A Word from the Editor
Rev. Terry Goodman
Cynthia/Lovett Weems Parity Among Methodist Clergy
Characteristics of Leadership Needed for United Methodism’s Future
Reflections on Leadership, Part IV Facing Loss Together
Reflections on Leadership, Part V Holding Space for Mystery
Emily Nelms Chastain
Bigham Tsai & Martin
Bigham Tsai & Martin
Philip J Brooks Diversity Within Our Unity
Developing Congregational Leaders
When is “Tomorrow” today?
Rev. Dr Jean Hawxhurst
Rev. Leah Burns
Deep Like Rivers: Black Women’s Use of Christian Mindfulness to Thrive in Historically Hostile Situations
Yvette C. Latunde
Sexual Ethics and Boundaries Seminar Update
The Pastor’s Role in Helping Someone Discern God’s Call
BOM Coming Events
Six Big Ministry Time Wasters and How to Avoid Them
The Various Voices a Pastor Must Use to Communicate
Rev. Terry Goodman
Sam Rainer
Same Rainer
Evangelism Insights from the Methodist Church in Britain: An In Depth Interview with Trey Hall
The Kind of Evangelistic Leaders You and I Need to Be
Unleashing Generosity Follow up Links
NUMINOUS Blessed to Be Peacemakers
POTLUCK:How to Set Annual Goals with Your Church Staff
Chuck Lawless
Renni Morris
Sam Rainer
POTLUCK: The Five Stages of a Church Dropout: From Highly Committed to Goners ... Thom Rainer
LEWIS CENTER: 3 Leadership Shifts for the Current Reality
Five (Seemingly) Well Intending Sentences That Are Hurting the Church
Dear Burned Out Pastor: Seven Steps Toward Long Term Health
Olu Brown
Thom Rainer
Scotty Smith
Pastoral Burnout in a Pandemic: A Wise Article and Biblical Promise Dr. Jim Denison
Why are So Many Religious Leaders Facing Stress and Burnout? Sassoon & Thurston
Burnout: Has the Pandemic Pushed Pastors to the Point of No Return? Megan Cornwell
Understanding Burnout and Pastoral Burnout: Practical Principles & Implications for Pastoral Ministries
Coping With Pastoral Burnout Using Christian Contemplative Practices Frederick, Thai & Dunbar
The Clergy Services Connexion is a publication of the Office of Clergy Services of the Holston Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church. United Methodist annual conferences and groups are free to use this material as fitting for their situation. The Rev. Terry Goodman is publisher and editor. Please direct all questions and comments to him at: terrygoodman@holston.org.
In October of 2019, the first quarterly edition of The Clergy Connexion was offered to the clergy of the annual conference. This edition represents the 13th edition that has been published. I appreciate the faithful readers. The publication averages between 150-200 substantive views each quarter.
This publication is a curated collection of stories and articles I find on the web. In addition, it contains articles from leaders within the annual conference. Being a digital device, it allows me to include links to videos and an unlimited length. For faithful readers, this edition is the largest I have created and contains some lengthy articles.
What sets this edition apart is a dedicated section to pastoral burnout. As I was preparing this edition, God laid that theme upon my heart. I sought out some relevant articles. Several of which are lengthy in nature. All, I think, promote ideas that are worthy our our consideration. I do not ask you to agree with all of the articles I present. I do, however, ask you to think about them...especially if an article makes you feel on edge. I believe that some of those articles just might be found in this edition. Good Reading...let me know what you think.
As found on 09 23 22 at https://www.emergingmethodism.com/new article/characteristics of leadership needed for united methodisms future?locale=en
The coming decades will present all churches with challenges beyond their current leadership capabilities. This may be especially the case for well established traditions such as The United Methodist Church that thrived in more stable eras. Leadership skills from the past may not fit the disruptive challenges of an utterly changed social, cultural and demographic landscape. We offer these five competencies needed by church leaders of the future.
It has been said that one must be able to build the new while at the same time sustaining what already exists as the base for what is to come. In congregations, what this looks like is the ability to care for a set of traditions, practices, properties and commitments that have long held a community together and provided a faithful Christian witness while at the same time creating the conversations, plans, programs and dreams that live into a new reality of Christian community that will reach new generations. These two things can and should be done in harmony. Wisdom and resources often come from those with longevity. Innovation and creativity often come from those closest to what is next. Having people with innovative and entrepreneurial instincts on a leadership team is vital. Also including those with experience and investment in the community over time is critical. Together these two commitments to the past and to the future are a way to fruitfulness.
