Burned Out Pastors
7 Comments
At our 2006 Reform and Resurge Conference in Seattle, my good friend Pastor Darrin Patrick from The Journey in Saint Louis spoke frankly of the burden that pastoral ministry is. He presented the following statistics, which he gathered from such organizations as Barna, Maranatha Life and Focus on the Family.
Pastors
- Fifteen hundred pastors leave the ministry each month due to moral failure, spiritual burnout, or contention in their churches.
- Fifty percent of pastors' marriages will end in divorce.
- Eighty percent of pastors and eighty-four percent of their spouses feel unqualified and discouraged in their role as pastors.
- Fifty percent of pastors are so discouraged that they would leave the ministry if they could, but have no other way of making a living.
- Eighty percent of seminary and Bible school graduates who enter the ministry will leave the ministry within the first five years.
- Seventy percent of pastors constantly fight depression.
- Almost forty percent polled said they have had an extra-marital affair since beginning their ministry.
- Seventy percent said the only time they spend studying the Word is when they are preparing their sermons.
Pastors' Wives
- Eighty percent of pastors' spouses feel their spouse is overworked.
- Eighty percent of pastors' spouses wish their spouse would choose another profession.
- The majority of pastors' wives surveyed said that the most destructive event that has occurred in their marriage and family was the day they entered the ministry.
Click here to watch the video.
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Kathleen Wynveen on Jul 2, 2007 10:12am
I wonder if those statistics are due more to the influence of western culture and due to the changing nature of the expectations of the "pastorate" than to other factors. Surely the pastors and leaders of the early church battled stress and discouragement. They often faced persecution and martyrdom, and many were probably bi-vocational.
I doubt, though, that they crunched attendance numbers and juggled daytimers as they rushed to catch a flight to a pastor's conference while they answered their cell phones as they tried to squeeze in work on their doctorates and set the agenda for a board meeting.
Paul said he was all things to all people...but I don't think that was what he had in mind.
I wonder when that 40% had the time for an extra-merital affair.
Kat
Jim Essian on Jul 3, 2007 2:23am
Pastor Mark,
Just wanted to take this time to thank you. As a fellow has-been baseball player, your teaching and passion has helped bring me into a new season of my life. I appreciate all that you do. Your continual contention for godly men drives me to seek out God's will for my life to learn how to lead godly men.
Quick story... I was in spring training a few years back and went to a bible study where a few different teams were represented. At the study was one of my dad's ex-players, Shaun Boskie. (my dad managed in the minor leagues and major leagues) I hadn't seen Shaun since I had been a little boy and he shared with everyone how he became a Christian because of my dad.
Shaun said that all he knew was passive, weak Christian men. He said that when he played for my dad he finally saw a strong godly man, and it enabled him to recieve Christ.
Anyway, just wanted to share that that is my passion also and I am encouraged and thankful by what you are doing.
Jim Essian
David Glass on Jul 4, 2007 8:11am
I have heard all the stats for years, have even watched asthese stats were lived out in front of me. Now I am one. I have not failed moraly, I do not think I am burned out. I just want to know what happened?
There seems to be two sides to this issues one says that the pastor just wasn't "spiritual" enough. Should have spent more time with God, etc. And I agree that I could have and still could spend more time in the Word and in fellowship with God, but so can't we all? The other side says its the church, its what the church has become. However, I have not heard of anyone who has offfered any solid solutions. Meanwhile I struggle to provide for my family and wonder how long we can hold on.
David Decker on Jul 6, 2007 7:02am
As a pastor for 34 years, now a director of Pastor sabbath rest retreats, we have hosted over 400 pastors and clergy spouses for 5-day stays. The majority of our guests come to us physically tired and spiritually weary. The demand and attacks upon the pastor and family are often subtle invasions of personal time and strip away opportunities of close fellowship with the Lord. That "roaring lion" is ever on the job!
The need for spiritual self care and strong commitment to holy times with God is as great or greater than ever due to an increased disrespect for the pastor from society and, sadly, church members and board members today.
I feel strongly the church must be the church in devoted prayer, interceeding for pastoral leadership. Pastors must commit to self-care, regular and consistent times of sabbath rest, and renewal. I pray for pastors every day, that those I know will be blessed with solid Christian brothers in friendship and accountability, devotion to their wife and family, and the ability to say "no" to anything, great or small, that keeps them from sweet fellowship with Jesus.
Caleb Moore on Jul 6, 2007 9:33am
People wonder why it is taking me so long to get married (I'm only 28) But as a young pastor I am actually terrified to bring a young girl that I love into this life. I saw what it did to my mother and I don't want that to happen to my wife. If I thought I could be happy doing something else I would do it in a heart beat.
Don Donell on Jul 9, 2007 7:13am
Mark,
Having pastored through depression off and on for nearly 28 years, suffering from all the symptoms that you mentioned personally, I can confess with my whole heart and experience, the ministry is a dangerous place to live and no place for the those who fear anything or anyone more than God himself! I started pastoring my first church at 24 and was fired inside of three years trying to "reform" it like Luther took Wittenburg.... I ended up like Jonah dripping in seaweed somewhere in the dark... And that was only the beginning of sorrows. Yet, by the grace of God, I can testify after these many years.. I love this work more now than ever. Somewhere over the years, God taught me how to live as His "free man" and leave the consequence of my "calling" to him who judges rightly. (I Cor. 4:1-5) My calling is not my own...it is the property of the one who gave it. May the Lord give us grace to keep it only as a trust not a personal possession.
Peter Garich on Jul 14, 2007 3:29am
Mark,
I'm not surprised at the high rate of pastors leaving the ministry. The realities of life don't stand still for those who take on this calling; in fact, I believe that they intensify. I do believe that a great many men who go into ministry really are not prepared for what it will bring--both spiritually and naturally. Spiritually speaking we are highly sought by the enemy, as he wants to destroy God’s kingdom and we are more spiritually immature then we would care to admit. Naturally speaking I have seen and personally experienced the struggle of dealing with the everyday realities that life brings while “feeling” that I have failed at being “all that I should have been”. When I went into the ministry I was in my twenties (1976--a hippy saved by grace), I’m now almost sixty—some thirty years later. I have pastured 2 churches, planted one, planted a substance abuse ministry and now direct a counseling center I founded. I’m suffering from many health problems that I could probably attribute to pushing my self to make the most of all that God has given me. Resting in the Lord for all that He does so well has not been something I have excelled at. Yet looking back on it all I am BLESSED for God has used all my weakness and the trials to deal with my pride and independence. And to all those who have departed from the ministry, God has not left them, nor is He finished with them.
I will be visiting St. Louis soon and hope I can come by journey and meet you.
Peter Garich