Like Stepping Into A Canoe

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What is your hope for your first five years of ministry? Thousands of people graduate every year from seminaries and divinity schools in the United States and immediately encounter a whole range of possibilities, issues, and decisions. Many new pastors experience stymied creativity, an endless list of tasks, the intransigence of church systems, personal and professional isolation, and the pressure that comes with dealing with the expectations of other people. As a result, many do not remain in ministry. How new pastors navigate the transition into ministry can determine their temperament and patterns for the rest of their pastoral careers. In Like Stepping Into A Canoe, Kincaid seeks to help new pastors stay connected to their call, to understand change and transitions, to value both restlessness and resilience, and to find fulfillment in the early years of their ministry. Kincaid's five practices of nimbleness correspond to the common transition into ministry issues: For the stymied creativity, the practice of curiosity. For the barrage of tasks, the practice of clarity. For the intransigence of church systems, the practice of agility. For the isolation and loneliness, the practice of proximity. For the expectations of others, the practice of temerity. "If you are a student graduating from seminary . . . you need a companion. I have one to suggest. Take Bill Kincaid along with you! Read this book and keep it close at hand. Share and discuss it with your friends, colleagues, and mentors. Kincaid will help you cultivate the curiosity, clarity, agility, proximity, and temerity it takes to flourish in ministry. He is a wise and generous guide." --Craig Dykstra, Duke Divinity School "In a previous era, pastors could afford to put off bold leadership moves in their congregations until several years into their calls. Today, though, things move more quickly. . . . For recent graduates who find this prospect both exciting and daunting, William Kincaid is a wise and humane guide. This book will inspire faithful courage for new pastors as well as those undergoing significant transition in their ministries at any stage." --Robert Saler, Center for Pastoral Excellence at CTS "Bill Kincaid offers a wise and insightful guide for new pastors as they transition from seminary into their ministries. This book is a delightful, dynamic combination of savvy analysis, poetic prose, fresh theological connections, rich metaphors, and vital narratives that unpack the importance and nuances of 'nimbleness' in ministry. . . . I intend to give this book to every young pastor with whom I serve." --Kim Gage Ryan, Bethany Fellows and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Pastor "Bill Kincaid brilliantly targets a pivotal time in the life of all new clergy that is often overlooked--the time immediately after seminary graduation when the student becomes clergy. Kincaid offers wisdom in this 'threshold' that is very timely. Our world needs theologically reflective leaders with keen self-awareness and deep spiritual wells." --Isabel N. Docampo, Perkins School of Theology/SMU "Had this book been written twenty years ago, it would have saved my colleagues and me many inelegant overturned canoes, but now that is written, every seminary graduate would be wise to read and internalize it when the time comes to approach the water's edge and step boldly into the wondrously buoyant beautiful call of parish ministry." --Libby Davis Manning, Wabash Pastoral Leadership Program William B. Kincaid is the Herald B. Monroe Associate Professor of Leadership and Ministry Studies at Christian Theological Seminary (Indianapolis, Indiana) where he also has served as In