There is no need to pit these two directions against each other. People more at home with past ways may be more open to new things if they occur alongside more traditional activities. You may be seeking permission more than agreement with the innovation to be tried. You probably don’t have enough time or leadership capital to make every innovation apply to the entire church. The more likely scenario is to create an open space where new people can be reached through different endeavors. In this two pronged leadership role, the leader is paying close attention to feedback from the most loyal of longtime church members even while giving equal attention to signals coming from the culture and demographics of the neighborhood. The leader’s energy will need to go in both directions, though expressed differently in many cases. The occasional "ah ha!" that resonates with old and new alike will truly be a cause for rejoicing.
An entrepreneurial spirit is something closely aligned with many religious movements in their times of revival and growth. That certainly was the case in the growth in the Methodist movement in the United States. In these movements, a sense of connection to the culture and priorities of the day was key. Through these connections, religious leaders took seriously the day to day struggles and hopes of real people and sought to meet them.
In this way, the movement came alongside people to share a spiritual response to the reality of their daily lives. In our context today, we have very different generations and cultural experiences in and around our churches that call for both dedication and adeptness by religious leaders.
A common error among organizations in decline is the tendency to act quickly, as if acting quickly will shore up the noticeable leaks in participation, engagement, funding and property. When we act quickly, we tend to resort to what we know. Often, it is precisely these activities that are misguided for a new audience and a new time.
The methods used to lead sustaining innovation and disruptive innovation are quite different, even if they need to be exercised by the same persons. Sustaining innovation works effectively for things that are going well. Here a church’s normal ways of planning can work. You celebrate how the ministry is doing, identify ways it can be improved in the coming year, make assignments and timelines, implement the changes and it is quite likely that this successful ministry will be even more fruitful at the end of next year.
The problem comes when we try to use our typical procedures for things we are not doing well. For example, even if the church has not had a viable youth ministry in twenty years, the church will use the same planning process it uses for a successful ministry. It comes up with plans for youth ministry, makes assignments, sets timelines, implements and hopes something good happens. It won’t. Here people are taking something they have demonstrated for twenty years that they don’t know how to do and act as if they do.
When dealing with things that are not currently going well or not currently happening at all, then we need to approach these challenges not with a list of things to do. It is time to learn, to ask questions and to assess the situation. Ronald Heifetz in his insightful writing on leadership is quick to point out that leaders spend too little time in diagnosis before treatment. Diagnosis is a process of learning, research and asking questions. Through this process, information about both context and people can be evaluated to more wisely move toward action. In the church, asking questions can help participants to be a part of the diagnosis.
In these situations, the first question is not “what should we do?” but “what do we need to learn?”. It counters the natural tendency to act first and with our current knowledge and experience. It focuses, rather, on what is yet to be learned and emphasizes the reality that we are living in changing times. If we already knew enough, we would not be in our current dilemma. Therefore, seeking information and experience gives greater depth to decision making and goal setting.
It is much easier for people to “live their way into a new way of thinking” than to “think their way into a new way of living.” Yet church leaders almost invariably ask people to think their way into something new. Instead of asking people to do something new or to change a certain practice, consider suggesting that “we try something for a while.” Instead of simply making a change and hoping no one complains, consider telling people “we are trying this for a time,” and invite their feedback.
A key element to leadership in a church that knows that its old ways no longer are adequate is experimentation. This is not how congregations normally operate. Change typically comes after countless meetings, debates and votes. Then we take the action and hope for the best. Another approach is to experiment with immediate and frequent evaluation so that success and failure are assessed.
Jasmine Smothers, a United Methodist pastor in Georgia, describes how a congregation she served used trial periods when trying new things. Her church used 30 60 90 or 100 day trial periods to evaluate the impact of a new idea or ministry. She says it allowed for multiple and dissenting voices to be heard and provided a space in which new people and seasoned leaders engaged. Ideas that previously would have been voted down or created a fight were given an opportunity, with many of them becoming successful ministries.
Molly Phinney Baskette, while pastor of a church in Massachusetts, reported that one way they gave the Holy Spirit a chance to inform their ministry was to try a new idea for six weeks, six months, or a year, depending on what made the most sense for the ministry. After the trial period, everyone knows there will be an evaluation, necessary changes will be made, or they will stop the effort. “Just the simple act of articulating that every change, ultimately, is temporary,” she says, “does a lot to lower anxiety and grant permission.”
