Some will read what Hafemann says and conclude that suffering = spirituality (even though he warns that is not the case). Their achievement-oriented personality will push them to work harder (hence suffer more) in order to feel good about their relationship with God.
The result will be what Mark Driscoll blogged about a couple of months ago: Death by Ministry. The statistics are frightening, such as:
Fifteen hundred pastors leave the ministry each month due to moral failure, spiritual burnout, or contention in their churches.I don't have it figured out - how you do ministry by "death" without becoming a victim of death by ministry.
Perhaps part of it is knowing the warning signs of burnout. Driscoll mentions quite a few. I've also found these from a blogger named Rev Sam:
When pastors are under stress, they lose things in the following order:
1st Their wider reading;
2nd Their prayer life;
3rd Their sense of humour;
4th Their humanity.
Driscoll offers several insights on how to prevent "dying a death by ministry." I would add that a huge part of it is being a servant of Christ first, and then a servant of others. In other words, if my relationship with God flows out of my ministry to people, I'm headed to disaster. I have to keep guarding my heart, and making sure that my ministry flows out of my relationship with Christ.
5 comments:
I didn't hear it all yesterday, but MacArthur's message over 2 Corinthians is currently on GTY.org; he was speaking of the suffering Paul had to endure.
Thanks, Jason.
Good post. I'm not a pastor. at least not yet. But i feel like God has really given me a heart for pastors. I see many who believe they must be superpastors to prevent their flock from stumbling and they therefore hide their hearts. Some keep all their sin bottled up inside and are afraid to be held accountable. And, as the psalmist wrote, they just dry up.
Pastors are just humans like everyone else. First and foremost we're just another "sheep in the flock." We need the Shepherd like everyone else.
Thanks for the comment, Bryan.
Hi,
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Thanks,
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