Paul Beasley-Murray, Pastors under Pressure, Spurgeon’s Booklet, 1989

This little 84-page booklet was written by someone who knows what he’s talking about. He’s suffered/endured the stresses of pastoral leadership, taught pastors-to-be (as principal of the [Baptist] Spurgeon’s College, London) and – still fairly rarely, unfortunately – *really* believes in the ministry of the whole church (so he prefers the term ‘pastor’, and never ‘minister’ in the singular).

Here’s a miscellany of quotes/ideas:

• Could any life be more thrilling or momentous than to spend your days [leading people] to Christ? Yours is the greatest of all vocations [James Stewart]
• But pastors are suffering: the Southern Baptists in the US are losing a thousand pastors every year!
• Congregants were surveyed about the hours a pastor should spend ministering. Average: 82 hours per week; one response 200!!! (but a week has only 168 hours)
• There used to be a silly ideal about preferring to ‘burn out’ than to ‘rust out’…
• Pastors are stuck with the ‘volunteers’ they inherit: so there’s a fear of offending them in case they leave (which adds to feelings of powerlessness)
• The task is endless: like that of Sisyphus in Greek mythology, pushing a great stone up the mountain only to have it roll down again and again before reaching the top
• There used to be respect for ‘the cloth’… The pastor was the ‘parson’, ie. the person, who, with the squire, was usually the only educated person in the village
• Crockford’s Clerical Directory: There is a crisis of confidence in many ordained ministers, who work hard but are not sure that it is the work which they ought to be doing
• Some stress is needed for productivity: but at a critical point too much stress (‘hyperstress’) leads to a decline in productivity
• Many pastors suffer from work overload, role conflict, and role ambiguity
• Meditation, relaxation, support networks (fraternals, supervisors etc.) and a healthy diet are important for ‘stress management’ (see Roy Oswald, Clergy Stress: A Survival Kit for Professionals and Sarah Horsman’s Living with Stress.
• God calls pastors primarily to be faithful, rather than successful. Develop a team/shared ministry. Pastors are called to be men/women of God, then leaders, teachers, worshippers, equippers (‘clergy are helpers of the whole people of God’ John Stott, One People)
• Avoid hypocrisy (‘play-acting’), pretending to be perfect, or omnicompetent. Be aware of ‘visibility’ issues (the higher the pedestal, the more exposed you are). Manage time well (the bitterest sorrow is to aspire to do much and to achieve nothing, said Herodotus). Belong to a warm, caring, trustful, honest, confronting and open small group (Howard Clinebell, Growth Groups). Sometimes it is better to stay home and entertain friends than to go to another meeting. Success? ‘God may allow his servant to succeed when he has disciplined him/her where they don’t need to succeed to be happy. The one who is elated by success and cast down by failure is still a carnal person’ (A W Tozer). Delegate: When Moses learned to do this, from his father-in-law Jethro, he released 78,600 people into leadership (Ex 18:14, 17-18, 38:26). Expectations: how much do I have to please people (see Gal 1:10)?
• Recent pressures: change (‘constant change is here to stay’), theological challenges, numerical decline in mainline churches vs. Numerical growth in some others, democratization of education, competitiveness (remember Zinzendorf: ‘I have one passion, it is He, He alone’).
• We need to develop a theology of ambition: ‘Christian theology has had comparatively little to say about the sin of refusing to become everything that one can be’ (Jaroslav Pelikan)
• How long should you stay in a church? ‘Does a doctor say, “I have been here five years, I have healed all the sick I can heal”. Does a lawyer say, “I have been here five years, I have won all the cases I can win?” (James Glasse, Profession Minister).

Rowland Croucher

Jmm.aaa.net.au

November 2011