“Enduring” ministry

A colleague posted a link to an article entitled, “ After the Pandemic, Pastors are Done Enduring Ministry.” I wasn’t sure what to make of the title, but it drew me in.

At the core is another article telling the church how pastors are leaving ministry — and that this trend is not going to get any better, and there will be long term effects. This is not new. Even the author cites multiple other sources related to this.

But the article goes beyond stating the obvious. It’s the word “endure” that caught my attention and is really the focus of the article. Enduring isn’t typically a positive term. Endure sounds like putting up with something for a long time. Have pastors been putting up with things for a long time? Some have, some haven’t.

So which set of pastors are not “enduring” ministry? Those in their 30’s and 40’s. As the author states, “While many factors are likely at work, this group includes parents of school-aged children, some of whom are also caregivers for older relatives as well, both groups negatively impacted by the pandemic. Women in particular have borne a significant amount of the pandemic-related parenting stress.”

It’s the end of the article that made be decide to write this blog post though. The author has three conclusions:

1. “Increased difficulty for congregations seeking a pastor.” I’m not sure a lot of congregations really understand this. Some certainly do. The reality is that there are more congregations than there are pastors. This means that pastors…