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Dear
NEO family,
As
I imagine all of you know, October is designated as Clergy Appreciation
Month. NEO has an OUTSTANDING team of pastors and chaplains who serve the
Lord and His church faithfully, and often sacrificially. I trust that every
church is planning something special for all of your pastors.
Most
of the Pastor/Church reviews I do are fun in NEO because the pastors and
boards usually treat one another with love, acceptance, grace, and honor.
Last Thursday, October 11, I was in Davenport for a review with Pastor Lowell
Clark and the board. It was a love feast, as they showered one another with
affirmation and support. They tell me that if there are issues, they face
them together. This is how it should be!
Of
course, pastors and spouses have physical, relational, emotional and
spiritual needs, just like all of us. Kay
Hilton (Tulsa Living Hope) has been released from the
hospital after seven weeks of treatment for internal bleeding and blood
clots. Ambre
Weston (Okmulgee) has developed gall stones, but she is
pregnant and there is nothing that can be done until after the baby is born
(due in January). Some of our pastors are bi-vocational and work two full
time jobs. And they deal with financial stresses and sometimes
sleepless nights as they long to see a breakthrough in their church.
Thom
Rainer recently wrote an article dealing with “The Secret Pain of Pastors”.
As we think of how to honor our pastors, this may help some of us have more
insight into what our pastors are dealing with.
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Thom
Rainer Reveals the Secret Pain of Pastors
Not all
the news about pastors is discouraging. Pastors feel privileged to be called
to their places of ministry. They have a deep love for those they shepherd.
Most of them could not conceive of doing anything else. But please hear
me: many pastors are hurting. LifeWay Research conducted a national
survey of Protestant pastors. Among the questions they asked were two related
to the hurts I noted above.
The
Discouragement Factor
One of
the key symptoms of the pain experienced by pastors is discouragement. More
than one-half (55 percent) of pastors are presently discouraged. I
suspect that if we surveyed pastors over just a few months, we would find
almost all of them experience deep discouragement. Some interesting
facts we discovered in our study:
· There
was no pattern of discouragement related to the geographical location of the
church.
· There
was no pattern of discouragement related to the size of the church.
· There
was no pattern of discouragement related to the educational level of the
pastor.
· There
was a significant pattern of discouragement related to the age of the pastor.
The younger the pastor, the more likely he was to be discouraged.
The
Loneliness Factor
Most
pastors experience intense loneliness at times. When we conducted our
survey, more than one-half again (coincidentally the same number, 55 percent,
as noted above) said they were lonely. Again remember that this survey was
for a specific point in time. Which pastors experience the greatest
amount of loneliness? Our study noted some discernible patterns:
· There
was no pattern of loneliness related to the geographical location of the
church.
·
Younger pastors were more likely to be lonely than older pastors.
·
The larger the church, the greater the likelihood the pastor was
experiencing loneliness.
· The
greater the education level of the pastor, the more likely he is to be
lonely.
Why
the Pervasive Discouragement and Loneliness?
Why are
so many pastors struggling today? In an earlier article I wrote on pastoral depression,
I noted the following possible reasons:
Spiritual
warfare. The Enemy does not want God’s servants to
be effective in ministry. He will do whatever it takes to hurt ministers and
their ministries.
Unrealistic
expectations. The expectations and demands upon a pastor
are enormous. They are unrealistic. But if one person’s expectations are not
met, that person can quickly let the pastor know he is a failure.
Greater
platforms for critics. In “the
good old days,” a critic was typically limited to telephone, mail and
in-person meetings to criticize a minister. Today, critics have the visible
and pervasive platforms of email, blogs and social media, such as Facebook
and Twitter.
Failure
to take time away from the church or place of ministry. Workaholism
leads to burnout. Burnout leads to depression.
Marriage
and family problems. Too
often the pastor neglects his family as he cares for the larger church
family.
Financial
strains. Many pastors simply do not have sufficient
income from the churches they serve. That financial stress can lead to
depression. Some pastors do not know how to manage the money they do have,
leading to further financial strain.
The
problem of comparison. Every
pastor will always know of a church that is larger and more effective. Every
pastor will always know of another pastor who seems more successful. The
comparison game can be debilitating to some pastors.
