Counseling Those Ministers Who are Ready to Quit Part 2

Part 2

Fellow Ministers,
If the saints are called to persevere, how much more the sheperds of the sheep?  Ministry is one of the most soul wrenching vocations that a person can faithfully engage in. For the sake of editing, I aam presenting in this blog over the next several days a portion of a paper I have written for my course of training and education in Biblical Counseling.  It is my hope that if you are strugling, your reading of the words within would stir your heart to press on.  Should you desire to work through the homework that I have created to go along with this paper, you may email me at  perseveringpastor@gmail.com

Being that society is quite fluent in psychological terms, many surveyed ministers are being labeled with a worldly diagnosis.  In the hope of resolving the sins of the heart, as evidenced by these judgments, one needs to understand what the definitions are and how they represent what is going on in the heart of the minister.  Many ministers may have several symptoms of a shifted heart present at any given time.  A principle in helping the minister is to understand that these expressions are merely revelations of the heart condition of a struggling saint.  Once defined properly by a biblical point of reference, one can put off the fleshly complaint and put on a God-glorifying stewardship of true shepherding.

As demonstrated in the previous statistics, one common term for pastoral failure in the ministry is burnout.  Marshall Asher and Mary Asher in The Christian’s Guide to Psychological Terms state, “The term burnout is a popular lay term to indicate the condition of being bored, fatigued, frustrated, or disinterested in a particular activity.”[1]  Psychologists attribute a low morale when it comes to concerns for the ministerial office and burnout.  This is exhibited by a lax attitude, diminishing concern for results, and is often met with cynicism.  The burned out pastor could easily be described as critical of his church.  It is interesting to note that particular personalities may have a predisposition to burnout.  These would be those common types of ministers who are idealistic and servant heart-oriented, or perfectionistic, as well as those who may be authoritarian.

Surveys often indicate that depression is a repeated heart attitude for the struggling minister.  Asher and Asher define depression as “a persistent mood that is characterized by intense feelings of inadequacy, sadness, hopelessness, pessimism, irritability, apprehension, and decreased interest in or ability to enjoy normal activity.”[2]  Psychologists will attribute to depression other symptoms such as difficulty sleeping, excessive sleeping, fatigue, as well as feelings of worthlessness and guilt.  Research surveys found, “50% of ministers feel unable to meet the needs of the job”[3] and “seventy percent of ministers constantly fight depression.”[4]

Guilt is a term that some ministers use to describe their feelings of failure.  Though guilt has a sense of carrying appropriate blame in cause and effect, guilt here is often a mere feeling.  Another term for this type of guilt would be brooding.  The Christian’s Guide to Psychological Terms relates that “psychology defines guilt as a feeling: self-condemnation and/or dread arising from the belief that one has committed an offense.”[5]  The psychological realm sees guilt as a complex result that is conditioned by many factors.  These factors can be supposed as originating in childhood, the values of others, and over self-evaluation. In the clinical sense, guilt can be neurotic, producing fear and shame.  In psychology it is handled as being a root cause for many other disorders.

Many ministers will surmise that they believe their efforts are fruitless, and they lack inspiration to try.  Motivation is a key ingredient to any decision-making process.  Asher and Asher write that it is “the sum effect of all factors that energize and direct behavior.”[6]  The two dominant theories of what drives people among hundreds are Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Self-Actualization theories.  These are taught in every introduction to psychology class as to explain how people are influenced by desires and perceived needs.  Other factors of motivation are goals, perceived value of return on investment, rewards, pleasure or pain, safety and physical needs.

One critical influence in quitting the ministry would be described by psychologists as low self-esteem.  Asher and Asher define the term as “a person’s belief regarding the degree to which he is worthy of praise.”[7]  The worldly description of self-esteem could be stated as being steered by peer groups, one’s own perception of personal value to any group or society, social status, economic influence, education, personal achievements, possessions, and a host of other factors that may place oneself in a pecking order in relation to those whom we deem as indicators of success. 

