SBC Pastors and mental illness...by the numbers

I'm a numbers guy and find these numbers about pastors to be interesting:

1 in 4

One in four pastors acknowledge that they have struggled with a mental illness such as depression.

Since this is a self-reported statistic (LifeWay Research asked pastors, 1000 of them by a telephone survey earlier this year), it is not at all surprising that, anonymously, one in four pastors would report such a struggle. I'm guessing that some of the other three in four lied by not admitting some level of struggle with a mental illness such as depression. Any pastors conference, any small group of ministers who meet regularly will see depression exhibited by the brethren. 

It's tough these days. Most churches are flat in growth or declining. Most churches receive less in receipts than in earlier years. There are more marginal SBC churches that struggle to keep a full time pastor and he is often meagerly paid. He worries about the church. He worries about paying both church and personal bills. His family suffers twice. It's depressing.

No surprise that many of us go through periods of depression...like every Monday.  But the more significant number concerning depression is...

1 in 8

One in eight pastors reported being diagnosed with some form of mental illness.

The same LifeWay Research survey showed that one in eight protestant pastors (the survey was not limited to SBC pastors) report a diagnosis of mental illness. This means that the pastor went to a health care professional - physician, psychiatrist, psychologist - and left with a medical diagnosis of mental illness. 

Think of it. In your association of 32 churches, you have several that are pastored by men with a diagnosed mental illness. I judge the survey to have been among pastors, not just senior pastors, so add a few associate pastors to the group of mentally ill.

This is not a surprising proportion considering the prevalence of mental illness in our society; however, chances are your typical layperson would be surprised. Pastors have an aversion to talking to their church about any mental health issue they might have, though they freely share any other illness. Stigma is the word here. Odd that the term used to label the marks on Christ's body whereby we were made whole we think to be against our welfare in the context of mental illness.

The problem is that there is a powerful belief among Southern Baptists, especially pastors I think, that if you are mentally ill that there is something wrong with your Christian life. One notes that heart disease, prostate trouble, or orthopedic woes do not similarly signal a spiritual problem in the patient. 

I've been blogging about pastors and depression for some years. This piece from a couple of years ago suggests some things that pastors can do. One thing I have not been dissuaded from is that what pastors generally cannot do is admit to their church that they are seriously depressed. They do so and become damaged goods; however, at some point the pastors is more at risk by not being open about his struggles and should find a way to involve the people responsible for his welfare, his congregation. This is a delicate matter. 

The high profile examples of depression and suicide (Rick Warren's son, Frank Page's daughter) has made thiss matter to have a highly visible profile in SBC life. LifeWay's Facts and Trends magazine, sent to every church, perhaps every pastor, has good information on it. 

I attend a minister's conference occasionally. About 20 guys are in attendance, mostly retired like me. The incidence of serious mental illness is lower after middle age, so maybe one or two guys has a diagnosed mental illness. Most of my interaction with other pastors comes online. I'm guessing that quite a number of them are depressed and not a few have such a diagnosis. 

Some will read this. To them I say, there's no long term profit to struggling with depression alone and not seeking medical help. There may well be grave consequences for not doing so. 

Stigma or no, hie thee to the doctor brother.

You have my prayers.

The intractable stigma of mental illness

Rick Warren was featured yesterday as he tearfully preached for the first time since his mentally ill son committed suicide back in April. Exerpts from ABC News:

Pastor Rick Warren, returning to his Saddleback Church pulpit for the first time since his son's suicide, said today he hoped to be able to remove the stigma that is attached to a person suffering from mental illness.
At the end of the sermon Warren said he wanted to help remove the stigma of suffering from a mental illness. 

"In any other organ of your body breaks down there's no stigma," said Warren. "But if your brain doesn't work, why are you ashamed of that?"

Warren said for the next six weeks he would give sermons about different stages of grief and would talk more about how his faith helped him after his son's death.

He also said the church would offer support groups for people suffering from mental illness. 

I wish him well in his effort to remove the stigma of mental illness and while he may have some success with his own congregation and beyond, I am not optimistic about success in the culture of religious conservatives. My observations over the decades is that it is extremely difficult for conservative clergy to accept that behavior can be driven by phisiological and biochemical factors.

