“It becomes heavy, and we can’t hold that alone. Having a person or community to talk to is really important,” said Werdel.
Thumma said that clergy who were experiencing poor mental health often overlooked spiritual practices such as making time for prayer.
“Rather than run to God or to spiritual practices, they retreated from them,” he said.
Having a clear plan for an intentional health or well-being practice can lead to flourishing when it comes to mental health for clergy. Clergy dealing with poor mental health may feel a lack of agency within their work life, said Gunderson. Engaging in these practices can bring back a sense of agency and the capacity to choose good things for themselves.
This includes making time for things that are fun. It’s easy to remove a movie night with a friend from your busy schedule, but to be proactive against burnout, it’s important to have time away from work and invite play into your life, said Werdel.
Conflict between clergy and their congregation can also lead to poor mental health.
“There’s a real strong relationship that, in some ways, is probably more than many other vocations, between what’s going on at work and how well the person feels,” said Thumma.
Having a space where the congregation and the clergy can be honest about their feelings and process issues together can help repair the relationship between them. Conflict around the pandemic in many congregations has not been resolved.
“I think there’s some compensatory grieving that needs to happen and rebuilding of people’s trust,” said Thumma.
This can be for other issues the congregation is facing as well.
“The most important thing a congregation can do is to create a safe culture,” said Gunderson. “The congregation should be healthy for everyone in the congregation, including clergy, to find a voice and to be able to talk about what’s actually going on in their life.”
It is particularly healthy for the clergy person to be able to voice doubts and stresses, instead of being viewed as the mascot. “What is healthy for the clergy is healthy for everyone else in the congregation,” concluded Gunderson.
Post-COVID, clergy and their congregations may need to reevaluate their relationships — and find better ways to collaborate. That might include a shift in expectations, said Werdel.
“There’s a sense that you are the one that’s going to fix everything, that you are the one… that you alone are essential in solving all the problems of the world,” said Werdel. That is too much pressure on one person.
“Have you lost the ability to delegate? Are you micromanaging? These experiences will lead to burnout because they have to do with the belief of control that is not healthy,” she said.
Therapy can help identify these expectations, and having a supportive team within the leadership of the ministry can also help remove some of those beliefs by sharing the load of the labor.
Werdel cautions clergy not to ignore their emotional well-being. “Our emotional worlds matter, they matter deeply, and they’re connected right to our spiritual experiences,” she said. Pushing through feelings of overwhelm and burnout will affect both your mental and spiritual health.
This article originally appeared here.
