A few days ago I posted Blunt Observations And Bold Questions From Francis Chan. This was simply a series of quotes that I had written down over the past few years as I have had the privilege of hearing Francis speak at conferences I have attended. In the comment section Nolan Bobbitt left the following reply:
I wonder how many pastors have had the exact same thoughts as Francis, but choose not to share them because they are scared they would lose their jobs? The sad reality is that many of them would lose their jobs. I praise God that Chan matches his walk with his talk and does both with boldness and courage. May we follow his example, regardless of what it may cost us!
A few days later I came across some articles that I had saved for later use. Among them was a one caption cartoon. The scene was a new pastor talking to what appeared to be one of his board members. The caption below read, “Our former pastor delivered hard hitting truths and challenged us to apply the gospel to our everyday lives. That’s also why he’s our former pastor.”
Then a few days after that I was doing some online reading and came across a New York Times article that stated, “The findings have surfaced with ominous regularity over the last few years, and with little notice: Members of the clergy now suffer from obesity, hypertension and depression at rates higher than most Americans. In the last decade, their use of antidepressants has risen, while their life expectancy has fallen. Many would change jobs if they could.” I would encourage each of you to follow the link and read the whole story.
Being a pastor is one of the most demanding roles on the face of the planet. I want to encourage you today to support your pastor in any way that you can. Here are a few suggestions that will tremendously help.
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Encourage your church to give your pastor adequate vacation time during the course of the year. Do not look to other corporate models to scale his vacation. His work is like no other. Regular time off each year away from his/her day to day responsibilities is a must if your church wants a healthy pastor. Be sure that someone else is covering emergencies while he/she is gone. They do not need to be called back during this time.
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Encourage your church to give your pastor two days off during the regular work week. And then demand that he take them.
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Encourage your church to allow a sabbatical every three to five years. During this time your pastor should receive a full salary and not be docked any of his vacation time. Have the pastor submit a plan of spiritual renewal for his time away from the church that includes personal and family time. I recommend a period of four to eight weeks. The church should also put a plan in place to help maintain things for the pastor if he travels during his sabbatical. (i.e. mowing the lawn, arranging a dog sitter, watching the children, etc…)
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Treat every month as Pastor Appreciation Month. This is usually recognized in October, but your pastor needs encouragement all year round. You do not have to give extravagant gifts. Small gestures mean a lot. However, if you have the means to bless your pastor with a great gift (a weekend away, a day on the golf course, family dinner at a nice restaurant, bookshelves for his home office, etc…) then bless away. Remember, you can never out give God.
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Pray for your pastor daily. Pray for his/her family, pray for strength and endurance, pray for holiness, pray for faithfulness to the scriptures as he preaches, pray, pray, pray. This very well might be the most important thing you can do for your pastor. If you bear the burden of lifting his name before God, you will be more likely to respond to God’s voice when it comes to your pastor or your church and you will be more likely to meet his/her needs as they arise.
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Contribute to the work of the church. There will never be enough people to do everything that needs to be done. But one more servant will make a huge impact. Volunteer and be flexible.
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Defend your pastor when he is persecuted from within the church. The Bible is very clear on how to handle conflict and none of us should ever let someone publicly or privately attack or slander the pastor. It not only hurts him, but the entire church. These individuals need to be corrected and if they refuse, then removed from the flock.
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Send your pastor personal notes of encouragement regularly. Use email, text messaging, facebook, cards, letters, etc… to let him know how much you appreciate a sermon, a visit, his kind words, etc… You cannot do this enough.
There are many other things that you could do for your pastor. All it would take is about 15 minutes to make a list and get started. However, If you and your church would do the few things in this article, I believe you would have a new pastor. Not a different one, but a new man/woman.
What other things would you add to this list?
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I love what you say here, but what if your pastor is bi-vocational? My church is pretty small yet (I’m not even sure if we’ve grown out of the church plant stage) and we would like to give our pastor some time off, but even if we arranged sabbatical for him from his church stuff, he still has a job to do.
Even half a break might be worthy. It would at least offer the possibility of taking time off from job #2 as well.
That’s a great question. In the case of a bi-vocational pastor the landscape is always different because of having more than one job.
With the exception of the sabbatical I think a church with a bi-vocational pastor could still do the other things on the list. Not sure if you followed the link and read the entire article from the New Your Times, but it indicates that pastors are running themselves in the ground and congregations are letting them.
Also, I have seen organizations over the years offer grant money to churches specifically for pastors to take a sabbatical. Some grants have been up to $45,000. Perhaps doing some research might help with acquiring enough funds to allow him to take a couple weeks off from his other job without pay if his employer would be okay with that. There are also organizations that do weekend retreats for pastors and their spouse free of charge. I am making myself a note right now to do a follow up post with some of this information.
