Pastoral Leadership

“pastors should be appreciated all the time, and not just one month a year. Pray for your pastors, pay them well, and give them time and space to love and lead their families. And maybe reconsider your pastor appreciation gifts.” - C.Leaders

Practicing Christians who say local pastors are aware of their community’s needs: 73%; non-praciticing Christians: 63%; non-Christians: 44%. - Barna Research

“Former pastors are almost twice as likely as current pastors to say they felt isolated in their role (62% to 35%). When asked with whom they shared struggles at least once a month in their last pastorate….Fewer than half said they met with another pastor (44%)” - Lifeway

“A PC(USA) minister survey on mental health issues found that 44% of the 4,507 pastors surveyed reported that they ‘have not been trained to recognize mental health concerns or how to minister to those individuals and families who face them.’” - C.Post

“Nice dictators exist, at least in the leadership sense. I refer to these types of leaders in the church as amiable autocrats. Friendly church dictators rule from their positional authority. They order everyone around because their title enables them to do so, and they do it with a smile.” - Sam Rainer

“t’s easy to see only the negative—and even magnify it—when we’re hurting. That’s when we need to pray the prayer of Moses: ‘Please, let me see your glory’ (Exo 33:18).” - Chuck Lawless

“I had been prepped to be wary of family-dominated churches, of people whose people had been in the church for multiple generations. It was an unwritten rule that many generations in a church was probably not healthy, that those people would reflexively side against their ‘outsider’ pastor. Bah, humbug. Bad advice.” - SBCVoices

“The necessity of a first among coequals in human economies is resonant with (though not equivalent to) the way the Son submits to his Father in the incarnation (Philippians 2:5–11), as well as in the order God ordains in the home (Ephesians 5:21–33). Leadership is not a consequence of the fall, but represents God’s good design for human flourishing in a well-ordered world.” - Desiring God

“I’m sure more lessons will unfold as time goes on, but the important lesson is that during moments of crisis, there is always something for leaders to learn.” - Phil Cooke

“The NAE’s national research has shown that pastors face very real personal and financial challenges” - RNS