I read some stats about pastors the other day that caused me to stop and think about my vocation a little bit. You can see the post here, but the bottom line is that 1500 pastors leave their churches every MONTH because of burnout, conflict, or moral failure. 70% suffer from depression. Even beyond that, 80% of pastor’s spouse’s wish they would choose another profession.
That is some serious junk right there. I'm sure it can be attributed to many causes. It may be just the spiritual warfare side of it, or a lack of training, etc. One area where I have been trying to guard myself is through self leadership. I’m currently reading Ordering Your Private World again. This book does a great job of helping a leader develop the private strength necessary for such a public calling. When our private world’s are in order, we’ll have more capacity to deal with the outer demands of life.
If I had a camera that could tape a snapshot of your private world, what would it look like? A teenager’s room, with dirty clothes and shoes thrown all over the room? Or a neat office, with books in their place and pens in the drawer?
Leading every church has it's challenges. I'm grateful that there have been no days over the last 15 months where I wished I had different challenges!
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