Barna 7-Year Trends: Pastors Feel More Loneliness & Less Support
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“While feelings of loneliness and isolation have increased over the better part of a decade, pastors’ feelings of support from those around them have decreased.” - Barna
Pastors and sometimes ‘clergy’ in general
How to Care for Your Pastor, Part 2: Remembering
Read the series.
I’m going to structure this series around several passages that tell churches how they ought to treat their pastors. I’d like to start with a passage at the end of Hebrews:
Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith (Heb 13.7).
We’re told to “remember” our pastor.
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A Leader for the Long Haul: The Legacy of Enduring Pastors
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“Ron Wickard humbly pastored the same church out on the remote South Dakota prairie for 42 years, providing one beautiful model of what it means to ‘dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness’ (Psalm 37:3).” - Desiring God
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How to Care for Your Pastor, Part 1: Introduction
Most Christians have been members of (or at least attended) a church long enough to go through a pastoral transition or to witness an ordination service. When they do, they’ll often hear a sermon on the pastor’s responsibility to the church. It might include a look at the qualifications for pastor as listed in 1Timothy 3 or Titus 1, and perhaps also a charge from 2Timothy 4.1-2:
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Barna Research: Pastors rate themselves lower in all areas of wellbeing since 2015
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“Citing data collected for their Resilient Pastor research from 2015 to 2022… showed pastors suffered significant declines in all areas of well-being when asked to rank how they felt as excellent, good, average, below average, poor or don’t know.” - CPost
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Toxic Churches That Fire Pastors: Notable Patterns
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“1. There is a power and control issue behind the dismissal. Typically, the pastor has not bowed to the demands and preferences of a power group in the church…. 2. Reasons for the firing are often not given to the congregation.” - Church Answers
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Pastors and depression: “I am glad I did not end my ministry by hastily running away from my problems.”
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“ministry leaders are not mental health professionals… typically unsure of how to help people—including ourselves—through dark seasons. Here are four lessons I learned through my experience.” - Lifeway
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Do Outsiders Still Matter? An Overlooked Qualification for Pastors
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“ ‘Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.’… Yet here, in 1 Timothy 3:7, as the culminating qualification for the church’s lead office, we hear that pastor-elders must be well thought of by outsiders.” - Desiring God
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