A member of a godly family in one of my churches committed suicide. When I expressed my sympathy to the matriarch of that family, as godly a woman as I have ever known, over the death of her grandson, she said, "We have been expecting this."

When laypeople have related to me stories of how brother pastor so-and-so committed suicide (this has occurred in every community where I have pastored) they don't precisely state it but clearly imply that the ultimate cause was moral failure. Mental illness need not apply. The verdict is in.

Is it any wonder that stigma looms large over depression and that clergy, whom I read experience depression at greater rates than the general population,  are extremely reluctant to seek treatment and unalterably opposed to allowing anyone in their congregations to know about it lest they become damaged goods, lose their church and career.

A sad state indeed.

A few prominent SBC pastors have notably admitted to experiencing depression (though none to being mentally il) and, illustrating the deep divide between the one percent megapastors in the SBC and the rest of us (one notes that Rick Warren had the ability to leave his pulpit for almost four months after his son's suicide, something impossible for most of us unless we resign), these receive sabbaticals, standing ovations, and support.

In an ideal world pastors would be educated about mental illness, preach compassionately, counsel wisely, and encourage appropriate steps to be taken when it is found.

In our real world, pastors and laypeople alike look askance at mental illness.

Perhaps Rick Warren can change this.

Being a pastor is a pretty sorry job...

...if you check the latest job rankings. Clergy are ranked number 110 out of 200 job categories by CareerCast.com which analyzed data from the U.S. Labor Department, Bureau of Labor Statistics, other government agencies, trade associations and private survey firms.

Depressed on Monday? You chose this rather meager and unsatisfying career path, but take heart:

Your job ranking beats that of attorney (117) perhaps because attorneys slink around courthouses trying to scare up a retainer or two and others are well paid but work brutal hours slaving away reading tedious documents for a couple hundred bucks an hour.

And you are way ahead of military general (180) even if no one takes your orders and staff undermines you sometimes.

You might complain about how many hats you have to wear as you carry out your clergy responsibility but painters (174), meter readers (194), dishwashers (187), and bank tellers (162) likely look with envy at your job with all of its variety rather than the mind numbing tedium they face each day.

But then do you look with envy at the job of bricklayer (53) which ranks far above yours. You do a lot of small scale building up but just don't always finish the day and are able to look back with satisfaction at what you have accomplished.

I hate to share the news, brethren, but your job ranks far below that of sewage plant operator (87), and you thought your job stunk at times. Here a new career path where you could bring some related experience and raw sewage doesn't call you in the middle of the night or whisper about your deficiencies in the hallways.

And you are behind truck drivers (108), automobile mechanics (103), parole officers (27), and even social workers (49).

One might think that clergy, who have some of the same job demands of museum curators (57), psychologists (58), pest control workers (95), recruiters (69), and human resources managers (31), might rank higher than 110th, far below these.

One of the constants in my several decades of pastoral ministry is the presence of a steady supply of my clergy colleagues who are whiners and complainers - not paid enough, always on display, constant job pressures, unappreciated, etc., etc.

My advice is to give some of the brethren an opportunity to blow off a little steam and vent a bit but to stay away from those who are always sitting on ready to share their latest job woes.

And stay away from job ranking articles.

Stick with this:

This saying is trustworthy: “If anyone aspires to be an overseer, he desires a noble work.”

What God calls "noble" let no job ranking survey diminish.

Now, it's Monday, take the rest of the day off.

Depressed pastor? Entirely predictable.

Easter is over. The big crowd is gone. The pastor has another 51 or so Sundays before he gets to the next highest, holiest Sunday. In that time it will be back to the old grind of probably a couple of sermons and at least one teaching occasion, every week...after week...after week, hospital visits, the dreaded church administration ("Pastor, what are we going to do about VBS this year? It's only three months away and I can't find any workers..."), working with perhaps recalcitrant deacons, surly staff, and the occasional (or frequent) complaint from the congregational hoi polloi.

It shouldn't be but sometimes it is rather depressing.

