Psychological insight, theological understanding, and biblical metaphor
combine here to offer solid help for a little-understood aspect of the
minister's task. What is the minister to do when confronted with
opposition from his or her own congregation, when met with frustration
in his or her ministry? With empathy for both the minister's plight and
the congregation's pain, James Dittes shows how these very frustrations
can be the beginning of real and healing ministry. When the people
abandon the intimacy and openness of the church with appeals for agenda
and rigidity, when projects begun with enthusiasm collapse in apathy,
when the people demand that the minister conform to their image of him
or her: all these bespeak a need, even an unspoken pain, underlying the
surface conflict. At the very point the minister most feels the desire
to pack up and move on his people may most need him to stay. 'When the
People Say No' will help every minister recognize this enigmatic call
and meet it with a creative and healing response.