I think the most important thing is for a portion of every congregation to be proactive in helping the pastor maintain a healthy lifestyle. And having the proper time away is a crucial part of that. As a side note, I have several friends that are pastor’s kids and one of their biggest complaints is that their father gave more of himself to the church than he gave to them as children and they are somewhat resentful now that they are older.
A pastor always feels torn between the needs of the flock and the needs of his family. The greatest relief a pastor can hear is that his/her family is important and they should come first.
Larry,
So well said, and yet so often poorly followed. You know I’m a PW with two young PKs… I just last week had to defend my husband against someone who sporadically worships with us who claimed he (hubs) had shown up at a weekly church/community supper to defend the “work time” he’d put in that day. Few people acknowledge or even realize that he works at least 11 hours/day 5 – 6 days a week.
Many folks spend one hour per week at worship and maybe another hour *once* a month at a church activity. Tim is gone at meetings/events 4 or 5 nights/week… granted he’s home for an hour or so with the kids, but he doesn’t get back until they’re long-since asleep. We have a Sat evening worship, so he is usually at the church 1-6:30 on Saturdays as well. His (one) day off is Monday, so from Sept-June, our family rarely has a full day to spend together doing “family” things. Those who think that even a full-time pastor has an “easy” job and only works 2 hours a week are sorely mistaken.
Yet, these same folks don’t hesitate to call at 9:30 pm, midnight, or even 3:30 am when there is a crisis. And, as he should, the pastor (aka hubs/Papa) jumps up from bed, dons the attire (he wears a clerical collar) and heads off into the night, whenever and wherever he is needed.
It’s true what you’ve read about obesity, depression rates, poor health and poor wellness models among the clergy. However, we all need to remember that the pastor’s holistic wellness is everyone’s responsibility. Give 1 day (or the rare 2 days) off, but don’t call the pastor at home to ask a question that is clearly not pressing. Give the pastor adequate vacation time, but also provide for opportunities for it to be taken – including adequate access to and resources for supply pastors. Last year, in lieu of a monetary gift for pastor appreciation month, our congregation gave Tim an extra week’s paid vacation – a wonderful idea we were grateful for. Great except that in October, he still had 2 of his 4 weeks of vacation remaining… with no foreseeable time to use any of it.
Another thing to consider is the emotional toll ministry can have on the pastor. We’ve been in this congregation for 2 years, 8 months. In that 32 months, Tim has now done 30 funerals. (The previous pastor had 5 funerals in 7 years!) Death and the dying process is not necessarily easy for any of us, but this has been very difficult for him, despite his chaplaincy experience and his natural (God-given) empathy, calm, understanding and spirituality. Realize that when a pastor has 2, and even one time 3, funerals in a week, s/he just might need an extra day off for the next week or two – partially to recover emotionally from the funerals, but also to regain their physical strength as this involves extra hours of “work” and lots of extra time away from their family.
Long story short… you’re exactly right in what you’ve written. You are a deeply spiritual soul and I applaud your concern for yourself and your colleagues. Would that all worshipping communities read your words and take them to heart. I know that I for one, will be sending a link to the chair of our mutual ministry committee and congregational council.
Annie, your story brings tears. I have heard similar stories by so many that serve in a pastoral capacity. I fear that by what I have read and what I am hearing as I discuss this issue more, is that this seems to be the norm. And that breaks my heart.
I believe that you are right about most people not understanding the emotional toll of ministry. I have experienced that same frustration as well.
I want to personally thank you and your husband for your commitment to pastoral care. I will be praying that there is a change in your situation and that God creates more opportunity for you and your husband to see more quality and quantity of family time. I will also be praying that your church family will step up and make a way for this to happen. If not, your husband may need to take some extra time off whether the church approves of it or not.
Please pray that this blog will be a platform for educating and discussing some of these vital issues in church life.
Such a great reminder! Number 7 is huge for me. Growing up a preacher’s daughter probably made this more tender. Whenever I hear someone criticize or gossip about our church leadership, defenses arise in my spirit. May we be a body unified in love. Thanks again!
Larry, this is a great list! I think it can be applied to any pastor, regardless of church/staff size. But I am reminded that most pastors work in small churches and have little support.
Support and training often consists of “how to do things better,” with conferences and books along those lines. My friend Dave Jacobs has a ministry called Small Church Pastor (http://smallchurchpastor.com/) specializing in spiritual coaching — in other words, not so much “how to do stuff” as “how are you deepening your own relationship with God?”