Pray for your Pastors

A recent study done by Barna, Maranatha Life, Focus on the Family's H.B. London and the Acts29 Network reveals some staggering statistics regarding pastors - statistics that may be hard to stomach.
After you read these, get down on your knees and pray for your pastor.
Pastors need your prayers every single day.

Pastors

• Fifteen hundred pastors leave the ministry each month due to moral failure, spiritual burnout, or contention in their churches.
• Fifty percent of pastors' marriages will end in divorce.
• Eighty percent of pastors and eighty-four percent of their spouses feel unqualified and discouraged in their role as pastors.
• Fifty percent of pastors are so discouraged that they would leave the ministry if they could, but feel as though they would have no other way of making a living.
• Eighty percent of seminary and Bible school graduates who enter the ministry will leave the ministry within the first five years.
• Seventy percent of pastors constantly fight depression.
• Almost forty percent polled said they have had an extra-marital affair since beginning their ministry.
• Seventy percent said the only time they spend studying the Word is when they are preparing their sermons.

Pastors' Wives

• Eighty percent of pastors' spouses feel their spouse is overworked.
• Eighty percent of pastors' spouses wish their spouse would choose another profession.
• The majority of pastors' wives surveyed said that the most destructive event that has occurred in their marriage and family was the day they entered the ministry

Comments

[Tom]

J.R., where did you find these stats?

[Ben Dubow]

While I think it is always good to pray for pastors (and their spouses) I actually have a hard time believing these stats and would love to see the raw data on it.

These sound strangely like a lot of stats that float around that if quoted enough become true. For example, the claim that 50% of all marriages end in divorce is often sited but is simply not true. It is a misreading of the statistic (which based on current marriage rates and current divorce rates compared but is not a predictor of future marriage results).

Anyway, I am a pastor and certainly covet prayers and don't want to understate the issues, but I also think we shouldn't overstate them as well.

Also, it would be helpful to see those results paired with the general (non-pastor) population. My challenge to pastors is to pray more for your congregation because my guess is that they too struggle with moral failure, depression, feelings of being trapped in a career, discouragement, etc. And a lot of marriages are pretty unhappy.

I wonder if this isn't a pastoral problem as much as a human problem...

[J.R.]

Ben,

If you'd like to see the data you can read more and watch the video at this link.

http://www.acts29network.org/acts-29-blog/burned-out-pastors/

[Tom]

I think Ben's right. This is a human problem. But I also think pastoral life is incredibly challenging, and uniquely so. It would be foolish to think otherwise. Nevertheless, as a kingdom of priests, we should all pray for each other relentlessly. God knows I need it.

[Andrew]

JR,
Thank you for this important reminder. A couple of my professors at DenSem have said this in class. You look around the room at eager future ministers and think 80% of us who head into ministry will leave within five years?!? Hard to believe and pretty scary.

Perhaps seminaries should rethink how they prepare future ministers? Denver Seminary would argue their focus on mentorship will hopefully pull this number down for their grads. Somehow, seminarians are viewing ministry as easier then it really is. Having two ministry mentors throughout your program is one way to keep things realistic.

If I judged ministry from what I've seen from the pew my whole life, I might be tempted to think its pretty easy work. But through relationships with ministers and Christian biographies, I've learned its one of the hardest places to be called. When it comes to ministry, its not merely what you know, its what you're made of...

[Stan]

I think the important thing to learn here is that pastors are people too, even if the stats are not errorless. I think as the empty, needing to be the fueled and filled congregation, we have the sad tendency to put our pastors in a secluded realm, and fail to see them as God needing people like ourselves. My brother in law, a pastor for many years, has become a stranger to our family in ways, serving so selflessly his God loving community only hours away. As I very much admire his tireless devotion, I miss him very much as well.

[Bob]

In response to the stirring stats that JR has presented I was confronted by the following.

John 12:25.26 Jesus said, “The man who loves his own life will destroy it, and the man who hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life.
If a man wants to enter my service, he must follow my way; and where I am, my servant will also be.
And my Father will honour every man who enters my service.”

These challenging questions jump out at me:
Am I seeking my own way and my own honor?
Am I focused on The Good Shepherd?
Am I learning to hear His Still Small Voice?
Am I exactly where He would have me to be?

[DougG]

JR, Great Post, I have been praying recently about a couple things for some Pastors you and I know, Regards, DougG

PS Present company excluded, in the 20+ years I have been a follower of Christ, I think I can safely say a Pastor has never asked me personally what they could pray for me (and that is probably related to the fact that one has never really ever gotten to know me personally). Reference Point: When Faye's mom died on 1 Jan, it took quite a few weeks for one to say anything to me ("drive-by" as I went into services), although the prayer E-Mail went out Jan 2.
PPS A couple years ago, it is a vivid memory for me when you said to me out-of-the-blue that you had been praying for me that week.
PPPS "PS #1" is one of the things I pray for my Pastors (and a reason I don't think I really understand what a Pastor is and you are one of the closest examples I have to what one ought to be.)

[DougG]

Note: Apologies for the double negative in PPPS (it was a compliment)

[Chris M]

JR,

Thanks again for praying for me and forwarding me these statistics. They move me to my core.

Many of you won't know me, but I am a new pastor. Up until the last four months, I worked as a telecom geek for the government my entire adult life. Whether it was in the military or working for the military, I was always highly active in the church (thanks for the opportunities, JR). While I was very close to my pastors, I could never say that I fully appreciated the gravity of their positions. It's a lot like getting married or having kids. Sure, you can read a lot of books and listen to a lot of wisdom, but you never know what it is like until you are in it.

That being said, as a "volunteer" or "ministry partner", it's not like you don't hear the complaints or feel the pressure. The pressure is a lot like the sun's UV rays. You are always being hit by them and they always burn and sting. As a pastor, it's simply intensified. It's a lot like sitting under a thinner slice of o-zone. I'm not saying that the pressure is the cause of moral failure, it is just a reality pastors face.

I also think Ben is right. This is not just a pastor problem, it is a human problem. I also think that Andrew is right. Unfortunately, some people have placed pastors on a pedestal that they didn't ask for. Pastor's definitely don't have it worse than others. Pain and suffering are occupationally universal. We all have it pretty rough in this whole thing called life.

Pastors are obviously prone to the same mistakes, but their mistakes don't just affect their homes. Churches have tied their spiritual well being into the moral success or failure of their pastor. There are countless churches that have fallen apart due to the sexual misconduct of a pastor. As a matter of fact, just two days ago, a local charlotte pastor was arrested for soliciting sexual favors from a male undercover police officer in a city park. I feel terrible for him, his family, his church and the God who loves him.

That being said, I wonder if sometimes we, as pastors, are the ones guilty of placing ourselves on those pedestals?

One of the things I like about the video is when he talks about how some of the great pastors survived because they were willing to talk about the ugly stuff of ministry. That is a good challenge for me and all of us (not just pastors).

As far as the statistics go, I am one of 7 pastors at my church. I would say that 100% of us are pretty burned out. Many of us feel unqualified. Few of us honor a consistent sabbath day of rest. I have tried to maintain that (thanks for the advice, JR). None of them are leaving due to moral failure and I continue to pray that remains true.

I love what I do. I was not immune to these things before being a pastor and I'm definitely not immune today.

Psalm 66 speaks to me in the midst of this.