Have you ever met the pastor who serves the church like his very life depends on it, often neglecting his own needs and the needs of his family to sacrifice it all for the life of the church? It seems that his identity is wrapped up in the life of the church.
There are also some churches that will place a large amount of expectations on their pastors. The demands are so great that it becomes a time bomb.
If your sole identity is the fact that you are "Super Pastor" well, you'd better start retraining yourself before you burn out, stress out and have an emotional breakdown.
Consider the following statistics that reveal the lethal danger of the pastoral office:
- 94% feel pressured to have an ideal family.
- 90% work more than 46 hours a week.
- 81% say they have insufficient time with their spouses.
- 80% believe that pastoral ministry affects their family negatively.
- 70% do not have someone they consider a close friend.
- 70% have lower self-esteem than when they entered the ministry.
- 50% feel unable to meet the needs of the job.
- 80% are discouraged or deal with depression.
- 40%+ report that they are suffering from burnout, frantic schedules, and unrealistic expectations.
- 33% consider pastoral ministry an outright hazard to the family.
- 33% have seriously considered leaving their position in the past year.
- 40% of pastoral resignations are due to burnout.
- Roughly 30% to 40% of religious leaders eventually drop out of the ministry.
- 75% go through a period of stress so great that they seriously consider quitting.
Jesus never intended for us to wear so many hats! None of us were designed to bare every load.
Several years ago while attending Tommy Barnett's Pastors/Leaders School - Pastor Barnett made a comment that has stuck with me from then till now. He said, "you can think about quitting as long as you know you're not going to".
Guys, It seems that the greatest attack to my mind is on Monday's. While I'm exhausted and just plain worn out, the enemy will say "why don't you just resign and do your church a favor".
However, I realize his tactics so I'm not swayed that easily ... but the thought has come more than once.
One of my spiritual fathers helped me in the area of trying to be "Super Pastor" nearly ten years ago. He recognized my need to please. He corrected me and gave me insight on how to steady the course and draw my identity on my position in Christ...not my position.
I'm healthier today...and the church is to - because we've established a culture that affords the body to be released to do the work of ministry...not just the pastor.
I no longer talk from the pulpit about all the ministry I'm doing. I brag on our people and the work their doing...and it raises the expectancy of them doing the work of the ministry.
I can be sitting in my office with my feet upon my desk and that's real ministry to me! While I'm sitting there, I'm visioning souls being saved, workers being sent forth, churches being planted, marriages being restored, systems being implemented, etc.
When you take time to sit still - you can dream again.
Work smart - not hard.
I gave my Super Pastor suit to Goodwill.
Russell
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