Sometimes a short term trial can be a nonthreatening way to try something before committing to it long term. Trying two worship services during Advent or Lent, for example, should add energy and give clues as to how such a worship pattern might work all the time. If a different worship time seems attractive, trying it for a distinct season should tell a great deal about the pros and cons of the new time. You need to be prepared for any experiment not to work, at least not at the present time and in your context. Not every idea, even yours, always works. But another advantage of “trial periods” is that they provide a simple way to move back from such missteps.
The most dominant demographic trend shaping the United States today is its growing diversity. The United States already looks radically different from twenty years ago but is not nearly as diverse as it will be twenty years from now. Virtually all United Methodist churches established their identifies and ministries in a different context.
Leadership in the church’s future will want to embrace the growing diversity of the U.S. population. United Methodist churches have largely represented two cultural traditions, Anglo and African American. There are, of course, many examples of churches throughout the denomination that represent many ethnic groups that have found a home in the U.S. Korean, Caribbean Islander and Haitian, to name a few. Yet the denominational leadership functions with a relatively homogeneous cultural narrative. Living into a much more vibrant and complex cultural narrative will be essential. In many communities, cultural identity is much more important than native language. A group of people might prefer an English worship service but with the music, liturgy, food and “feel” of their Latinx roots. If we continue to think of ethnic groups as primarily representing native languages, we are not respecting the second and third generations of immigrants who are largely unrepresented in the church.
These challenges are met in healthy ways when pastoral and lay leaders are adept at multicultural and multilingual ministry. This means leaders must be called up from a growing number of diverse leaders in our communities. Younger people are learning multiple languages and are navigating multicultural situations at school, work, in universities and in social contexts. Our churches must do the same. Yet churches in ethnic communities are often mono lingual and have difficulty maintaining the involvement of younger generations. Second and third generation immigrants must be able to find a home in churches that can navigate the multicultural and multilingual realities of their communities.
In a time of increased education, the last thing the church needs is to retreat from The United Methodist tradition of an educated ministry. However, the changing landscape means that no one route to pastoral leadership nor one educational formula will work for all. Everyone who assumes professional leadership in the church needs the best education possible given the nature of their ministry. There will still need to be a continuing stream of persons who have moved through a Master of Divinity curriculum. That curriculum will need to adjust as it always has done to meet the needs of the contemporary church. However, the church will need to continue to enlist persons for professional ministry for which the M.Div. may not be feasible or necessary. In addition to the Course of Study Program for local pastors, there will need to be even more nimble and relatively inexpensive ways to train Indigenous, bi vocational clergy to meet many of the needs of immigrant populations as well as people living on the expanding frontier of the United States where populations are in decline. Perhaps as many as 50,000 students are enrolled in Bible institutes today that provide training for pastors serving Spanish speaking congregations. It is from some of these initiatives that the United Methodist Church may need to learn and, at the same time, rediscover some of the “just in time learning” practiced in the early years of the movement among the predecessor traditions of The United Methodist Church in the United States.
This new training may come in many ways for a variety of ministries and settings. Ministry is not uniform. There is not one context. Therefore, the training offered must fit the skills needed for a particular kind of ministry. What is clear is the need for an individual’s call to be affirmed by the church and coupled with education and training that nourishes, challenges and gives greater fullness to the call. In this way, leaders are developed to fulfill a divine call within temporal organizations. It is spiritual training and practical training.
We hope these five competencies will contribute to the emerging conversation about the new shape of religious leadership needed for the uncharted terrain that lies ahead.
Cynthia D. Weems serves in the Florida Conference as district superintendent of the South East District, which includes Miami.
Lovett H. Weems, Jr. is distinguished professor of church leadership emeritus at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C., and senior consultant of the seminary’s Lewis Center for Church Leadership.
As found on 09 23 22 at https://www.resourceumc.org/en/partners/gcsrw/home/content/parity among methodist clergy
Following a few years of serving in my annual conference’s Commission on the Status and Role of Women, I identified a prevalent complaint when in conversation with our neighboring COSROWs: clergy parity. Either there were very few women who were ordained and serving contexts or those women were always held down at lower salary structures in appointments that had little ability to pay a full connection pastor at a full time rate. Through a quick glance through the history of the General Commission on the Status and Role of Women and in the general conferences of the United Methodist Church, one finds that continual complaints within our legislative discussions and polity development revolved around women having equal status. Of course, this central complaint is one of the sole reasons for the creation of GCSRW, to monitor how fully women could participate in the life of the UMC.
