In 2023, Baker Books released The Solo Pastor by Gary L. McIntosh. This book is a practical guide for pastors leading churches with limited staff, resources, and support systems. Drawing from decades of coaching and research, Gary L. McIntosh offers wisdom on leadership, relationships, communication, priorities, and sustaining spiritual health in the often isolating realities of solo ministry. In this book, I found myself both deeply agreeing with Gary L. McIntosh at times and arguing with him in the margins on over-programming or formulating. This book is especially good for educating the new pastoral leader.
This post continues my ongoing look at what I refer to as A Pastoral Triad: Three Distinct Books, One Pastoral Conversation with Gary L. McIntosh. This “Pastoral Triad” reflects on the three most recent books from Gary L. McIntosh, which I was blessed to receive and review: The Solo Pastor, Connecting People to the Church, and The Ministry Answer Book for Pastors. In the introductory blog post, I reflected on how McIntosh’s earlier work helped shape — and later challenge — my evolving ecclesiology and understanding of pastoral ministry.
This blog post continues this series with a look at The Solo Pastor (2023), a book from Baker Books that I found both deeply helpful and personally tension-filled as someone increasingly wrestling with evolving thoughts and questions about leadership, church structure, and faithful ministry in smaller church contexts.
The Reality of Solo Ministry
In my full-time work, I serve alongside a team of three providing pastoral care and direction to those experiencing homelessness (Water Street Mission). Part-time, I pastor a small rural church, serving with a leadership team; at present, I am the only pastor in the congregation (River Corner Church). That is not my preferred model of ministry, but it is the reality of the context in which I currently serve.
As this book points out, a majority of pastors find themselves functioning in solo roles, either because of their ecclesiology — which differs from my own convictions — or because of seasons of transition, like the one I am currently navigating. These are often smaller churches, which creates a very different reality than the senior-pastor-centered structures commonly found in larger congregations.
Smaller churches frequently lack resources, staffing, and healthy support systems. Many pastors in these contexts are not only solo in title, but genuinely feel as though they are flying alone, carrying all the emotional and spiritual weight that comes with it: loneliness, isolation, inadequacy, exhaustion, and the quiet desire for something healthier or more sustainable. Too often, these pastors have very few places to turn for encouragement, wisdom, mentorship, or practical guidance.
What The Solo Pastor Actually Offers
This book was my favorite of the so-called ‘Pastoral Triad’ from McIntosh, though it was also the one I wrestled with most. Though I currently serve as a solo pastor in my context — more by transition than by design — I am largely opposed to solo-pastor models as an ideal. I believe the New Testament is opposed to them as well. I do not believe the solo or senior pastor model, as we commonly understand it today, reflects a New Testament pattern, though it may emerge naturally as a practical byproduct of church structure.
Solo ministry often places pastors in impossible emotional contradictions. You are expected to lead with confidence while quietly exhausted, to care for everyone while remaining emotionally self-contained, and to embody spiritual maturity while often lacking meaningful pastoral support yourself. It can be disastrous. That reality is part of why books like this matter. In books like this, you are seen, resourced, and you learn that your context is not unique to you.
The book is divided into four distinct parts: The Solo Pastor Learns to Fly, The Solo Pastor Meets the People, The Solo Pastor Takes Charge, and The Solo Pastor Stays Healthy. Though McIntosh does not shy away from Scripture or theological reflection, this is not primarily a theology of church leadership. It is a book of practicality. As he points out early on, a pilot who wants to fly an airplane must first take lessons. These are lessons for the person learning to pastor.
The resource covers everything from the role of relational equity in building trust to improving communication as a leader to rightly setting priorities and disciplines that sustain the inner life of the pastor. In many ways, this is a classic McIntosh book: story, research, practical wisdom, and a series of distilled leadership findings.
Gary L. McIntosh is a longtime voice in conversations surrounding church growth, church health, leadership, and congregational life. He has authored dozens of books since the early 1990s, oversees the Church Growth Network, and serves as Distinguished Affiliate Professor of Christian Ministry and Leadership at Biola University.
