Many people have no idea what their pastor experiences in a week. In fact, if you were to shadow them, you probably couldn’t keep up or handle the emotional drain, mental tiredness, physical expenditure, or spiritual assault they experience each week.
Let me give you a taste. Mind you…this is just in one week. Your pastor has had to:
•Prepare a sermon or two. He doesn’t flippantly choose a verse to preach on. He studies, prays over the sermon, prays for his people to receive it.
•Counsel. The need for counseling is growing exponentially! The average person can’t afford a professional counselor—so they’re seeking counsel from their pastor. Your pastor may have had to deal with a marriage falling apart, a teenager who is suicidal, sexual abuse, physical abuse, parents who can’t cope with their teenager’s addictions and needing help, or helping a family as they decide how to help their aging parent. You have no idea the things your pastor has had to face in just one week. It’s overwhelming to him.
•Deal with conflict in the church. It may come from elders who disagree with the direction he’s going. It may be over finances. It could be from people in the kitchen or nursery who can’t get along. There seems to always be a conflict going on.
•Deal with the needs of their own family. Pastors aren’t exempt from family crises. Did you know that most pastors’ wives have asked their husbands to leave the ministry at some point because of the pressure on their families? It’s a very real thing. Pastor’s kids often feel as if they have a target on their backs.
•Plan and purchase materials for the church’s growth and outreach.
•Deal with inner struggles. Pastors are human and the overwhelming needs they’re faced with today can take a huge toll. The pressures are endless and most pastors feel like they’re not doing enough because the needs are so great. It affects their body, soul, and spirit.
•Minister to the sick or injured. There is always someone sick or hurt in the church and the pastor wants and needs to minister to them. But it usually comes in the form of a crises—a diagnosis of cancer, surgeries, or a car wreck. Many of those calls come in the middle of the night and the pastor rushes to pray and help.
•Deal with expectations—either spoken or unspoken.
•Love on the dying or the family of those dying or deceased. This may not happen every week—but just think about how many people in your church who have died this past month. Your pastor ministered to each of them. Not only does he pray with them as they’re dying, but then he meets with the family to plan a funeral and prepares a message for the funeral.
•Plan with the staff. Regardless of the size of the church staff, your pastor has to meet and plan with someone. They have to coordinate their efforts for the week.
•Deal with finances—either for the church or his family. He has to make sure expenditures are covered. Many times it’s hard caring for the expenses for his family when he may use his own gas to make hospital visits, have to pay for youth expenses for his kids, or for his wife to purchase books for a women’s Bible study. It’s just hard to make those dollars stretch when the needs are so great—and possibly expected.
•Deal with extra things which may pop up bi-weekly, monthly, or yearly. Things like planning a mission trip—which is a huge undertaking with calling airlines, making deadlines, preparing the participants, and coordinating with those on the field. Or it could be hiring a new staff member—praying for the right person, interviewing, and praying the church accepts them. Or maybe it’s a building project, a mission offering, baptisms, a revival, baby dedication, communion, special holiday services, church fellowships, VBS, outreach program, connecting with visitors, ministering to the staff, children or youth camps, training or mentoring, prayer meetings—the list is endless! Even if your pastor doesn’t head all of these things, he’s involved in some way. And he may feel stretched to the max!
How can you help? Pray for your pastor! This is the most important thing. Offer to take on a project dear to your heart. Minister to your pastor and his family—whether it’s inviting them to your home for a meal, giving them a monetary gift (which is always appreciated), loving and investing in his kids, offering your vacation home to his family, or insisting they take their vacation and maybe even helping with it. Give them a sabbatical. Pastors have never needed time away, and to be ministered to themselves, like they do today. Our world is in a crisis and it’s affecting your pastor as he strives to meet the needs of your church. If you have a good pastor, you are blessed! Take care of him, encourage him (send a note or a gift), and help him.
Pray for your pastor. And be kind. You have no idea what he’s dealt with this week.
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