This powerful story from a Presbyterian minister began making the rounds on social media this past week. Read it and spiritually ponder it. Check out our ForthTelling Innovation insights below.
I read Lang’s article and grieve for his loss to the church and the church’s loss of him. Anyone who has been in ministry for very long can identify. I do not want what I’m about to say to be perceived as kicking the man while he is down. While I have not walked in his shoes, I have walked in my own for 46 years in ministry.
Stress and loneliness are killers, but they don’t have to be. In Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret he talked about the pressures of his missionary life in China. He said it did not matter how great the pressure as long as it pressed him upon God. And no matter how light the pressure and stress, if it pushed him away from God, the consequences would be disastrous. I always tried to remember that and be self aware of my own spiritual health and relationship with God. Thanks to Eugene Peterson I learned to pray the Psalms. Praying those revenge psalms were a great help in dealing with church people! In Peterson’s introduction to 1 Corinthians, he says just because someone becomes a Christian doesn’t mean the automatically become nice. Reading that and the epistle, were a great reminder things could be worse. When Jesus said take up your cross and follow me, it was our first clue life would not be easy. Dealing with the stress of ministry is a life long effort and I make no claim of perfecting the management of it. I’ll write no books on the topic, but will continue to be a learner.
Loneliness does not have to be our state. When I saw pastors withdraw from fellowship activities with other pastors and not engage in the ministry outside their own church, it was a red flag. Too many times burnout, moral failure, or collapsed marriages followed. You have to actively seek relationships outside the church and when possible, to have one or two close relationships in the church, if you are going to survive. I told my congregations often that there are no Lone Rangers in the Christian community. But it doesn’t just happen. You have to seek it out. While pressure and stress are inevitable, I do not believe loneliness is.
I hope Lang finds his way back into pastoral ministry. Maybe this time in the wilderness will be restorative for him. I pray so.
Thanks, George, for reposting this article. Pastor Lang’s experience is not unique. As I read it, I am preparing a sermon on Colossians 1:24-2:5, a passage in which Paul once again speaks to the origin and purpose of our call. May our Lord help us live well in the tension of serving his ‘yet to be perfect Church’ through our own gifts and weaknesses.
I read Lang’s article and grieve for his loss to the church and the church’s loss of him. Anyone who has been in ministry for very long can identify. I do not want what I’m about to say to be perceived as kicking the man while he is down. While I have not walked in his shoes, I have walked in my own for 46 years in ministry.
Stress and loneliness are killers, but they don’t have to be. In Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret he talked about the pressures of his missionary life in China. He said it did not matter how great the pressure as long as it pressed him upon God. And no matter how light the pressure and stress, if it pushed him away from God, the consequences would be disastrous. I always tried to remember that and be self aware of my own spiritual health and relationship with God. Thanks to Eugene Peterson I learned to pray the Psalms. Praying those revenge psalms were a great help in dealing with church people! In Peterson’s introduction to 1 Corinthians, he says just because someone becomes a Christian doesn’t mean the automatically become nice. Reading that and the epistle, were a great reminder things could be worse. When Jesus said take up your cross and follow me, it was our first clue life would not be easy. Dealing with the stress of ministry is a life long effort and I make no claim of perfecting the management of it. I’ll write no books on the topic, but will continue to be a learner.
Loneliness does not have to be our state. When I saw pastors withdraw from fellowship activities with other pastors and not engage in the ministry outside their own church, it was a red flag. Too many times burnout, moral failure, or collapsed marriages followed. You have to actively seek relationships outside the church and when possible, to have one or two close relationships in the church, if you are going to survive. I told my congregations often that there are no Lone Rangers in the Christian community. But it doesn’t just happen. You have to seek it out. While pressure and stress are inevitable, I do not believe loneliness is.
I hope Lang finds his way back into pastoral ministry. Maybe this time in the wilderness will be restorative for him. I pray so.
Thanks, George, for reposting this article. Pastor Lang’s experience is not unique. As I read it, I am preparing a sermon on Colossians 1:24-2:5, a passage in which Paul once again speaks to the origin and purpose of our call. May our Lord help us live well in the tension of serving his ‘yet to be perfect Church’ through our own gifts and weaknesses.