Beyond Ministry: Pastors Share Stress-Relieving Hobbies

By Chris Moon 

After 55 years in ministry, Bob Kastens is convinced every pastor needs a hobby.  

Ministry can be challenging and stressful. Pastors deal regularly with people who are struggling in their faith or with their health.  

A long ministry requires balance.  

“I think pastors need something maybe to take their mind off the stress of ministry and find something they enjoy doing,” said Kastens, 80, who recently retired from Louisville (Tenn.) Christian Church. 

Many of Kastens’s pastor friends over the years have had hobbies, from softball to kayaking to fishing to skiing. Kastens’ own hobby is tracing his family genealogy. He has generation upon generation listed on his family tree—reaching back to his European heritage.  

“It’s just fascinating to find out my roots, which I knew nothing about,” Kastens said. 

John Caldwell, another longtime pastor, has found his own interests in traveling the country and in his deep love for the St. Louis Cardinals. He attended his first Cardinals game in 1956 and over time has assembled a treasured collection of Redbird memorabilia. 

Caldwell said hobbies help pastors connect with people they might not ordinarily meet while working in the church. Caldwell said he had several good conversations with strangers on a recent vacation—simply because of his Cardinals’ attire and the interest it drew. 

“I think having a hobby, if you want to call it that, helps you to associate with people—that you are people too, and you are not just some stained-glass object,” Caldwell said. 

Christian Standard recently asked pastors about their hobbies. Five of their stories are below.  

THE HOT WHEELS RACER 

Lee Delbridge, longtime pastor of Smyrna (Ga.) Christian Church in the Atlanta metropolitan area, has always loved cars.  

He grew up racing slot cars with his brother. Later, he became fascinated with Hot Wheels, which first hit store shelves in the 1960s.  

“I like cars, and I can’t afford real ones,” said Delbridge, 75, who confessed to driving a Toyota Corolla in real life. “But I can afford some fancy Hot Wheels.” 

Delbridge keeps Hot Wheels in his church office. He’s been the minister in Smyrna since 1983. Over the years, kids from the church would sometimes ask to play with his cars. 

Delbridge says he’s not a collector, and so he doesn’t keep his Hot Wheels in their packaging, hanging on his wall.  

No, these cars are meant to be enjoyed.  

“I’m a 75-year-old man playing with kids’ toys,” he said. “I have been interested in them ever since I can remember.” 

A few years ago, Delbridge’s grandson got interested in Hot Wheels, as well. He came up with the idea of racing them. Now Delbridge has a large track set up in his house.  

“Sometimes people visit the church and say, ‘Can I come to your house and visit your track?’” he said.  

Delbridge, who graduated in 1976 from Atlanta Christian College (now Point University), said he hasn’t found much connection between his Hot Wheels hobby and his ministry—other than it is a good way of “changing gears.” 

“You race little cars, you aren’t thinking about ministry and the difficulties of the church,” he said. 

THE WOODWORKER 

Bob Sartoris started woodworking after taking shop class in high school.  

In graduate school, he met a man in his church with a remodeling business who let Sartoris use his woodshop whenever he wanted.  

Today, Sartoris operates a nonprofit media production and training organization—Global Outreach for Christ—that works with mission groups around the world. He’s spent years working with Good News Productions, International.  

When Sartoris went to Kenya with GNPI to help the organization build a studio, he took a table saw with him. Sartoris built the cabinets in the studio’s dark room.  

But he also builds furniture for others. His first major project was a baby grand piano that actually held an electronic keyboard.  

Sartoris’ daughters and grandkids are his primary customers today. Sartoris builds tables, bookshelves, storage cabinets, and more.  

He’s a member of a woodworking club near Indianapolis that makes 10,000 toys per year—wooden cars, marshmallow catapults, jewelry boxes, puzzles—for underprivileged children.  

Woodworking is a good hobby for someone who works in media production, he said  

“In ministry, you spend a lot of time making plans, and sometimes projects take months and years to implement,” Sartoris said. “I can go out into my woodshop and have something in my hands that I did that day.” 

The immediacy is satisfying. And in his woodshop, Sartoris can be creative and try something new—and not have to justify the changes to anyone. 

“There’s something about working out your frustrations, to being able to not have limitations and boundaries that you sometimes have in ministry,” he said.  

Woodworking was especially important during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Sartoris was regularly wrapped up in daily Zoom meetings. He could shut his computer down, have dinner, and then head out to his woodshop, located in his garage.  

“It was really a godsend for me to keep my sanity, especially during COVID,” he said.  

As he nears retirement, Sartoris hopes his hobby might help generate some extra income in the future.  

“Woodworking is that outlet that works really well for me,” he said.  

THE GENEALOGIST 

Bob Kastens retired in June after 55 years of pastoral ministry in Kentucky, Tennessee, Florida, and North Carolina. That included stops in both Louisville, Ky., and Louisville, Tenn. 

“Time flies when you are having fun,” he said. 

He started his genealogy hobby when his son was told to create a family tree for a class project. That was in 1978. Kastens was hooked. 

He’s visited libraries, courthouses, and cemeteries to trace the family lines of both himself and his late wife, Etta. His journeys have taken him to Germany where both their families have roots. He even hired a genealogist in Finland to help trace the family ancestry. 