Take a look at a story of a few weeks ago in Associated Baptist Press f  by Jeff Brumley on clergy depression. Clergy depression is a regular subject for reporting, and certainly ought to be.

Rising stress boosts clergy depression

A few quotes:

There is a cultural expectation that our pastors have it all together and that they are the last people who are going to be depressed...

 In seeking help for severe depression, [prominent moderate Baptist pastor Stephen] Shoemaker, 64, is an example of a trend that's seeing more ministers confronting mental illness and letting their congregations know about it.

Clergy financial and sexual abuse scandals have publicly tarnished ministers, while declines in membership have added financial stresses that turn pastors into nearly full-time capital campaign managers, [Methodist minister and counselor Christopher] Carlton said.

OK, all of you who think about church revenues at least some each week (day?) raise your hand.

I thought so.

You know that when your congregation does this you call it "worry" and preach about how believers ought not to worry.

Yeah, I thought that might depress you. It's called at worst 'hypocrisy' and at best, 'willful ignorance.'

What makes this more worrisome (uh, sorry) is that credible bloggers and admired leaders either purposefully or inadvertently make it worse by maintaining the 'bullet-proof' pastoral posture (can't happen to us) or by foolishly ignoring that depression is a serious medical issue that should be treated by a physician and medication at times.

You are not bullet proof, I don't care how long you read your Bible and pray each day.

I have never experienced severe depression but I have seen plenty enough of it to have a layman's understand that it should be taken seriously.

But you go ahead and pray your way out of it or move to another church or engage in reckless behavior to compensate for it.

Oh, did I mention that every community I have ever lived and pastored in has at least one and sometimes more than one pastor suicide story. Ask, they will tell you (Oh yeah, preacher Morose shot hisself over at Hardtimes Baptist Church, and in the pastorium too).

Megachurch pastors get sabbaticals, perhaps every August off, and get sent on cruises. That might help.

You and I might try something more realistic, like going to the doctor.

God bless you. You are in my prayers.

 

No sir, I'm not admitting to clergy burnout...

...and I'm guessing that most of my ministerial colleagues will be loath to make such an admission as well.

There is a perfectly good reason for such an attitude: No pastor wishes to be seen as damaged goods.


I have admitted to being "a bit tired" and did so many times over the past couple of years when people in my church would ask why I am retiring at such a young (er, 62, young?) age. A feeling of mild ministerial fatigue was for me merely one of the Lord's signposts that my ministry at the church I had served for almost 15 years was drawing to a close - a normal progression.

I will also admit to being attuned to articles on clergy burnout and depression partly because I have been around some colleagues who appeared to be significantly fatigued, er, burned out.

The Baptist Standard carried story out of Baylor University on the subject.

Seminaries try preventive medicine for ministerial burnout

The usual statistics are trotted out:

 

• 90 percent of pastors report working between 55 to 75 hours a week.
• 90 percent feel inadequately trained to cope with the ministry demands.
• 50 percent feel unable to meet the demands of the job.
• 55 percent say they are discouraged.
• 70 percent do not have someone they consider a close friend.
• 80 percent believe pastoral ministry has affected their families in a negative way.

I do not deny the problem here.  I have come to believe that after some years of service or after leading a church through a difficult phase of ministry that a wise congregation will work out some form of sabbatical, even if it is just a short stretch out of the pulpit. A month off would be reasonable.

After 30 years of pastoring where I had just a couple of occasions where I was out of the pulpit for two consecutive Sundays, I confess that an extended stretch away from routine pastoral responsibilities brought some benefits. Today, I would be less stringent about Sundays out of the pulpit that I have been over past decades.

Our seminaries, those ministerial seed beds do well to delve into this area, although when I read that the source for the story linked above shared a tale of clergy burnout after a year-and-a-half in her early twenties, well, there is a bit of a disconnect. Perhaps the addition of a  focus on ministers in a different stage would have added to the article.

Plodder's top candidate of an issue related to clergy depression and burnout: Ministers must stop being so mulish and stubborn and display a demeanor where honest conversations are possible with fellow ministers and church leaders. If this issue is not resolved, well, see the photo above.

I recognize that this is a tall order, the Mighty Man of God admitting some degree of humanity, but I highly recommend it.

