The Pastor as Midwife: Life-Giving Leadership for the Healing of the Church

By Shawna Songer Gaines

Lessons from Midwives for Pastoral Leadership

We find ourselves in a moment in which the church is in great pain. Congregations are dwindling, denominations are fracturing, and church scandals have become all too common. We need a new imagination to capture the hopefulness of God birthing something new in the midst of the pain of the old creation.

In The Pastor as Midwife, Shawna Songer Gaines brings her pastoral experience alongside her research on the vocation and practices of midwifery to explore a vision of pastoral leadership that is shaped by the wisdom of those who walk alongside expectant mothers. Learning to pastor like a midwife helps us embrace what God is doing in our pain and see new life in unlikely places.

This book gives pastors a ministry paradigm that embraces change and pain as part of God's salvific work in the world. Gaines helps pastors embrace a new, life-giving posture for ministry marked by advocacy, listening, and letting go of control. Like the apostle Paul in Romans 8:22, pastors who long to witness the birth of God's new creation are invited to imagine their work like a hopeful midwife.

With The Pastor as Midwife, you will:

learn how the practices and wisdom of midwives offer a new way of approaching pastoral leadership, a way that begins and ends with a hopeful view of God's work in birthing new creation; engage with thought-provoking reflection questions to explore your own leadership patterns; and reenvision ministry to see change and pain as integral to God's life-giving work in the world.

Wherever you are in your journey as a pastor, The Pastor as Midwife offers a thoughtful and hopeful perspective on ministry in a changing and often challenging world. Learn to witness and partner with God in the birth of new creation with The Pastor as Midwife, trusting in the Spirit of God who brings new life to a fallen but beautiful world.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1514012448
• ISBN13: 9781514012444
• Release Date: June 2026
• Publisher: IVP Academic
• Length: 144 Pages