This is an important message for pastors.
Dear Pastor, depression in the pulpit is on the rise. It is okay to seek help. It’s okay to take a break.
You are not a machine. Even machines need to be checked and serviced for continuous effective operations. YOU ARE HUMAN and a branch manager of the Lord’s business.
Pastor, you cater to everyone, engage with different spirits on a daily basis, handle several situations [some you are not equipped for yet you try to solve]. You have taken some of these problems into your abode. You are facing burn out.
Dear Pastor, when was the last time you went on a real vacation [not a ministerial assignment that involved travel]?
Pastor, you can’t be everything to everybody. Some situations require you to hire professionals OR refer congregants to professionals – licensed therapists, marriage counselors or psychotherapists.
There is nothing new under the sun.
At a point Elijah was fed up (1 Kings 19:4). Jonah wanted to end things (Jonah 4). Even though he did what God said he should do and transformation came for the people, he still wasn’t happy.
Dear Pastor, I pray for you to make the right decisions concerning you, your family, your kingdom assignments. Don’t forget your family. Your nuclear family. Face your family. Think upon these things.
Destinies are connected to your decisions.
Voluntary time out is not a sign of weakness but wisdom. If necessary, take a hiatus, go back to the drawing board and recalibrate.
Pastor Belinda, I have been given the Kingdom assignment of speaking to those areas of humanity, which are often overlooked, oiled up, rebuked, hidden, or brushed aside as something that should not be named among the Saints.
My experience in ministry, both as lay and leader, has given me a birds eye view, of Mental and Spiritual illnesses that is compounded by ill equipped, and over spiritualized, well meaning people.
I often say, People (from pulpit to pews) are SCREAMING, and No one can hear them. Or they are bleeding all over the people, and no one knows how to stop it. DEPRESSION and OTHER mental disorders are PREVALENT in the Church. How WE as leaders understand it, approach it, and handle it, WILL BE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH for someone…