This
one thing I do know: Pastors need our prayers more than ever. They need our
support and encouragement. I am committed to pray for my pastor every day,
even if it’s only for a minute or so.
Will
you do the same? Our pastors pour out their lives for us daily. What can you
do to help our pastors?
LifeWay
Research contacted 1,000 Protestant pastors across the United States by
telephone. The calling list was randomly drawn from a list of all Protestant
churches. Up to six calls were made to reach each sampled phone number. Each
interview was conducted with the senior or solo pastor or equivalent
position. Responses were weighted to reflect geographical distribution of
Protestant churches. The sample provides 95% confidence that the sampling
error does not exceed +/- 3.2%. Margins of error are higher for sub-groups.
Thom S.
Rainer is the president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources (LifeWay.com).
He was founding dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism, and
Church Growth at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. His many books
include Surprising Insights from the Unchurched, The Unexpected Journey, and
Breakout Churches.
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NEO
September Statistics
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Attendance
for September
2012-13
2011-12
SDMI
2944
2992
Morning Worship
3731
3854
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I
Want to Celebrate. . .
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Bill
Hilton, Tulsa Living Hope. . . Two weeks ago one of
the children was looking very sleepy. The reason? He said he was so excited
about coming to Sunday School that he got up and dressed at 4:00 a.m. that
morning. How many of us are that excited about SS and church? This past
Sunday the father of three of our new children (13 of them) who walk to
church attended and seemed quite interested. He said he may bring his wife
with him.
John
Hazelton, Country Faith (previously Horton Chapel). . . We
had a good day with the Young Family Bluegrass singers. We had 41 on
Sunday morning and 36 in the afternoon. We have put new carpet in all
of the old parsonage and made it into a nursery. We are preparing for
young couples and children.
David
Stevens, Vinita. . . We are continuing to see people
mature as disciples. It is a slow process, and requires patience. We have
several kids under 5 attending regularly. There is a certain sound right
after the service ends: all the people visiting together and not
hurrying out the door. Our people, especially the newer ones, are learning to
enjoy being together with God’s people. God is good.
Joel
Heid, Dewey. . . Our annual Women’s Retreat was
successful and is booked for next year already. We are excited about
our new Prayer Team. The prayer team’s job is to exclusively plan &
promote anything prayer. They will help keep the church accountable,
suggest innovative ways to pray, and keep prayer central to all activities.
We are planning a trip to Ft. Worth for the prayer conference.
Casey
Hollingsworth, Miami New Life. . . Great emphasis
Sundays! Had a teen Sunday with our teens leading the entire worship
service. Had 'Friend Day' Sunday and enjoyed a wonderful day of
connecting with one another as we spent the day at 'Twin Bridges' park
enjoying some food and entertainment.
Larry
Allen, Bristow. . . We have moved to Bristow which
gives me more access to my people. We had a wonderful revival.
Don
Engie, Grove Lakewood Community. . . The way God
continues to lead people here! We have had 5 new people come this month – and
we have made so many more contacts in the community. We also had our first
GroveKids Sunday. Two Sundays a month we have Children’s Church for the kids
– using the missiolife curriculum. The other two Sundays, the kids help lead
in the service! We have kids help pass out bulletins, collect offering, pray
at the start of the service, and help lead worship. We want to disciple and
teach the kids now – what it means to be a follower of Christ - to serve as
Christ served.
Scottie
Behm, Chelsea. . . We had our second annual local
mission day held during the Chelsea community carnival. Our GUYS ministry
outreach had another successful day of encouraging our friends in the community.
Our congregation provided a free hot dog lunch at the church for the Saturday
crowd at the local community carnival. We estimate that over 150 people
and close to 200 hot dogs, chips and bottled water were given to fair
participants. A noticeable difference this year was that several, large
families came and one family had 19 people. Another was a grandmother
hairdresser, with six grandchildren.
We
also shared a simple message “Jesus Loves You” and gave away over 500 bottles
of water as intergenerational teams mingled through the crowd before and
after the local parade as well as during the carnival. One visitor
(teen) said yes to us when we asked her to join us giving away water.
She later told her mother, “This was the best day of her last 7 years
that [she] had lived in our town.”
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Grace and peace,
Dave
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