Pastoral Burnout
Thursday, August 5, 2010 at 5:36PM We're spending the week at Pastors Retreat Network in Wisconsin. I highly recommend it. More later on the week.
It was interesting to read this article in the New York Times on the subject of pastoral burnout, and on the need for pastors to take time off.
The findings have surfaced with ominous regularity over the last few years, and with little notice: Members of the clergy now suffer from obesity, hypertension and depression at rates higher than most Americans. In the last decade, their use of antidepressants has risen, while their life expectancy has fallen. Many would change jobs if they could.
Public health experts who have led the studies caution that there is no simple explanation of why so many members of a profession once associated with rosy-cheeked longevity have become so unhealthy and unhappy.
But while research continues, a growing number of health care experts and religious leaders have settled on one simple remedy that has long been a touchy subject with many clerics: taking more time off.
Reader Comments (3)
I have been to the Pastors' Retreat Network in Wisconsin and I distinctly remember a rule about no cell phones or internet.
This scares the hell out of me.
Jamie, I have been pastoring for over thirty years. I have high blood pressure, have to watch my weight very carefully, and suffer (periodically) from depression. I can truly say that God has used these things for my good in amazing ways. I would rather have them and have been taught what I have been taught by them than to have lived without them. So far, I have not taken an anti-depressant and I have already lived longer than some people would have wanted. The stats from the article seem very foreboding, but as someone who has three of the afflictions referred to I can say that God uses even these things for my good and His glory. II Corinthians 4:7-18 has been a great help to me in all this. So, have the hell scared out of you - that can't be a bad thing. But know from one included in the stats that the reality is not absent of the work and power of God.