View From 20,000 Feet

If you were to ask ten Presbytery Execs (or judicatory heads) what is the single biggest challenge for the clergy under their care, what do you think the majority of them would say. I recently had the opportunity to talk with almost all of the executives of a region recently and posed that question to them. These were individual conversations, so this was not the result of group think. Almost without exception, they each said that the biggest problem for pastors, whether from large or small churches, was the problem of isolation.

Being Alone in the Crowd

As I probed deeper behind that description, we began to identify several characteristics of the contemporary pastorate that causes a person to feel isolated. A major factor is inherent in the nature of ministry. Good pastors absorb the wounds, pain, fears, angers, and sins of their congregants and the community around them. We are often trusted with people’s secrets, good, bad, and tragic, and rarely have someone with whom we can process what we are experiencing. In addition, we often feel inadequate to the task before us but are not inclined to admit to even other clergy colleagues, that we don’t feel capable or competent.  Clergy have egos too.

Colleague Groups

Almost all of the executive groups spoke of wanting to have colleague groups of clergy as an antidote to the isolation.  Yet their success in getting clergy to attend such groups with any regularity, was mixed.

Consider the different reasons why such groups might not work. For a support group to be effective, you must trust those who are a part of it. Assigning people to groups doesn’t automatically create those type of trusting bonds. Sometimes such groups seem to be focused on the negative and people grow weary of just hearing complaints. Not infrequently we also find ourselves in competition with other clergy and that also affects our ability to share with them.

Over the next couple of blogs, I want to consider ways in which we might counter the sense of isolation in the ministry. I would welcome any ideas that others might have.