Preventing Ministry Failure

All of the pastors for CTK are now in small groups going through a workbook called "Preventing Ministry Failure" by Michael Todd Wilson and Brad Hoffman. Though not currently a pastor, as a member of our church council I am going through the book with the 3 other pastors on our council. We just started the first section this week and already I feel like I've got my money's worth.

The book starts with these startling statistics. Of ministers in the United States:
  • 25% have been forced out of or fired from their ministry at least once.
  • 90% feel inadequately trained to cope with ministry demands.
  • 80% believe that pastoral ministry affects their families negatively.
  • 45% say they've experienced depression or burnout to the extent that they needed to take a leave of absence.
  • 40% have serious conflict with a church member at least once a month.
  • 20% admit to having an affair while in the ministry.
  • 37% admit the Internet pornography is a current struggle.
  • 70% do not have someone they consider a close friend.

I guess I was not alone in feeling burned out, isolated, and overwhelmed by the demands I felt on myself as a pastor. But in just the first few pages I found something that helped me understand better what happened to me.

"...(M)inistering under a "god complex" can set us up for a fall through our own unreasonable internal expectations of ourselves--especially when our efforts aren't as successful as we had planned or as others had anticipated. Many a minister has been irreparablly wounded from such a fall." (p. 19)

I know that I was by far the person most critical of my pastoral ministry. I felt like if things didn't happen according to what I thought should happen then somehow it reflected on my leadership or my spiritual life or my faith. I see now more clearly that this was poison in my spiritual life. With this false view, there was no other recourse other than to resign when things at the church didn't turn out right. I pushed myself into the corner where I started feeling trapped by the demands of ministry, because I did not give God enough room to be sovereign over my plans enough to let them fail.

As I consider re-entering pastoral ministry, I know this is an area I must change if I am to be able to stick with it over the long haul.

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