Both as a preacher and as a writer, John Killinger is known particularly for his vivid, life-changing stories. Stories that Have Shaped My Life and Ministry is a collection of 21 stories the author says have greatly altered his own life. These stories include stories he heard preachers tell when he was growing up in a conservative Baptist Church, stories he has read in his long career as a teacher of theology and literature, stories he has encountered in shared experiences with friends and parishioners, and, more recently, stories friends have sent him on the Internet. Killinger first narrates each story in a chapter of its own and then talks about the story, its implications, its possible derivatives, and its connections with other important stories. When he has finished, each story has grown into a special bouquet of stories, illustrating his contention from the beginning that "life is story and story is life."