A few years ago, I reencountered McIntosh on social media and have since appreciated several thoughtful conversations with him. Though my own ecclesiology has shifted over the years, I suspect some of my early vision for smaller, intergenerational, and relational church communities was shaped in part by his earlier work.
This book is written so that each chapter follows a conversation between Jim and Bill, a mentor and mentee, as they discuss the challenges faced by a new or emerging pastoral leader. I suspect many of these are real conversations McIntosh has had over the years, now shaped in a kind of Patrick Lencioni-style framework. The opening stories themselves were somewhat less meaningful to me at this stage in my life, though for many readers they will likely be essential. After the narrative setup, McIntosh unpacks what the conversation reveals and draws out practical takeaways for the leader. Statements rooted in both research and Scripture appear throughout, such as “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care,” or practical concepts like learning how to “close the loop.” Chapters conclude with reflection questions and practical next steps.
Reading from The Solo Pastor from the Margins
Disillusioned pastors, read this book slowly. Wrestle with it until it dislodges your hip bone.
Though most research does not clearly track how many churches are led by solo pastors, McIntosh notes that studies suggest “on average between 60 to 77 percent of churches in the United States are led by solo pastors” (McIntosh 2023, 12). That reality creates significant challenges because, as he writes, “solo pastors are faced with leveraging limited resources for the greatest impact” (McIntosh 2023, 22).
I highlighted far too much in this book, which usually means something is hitting me directly between the eyes. I need to go back, type up those highlights, and continue wrestling with them. Much of this felt especially poignant as I pastor in a small rural church community while also serving among the homeless through my vocational ministry.
In discussing the temptation to become merely a church worker or errand runner, McIntosh notes that solo pastors are often viewed more as employees than as shepherds. That section especially stirred reflection in me regarding both the healthy and unhealthy aspects of church culture.
I also found myself gently pushing back in the section The Solo Pastor Stays Healthy, particularly where McIntosh discusses the relationship between faithfulness and success. He argues that faithfulness implies success. Personally, I would rather see the word ‘success‘ replaced with ‘fruitfulness’. I suspect McIntosh would say I am reacting against the unhealthy ministry culture he is also trying to critique, but for me, the language of success too easily creates a ministry imagination that no longer resembles the New Testament Church.
Even with those tensions, this book remains deeply good and genuinely helpful, even for seasoned leaders. More than that, I suspect it will continue to serve as a resource as I move toward the kind of future ministry I hope for — not the one selling boardwalk T-shirts, but the one helping coach disillusioned, burned-out, and weary leaders.
Ultimately, this book is about helping pastors become more deeply conformed to the image of Christ in their leadership. It is about helping you see what God might be teaching you in the season you are in. As McIntosh writes:
“God is growing you through success and failure, victory and defeat, criticism and applause. Since you’ve trusted him with your salvation, you can trust him with your ministry. As you anchor your self-worth and confidence in Christ Jesus, you’ll become a catalyst for releasing ministry, coaching volunteers, steering the church toward the future, confronting church bullies, casting vision, and working through resistance” (McIntosh 2023, 179).
And I believe that Tthis book can genuinely help pastors move in that direction.
Why This Book Matters
Gary has served as a pastor in these kinds of contexts, and he has coached hundreds more. McIntosh approaches the unique challenges and confusion experienced by solo pastors in smaller churches with proven experience, practical wisdom, and tested expertise.
This book helps prepare leaders for the realities and pressures of solo pastoral ministry, but it is also a broader reflection on developing healthier leadership skills. Pastors are challenged to think carefully about how to build resilient relationships that keep them accountable, encouraged, and grounded over the long haul. Perhaps most importantly, the book pushes leaders to wrestle honestly with both their own expectations and the expectations placed upon them by others.