National Bipolar Sunday?

No, National Bipolar Sunday is not an day on the SBC calendar but if it were it would have been yesterday, since October 11th was National Bipolar Awareness Day. I guess since October is Pastor Appreciation Month we wouldn't want to depress any of the pastor brethren by focusing on any mental illness.

Here is a sobering, though anecdotal, thought for we men of the Baptist cloth: Every community I have served in had a tale of an SBC pastor who committed suicide. 

Here is a depressing thought: Conversations and discussions among SBC clergy on the subject of depression and mental illnesses like bipolar disorder almost always start and end with the conclusion that these problems are spiritual, have a spiritual cause and an spiritual cure. 

My opinion is that the depressing thought above probably contributes to the sobering thought above.

In our circle of news, opinions, and blogs contributors generally look askance at diagnoses that are grouped under the general heading of depression and the like.

For an example, see Albert Mohler's interesting and somewhat insightful article of a few years ago, The Reign of the Therapeutic, in which he rightfully maintains that the panoply of psychological, mental, illnesses are always expanding to meet the demands of a therapeutically addicted populace. There is little in the article that validates for a reader who actually has a serious illness that he needs medical help to manage it.

A few years ago Baptist Press reported on calls to LifeWay's 911-type of emergency clergy hotline. Depression accounted for the top number of calls, followed by forced termination, questions about the Wounded Minister's Retreat, marital problems and others.

Quickly now, do we see more reporting on forced termination than clergy depression? Yep. Forced termination has clear causes and cures. Mental illness does not.

The occasional article on depression found on an SBC-oriented blog frequented by clergy usually gets polite responses, offers of prayers,  few comments, and the occasional know-it-all response that the afflicted just needs to confess sin or get right with God. Most of us have been around long enough to understand that for clergy to admit to anything in the neighborhood of mental illness means that they become damaged goods and have diminished stature in the eyes of colleagues, not to mention potential employers.

Contrast that with what one finds in the lay world. Here is a good current example: Bipolar Disorder Is Insidious.

I am not bipolar and admit to no more depression than the usual pastor 'blue Mondays' (not found in the DSM IV) or an occasional pastoral funk but I have been around long enough to recognize that SBC clergy generally have an unhealthy view of such things. This is to their harm, I'm afraid. We can do a lot better with this than we are doing.

...and I really don't want to hear any more hallway whispers of clergy suicides.

Are clergy all that different than normal people?

One of the inescapable conclusions that arises from a discussion of some aspect of the Christian ministry be it the clergy housing allowance, job stresses and pressures, employer expectations,or compensation is that we who are or have been in the full time Christian ministry characteristically view ourselves as a unique group. Another way to put it might be to say that those pastors are odd birds indeed.

I appreciate the mostly healthy and informative discussion over the holiday weekend on Our Grand Tax Break, the clergy housing allowance, and I will accept the presumption that my readers and especially those who risk leaving a comment here are well above average in intelligence, witty and engaging, pet lovers, and are nice to children.

That said, these discussions might lead a man or woman from Mars to conclude that, "Gee, these Baptist ministers certainly think themselves to be a special, and different, group of earthlings."

But, is it so?


What I have heard in these discussion of the housing allowance, generally offered as reasons as to why our wonderful government has recognized our unique clergy situation and has magnanimously addressed it with a tidy tax break are these:

1. Low pay. Clergy are amongst the lower paid occupations and therefore need a tax break. One list I checked revealed that we didn't make the bottom 300 in low paying occupations. Average senior pastor pay (salary plus housing) is over $50k, not too shabby. Perhaps we used to be there, no doubt some still are, but as a group, not so.

2. High mobility. In the SBC if you want a larger church the traditional route is to find one and be so compelling that they invite you to leave your smaller church and be their pastor. With education and experience this is the normal career route and it always entails moving. Sometimes the Lord is in it, sometimes not. I hope the former to be more true than the latter. While true, this is not unique to us. Is it not the reality of the 21st Century job market that one-job careers are a thing of the past?

