Most books, I read neither slow nor fast, enjoying the journey but anticipating the end without any remorse. Other books, I fly through, captivated by an adventuresome story or thrilling new ideas. This Odd and Wondrous Calling: The Public and Private Lives of Two Ministers, however, I read slowly, savoring each word, taking long breaks between chapters to rest in the experience. But, strangely, when I finally finished, I felt underwhelmed with the work as a whole. The journey was in luxury class, but the destination somehow failed to impress.

Most likely, the fault is more mine than the authors, for Martin B. Copenhaver and Lillian Daniel write a fine essay, tell a good joke, and reflect with the best of them. Both ministers in the United Church of Christ – Lillian Daniel of the younger female variety, Martin Copenhaver of the more-seasoned male type – the two authors string together twenty-eight essays reflecting on pastoral ministry. As a primer on the complexities, joys, and challenges of pastoral ministry, this book isby far the best I have come across. A how-to manual, it is not; a contemplative account of “the public and private lives” of two pastors, it most certainly is.

Most of essays read as reflections, careful considerations of the strange calling we pastors live into each day. For example, in the chapter entitled “Shaking Hands,” Copenhaver describes the gauntlet that a pastor faces when shaking hands at the church door following worship. After a thoroughly entertaining play-by-play of what goes through his head in those ninety seconds following worship, Copenhaver writes, “Through the years I have learned the historical and theological foundations of practically every word and gesture in the liturgy, but no one has ever explained to me why pastors stand in doorways and shake hands with worshipers following worship. I just know that you better do it.” So, Copenhaver reflects upon the ritual in which most every pastor participates each Sunday. The essay, which once appeared The Christian Century (as did others in the collection), is at the same time ruminative, fun, and helpful.

Each author surely could have published a book individually, but the collection stands better with its multiple perspectives. For instance, both Daniel and Copenhaver write of the experience of their spouses being the minister’s wife/husband, and their very different experiences remind the reader there is no one way to pastor (or be married to one). Similarly, Copenhaver writes of growing of as a “preacher’s kid” while Daniel writes of her journey from the Episcopal church of her youth to the UCC in which she currently serves. In, “I Was Looking for the Pastor, But You’ll Do” Daniel writes of her time trailblazing as the first female associate pastor at a church.

In a kind-spirited response to Barbara Brown Taylor’s book Leaving Church, Copenhaver closes the collection with “Staying in Church,” where he writes, “I also recognize that some of the reasons given for leaving are, with the slightest turn of the kaleidoscope, some of the same reasons I stay in pastoral ministry.” In fact, Copenhaver later takes on Taylor’s search for God in nature by writing that he prefers to search for God “among the quirky, flawed, and broken people” in the church.

If the chapters are knit closely together, it is by the common thread of tension that pastoral ministry provides. The authors take that thread and wrestle with it, enjoy it, ponder it until the tension eases and God’s peace remains. This is not to say the essays strive for a simple culmination, but that they tend to end closer to resolution than where they began. And that, I think, is what made me uncomfortable with the work as a whole.

At the end of the book, I wanted to ask the authors, “But what keeps you up at night? Don’t you ever just scream or lose your cool?” Even the stories of their mistakes end up leading to a pretty nugget of wisdom. Perhaps the fact that I’m a young pastor still working out the kinks of my call makes me a natural skeptic, but at times I wanted them simply to say, “Ok, we’ll be honest, this part of ministry isn’t a lesson, it’s just a liability.”

Even still, or perhaps because of this, the book is a wonder in itself. Beautifully written, thoughtfully put-together, honest and personal, I think this might just be the best reflection on pastoral ministry around. No matter how quickly you read it, it shouldn’t fail to entertain, even if it could leave you slightly uneasy.