A Message to Weary Pastors

We just entered the second lockdown this year here in Toronto. We can’t have more than 10 people gather for worship. Churches are weighing how to respond, but this move certainly limits our options. It feels a lot like March 15 again.

You may not be in lockdown as we are, but I know you’re dealing with the pandemic too. And it’s tiring.

Thom Rainer has written, “The vast majority of pastors with whom our team communicates are saying they are considering quitting their churches.” I don’t count myself among that number, but I get it. I feel the weariness too.

No matter where you are in this struggle, we need to take some steps as we deal with our fatigue and sometimes even discouragement.

Lament

Someone gave me a copy of Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy (affiliate link) by Mark Vroegop. Vroegop argues that Christians must recover lament, “the practice of honest struggle that gives us permission to vocalize our pain and wrestle with our sorrow. Lament avoids trite answers and quick solutions, progressively moving us toward deeper worship and trust.”

Such a timely book. Lament is not bellyaching or complaining. Nor is it what we tend to focus on in the Western world: quick, technique-driven leadership solutions to deep problems. Lament is bringing our sorrows to God.

Could it be that one of our tasks as pastors is to recapture this lost discipline, practice it ourselves, and teach it to the church? We have much to lament this year. We have an opportunity to learn to play the minor keys and to make room for something other than celebration in our churches.

Don’t forget to lament in your weariness.

Survive

We want to take new ground all the time. We want to live in perpetual spring and summer: the leaves always green, the sun always shining. But there’s also a time to go dormant, a time for leaves to fall and for the branches to look bare. We’re in one of those times right now.

Forget about taking new ground for now. That time will come again. Right now, survive. Slow down. Work fewer hours. Take more walks. Slow down to a marathon pace. I learned when running a few years ago that you pick a different pace for a longer race than you do a 10K. Pick a pace that you can run for the next year, even if it’s much slower than the pace you’re used to running. Focus on survival, not on speed or success.

I’m glad Spurgeon did this. Spurgeon regularly took breaks from ministry because of his poor physical health and depression. He was never completely healthy, but he took steps to prolong his ministry when it would have been easy to give it up.

We need you to last. We need your soul to be intact when this is over. Slow down. Let things lie dormant. Do less. Keep a little in the tank for the future. You’re going to need it.

Find a Friend

We all need friends. Sadly, ministry can be an easy place to lose them. We’re good as pastors at serving others. We make room for other people’s needs. We forget that we need to unburden too.

If you have a friend, be sure to reach out. If you don’t have a friend like this, pray for one, and be that kind of friend for someone else.

Even the healthiest pastors I know are a little weary right now. Lament, survive, and make sure you have friends. Remember that your identity is not in how well your ministry is going, but it’s found in Jesus himself. Knowing that gives us permission to not be okay sometimes, and to get the help we need in the middle of a more exhausting year than any of us expected.