Not long after GCSRW was established, the agency began to publish a newsletter, “The Flyer” that carried a feature called “Women By the Numbers.”(1) In this section, they often raised common statistics within the denomination that were of interest, like how many women were delegates to General Conference or how many women became District Superintendents. Before long, “The Flyer” featured stories of women gathering together to lift up names of those who could be nominated for the episcopacy (which was followed quickly by stories of those elected to the episcopacy). Throughout the years, GCSRW’s tracking of women involved in the wider life of the denomination proved fruitful as it helped keep the church accountable for its actions.
Inspired by the 2009 Lily Ledbetter Equal Pay Act and the encouragement of GCSRW supporters, GCSRW commissioned a salary study in 2011 of its clergy. That year, it found that clergywomen “made 13% less than clergymen.” Within five years, the gap widened and the pay of clergywomen suffered. In 2016, clergywomen made 16% less than clergymen, had 14% lower housing allowances, and 12% less parsonages. In 2020, when the numbers were revisited, they had improved by little, as the statistics showed “clergywomen made, on average, 11% less in salary, 11% less housing allowance, and 9% less parsonage amount than clergymen.”(2)
GCSRW’s initial salary study then inspired COSROWs across the country to enter their own analysis, using GCSRW’s commissioned statistics to guide them and see how they measured up. In many conferences, they identified similar or even worse gaps in pay, lagging numbers of women commissioned and ordained, and few women in large pulpits of 250+ members. Once the salary studies went public with their results, many conferences adapted legislative means to encourage accountability in their data and numbers. Many of these resolutions succeeded, but the data continues to show, as the 2020 GCSRW study showed, that the UMC still has a significant amount of work to do in clergy parity.
The history and legacy of the UMC display quite quickly that it has a systemic bias against women. One only has to see that it took more than 24 years to elect a woman to the episcopacy after women were given full connection opportunities. From the initial election of clergywoman Marjorie
Matthews in 1980, it took another 16 years for every U.S. jurisdiction to have a female bishop. The European Central Conferences finally elected a woman bishop in 2005, and the African Central Conferences promoted a woman to the episcopacy in 2008. There has yet to be a woman bishop in many of our conferences and regional areas.
These are just but a glimpse into the world of women within the UMC, but these alone are proof that there is still great work to be done in gender parity within the UMC. You only have to look at the numbers to see the distance we need to travel. This work is not easy and at times, it seems dismal, but it may be part of our work of sanctification. May our only aim in this work together be full participation of all people in the church worldwide, without gender causing a limitation to the work of God’s realm on earth.
References:
(1) To read more from “The Flyer,” check out the archives!
(2) Bethune, Magaela, “How Far We’ve Come and the Distance Still to Go: UMC Clergywomen are Still Significantly Undercompensated,” Website, 2020. (https://www.resourceumc.org/en/partners/gcsrw/ home/content/how far weve come and the distance still to go umc clergywomen are still significantly)
Rev. Emily Nelms Chastain is a PhD student at Boston University, where she focuses on 19th and 20th Century American Christian History and the intersectionality of faith and gender. She earned her B.A. in History at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2007 and graduated with an M.A. Religion and M.Div. in 2019 from Claremont School of Theology. She’s an ordained United Methodist Deacon in the North Alabama Conference, and entered academia after serving for 9 years within the United Methodist Church where she worked in Connectional Ministries. Emily served as a reserve delegate to the 2016 General Conference and as a delegate for the 2016 Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference. She has served on the GCSRW board since 2016.
As found on 09 23 22 at https://www.emergingmethodism.com/new article/reflections on leadership part iv
Jesus is inviting us as leaders to face squarely this woundedness to face the grief, anger and pain of our own woundedness, and to face loss. Heifetz has noted, “What people resist is not change per se, but loss” (1). Indeed, many change efforts fail because the leaders trying to bring about change fail to recognize and deal with loss. It is the same with the church. We cannot hold space for divinely inspired resurrection unless we hold space in the church and within ourselves for divinely inspired loss.
A young man, he must have been in his twenties, sat at a table and talked about what it would mean for him if the church split and he had to choose. He said it was not an option for him to leave. His family had been a part of The United Methodist Church for generations. The church was his family. To leave meant the loss of identity and of a history, as well as the loss of loyalty to the generations that preceded him. It meant the loss of that great cloud of witnesses who had nurtured him in the faith. It meant the loss of relationships that were beyond ideologies—those kinds of relationships that were just about “I love you, no matter what!” This young man wanted a more inclusive church too. But he was isolated and facing profound loss with little support. What was he to do?
Indeed, as God is doing something new, we are being called to help each other face the losses inherent in this moment: loss of identity, autonomy, influence and power; loss of our own sense of competence and control; loss of the ability to protect resources, property and staff. We are being called to help each other face the loss of relevance as many of our churches continue to stagnate and decline.
