Rarely do I write reviews of the books I read, so that says something. First the positive, and there is much to like. Senkbeil's pastoral habitus glows. His pastoral gift is evident in his writing. It often warmed my old pastor's soul. While the book is primarily useful to those in seminary or new to the pastoral vocation, there is much here for seasoned ministers as well. I especially appreciated his description of the pastor's capacity to be confessor and to offer absolution that is a tangible act of healing. He contrasted differences between shame and guilt in very useful ways. His calls to vocational faithfulness and integrity were effused in grace and forgiveness. Finally, I wish I had been able to find colleagues willing to mentor and pastor me as a fledgling pastor, as Senkbeil encourages. Even now his appeal finds home: pastors do need others to pastor them, and usually denominational overseers are not good at this. Now the negative: I did feel that there was much repetitiveness. The first 75 pages or so was sufficient to convey most of the book's useful content. Beyond that Senkbeil tended to meander down memory lane. He visited and revisited his perspectives on sexuality and gender roles. While his stories were often engaging and his perspectives in line with fundamentalist Missouri Synod Lutheranism, there were a couple of undercurrents that really bothered me. On the one hand ministry in a very complex world was made to seem quite simple even formulaic, as though having the right habitus and his "biblical worldview" erased all of the nuanced claims of less conservative Christians or "culture." The other was a darkness, perhaps unaware, that his androcentric worldview undercuts the habitus that he encourages developing. An exclusively male clergy is his baseline assumption. That led to a blindness to those of us outside of his tradition who could better hear if his language didn't mindlessly exclude us. Especially his appeals to sexual fidelity for male ministers, repeating tropes and stereotypes of male sexuality, was impassioned but not well informed. It reminded me of the "zipper speech" that was given during orientation my first day at seminary; the handful of women students in the room gaping at the audacity of the seminary dean's willful ignorance of their presence. It seems Senkbeil exposes a similar willful ignorance of human sexuality and the presence, giftedness and Spirit-given power of women in this vocation (even if they're excluded from his own tradition.) Final word: judging by the fundamentalist bias of the Logos editors and users probably few will be bothered as I was by these flaws. If however you have a graceful habitus and can look beyond these blind spots, Senkbeil has provided a primer on pastoral care that expresses the heart of a gifted healer of souls.