Pastors Who Press On

Discouragement: it maybe the leading cause of failure in pastoral ministry. How do pastors keep from growing weary in their work? I had the chance to talk to an experienced ministry practitioner, Travis Collins. Travis has held a variety of ministry roles and is the author of a new book: For Ministers About to Start or About to Give Up. The first question I asked him was:

You’ve served in various roles in ministry positions, from pastoring to coaching to consulting. In your view, what is the single greatest challenge facing contemporary pastors?

The greatest challenge I find among vocational ministers is disappointment with the church. So many ministers envisioned far more that what they are experiencing.

They are disappointed by the way people have treated them (and no hurt church likes church hurt). They are disappointed that they have to do so much busy work merely to keep the machine running. They are disappointed that so much of their work seems so futile (at least on the surface).

That deep disappointment is a big reason for the epidemic of burnout, and perhaps is somehow behind some of the bad behavior exhibited by so many pastors.

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