3. High stress and depression. I do not find clergy on the lists of high-stress occupations that I have run across, nor on the top occupations for major depression (but, interestingly, enough accountants seem to make ALL the stress and depression lists), but there is no law against the dear parson assuming a plaintive posture about how tough things are. Every occupational group does it. I don't think that earns us many points with the public, though.


4. Those crushing SECA taxes. Yep. We are dual status entities to the IRS, employees for income tax purposes (give the man-of-the-cloth his funky W-2) yet are self-employed for Social Security purposes. I'm speculating that the average SBC minister with dependents still at home pays very little or no income tax but a bunch of SECA tax.

But, really, brethren, can we drop the old saw about employers paying half of their employees Social Security and Medicare while we have to pay through the nose the full 15.3%? It is a cost of operating a business with employees and does any employer who writes the checks fail to understand what this employee costs him, no matter where the money goes after it leaves the business bank account? Bottom line business. You can bet that your church looks at it this way as well.

We may have a different calling, have different job pressures, and have quirky ways that the government views us for tax purposes but we aren't all that different than normal folks. For every reason advanced as to why we deserve a tax break on housing one can find many occupations with the same claims, yet ordained clergy receive it and not them.

The clergy housing allowance is a welcome tax break that carries a modest savings on income taxes for almost all clergy who use it. The revenue missed by the government is not all that large when compared to our federal budget or deficit. It is a very longstanding feature of the tax code. I don't see any movement that would change it unless some judges get active on us.

While some find it on its face unconstitutional and others resent that non-clergy may not receive it (save for the large exception of the military, which is probably our salvation in regard to legislative action on this), it is just one among thousands of "unfair" provisions in our tax code.

I asked yesterday how you explain this to your church. As a pastor, I would take time with deacons, personnel and finance committees, and occasionally the congregation if an occasion arose to explain what the housing allowance is, how it works, and what it does. I never claimed special anointing to receive it, nor have I ever been asked that my church ordain anyone just so they could receive it. It is our only tax break. It is sometimes abused but mostly of modest help to clergy without a great cost to the citizenry.

The church can give their pastor a small pay raise, courtesy of the gummit, if they do the housing allowance right. They can cut his pay if they refuse to go along. I never heard a peep of objection from anyone in any of my churches.

For those who have had a surfeit of the housing allowance discussion: Go here, and keep clicking. You will feel better soon.

Pastor, how about a month off?

"You bet," sayeth most all of us at one time or another.

Ah sabbaticals. I'm on one now but had to retire to get it. The usual route to a sabbatical for most of us is to (a) resign, (b) get fired, or (c) retire.

Back in 1999 Baptist Press did a piece on a small town, average sized church pastor who took a sabbatical. It was a story most of us could identify with:

“I was not overworked; the church was not asking too much of me. That was not the problem,” he said. “The problem was that I needed a freshness of purpose in my life and in the church’s life.”

The solution agreed upon was five weeks off, unheard of among SBC churches unless the church is a mega or large church.

I like the concept but am not certain that many churches would grasp it.

I can hear the conversation now,

"Brethren, I'm mentally and emotionally exhausted" the pastor might explain to the deacons, "could we work out a sabbatical, a month or so when I could be away?"

"But pastor," one of the deacons might respond, "you only work one day  a week anyway. How could you be exhausted?"

Megachurch pastors can be exhaused. Large church pastors can be thought to deserve a sabbatical every few years. But average sized churches? Probably not.

Bring up the idea of ministry burnout to your church and you're probably toast in their minds from that point on.

Be open and vulnerable and disclose that you are mildly depressed to the church and you are likely viewed as damaged goods to them, worthy of whispers in the hallways.

 Bryant Wright is on sabbatical right now. I don't begrudge him that.

Johnny Hunt gets every August off and two years ago notably extended that through mid-September.

I'm guessing that average sized and smaller churches do not love their pastor any less than a megachurch loves theirs but I'd speculate that smaller churches would look askance at a request for a sabbatical.

