Proclaimer Blog
And another book….. or why pastors should read military history
During last week I also read another book worth a mention. It's not a Christian book at all. In fact (yawn!) it's a book about military history. When I became a pastor some 10 years ago, another pastor recommended (though I didn't need much persuasion) that one of the most fruitful reading areas for a minister of the gospel is military history. "Pastoring a church is most like being a battle general," he told me. And I found his words to be true. There are more similarities between being a general in battle and being a pastor than between being almost any other kind of leader and being a pastor. It's certainly more relevant than, say, a politician. Generals are given orders from above which they have to exercise judgement in carrying out. Sometimes those orders come with specific boundaries – sometimes they are more general, but in each case the commanding officer has to interpret and implement whilst enthusing those in his command.
In God's common grace, men are raised up to be superb leaders of others: and seeing how they exercise such leadership can be enormously rewarding ground. I emphasise that this is common grace, not special grace (where perhaps the most significant picture of leadership is that of a shepherd) – but we must not think there is no wisdom in it. I didn't need much persuading – I love history of all kinds – and particularly military history (something, apparently shared with that great OT commentator Dale Ralph Davis).
So, last week, during the evenings, I read a book I got from the library (remember those?). A soldier's story is the personal account of General Omar H Bradley, a US commanding general during WWII. Unlike many generals of the time (Montgomery and Patton, for example), "Brad" was a quiet (often described as humble) sort of guy who won people over through persuasion rather than direct command and practised what I can only describe as superb delegation. I found it interesting, stirring, stimulating and challenging too.