Most pastors love their calling. Most pastors could not imagine doing anything else. Most pastors have joy in their ministries.
I want to be clear that I don’t view pastors as a depressed, melancholy and forlorn lot. Most pastors would not come close to fitting that description.
But every pastor has points of stress.
Indeed, everyone has points of stress, including leaders of churches, organizations and families. Pastors are not immune from stressors in life and ministry.
I hear from pastors almost every day. Indeed, I can’t remember a day since the advent of social media that I have not heard from a pastor. Some of these ministers gladly share their struggles with me. I am grateful. That means that these pastors trust me and view me as one who cares for them. They are right.
And though I did not do a formal tabulation of all the pieces of correspondence from pastors, I can share with you, with some level of confidence, seven of the greatest stressors on pastors.
Indeed, I share them in the order of frequency I have heard them.
1. Giving their families deserved time.
In reality, no pastor has a day off. It is a 24/7 call where the next phone call or email means a dramatic change in their priorities. Deaths, accidents and emergencies know no clock or holidays or vacation.
Pastors are often required to leave their families to meet those needs. And pastors worry about their families and their needs.
2. An unhappy spouse.
No one can serve in a church or do any job with joy if their spouse is unhappy. The pastor is certainly not exempt from that stressor.
Some of the unhappiness of pastors’ spouses is related to the first stressor noted. Some of it is related to the next stressor on the list. And still other times, spouses are expected to fill roles in the church because of who they married, not because they are equipped or desirous to do so.
3. The glass house.
One pastor wrote me that he struggles greatly because several church members have clear expectations about what clothes his wife and children wear, how the kids behave and even what school they should attend.
Other pastors have less severe cases of the glass house, but any level of this syndrome is uncomfortable.
