12 Faithful Men: Portraits of Courageous Endurance in Pastoral Ministry

My Rating – Put it on your list

Level – Quick, easy read; short book

Summary
I have to admit that I just skimmed the title of this book and didn’t read the subtitle. I was expecting a basic short biography of 12 men, but the subtitle says it all. This book is about pastors and their particular struggles in life. The book is a collection of essays written by 12 different men, only one of which was one of the editors. The first chapter is about Paul, and also functions as something like an intro to what the book is trying to accomplish. The other 11 men/chapters are John Calvin, John Bunyan, Jonathan Edwards, John Newton, Andrew Fuller, Charles Simeon, John Chavis, C.H. Spurgeon, J.C. Ryle, Janani Luwum, and Wang Ming-Dao.

My Thoughts
If you are wondering if the ‘J’ in J.C. Ryle is for John, the answer is yes. That means that half of the book is about people named John. I have no idea what Janani means in Swahili, but, it’d be pretty funny if it translated to John (the was John Calvin is actually named Jean). I feel like there was a missed opportunity to go full John here. I’m mostly joking, if anything I wish it had been expanded a little more across time and the world. I appreciate them covering two more modern Christians from other countries (I guess non-English, as most of the guys are). I hadn’t heard of either of these two, nor did I know who Simeon or Chavis were. I thought I new Fuller, but I was getting him confused withe other Fuller, founder of the seminary.

Overall, I thought it was pretty interesting. I’m already pretty familiar with Paul, Calvin, Edwards, and Spurgeon, but this book definitely makes me want to grab a biography, and learn more about Spurgeon, Bunyan, and especially Newton. Personally, while reading this book, I was going through my own time of suffering as well as studying unanswered prayer at church, so this fit in well, and was at least some level of encouraging.

This book would benefit most people who are struggling in their faith, but especially pastors. That really seems to be the target audience. Though, as the book is written by 12 different authors, you have varying degrees of focus. It was probably a mistake to attempt an intro and snippet on Paul. The book would have benefited more from either a dedicated intro, or a chapter more focused on being an intro that used Paul as an example and then perhaps another pastor (obviously needs to be another John, Knox perhaps?) if they want to keep the 12 angry men play on words thing going.

If you like history or biography, it is also a worthwhile book. It is a short enough book that is easy to read and will encourage you in your faith; so it is probably a book most people should put on their list. If you are a pastor/elder/deacon, I’d say it is a must read.

* I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review.