Another word frequently occurring in a minister’s description of their life is one of stress.  Stress is considered “anything that contributes to the production of mental, emotional, or physical tension.  Psychologists also use the word to denote the resulting mental/emotional tension itself.”[8]  Thus stress is a reaction by means of interpretation of our environment, situations, or potential outcomes.  Psychologists rightly perceive stress as having physical results of headaches, sleeplessness, and heart conditions, as well as emotional results of anxiety, anger, depression, motivation, and others.  Stress is to be influenced directly by relationships, expectations, commitments, health, and other factors that a person deems of value to themselves.[9]

Though a desperate minister may not admit it, one aspect that a counselor needs to probe for in helping this person is their anger with the church.  The anger may be extensive enough that they are angry with God Himself.  Anger leads to division among the body and cannot be tolerated in the life of a minister (1 Tim 3:1-13; Titus 1:7).

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[1]Marshall Asher and Mary Asher, The Christian’s Guide to Psychological Terms (Bemidji, MN: Focus, 2004), 32.

[2]Ibid., 56.

[3]H. B. London and Neil Wiseman, Pastors at Greater Risk (Ventura, CA: Regal, 2003), 20.

[4]Daniel Sherman, “Pastors Leaving Ministry,” PastorBurnout.com [on-line]; accessed 3 May 2012; available from www.pastorburnout.com/pastors-leaving.html; Internet.

[5]Asher and Asher, The Christian’s Guide, 79.

[6]Ibid., 105.

[7]Ibid., 175.

[8]Asher and Asher, The Christian’s Guide, 191.

[9]Ibid.

Counseling Those Ministers Who are Ready to Quit pt 1

Fellow Ministers,
If the saints are called to persevere, how much more the sheperds of the sheep?  Ministry is one of the most soul wrenching vocations that a person can faithfully engage in. For the sake of editing, I aam presenting in this blog over the next several days a portion of a paper I have written for my course of training and education in Biblical Counseling.  It is my hope that if you are strugling, your reading of the words within would stir your heart to press on.  Should you desire to work through the homework that I have created to go along with this paper, you may email me at  perseveringpastor@gmail.com

BIBLICAL COUNSEL FOR MINISTERS TEMPTED
TO RESIGN FROM THE MINISTRY

Each month over 1,500 ministers leave the ministry permanently.[1]  This is an alarming crisis within the church.  For every minister who leaves the call, dozens are in the process of deciding whether or not they will stay on as a shepherd.  Scores are ministering, but not with a fervent heart of worship.  A quick survey of the Bible will find several who despaired at times in ministry: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Elisha, and even Paul to name a few.

The purpose of this paper is to find biblical hope.  Though the topic needs exhaustive attention, in these pages an attempt will be made to define the struggles, and highlight the hope that should be given to ministers in such circumstances, as well as provide a basis for further and future study.

Problems Faced by Ministers

Listen to any pastor’s fellowship meeting, and you will hear the burdened heart of many ministers.  By browsing the internet one can find the survey results from a variety of institutions as to ministry satisfaction.  To put a more personal and practical side to this research, several pastors were interviewed as to the times in their ministry when they actually considered quitting.[2]  These inquiries back up what is shown in the research studies and conversations regarding ministry satisfaction and exodus from the pulpit.  In the course of my research, several themes emerged as symptoms of ministerial despair. 

A 1991 survey of pastors by the Fuller Institute of Church Growth found,

90% work more than 46 hours a week.
80% believed pastoral ministry affected their families negatively.
75% reported a significant stress related crisis at least once in their ministry.
70% say they have a lower self-esteem now compared to when they started in ministry.
70% do not have someone they consider a close friend.[3]

Another statistic should be bore in mind, it is estimated that 20 percent of long-term clergy suffer from long-term stress.  One year the Southern Baptist Convention paid $64 million in stress-related claims, only being outdone by maternity expenses.[4]

The Schaeffer Institute reports, “We found that over 70% of pastors are so stressed out and burned out that they regularly consider leaving the ministry.”[5]  The Institute reports in the same article that 35 to 40 percent of pastors actually do leave the ministry with most of these before the five-year mark.  This is a far cry from the joy we find in the apostle Paul when he writes about ministry from prison to the Philippians.

