Emphasis Preaching Journal

In 1991 members of Atlanta's prestigious Wieuca Road Baptist Church were shocked when their longtime pastor, Dr. William L. Self, then 58, announced that he was resigning because the stress of the job had become too much for him. "Unless I quit now," he said, "my obituary will read, 'Bill Self today sank like a rock -- beat up, burned out, angry and depressed, no good to himself, no good to the people he loved.' " For more than a quarter of a century Dr. Self had been seemingly tireless as a preacher, teacher, minister, counselor, fund-raiser, and administrator.