When you read this, I will be participating in the Presbytery Pastoral Care Network’s annual conference. This year the focus is on compassion fatigue and how to become more resilient as pastors. Hopefully I will return with some ideas that I can share with you in future blogs.
I think it is important for pastors that are beginning new positions, to be particularly aware of compassion fatigue. We enter full of enthusiasm, hopes, and dreams. Hopefully we have a sense of renewed energy by the prospects we think are ahead of us. A church that has been without a pastor for some time, anywhere from one to three years typically, can have a lot of loose ends that they are hoping the new pastor will quickly pull together so that the church can engage in effective ministry. It is not unusual for a new pastor to plunge right in and find that they are exhausted in the first several months. We become impatient and don’t monitor our own energy levels and the effects our exhaustion is having on our primary relationships. We also experience some disappointments because the image of the church is not quite the same as the reality that we experience. (Many of them have also projected unrealistic images on to the new pastor as well.)
On my next blog, written before I actually experienced the conference, I will suggest one important action that a new pastor can take that can help with a more balanced way to monitor him or herself as you begin your pastorate.