I know there are ministry contexts in my own past where I desperately wish I had read this book earlier, especially in navigating issues surrounding church bullies, clear communication, boundaries, and learning how to faithfully steward the limited resources available in smaller churches. This book is not about settling for less; it is about learning to see ministry differently. McIntosh also helps leaders establish healthy priorities and boundaries while offering practical wisdom on a host of other pastoral realities that solo pastors regularly face.
Toward Downward Mobility
A few years ago, I attended a conference where a presenter made an observation that has stayed with me ever since. He shared how people often leave smaller churches, saying, “It’s not you, it’s us,” only to eventually settle into larger churches with more programs and resources. Then he drew a harder comparison: pastors often do the same thing. Rather than moving toward smaller and more difficult ministry contexts, many leaders also leave for larger churches, better salaries, larger staffs, and increased security.
In that moment, something clarified for me. Soon afterward, I transitioned from serving in a church of nearly 200 people to smaller church contexts. Most churches in America are not megachurches. Most are under one hundred people. We need pastors and leaders who are willing to embrace downward mobility, who desire faithfulness more than success, and who are willing to shepherd smaller communities without seeing them merely as stepping stones toward something bigger. I think God still wants to write beautiful chapters in these contexts, when the contexts are willing to partner with God.
That is part of why this book matters. The Solo Pastor equips, encourages, and energizes pastors serving in smaller and often overlooked ministry contexts.
To be candid, I am not a church-growth guy. I do not believe numbers define success, and one of my ongoing tensions with portions of the church-growth movement is how easily it can drift toward comparison, competition, and formulaic approaches to ministry. I got caught up in this movement a few years ago, but it doesn’t work for me. I am not convinced by brands, buildings, budgets, butts in the seat, and so on. I do not believe McIntosh intends that kind of growth outcome, but I still wrestle with some of the leftover baggage the broader movement left behind.
At the same time, not all conversations about growth are attempts to convince churches to become bigger, flashier, or more aggressive. Sometimes growth simply means becoming healthier. Much like Karl Vaters, Gary L. McIntosh is calling smaller churches — especially churches without large staffs or extensive resources — toward healthier ministry practices and more sustainable leadership.
I strongly resonate with that vision, though I would also add that smaller churches should continue finding ways to cultivate multiple voices and shared leadership even when they cannot support multiple staff members.
Holding the Table Together
Though not ideal for me, pastors often operate in a solo context. These contexts are often among the most challenging, under-resourced, and lonely. Though called, often solo pastors and bivocational leaders are serving in churches where formal theological education, mentorship, or healthy ministry support may be limited. Even if I no longer want to build ministry franchises or platforms, I still recognize that tables require care, structure, endurance, and hospitality.
The Solo Pastor is ultimately a book written for people trying to hold those tables together faithfully. Much of pastoral ministry is learned on the job, often through failure, fatigue, and isolation. Books like these cannot replace wisdom gained through faithful community and lived experience, but they can provide guidance, perspective, and practical encouragement along the way.
The first-hand stories are relatable. Whether or not one agrees with every assumption or strategy presented, there is enough experience, reflection, and hard-earned insight here to benefit nearly any pastor willing to read thoughtfully and discern carefully.
Ultimately, this book functions less like a formula and more like a coach or consultant sitting across the table from a weary pastor trying to lead faithfully with limited resources.
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Thanks for stopping by. I am Jeff McLain, and I write about the Quiet Way—a life shaped by the Lord’s Prayer, spiritual disciplines, and sustaining habits. Much of my work explores theology at the intersections of everyday life and the invitation of the scriptures to lead a quiet life. If this post encouraged you, consider sharing it with a friend, leaving a thought in the comments, or subscribing so you don’t miss future reflections. You can also find more of my writing at the Lead a Quiet Life blog on Patheos, and you can listen to the Discovering God Podcast, where we explore the scriptures and the life of faith together. I genuinely enjoy conversation. If something here resonated with you, feel free to reach out by email or connect with me on Facebook or Instagram.
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