Pastors and their Health

2/14/19

            Most people who become pastors do so because they believe that God called them to the ministry. This is key because no one should become a pastor if he or she simply sees it as a career. You will quickly become frustrated, resentful and overwhelmed, which will affect your ability to care for yourself and your congregation.

            But even people who are confident that God called them, still find themselves under the tremendous pressure of being a spiritual leader. There is so much more to being a pastor than preaching on Sunday mornings. Among many other things, they are also overseeing committee meetings and church ministries, visiting the sick and the dying, counseling individuals, doing weddings and funerals and leading social justice efforts.  

Sadly, many pastors tend to ignore, deny or downplay the toll their work has on their physical health. Gary L. Harbaugh, in his book Pastor as Person, says that pastors are quick to encourage their parishioners to take care of themselves. They will not, however, heed their own advice. “The same pastor might also preach from the pulpit that the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. But when it comes to himself or herself, the pastor tends to forget that he or she is an embodied person” (Harbaugh, p. 48). Stating that pastors have a body might seem obvious, but it is worth emphasizing. So often, church members - and society - put pastors on a pedestal and view them as superheroes, forgetting that they are humans with the same needs as anyone else. It is no wonder then that so many pastors have at least a 50 percent chance of seeing a change in their health (Harbaugh, p. 42).

So what can a pastor do? For starters, they must admit that they need help and then be intentional in seeking it out. Help could come in the form of a clergy support group, self-care activities and counseling. When pastors take care of themselves, everyone benefits.

By Alicia Grey, seminary student