This reminded me of the recent blog post I did on The Struggles of Being a Pastor.
This is another great reminder to pray for your pastor. I’m not posting this for self-pity or to complain, but to raise awareness as most all of these are true of me and likely of your pastor as well. I ask for prayer because prayer works and is needed and because it’s a long fall off the cliff. Thank you for praying for us:
Noah Filipiak
Founding Pastor at Crossroads Church, Lansing MI
Author of Beyond the Battle: A man's guide to his identity in Christ in an oversexualized world
Host of the The Flip Side Podcast
Join an online men's small group led by Noah at BeyondTheBattle.net
Host of the The Flip Side Podcast
Join an online men's small group led by Noah at BeyondTheBattle.net
Latest posts by Noah Filipiak (see all)
- Ep. 21: Depression, Elf on a Shelf, and get $1 every time Noah says “like” - December 2, 2019
- Flip Side Book Club: “The Sexuality of Jesus” & “Male, Female, and the Imago Dei” - November 29, 2019
- Ep. 20: Interview with Jason Redoutey on Vulnerability and Grace Overcoming Shame and Addiction - November 15, 2019
Yes…all true. Funny thing is my personal experience was as a youth pastor and the betrayal false accusation and hurt to me and my family came from the spiritually abusive criminal that was the pastor of the church that “called” me!
Great reminder! We praying for you and your family 🙂
Aaaand my grammar stinks…
“78 % of pastors have no close friends.” I always pray for the pastor before he is going to preach when I visit a traditional church. But pastors should change their role. In the Bible there is no modern churches or modern pastors. Among the first Christians the pastor opened his home and served dinner to friends. If the modern pastor do that, the ugly statistics will be better. He will get friends. And fewer will suffer from depression.
Sjur Jansen, Norway
Thank you Sjur, that is very very insightful. I love the eyes of a non-American speaking objective truth into the American Church culture, it is so so helpful.
As I’ve been pastoring the church I started for over 10 years now, God has shown me more and more the truth behind what you are saying. Essentially showing me that the ‘senior pastor’ role is at its best unhealthy, and at its worst is unbiblical. A church in my area has a “plurality of elders” model, which we switched our leadership structure to 3 years ago. There’s no senior or lead pastor, but all elders are pastors and share authority. Right now we only have 2 elders (myself and another pastor) –my friends’ church has 9 elders!– but we will soon be expanding the team to 4 or 5 of us. It is truly a wonderful model, one I have tasted the fruits of, and look forward more and more to it being fully functional at my church.