If you want to know why you sometimes feel overwhelmed and exhausted, take a moment to reflect on the emotional roller coaster that almost all pastors experience day in and day out. It is not just that you share in people’s pain but that you move from pain to joy to routine to boredom to pain to joy etc. You can be up one minute, in the pits the next, or just worn down by the incessant routine the next but before you catch your breath it continues on. All these experiences trigger a draw on our emotional resources and nerve endings take a longer time to recuperate than merely physical exertion.
At a Committee on Ministry meeting i shared a chart I created to give some indication of this roller coaster. Think of how you continually move from frame to frame and continue to expend energy.
Emotional Experiences
•
•
• POSITIVE • STRESSFUL • MIXED
• Birth of Baby • Tragic Death • Staff Supervision
• Conduct Worship Upset Member
• Administration
• Teach Class • Community Issue
• Weekly Deadlines
• Lay Generated Social Ministry
• Troubled Teen • Evening Meetings
• Counseling Success
• Difficult Meeting
• Blogging, Tweeting, etc
• New Member• •Budget Shortfall
• •
• • Marital Counseling
• •
You can add others but this suggests a picture of a weekly challenge that continues to repeat itself. This is why you need those days off, vacations, and sabbaticals.
