Telling Responses

by Terry Shanahan, Northeastern Area Minister

You can approach just about any pastor and ask him how it’s going. The most common response is, “Its going good, but I have a lot on my plate.,” or “I am so busy I can’t get caught up,” or “I am just overwhelmed,” or even, “I am on the verge of burnout.” These are not uncommon responses, but telling ones. How can a pastor effectively shepherd the flock when he is constantly stressed? How do you make responsible decisions when you are tired and overwrought? The answer is, “You can’t.” Although this condition is commonplace in the pastorate, it is not a sign of health.

Identifying Healthy Pastors as one of our Seven Guiding Values is something that was born out of necessity. In general, as the pastor goes, so goes the church. If the pastor is not healthy, it follows that the church will not be healthy. What defines a healthy pastor? What defines health in general? How does our pastoral health relate to our spiritual health? Or our identity in Christ?

Healthy pastors are those pastors who find their complete identify in Christ. They are sons and daughters of the most high God. They are adopted into the family of God. They know who they are in Christ. They are functioning in community in a fruitful way. They are always growing, always maturing, and always becoming what Christ wants them to be. J.I. Packer in his book Growing in Christ, refers to the opening words of the Apostles Creed. He says, “The opening words, ‘I believe in God’ render a Greek phrase coined by the writers of the New Testament, meaning literally, ‘I am believing into God.’ That is to say, over and above believing certain truths about God, I am living in a relationship of commitment to God in trust and union. When I say I believe in God, I am professing my convictions that God has invited me to this commitment and I am declaring that I have accepted His invitation.”

Healthy pastors realize that believing into God is not a onetime experience, not just at the place and time of conversion, but a process and a period of growth, a time of sanctification. And yet many pastors are not finishing well. They are burning out at a high rate. In the tyranny of the urgent, they have lost focus on who they are in Christ. They begin to find their identity in something other than Christ, perhaps their ministry or their title. Oswald Chambers is quoted as saying, “Beware of anything that competes with loyalty to Jesus Christ.” Sadly, at times it seems that in the pastorate everything competes with loyalty to Jesus.

This is why at our Annual Gatherings and at the core of our ministry priorities, there is an intentional focus on our identity in Christ. In fact, this year’s Annual Gathering theme is “Fully Invested,” based on Deuteronomy 6:5. Love the lord your God with all your earth, with all your soul and with all your strength. Come join us at the Gathering in Rochester, New York as we will be all in for the King.