Pastor, Author Charles Stone Shares Background Of Ministry Development

Charles M. Stone is the senior pastor of Ginger Creek Community Church and author of Five Ministry Killers and How to Defeat Them and Daughters Gone Wild, Dads Gone Crazy (co-authored with his daughter, Heather Stone).

If you’ve read his Web site and bio, you may already know Stone holds an engineering degree from Georgia Tech, a Masters of Divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and a Doctorate of Ministry from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. But did you know that he also claims the title ‘Rabid Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket‘ fan?

That is the purpose of this Five Things article; to introduce readers to Christian authors by asking them to provide a few bits of little known information about themselves that their readers might not otherwise know.

1.  I was in Russia just before history was made.

I spent three days in a hospital in Russia, before the fall of the Iron Curtain. I was on a trip from my college and I got sick from eating raisins. The hospital was so bad that they’d wake me up to tell me it was time for bed and gave me food that looked like a bowl of corn flakes that had sat for five days in milk.

2.  My  wife and I are heroes to pre-teens.

My wife and I own two recumbent bikes we ride on the trails around the Chicago area. All the pre-teens think we are very cool. What’s a recumbent bike?  Go HERE to see the wiki.

3.  Lived the cliché of ‘knowing is half the battle.’

I almost flunked several courses my first quarter in college at Georgia Technical College, in Atlanta, GA. After I learned how to study, I made a 4.0 my second quarter.

4.  My wife and I are parents to a miracle child.

When our daughter was one year old, the doctors discovered a brain tumor. She is now 23 year and has undergone six brain surgeries. In one of those surgeries the doctors implanted an experimental device in her brain to regulate seizures. She is one of only about 150 with this device. She is doing well.

5.  I’m a iPad preaching pastor.

I am a techno-nerd.  I own a MacBook Pro, an iPhone, and an iPad. As a pastor I actually preach from it and love it. I also own a radio controlled tank that shoots plastic BB’s (once helped me scare off a raccoon from our deck), a radio-controlled helicopter that fires tiny missiles (works great to pester our office admin assistants), and a radio controlled bulldozer (actually used it once to push snow off my deck).

Additional Resources:


207050: Five Ministry Killers and How to Defeat Them: Help for Frustrated Pastors-Including New Research From the Barna Group Five Ministry Killers and How to Defeat Them: Help for Frustrated Pastors-Including New Research From the Barna GroupBy Charles Stone / Bethany House 

Before pastors reach burnout and leave the ministry, they experience frustration and disappointment in ministry. Charles Stone, a veteran pastor, helps his fellow pastors understand and meet the challenges, regaining hope and energy to continue in their calling. Based on new information from The Barna Group and additional research, Stone shows readers what pastors are saying about ministry and how to overcome the obstacles, rebuild community within the congregation, and persevere with joy.

What Frustrates You in Ministry? You probably began your ministry believing you’d make a kingdom difference. That dream may now seem elusive. Perhaps your journey has brought more frustration than happiness, and you wonder if it’s time to move on, or out. Have you searched the Web for openings in other churches recently? Thought about selling insurance? Getting your Realtor’s license?

Every church is different, and the situations you face are unique to your setting, but common threads are found in many churches. Using customized, commissioned research from the Barna Group and others, veteran pastor Charles Stone points to five potent killers in pastors’ lives: 1. A head-in-the-sand mentality that denies problems,  2. Emotional investment in the wrong issues,  3. Unhealthy responses to ministry frustrations, 4. A Lone Ranger attitude that says “God and I can handle this”, 5. Attitudes and actions that lead to lonely, hurting spouses.  Stone then uses his thirty years of pastoral experience to unpack these problems so you can regain real hope and energy to continue in your calling.

No unrealistic advice or simple solutions. Just hard questions and straight answers that will lead to healing and restoration for you and your congregation.

# Hardcover: 224 pages
# Publisher: Bethany House (May 1, 2010)
# Language: English
# ISBN-10: 0764207059
# ISBN-13: 978-0764207051


904340: Daughters Gone Wild, Dads Gone Crazy Daughters Gone Wild, Dads Gone Crazy By Charles Stone & Heather Stone / Thomas Nelson 

Fifteen psychologists, twelve secondary schools, four expulsions, four rehabs, two house-arrests and innumerable arguments… the cast and plot line for a season’s worth of Law and Order? No. This was the real-life drama of Heather Stone’s adolescence.

Now in college, Heather, the once rebellious teen, has sat down with her father to pen an insider’s guide for parents and teens alike. Charles and Heather don’t offer Cleaver family ideals or promise Brady Bunch thirty-minute solutions. They, instead, share the realities of their 6-year nightmare, in the hopes of fostering hope for the millions of families trying to survive the years from thirteen to eighteen.

Replete with faith, honesty, and practicality, it offers readers nine practical lessons and provides a compass for even the worst tempests of teen rebellion.

# Paperback: 240 pages
# Publisher: Thomas Nelson (April 5, 2005)
# Language: English
# ISBN-10: 084990434X
# ISBN-13: 978-0849904349


 

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