to Timothy (LtT), by Bisagno, is subtitled "A handbook for pastors." The back cover says "a seminary education in one volume . . . and more."

This is a very wide but shallow book. It has 114 chapters, all three to five pages long. It covers everything from the doctrine of the church, the call to ministry, finding a church, hiring a staff, how to design a parking lot, how to recognize anniversaries, all the way to how to retire. It is absolutely filled with helpful and practical advice, and has a small smattering of Scripture spiced throughout.

Bisagno ostentatiously rejects being "seeker sensitive," despite sections in the book where he suggest preaching without a pulpit, only giving a ten to twenty minute message on Easter because of the non-believers there, etc. In fact, to focus and catalogue all of the outlandish statements in the book is as tempting as it would be easy.

However, LtT is just as equally filled with helpful material. For example, the purpose of the church is to plant churches (he uses SBC lingo and calls them "missions"). The goal of the mother church is to make the missions successful, and they are successful when they are financially independent and are sending their own people into the mission field, Bisagno says. His church has started sixty-two such missions in inner-city Houston, forty of which are independent. In fact, on a Sunday the attendance of the splinter churches surpasses that of First Baptist.

LtT also stresses the importance of evangelism through follow-up visits to the house of all visitors to the church. His church does not have a Sunday night service because they want to visit all visitors the same day they came to the church.

A section that was personally very helpful was on funerals. LtT gives practical advice like when to stand, when to call the family, when to show up at the funeral home, and essentially covers every aspect of the funeral service. Other helpful sections, especially for an SBC pastor, deal with how to work with committees and deacons.

The weakness of the LtT is connected to strength. Too much of it was written for the mega-church pastor. For example, a sign that directs visitors to turn on their lights in the parking lot, so parking attendants can guide them to the front of the lot, and then offer to take their kids to the nursery for them, would result in a terrible disaster at a smaller church. LtT also deals with how to manage a staff meeting of 40 people. However, Bisagno does constantly call pastors to plan for growth and to plan to have a large church.

The lack of theology, especially given the subtitle, is the death blow to LtT. In fact, the longest quote in the entire book is of John MacArthur about what the definition of a one-woman man is. However, LtT only uses MacArthur to present what it does not mean, and does not tell the reader what it does mean. Moreover, the section on church discipline is absolutely devoid of any solid theological teachings.

LtT would be extremely helpful to the discerning pastor. There re fifty years of successful pastoral experience that can be used in the life of a young pastor. However, there is much to be avoided. Pick the flowers, leave the weeds.