Open Hands: Pastoring with Surrender and Courage

By Ernesto Sanchez

Open Hands isn't a book about doing more. It's about releasing what was never yours to carry.

Most pastors and leaders live with a constant pressure to hold everything together. Sermons to write. People to rescue. Expectations to meet. A heart that keeps whispering, "If I let go, everything will fall apart."

Rev. Ernesto "Tito" Sanchez has lived that story across three decades of ministry - from a tiny church in Puerto Rico with bats flying overhead and rain leaking through the ceiling, to multiple congregations in New York, to serving deployed soldiers as a U.S. Army Chaplain in the Horn of Africa. In every season, the lesson was the same:

Ministry wasn't asking him to hold on tighter.

God was asking him to open his hands.

With honesty, humor, and hard-earned wisdom, Sanchez guides pastors and ministry leaders through the shift from control to surrender. Instead of exhausting yourself trying to rescue every situation, you learn how to:

Lead without carrying the weight of every outcomeDiscern what is yours to hold and what belongs to GodRelease the pressure to please, perform, or prove yourselfBuild ministry that is healthy, sustainable, and joyful

This isn't a leadership book about strategies.

It's a book about freedom.

Whether you're burned out, discouraged, or quietly wondering if ministry still brings you life, this book will help you breathe again. You'll discover that open hands are not weakness - they are courage.

And when you finally stop white-knuckling your calling, you will be surprised by how God moves.

You don't have to carry it all.

You just have to open your hands.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0G2XVMGT6
• ISBN13: 9798273538405
• Release Date: November 2025
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 252 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"