1. Fifteen hundred pastors leave the ministry each month due to moral failure, spiritual burnout or contention in their churches.
2. Eighty percent of pastors and eighty-four percent of their spouses feel unqualified and discouraged in their role as pastors.
3. Fifty percent of pastors are so discouraged that they would leave the ministry if they could, but have no other way of making a living.
4. Eighty percent of seminary and Bible school graduates who enter the ministry will leave the ministry within the first five years. Ninety percent of pastors said their seminary or Bible school training did only a fair to poor job preparing them for ministry.
5. Ninety percent said the ministry was completely different than what they thought it would be before they entered the ministry.
6. Seventy percent felt God called them to pastoral ministry before their ministry began, but after three years of ministry, only fifty percent still felt called.
7. Seventy percent of pastors constantly fight depression.
From Thabiti Anyabwile (HT: Justin Taylor):
Hey, have you prayed for or encouraged your pastor today? At the risk of sounding self-serving, could I suggest that every Christian church member consider one of their main ministries the ministry of encouragement for their pastors and elders. I received an email from one brother stating that he knew of over 20 pastors leaving the pastorate in one region of the U.S. I've had opportunity to interact with at least three pastors experiencing deep struggle. That doesn't include the normal battles for encouragement, joy, and perseverance that are just normal to pastoral ministry. So, have you prayed for your pastor(s) today?
Previously:
Encourage Your Pastor
1 comment:
i think that many should be leaving.
the church is going away and what is going to be left is the body of Christ.
new groups will grow out of the body.
maybe some of these people will look to Jesus in Spirit and in truth and will start these groups.
Jesus is the Head.
the children of God who look to Jesus will be the Body of Christ.
we must pray for all of the saints in Jesus. the whole body needs prayer.
there is a large percent of people that are a part of demoninational gatherings that do not believe in Jesus. for those that do believe, 100 % of them are still sinners and have struggles. no one is perfect...but, they are forgiven.
as believers, we are blessed to have the Holy Spirit living in us, the curtain has been removed from between us and our God.
i think that we are commanded to love and encourage and love one another, to keep eachother safe within the body and to bring others into the body of Christ.
i do not think that anyone is really being taught this in the denominationl settings that we have made. the system of denominations and what is being called church has become corrupt..as things on earth usually do become. and people are looking to find a way to follow the Spirit of God.
many believers or pastors are discouraged because they are held back from following the Holy Spirit in the place where people are suppose to be doing that.
we must pray for all the saints and do our best to follow the HOLY Spirit in Jesus.
we have made a mess...a bigger mess than what we can see...and we need to look to God, it is the same old story with man.
the same story, and we never get it right because we continue to forget that we are not in charge.
it is our downfall.
pray continually for the "whole" body of Christ and always encourage one another, in Love, to follow God.
God is in control.
Christ Jesus is Lord...
praise be to God
God's love and grace be with you, brother.
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