The glory of God is a human being fully alive' Irenaeus, 2nd century

1

• The glory of God is a human being fully alive.
  --Irenaeus, 2nd century

2
The Pastor as Person Incarnation and Creation

• We are a person before we are a pastor, Christian
  leader or employee
• We must be very careful not to confuse our
  ministry with our relationship with Christ.
• Gnosticism is alive and well in todays church
• Gnostics spiritualize life at the expense of
  other areas of their lives--relationships,
  emotions, and their physical bodies.

3

• The truth is, God has given us enough time both
  to faithfully serve him and love our families.
• Developing a healthy doctrine of the incarnation
  and doctrine of creation is what Im talking
  about in these lectures.
• Panentheism God sustains and is in and through
  and underneath everything that exists. God is
  present in all of creation. There is no where
  that God is not.
• Pantheism everything is God. This is not what
  Im talking about.

4

• Earth's crammed with heaven, And every common
  bush afire with God But only he who sees, takes
  off his shoes - The rest sit round it and pluck
  blackberries.
• --Elizabeth Barrett Browning

5

• The sacramental nature of life
• Life in all its myriad forms bears and
  represents Gods presence.
• Every person, event, thing and even nature are
  illuminated by Gods presence.
•  Because God is with us in everything we are and
  do, it makes no sense to divide life into sacred
  and secular. In other words, everything is
  spiritual.

6

• The whole earth is full of the glory of God.
  --Isaiah 63b
• Photo Jimmie Gorman

7

• 2 Corinthians 48-9
• We are hard pressed on every side, but not
  crushed perplexed, but not in despair
  persecuted, but not abandoned struck down, but
  not destroyed. TNIV
•  
• You know for yourselves that we're not much to
  look at. We've been surrounded and battered by
  troubles, but we're not demoralized we're not
  sure what to do, but we know that God knows what
  to do we've been spiritually terrorized, but God
  hasn't left our side we've been thrown down, but
  we haven't broken. The Message

8

• Affirming our God-given personhood.
• The importance of play.
• Personal strain on clergy families

9

• The strain of ministry on pastors wives
  according to the National Association of
  Evangelicals
• 21 work full-time
• 52 say their biggest struggle is coping with
  success in ministry
• 38 struggle with self-confidence
• 35 experience depression on an ongoing basis

10

• In larger churches (over 300) 1 in 5 pastors
  wives said they needed desperate help.
• In smaller churches (under 300) 3 in 5 said they
  desperately needed help.
•  
• Coming out of seminary 1 in 5 pastors show
  significant signs of burnout within the first
  five years of ministry.
• After ten years of ministry 3 out of 5 pastors
  are showing significant signs of burnout.

11

• The care of our health is a religious duty
  --Rev. Herbert Hensley Henson, quoted in Susan
  Howatch, Glittering Images
• Self-differentiated leadershipwho am I apart
  from my ministry?

12

• When are we particularly susceptible to burnout?
• When we have been experiencing chronic stress for
  long periods of time.
•  
• During times of intense interpersonal conflict
  either at church or home.
•  
• Years 5-7, 12-15, and year 20 of ministry.
• When reality does not measure up to our
  expectations.

13

• PRIMARY SYMPTOMS OF BURNOUT
•  
• Reduced sense of personal accomplishment 
• Emotional exhaustion
•  
• Depersonalization
•  
• Anger and Resentment

14

• Withdrawal from others
• Hopelessness
• Loss of ambition, energy, calling and purpose
• For the minister, untreated burnout can often
  mean the beginning of the end of a career.
  --Arch Hart, Coping With Depression in the
  Ministry and Other Helping Professions

15

• WHO IS MOST SUSCEPTIBLE TO BURNOUT?
•  
• Perfectionists
• Idealists (unrealistic expectations)
• The over-committed (those who cannot say no)
• The under-assertive
• Those with few close friends
•  Those who do not have a clear sense of personal
  and professional boundaries
•  Those who confuse their sense of self with their
  ministry

16

• Those who are overly sympatheticwho take on the
  pain of others
• Those who do not know how to relax
•  Those who do not get enough sleep

17

• The Effects of Chronic Stress
• Depletion of natural, brain-produced emotion
  stabilizers
• Depletion of brain painkillers
•  
• Compromised immune system

18

• Depression
• Stress will kill you, but burnout will make you
  wish you were dead. Arch Hart

19

• Questions for Reflection
• How do you need to differentiate between yourself
  as a person and as a pastor?
• Who is in the grandstand of your life that you
  are running way too hard to please? (a parent
  either dead or alive, sibling, coach, teacher,
  friend?)
• Will we allow the demands and pressures of life
  to squeeze us into a mold that stresses and burns
  us out before our time, or will we seek Gods
  help in resisting the pressures of culture and
  even our church?