Best Books for Becoming a Healthier Pastor

Pastoral ministry is beautiful and sacred, but it’s also relentlessly hard on your soul, mind, and body. Nobody gets through pastoring without wounds. Nobody. And if you’re not intentional about becoming a healthier pastor, the emotional and spiritual weight of leading people will hollow you out on the inside long before anyone notices on the outside.

I wrote more about the physical effects of pastoring and weekly preaching here.

I finally stepped away from pastoring after 20 years because I had a complete mental and emotional breakdown. And during the 10 months of recovery, there were a few books that really helped me. (I had read some of them before that, but now I was really paying attention).

That’s why I put this list together. These are the books that have helped me, and I believe they will help you if you’re interested in becoming a healthier pastor. You don’t have to wait until you’re in crisis to care for your soul. You can start right now.

Here are the best books I’ve read on pastoral health (in no particular order).

1. Boundaries for Your Soul by Dr. Alison Cook & Kimberly Miller

This is one of the most helpful books I’ve ever read for understanding what’s happening inside of you, especially during difficult seasons of ministry. Pastors carry so much, and most of us were never taught what to do with all of that. We just keep pushing it down and pushing forward, hoping it will sort itself out. It never does. Cook and Miller take the ideas of internal family systems, and show how to engage those parts with compassion instead of judgment. 

2. Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership by Ruth Haley Barton

Barton writes this book as a spiritual director, and she asks the questions your soul has been avoiding. Using the life of Moses she shows how leadership is first a call to listen to God, not a call to perform for people. Barton gives language to the inner fatigue most pastors feel but rarely express, and she offers practices and rhythms for becoming a healthier pastor.

3. Wounded Prophet by Michael Ford

This book is a biography of Henri Nouwen, and it is a gift to pastors who feel the tension of being a spiritual leader with a very human heart. Nouwen struggled deeply with insecurity, loneliness, and emotional pain, but out of those wounds came some of the most profound spiritual writing of the last century. Ford does an incredible job showing how God used Nouwen’s struggles, not in spite of them but through them. If you’ve ever wondered whether your weaknesses disqualify you from ministry, Nouwen’s story will help you breathe again.

4. The Contemplative Pastor by Eugene Peterson

Peterson is a pastor’s pastor, and this book is his manifesto on slowing down and resisting the hurry that modern ministry demands. He argues that pastors are not event planners, entrepreneurs, or religious CEOs. We are shepherds who pray, listen, and help people pay attention to God. The book is full of wisdom that stands in quiet defiance of everything “successful ministry” is supposed to look like today. Peterson shows a more grounded, human, and spiritual vision of pastoral life that is guided by presence, margin, and integrity. 

His memoir, The Pastor, is also excellent.

5. Lincoln’s Melancholy by Joshua Wolf Shenk

I read this book during one of the darkest seasons of my life, and it was exactly what I needed. Shenk explores Abraham Lincoln’s lifelong struggle with depression—not as a weakness that held him back, but as a deep well that shaped his empathy, wisdom, and leadership. If you’re a pastor walking through anxiety or sadness, Lincoln’s story is helpful. 

6. The Emotionally Healthy Leader by Peter Scazzero

If you’re a pastor who feels like you’re running on fumes, this book is a lifeline. Scazzero argues that leadership problems are almost always spiritual and emotional problems first. He explains how becoming a healthier pastor requires slowing down, embracing limits, paying attention to what’s happening beneath the surface, and leading from a healthy soul instead of sheer willpower. This should be required reading for every pastor, regardless of church size or personality.

2 Additional Recommendations for Becoming a Healthier Pastor

Toxic Soul by Jason & Jeremy Isaacs

I wrote this book with my brother for pastors. We explore ten internal challenges every pastor faces. Challenges like pressure, insecurity, comparison, criticism, disappointment, fatigue, and more. Our goal was to help them understand what’s happening inside them and why their soul feels worn down. 

Ego Is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday

This is not a “Christian” book, but pastors may need it more than anybody. Holiday exposes how our need to be important, admired, respected, amd needed, silently sabotages our leadership. He shows how humility, discipline, are needed to accomplish the monumental job we have.