Here is one smaller church pastor's story:

On June 4, 2006, I drove to the church for evening worship intending to announce my resignation.  After 21 years as a pastor, and 27 years in professional ministry, I had hit a wall.  I was not only exhausted; I was empty.  My faith had not wavered, nor had my commitment to ministry or my church.  Like a car that had run out of gas, I just stopped.  Fortunately, by the time I pulled into the parking lot, I had reasoned myself out of such a drastic act.  When pastors run out of steam, they generally do one of three things:  they move to another church; they get sick; or they do something stupid.  I came very close to my stupid!  Instead of resigning, I walked into the service and announced that I was prepared to teach, but I was unable to teach, and that I would see them next week.  The congregation witnessed what I had been fearfully anticipating for several years – a total shutdown

His church gave him five weeks off.

Many pastors could identify with the problem, depression, burnout, shutdown, but few could identify with the solution, a sabbatical.

One of the ways that associational missionaries, state convention workers, denominational press, and SBC leaders could help the tens of thousands of workaday, average church, average pastors is to regularly promote the concept of an occasional sabbatical even in smaller churches.

Money is tight all around at every SBC level but I bet that there would be a lot less profitable ways for state conventions to budget money than to put a sum aside for grants to churches who wanted or needed to give their pastor a month or so sabbatical. This would give the idea a modest push among smaller churches.

I can envision a state convention program whereby churches were told, "We will fill your pulpit at no cost to you if you give your pastor a sabbatical month off." State conventions and associations would benefit by having an extended opportunity to share some of their work in a church over an extended period. Such an incentive would be persuasive to many churches who fret over finances and supply honoraria if the pastor is out.

In the past I have been pessimistic about the idea of sabbaticals being realistic in average and smaller sized SBC churches but I think it is doable and is certainly worth encouraging.

Some pastors might need to start thinking and praying about it, although you could just act like a fighter pilot and stubbornly believe that others may crash and burn but not you, you've got the right stuff.

I wouldn't risk it.

A man may always look with pride...

...upon his woodpile.

Here's mine.

Every stick in it I have personally handled at least twice so far and will do so again at least once, twice if you count disposing of the ashes after I burn it.

I split every piece that has been split and did so the old fashioned way with a only a maul, sledgehammer, and wedges.

There's some degree of pride in taking a big stick and, with a single mighty blow, cleaving the offending oversized piece into just the right sizes to burn. OK, Plodder admits that sometimes it takes several mighty blows. I admit also delivering a pathetic, anemic blow at times. No one's perfect.

Come cool and cold weather, I will make a game out of not using my HVAC system to heat the house but rather burning wood. It offends me to hear my system come on; however, if the-woman-who-shares-my-name wants it on, it comes on.

Some months my sattelite TV bill is larger than the power bill for my all electric domicile.

Working on the old woodpile is therapeutic. No, I don't feel the need to work out ecclesiastical agression with my maul but it does give one a feeling of satisfaction to end a woodpile session and gaze upon one's work: There stands a nicely stacked row of firewood that wasn't there an hour ago. I did it all myself.

Every pastor understands the frustration of ending a church work day and not seeing anything having been accomplished. Not so with the woodpile.

Plodder heartily recommends the woodpile to all of his brethren.

I shouldn't have to choose between my calling and my life

PostSecret describes itself as "an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard." I check the site occasionally because I can find stark honesty from people. One caveat - the postcards are sometimes crude.

Recently found on PostSecret:

I shouldn’t have to choose between my calling and my life. I’m afraid the church won’t ordain me if I go to rehab for my depression but I’m afraid I’ll take my life if I don’t…

Those two sentences were all that was written on the postcard. While the comment obviously came from another religious tradition, not Southern Baptist, it expresses something that is true for myself and other SBC clergy: Serious depression, if made public, is probably a ministry killer.

Occasionally, LifeWay or Baptist Press will carry an article by or about a pastor who has experienced serious depression. I can recall just one fellow pastor who mentioned from the pulpit (he was preaching a revival in my church) his bout with depression. We get a prominent SBC pastor every now and then who will talk about depression.

Mostly, though, your average SBC pastor understands that unless he has a ministry death wish, he better keep his mouth shut.