Richard Krejcir reports that as recent as 2006, 948 pastors of 1,050 surveyed stated that they are “frequently fatigued, and worn out on a weekly basis,” 75 percent alluded that they “felt dishearten in their ability to pastor, and 802, or 71 percent, stated they “were burned out, and they battle depression beyond fatigue on a weekly and even a daily basis.”[6]

The converse of this is equally sad. The same research found only “two hundred and forty one, or twenty three percent of the pastors were happy and content on a regular basis with who they are in Christ, in their church, and in their home!”[7]  The fallout of this crisis is staggering.  As previously stated, over 1,500 pastors leave the ministry every month.  At any given moment, 80 percent of pastors consider themselves discouraged and 50 percent of men would leave the ministry if possible, but are constrained financially from doing so.[8]

Summing up several of these conditions, Jim Fuller compiled a list of ten factors why pastors leave the high calling.[9]  This list includes lack of vision, low self-esteem, lack of motivation, stress and burnout, not appreciated, inability to be real, having to be the most spiritual, stress on the family and health, feeling all alone, lack of denominational support, and ministers have a vision, the church doesn’t.  His conclusions reveal a cultural influence upon the labels of pastoral failure.  This in itself may be part of the problem of overcoming ministry atrophy; too often people think of and evaluate the minister’s position in terms of business and self-establishment rather than a surrender of the self, bearing the cross, and following Jesus.

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[1]Don Gray, Jr., “1,500 Pastors Leave the Ministry Each Month,” Associated Content [on-line]; accessed 29 August 2010; available from www.associatedcontent.com/
article/2495597/1500_pastors_leave_the_ministry_each_month; Internet.

[2]At present, I have interviewed over 11 ministers as to their struggles and triumphs in ministry.  These interviews are not published.

[3]Fuller Institute of Church Growth, “1991 Survey of Pastors” quoted by Small Church.com, “Some Interesting Statistics” [on-line]; accessed 29 August 2010; available from http://smallchurch.com/resources/statistics; Internet.

[4]Current Thoughts and Trends, December 1992, quoted by Small Church.com, “Some Interesting Statistics.”

[5]Richard Krejcir, “What is Going on with the Pastors in America?” Into Thy Word Ministries [on-line]; accessed 29 August 2010; available from www.intothyword.org/
apps/articles/default.asp?articleid=36562; Internet.

[6]Ibid.

[7]Ibid.

[8]Ibid.

[9]Jim Fuller, “10 Reasons Why Pastors Leave the Ministry,” Pastoral Care Inc.
[on-line]; accessed 29 August 2010; available from http://pastoralcareinc.com/MR/
Books?eBooks.php; Internet.

Sunday Worship: The start and finish line of all we do

In studying the scriptures this week, I have again been thinking of worship and how it should appropriately be handled.  We would do well to remember Aaron’s sons who “offered strange fire upon the altar”, and were instantly killed.  God does not often kill those who worship falsely, but He does often ignore their prayers, praise, and presence.  Part of the pain of life is that we fail to see Sunday Worship as a start/Finish line for the laps we run in life.  The start finish is an evaluation of how we just did, and a pressing on toward what we are on mission to do.  Sunday worship is not an optional occasion to catch up on spiritual hungers.  It is a great celebration of joy and often a time of humbling ourselves before man and God.  It is not another for of entertainment.  It is to be a sanctuary of coming into the presence of Almighty God.  Hence, I have been meditating on how to worship God in an acceptable manner.

 

God wants worshippers who have been centered upon Him in their thinking and actions Him all week long in spirit and in truth. That is to say, they have been godly minded in a spirit of awe, that He alone is God and in truth that it is a fight well worth fighting to live for, fighting against sin and any false idol.

Each week is an opportunity to choose God and reject the world by knowingly fighting against sin. (Rom 12:1-2, 1 Cor 10:12-14, and Eph 6) This is the idea behind worshipping Him in and out of season.  In season is choosing to glorify Him in thanksgiving for all the good, out of season is to do everything to His glory (eating, suffering, praising, and receiving good) rather than following the flesh  being angry, murmuring, giving to self-affording fantasy, or fleshly desires, it is abiding in the Spirit in order to joyfully know Him and produce spiritual fruit.(Gal 5)

Thus, when we come to worship Him on Sunday, it is a reflection of the past week and a preparation for the future, putting everything on the altar.  It should be taken quite seriously.  Our week should be lived in preparation for the honor of attending church.  It is all about God and not us.

