I recently read Eugene Cho’s article about why pastors are depressed, burnt out and getting divorced at the same rates as the rest of America. Check it out – it’s a good overview of the present state of the North American pastor. Eugene has always been an insightful blogger… highly recommend.
But I feel like the analysis misses the point entirely. The reason why pastors suffer the way that they do is that the role was never meant to be lived out in this way. The pastor has become the CEO with no real power, under the thumbs of each person who tithes in the church. It’s no doubt that churches have evolved to be consumer driven entities and the pastor has become it’s lead entertainer always trying to find new ways to keep it’s customer core. And the pastors who aren’t entertainers or charismatic personalities or exceptional orators… who are ministering for the simple joy of loving people through their struggles… are then expected to be something they are not, there’s no doubt they’ll suffer low self-esteem, terrible work hours and unhealthy family lives. Those who are attractive leaders experience worldly-church success, but have discovered the hollowness of what they’re creating [ie. Francis Chan?] and are left no better than the others. Here’s a New York Times article that I think summarizes this point quite well.
Giving your pastor more time off, more pay, more “prayer” to keep entertaining the masses is not the solution. It’s only perpetuating a problem that is at the core of the church’s lack of relevance and impact.
So I’m a pastor too. And part of why we started what we started [a network of house churches called Haven] was for the simple fact that after each year of ministry, I always felt like quitting. I was always tired, burnt out, depressed. And I did take enough vacation and we weren’t living at the poverty level. I’d share it with older, “wiser” pastors and they wouldn’t have much to say. Being Chinese-American, I think many of my elder Chinese pastors probably thought I was a weenie. And that I needed to toughen up for the fight. And I wondered the same thing.
EL's Dribble 