The 32,000 names in his genealogy software program are mostly related to his wife, whom he said was related to just about everybody in Blount County, Tenn., where she was raised. 

A church member once joked to Kastens about 1 Timothy 1:4, where Paul warned his apprentice to avoid “endless genealogies.” Paul’s admonition had a different application than Kastens’ hobby. But the apostle’s description is apt. Genealogies can be “endless.” 

“I didn’t study that particular verse at Johnson Bible College,” Kastens said. “But it is literally true. You keep going on and on and on.” 

The work of genealogy has changed over the years. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, it almost exclusively existed on paper through public libraries and other records depositories, Kastens said. 

Now, a lot of the work is done by computer through various internet sites.  

Through his work, Kastens uncovered the fact his wife has 26 Revolutionary War veterans in her family tree as well as 8 residents of the Jamestown colony in the 1600s.  

“Knowing our roots, I think, is fascinating,” he said. 

THE CARDINALS’ FAN 

Retired pastor John Caldwell doesn’t consider his love of the St. Louis Cardinals a hobby, per se. He loves to travel, having visited all 50 states with his wife. That’s his hobby. 

But Caldwell’s friends long have known of his love for the Cardinals—the team he began following while growing up in Springfield, Mo. Caldwell remembers sitting by his console radio as a kid listening to Harry Caray’s play-by-play of Cardinals games.  

A Boy Scout trip back in 1956 took Caldwell to old Busch Stadium where he met a lot of the Cardinals’ players, including the great Stan Musial. Caldwell still has the scorecard from that day—it cost him 10 cents—and it carries the autographs of several players.  

“It was an incredible experience,” he said. 

Each year, Caldwell and his wife attend the Cardinals’ spring training in Jupiter, Fla. And they make it to several games in St. Louis every season.  

Over the years, he’s collected a lot of Cardinals memorabilia. 

“I’ve got a Cardinal corner of my study in my home,” Caldwell said.  

Caldwell has about a dozen autographed baseballs, a game-used bat, autographed photos, old magazine covers, and a ticket stub from the 2011 World Series—among other treasures.  

During the pandemic-plagued 2020 baseball season, when fans weren’t allowed at Major League Baseball parks, many stadiums filled their seats with life-size cutouts of real fans. Caldwell’s son ordered one made for Caldwell and his wife, and so they “sat” in the stands for each Cardinals’ game that season. 

Afterward, the cutout was sent to Caldwell. It, too, has a place in his “Cardinal corner.” 

Caldwell said it is good for pastors to have diverse interests.  

Before retirement, after years as pastor of Kingsway Christian Church in Avon, Ind., Caldwell served as president of both the North American Christian Convention and the International Conference on Missions.

He said he’s a bit of a workaholic—a fairly intense person both before and after retirement. But pastors need hobbies to help them branch out. 

“I think it’s good to have things that are of diverse interest and also help us to associate with other people,” he said. 

THE BICYCLING FAMILY 

Riding a bicycle with the family isn’t the most unusual of hobbies, but when you have five kids, the diversion can get a lot more interesting. 

“It definitely takes some planning and coordination,” said Joshua Persall, executive minister with Norwin Christian Church in North Huntingdon, Pa. 

Persall said he always has taken his fitness seriously—and his wife even more so. Typically, they would go jogging.  

But they have five kids, ages 14, 10, 7, 5, and 2. What could they do together? 

The family tried hiking. That eventually meant someone had to be carried. They could go faster and farther on bikes.  

Western Pennsylvania has a lot of good bike trails—some of them rails-to-trails—that extend for many miles. Within 30 minutes of the Persall home are four or five long trails. 

And so the family this summer regularly loaded up their full-size 1999 E150 van with seven modes of transportation—three full-size bikes attached to the back of the van, a child’s bike, a tag-along, a trailer, and a child’s seat on the inside.  

Along with that were seven helmets, a tool kit, an air pump, food . . . and seven people.  

Considering the weather and the 2-year-old’s temperament on any given day, some bike rides go more smoothly than others.  

“If we get an hour on the trail, that’s pretty successful for us,” Persall said. 

The experience is good for family bonding. The older kids help in unloading the bikes and taking care of the younger children.  

But what about this hobby? Why have family bike rides become such an important hobby to Persall? 

“I love [ministry]. It’s my job. It’s my passion. It’s my calling. It’s my hobby—all of the above,” he said. At the same time, family time is sacred . . . and it’s especially important to Persall’s wife, Erin. 

Persall said if other things aren’t in front of him, his mind naturally gravitates back to ministry. 

So Persall makes it his habit to take off Friday and Saturday from work each week. Bicycling is something he can look forward to and something his family can enjoy together.  

And it connects to his ministry. Church work requires just as much patience as gathering up a large family—and all that equipment—for a bike ride.  

Persall said he’s learned to accept the unpredictability inherent in a family ride and “just being OK with that.” 

We’re considering revisiting the subject of hobbies in a few months. Would you share your hobby with us? Write to us at [email protected]. 

Chris Moon is a pastor and writer living in Redstone, Colo.