Are you stepping into ministry expecting your degree to carry you through? What nobody told you is that it won't.
After more than forty years of pastoral ministry, Pastor Lou Curcio has learned what Bible college and seminary simply cannot teach - and he has written it all down so you don't have to learn it the hard way.
What a Degree Didn't Prepare You For but You Need to Know is an honest, warmhearted, and deeply practical handbook for pastors, ministry couples, and Bible college and seminary students who want to thrive in full-time ministry without sacrificing their families, their health, or their calling. What you will find inside:
Drawing from four decades of real ministry experience, Pastor Lou walks you through the challenges that textbooks never cover:
- How to protect your marriage and family when ministry demands everything you have
- The truth about ministry finances and how to navigate them with wisdom and faith
- How to counsel with humility, compassion, and grace - without crossing dangerous boundaries
- Why burnout and depression are more common in ministry than anyone admits, and how to
recognize the warning signs before it is too late
- How to take your sabbath seriously before your body forces you to
- Practical wisdom for leading mission trips, mentoring younger believers, and transitioning
between ministry roles
- How to face personal struggles - including his own candid account of clinical depression and the
road to recovery
Pastor Lou writes not as a distant theologian but as a fellow traveler who has walked through the fire,
stumbled, been restored, and kept going. His wife Patti adds her own perspective throughout, offering a
rare and invaluable glimpse into the realities of life as a pastor's wife.
"Pastor Lou's book should be required reading for all young couples thinking about going into
the ministry."
- Nick and Rebekah Ecker, ABWE Church Planting Missionaries, Chile
Whether you are about to enter ministry, are already in the thick of it, or are struggling to hold your
family and your calling together, this handbook will feel like a mentor's hand on your shoulder -
honest, kind, and deeply needed.
Your calling is real. Let this book help you live it well.
