Although every minister faces unique challenges, the research that I commissioned with The Barna Research Group, Lifeway Research and Christianity Today's NationalChristianPoll.com revealed five significant "ministry killers" many in church ministry face:

1. Head-in-the-sand mentality

2. Misdirected emotional investment

3. Unhealthy response to ministry killers

4. An attitude that "me and God can handle this"

5. Lonely, hurting wives

They polled more than 1,900 pastors and 1,000 non-pastors -- of which 650 attend Christian churches -- to get that information. The surveys revealed profound insights into what frustrates leaders, how we respond to those frustrations and what we'd like church people to do differently to help make ministry more fulfilling. I'd identified the killers, now it was time to orchestrate their demise.

None of us begins ministry so we eventually can drop out. We all begin with big dreams that we'll make a difference for the Kingdom. Unfortunately for many, the dreams end up in a heap of emotional and relational rubble.

However, when we make the appropriate changes, I believe God will maximize our joy, help us lead at our best and give us the stamina to stay in the game for the long haul. He'll renew the dream, the passion.

If frustrations are wearing you down or if you feel you're in a ministry crosshair, the simple, organic process in Five Ministry Killers and How to Defeat Them could breathe new life into your ministry. It may help you avoid becoming another dropout casualty. It might even bring back some of your joy, if ministry now seems more burden than joy. If you're new to ministry and you've not yet faced significant frustrations, you will. Ministry minefields fill every church, waiting to blow up when naïve leaders step on a mine. I wrote this  book to prepare you for what inevitably will come and help you navigate turbulent waters when they do.

One of the greatest lessons I'm learning that has helped me to persevere for 30 years in ministry is this: Ultimately we serve the people; they don't serve us.

F.B. Meyer, a Baptist contemporary and friend of D.L. Moody, authored more than 40 books. He understood that when God gives gifts to pastors, we are to humbly use them in service to Him and others. He wrote these wise words: "I used to think God's gifts were on shelves one above the other and that the taller we grew in Christian character the more easily we could reach them. I now find that God's gifts are on shelves one beneath the other and that it is not a question of growing taller but of stooping lower."

The opportunities and gifts God gives us are not to build us up; rather, as we humble ourselves, God will use them to build others up.

Ultimately, I hope everyone who reads this book will be encouraged to focus his or her ministry and effort on the issues that matter most to God: loving Him and others and helping those we serve do the same.

Charles Stone is Senior Pastor at Ginger Creek Community Church, Chicago, Illinois. He holds degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and is the coauthor (with daughter Heather) of Daughters Gone Wild—Dads Gone Crazy. This article is adapted with permission from Five Ministry Killers and How to Defeat Them (Bethany House Publishers).