Dear Pastor,

The word is out on us. We are a weary and tired group of men. It is in this condition that we are trying to offer spiritual leadership to churches made up of weary and tired people. Whew! Just writing that made me tired.

On those Monday mornings when you wake up feeling like you have been playing football without a helmet, do you find yourself looking for comfort? I have learned that some of us seek our comfort in strange places. One of our secret spots is to search the data that is now available about the difficulties of pastoral ministry. We read the statistical evidence to find some reason for our own experiences of fatigue and discouragement. In case this is not your place of comfort let me supply a few of our “bright spots”. Over the past several years surveys have shown these things to be true of ministers in the United States:

  • 90% feel inadequately trained to cope with ministry demands.
  • 80% believe that pastoral ministry affects their families negatively
  • 45% say they’ve experienced depression or burnout to the extent that they needed to take a leave of absence.
  • 40% have serious conflict with a church member at least once a month.
  • 37% admit that Internet pornography is a current struggle.
  • 70% do not have someone they consider a close friend. (1)

Let me offer you a better place to find comfort. Our church is holding a conference for the pastor who wants to strengthen his weary soul. Dr. Paul Tripp and Justin Taylor are our guest speakers. We call our conference, Promoting the Gospel, and we will focus on how to promote the riches of the gospel to our own souls. We intentionally focus on the pastor as a person. What you are precedes what you do. Are you resting in this gospel that you preach? I am confident our conference will offer you effective help for some of your greatest needs. I do hope you can join us. For more information and registration please visit us on the web at www.promotingthegospel.org.

Sincerely,

Tony Rose

(1)  Michael Todd Wilson and Brad Hoffmann, Preventing Ministry Failure, IVP books, p.31