Healing Strategies for Your Crushed Pastor

By Alan Scott 

I’m 63, I’ve logged 37 years of ministry, and I’ve come to realize many pastors are struggling . . . tired . . . weary . . . perhaps even crushed. 

Last week, while high atop a beautiful beach perch, I enjoyed a spectacular view from which God spoke. I was eye-level with the sunrise on Anna Maria Island in Florida, but my eyes soon focused on a lonely, empty Gatorade bottle discarded on Gulf Avenue below. 

With each passing vehicle, the bottle was spun in different directions, until a car finally flattened it. The lid popped off. Soon, another vehicle sucked the ill-fated bottle into its wheel well, causing a scraping sound as the bottle was transported partway down the road. Ultimately, the bottle settled on the side of the road. 

Pastors can feel something like that bottle, blown about by every changing strategy as we try to fight the great church decline of the post-Christian West. With every book, conference, and list of “10 action steps,” a dangerous exhaustion can set in. Simultaneous to this, once-faithful believers no longer see gospel gatherings as vital when compared with enjoying recreation or staying home.  

I could go on and on about the challenges pastors face . . . 

But may I lean into my experience, brokenness, past season of burnout, and subsequent Christian counseling to suggest some immediate healing strategies for your crushed pastor? Let’s begin with the easiest of solutions. 

Send your shepherd a card. Get a good card—one that is funny and not super-cheesy religious. October is Pastor Appreciation Month. Pastors quietly know this, but few sheep do. 

Help and encourage your pastor and family to get away. Don’t permit him to preach on the Sunday he returns. There should be no sermon prep during his time away. Your pastor needs to enjoy the beach during his time on “Gulf Avenue.” His wife and family need to see him enjoying his time away.  

If your church can afford it, help the pastor to afford a getaway at an “easy-to-hear-God” place like a beach or mountain. It will make their eventual return to the hard pavement of ministry much more manageable. 

Buy your pastor a book like Hybrid Church by James Emery White or Lead by Paul David Tripp. On the first blank page, inscribe it with something about “the power of the gospel” or “not trusting in chariots and horses. . . .” This effectively places the heavy weight of ministry on Jesus’ shoulders, reminds a pastor of his high calling, and protects him from the exhaustion of trying to find the “secret sauce” to successful ministry. 

Ask your pastor what day he takes a sabbath, and then be mindful to leave them alone on that day. You can lovingly remind your leader that God can do more with six days than the pastor can with seven. 

Finally, be encouraging (even when there are occasional necessary criticisms). Smile during the sermon. Post a quote from your pastor’s message on your social media. Gauge and prioritize your personal church attendance. Serve. Give. Be the kind of sheep your shepherd doesn’t need to worry about. This final tip alone will give your pastor breathing space and inspiration to focus on lost, messy people, which will put gospel air back into his calling. 

You should work to keep your pastor. The cost of change is much too high. The results of keeping, restoring, and empowering your leader are glorious. 

And, because I’ve been on the high side of church growth and on the dark side of pastoral burnout, tell your pastor to call me if he needs to. I have a heart for pastors who are in the trenches, struggling, and trying not to be crushed. 

Alan Scott, a graduate of Cincinnati Christian University, serves with Lifebridge Community Church in Kennesaw, Ga.