"Behold, you are trusting in deceptive words to no avail. "Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery and swear falsely, and offer sacrifices to Baal and walk after other gods that you have not known, then come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, 'We are delivered!'--that you may do all these abominations? "Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your sight? Behold, I, even I, have seen it," declares the LORD. (Jer 7:8-11)

Our hearts need to be prepared to hear what God has to say in the service, especially the sermon.  Too often we hear a truth in the sermon and take it as an advisement.  This again, is one of the shortcomings on our part when it comes to worship.  We often know a truth but never incorporate it into our life.    We hear and then are distracted before it takes root.  God wants people who will sacrificially worship Him is spirit and in truth, that they see His word as life. (John 4)  That is, they understand His word to be so valuable, so useful, and in faith, applicable above air, and water, and sex, and food that they orient their lives to keep God first in absolutely everything.  They fear missing out on God. 

When we don’t take His word to heart, a thin veil tends to obscure our vision of God.  After a while, the truth is filed away and never used.  We then resort back to our own self exulting way of thinking.  Here is where knowledge without proper application is most dangerous.  We have the tools, we just do not know how to use them.  Therefore we assume the Gospel, but never become experienced in  it.  We can argue God’s word, but it has no place within us.  We may do all sorts of things in the name of God and yet never know Him.(Matthew 7)

Unfortunately, this is the result of a prideful heart getting in the way.  The more we worship God, the more humble we become.  When we spend out week going from activity to activity, and we fail to do so in the glory for God’s name, we forfeit opportunities to abide in Him, which is a graceful means of humbling ourselves.  We often believe we can get by with a simple daily Bible reading, and a short prayer.  We consider the hour we spend in Sunday worship as sufficient for our needs.  This is all evidence that we think too highly of ourselves.  Thus we need to renew our mind.  But pride again gets in the way, veiling truth.  We toy with truth and find that we renew ourselves with witticisms, lists, and principals, thus puffing up the self. “Oh yes, that I know. You see I have heard it before. Oh, that was a lovely message.”  This is Phariseeism.  It is the collection of books without wisdom. 

What we need is humility, recognizing our utter need of God. We need to experience the application of these truths in light of worshipping God and not self.  The word of God is meant to convict us, not make us learned men who no longer fight the fight of faith.  Worship should be understood as the most relevant act that we undertake all week.  This is honoring unto God.  When we sniff at it or see it as an footnote to our week, we out to consider our true relationship to God.  

James admonishes up to take the word of God with the utmost seriousness.  He calls it being implanted.  How do you know you have received the word implanted?   You become vigilant; you fight constantly against your own propensity to worship self (anger, pride, sexual sins, worry, depression, boasting, etc.)   One who has received the word of God lives by the cross.  They have no heart or longing for this world, they merely want to see the Kingdom of God established and His glory known.  They have a bit of holiness about them that they cannot see, much like the Shekinah glory on Moses’ face.  Above all, they are new creations; they are transformed by the Holy Spirit.  Those that are worshippers of God take great care to apply all of the scriptures appropriately to their personal biography, in each and every aspect. 

They are uncommon amidst the common.  They reflect Jesus.

Realize the Traps

Sin works like advertising. It offers an appeal that you can be great, all you need is..., or you deserve….    Thus, when approaching those appeals to the soul--advertising, internet, entertainment, friends, and such-- be on guard.  Satan slips in among the crowd as a sheep in wolves clothing. The appeals are subtle:.  a justification here, a slight of scripture there, a distraction.  Then they enter into the heart by way of the mind, by way of the eyes and ears.  Satan knows the paths and halls to your heart better than you.  He knows every gate, door, window, and passageway.  He may even get another to lead him in.

 The traps are everywhere.  Stand your ground as a watchman, realizing that all week you are going to be under attack and tested.  The worship service is a time of confession and renewal, of praise and refreshing, of encouragement in the fight.  You cannot afford to treat it as an option.

Thus, all of life is to worship God, and one way of doing so is to so joyously love God that you forsake everything and sacrifice all in order to be with Him.  Learn from Him how the world fails and deceives, and that He alone is a true treasure.  This is a form of guarding and worshipping.  In it, God is glorified, and you become satisfied.

When we take the stuff of God and make it man centered, that exalts the self. It becomes religion.  It serves religious purposes and carries all the trappings with it. However, when we take the stuff of God and respond humbly in awe of Him, that becomes worship.  It is never, ever, never boring.  It is what worship ought to be, seeing God in His infinite magnitude of glory, and we in our desperate need of Him.  Worship of God is the greatest pursuit of life.