It is really sad that we can get sympathy and prayers from our congregations and colleagues if we suffer with heart disease or cancer but get polite sympathy followed by unspoken contempt if we admit that we have depression serious enough to require medical treatment. Being hospitalized for depression labels the minister as damaged goods. It's not fair but it is the reality on the ground.

Part of the problem, and I'm offering pure conjecture here, is that even we ministers think that depression is evidence of a spiritual problem and if a minister or layperson is seriously depressed then he must be deficient in his walk with the Lord. We may not state it so plainly but probably give that impression in our preaching and teaching.

If I preach on a passage where depression is part of the text, Jonah is probably the most familiar, I always include an admonition to get medical attention, just like for heart disease.

But for SBC clergy, no, you shouldn't have to choose between your calling and your life but if you must, choose life.

Admit it. You've been depressed in your church.

Pastors get depressed.

Pastors’ wives get really depressed.

It’s Monday morning and I’m a little morose myself.

A steady stream of SBC folks write about pastors and depression. The latest is Thom Ranier whose recent article, When Pastors Experience Depression
offers helpful suggestions and informative links.

Ranier writes,

The articles [linked] note that the problem of depression in the ministry is not only real, but that it is growing. Further, the rate of depression among ministers is now higher than the rate of the general population.

He suggests ways laypeople can help their pastor: pray for him, make him take vacations and days off, pay him adequately. Good.

Other things I've read on depression recently are less helpful. A megachurch pastor who is depressed takes a several month sabbatical and some large church pastors near me get the month of July off.

Did I miss this trend in SBC life, where you get a month in the summer off? Guess so.

Average-sized church pastors don’t get a month off and they don’t have an ice cube’s chance in Gehenna of a sabbatical. They might live with a meager salary. They probably don’t have a staff to handle church things on his days off or vacation. Which leaves most of us without these options altogether.

If Ranier has good suggestions for laypeople, Plodder will step in with humble suggestions for pastors. No, I don’t have any special training or qualifications for such things, aside from observing some of my colleagues over the years:

1. Reevaluate how you handle ministry. Ranier suggests that one cause of clergy depression is unrealistic expectations. He's right about this.

Do you really need to be at the hospital for every type of medical issue for all of your congregation? I don’t think you can survive in a church if you try to meet everyone’s expectations.

There’s always one of your pastor predecessors who did more, more often, in ministry that you can possibly do. To some in your congregation he's a hero and you're lazy. Better to smile and ignore these people and do what you feel is proper in your ministry.

2. If called while on vacation, consider whether or not it is really necessary to cut it short. I like vacations. My wife really likes vacations. I like being away. I rather like not having the same weekly routine.

So, when on vacation and you get that phone call, is it really something that you need to get back for, immediately? How about a phone call? I admit to some anxiety when away but thinking back on almost thirty years of pastoring and vacations, there have been only a few times when I needed to drop everything and return. Most members will be understanding and considerate about this.

3. Rethink exactly what constitutes success in ministry. OK, neither you nor I can do anything to change the settled fact that the coin-of-the-realm in SBC life to many, perhaps most, pastors and laypeople, is church growth: Buildings, baptisms, budgets. If this is the measure of success, then since the great majority of SBC churches aren’t growing, most SBC pastors are unsuccessful. Depressing. Maybe we need to adjust our thinking on this.

4. GO TO THE DOCTOR. Ranier didn’t make this suggestion but should have. Depression can be a serious medical problem. Every community I’ve pastored in has a story about a pastor who committed suicide. A corollary to this is: DO WHAT THE DOCTOR SAYS. Sorry, but this one needs to be shouted. Men are stubborn about healthcare. Men pastors are doubly stubborn. If your doctor says you need it then get the prescription and take the doggone pills.

While Johnny Hunt can talk openly about his depression (and can get 11 weeks off), I don’t think most of us can. Maybe I’m wrong here but my view is that the church will view their pastor as damaged goods if he is under treatment for depression or asks for extra time off to deal with it. I'd like to think I'm wrong about this but I'm probably right.

I’d speculate that many members recognize when their pastor is in a funk and are kind and considerate enough to make allowances. They’ve been there and understand. Thank God for these people.

Of course, if one’s approach to pastoral ministry is that the pastor is superman, then ignore all this.