Leading in the face of such loss means helping each other identify what is core, what is legacy and of the past, as well as what is emerging. It means helping each other hold onto the continuity of tradition without becoming trapped by it. It means helping each other understand what is core about our identity that will continue to define us. It means being willing to take the casualties of loss so that God can bring about something new and being willing to shepherd one another through the grief and pain that comes with those casualties. Ultimately, it means facing death and walking with each other through the valley of the shadow of death.
This is the rub: We want to avoid death. Yet, death is a historical as well as corporeal reality. Every empire that was here is gone. Every church recorded in the Bible, from Ephesus to the church at Corinth, is today no more than the stone finds of an archaeological dig. Every institution, every country, passes and changes.
We long to fill the tragic gap between death and life. We want to know “Why does everything end?” Facing death is the hard work of resurrection leadership. Are we willing to face death ourselves and to help others face death? It may indeed be the essence of what it means to be a
disciple who knows the resurrected Christ.
The righteousness that I have comes from knowing Christ, the power of his resurrection, and the participation in his sufferings. It includes being conformed to his death so that I may perhaps reach the goal of the resurrection of the dead. (Philippians 3: 10 1, CEB)
To die, as Christ was willing to die, is to go the whole distance, to hit the bottom, go to the full depth, beyond where you can understand or control. It can feel like hell. But we’ve been through hell before anytime when we have hit bottom when our own lives have fallen apart. And, we have found grace at the depths of our suffering. We have found grace in the death of ourselves, especially when others have been willing to journey with us. When that has happened, we have moved to a deeper level together, found a deeper source which we call God Christ incarnate, and his body, the church. From that source we have drawn life.
Rev. Kennetha J. Bigham Tsai is the Chief Connectional Ministries Officer of the Connectional Table.
Eric Martin specializes in leadership development and systems change with Adaptive Change Advisors. His recent work draws on the Adaptive Leadership framework developed by Harvard faculty Drs. Ron Heifetz and Marty Linsky.
References:
The Practice of Adaptive Leadership: Tools and Tactics for Changing Your Organization and the World, by Ronald Heifetz, Alexander Grashow, Marty Linsky, Harvard Business Press, Boston, c. 2009 Cambridge Leadership Associates, p. 22.
As found on 09 23 22 at https://www.emergingmethodism.com/new article/reflections on leadership part v
Now we see a reflection in a mirror; then we will see face to face. Now I know partially, then I will know completely in the same way that I have been completely known. (1 Corinthians 13: 12, CEB)
The truth be told, we don’t know where The United Methodist Church is heading. We don’t know the solution to our dilemmas. When we think we do, we are in danger of repeating old patterns, patterns and solutions that exclude and push people away, destroy trust and have long contributed to the difficulties we face. In other words, our best thinking got us here.
Therefore, a key task of leadership is to challenge the arrogance of our best thinking and to help the people of the church hold space within themselves and the institution for mystery and the joy of not knowing.
Kennetha remembers walking through a park in Manila, Philippines with a friend during a break at a connectional meeting in March. They were talking about the anxiety of not knowing what was going to happen to the church. As they talked, they kept returning to the themes of birth. Kennetha remembered some twenty years ago, during her first pregnancy, that there was a certain joy in not knowing who this new person would be. What would this child’s personality be like? Who and what would this child become? There was joy in the imagining and anticipation of not knowing. There was also a vulnerability and surrender in not knowing or being able to control the course of a life.
Leading into mystery and the joy of not knowing happens in surrender and vulnerability. Being in a place of vulnerability and not knowing opens us up to the mystery of God and deeper discipleship. Such mystery is inherent in discipleship. When we decide to be followers of Jesus, we do not know what Jesus will require of us, where God will lead us or what kinds of transformed disciples we will become. Surely Peter experienced as much. In John 21, after Jesus had interrogated Peter about his love, and just after Jesus had called Peter to a discipleship of service feed my lambs. Take care of my sheep. Feed my sheep after all of this, Jesus described to Peter what answering the call to discipleship really looked like. Jesus described discipleship as mystery, as surrender, as going vulnerably into a place you do not want to go.
I assure you that when you were younger you tied your own belt and walked around wherever you wanted. When you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will tie your belt and lead you where you don’t want to go. He said this to show the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. After saying this, Jesus said to Peter, “Follow Me.” (John 21: 18 19, CEB)
As we go forward as a denomination into uncertain and difficult times, God is calling us to hold space within ourselves for the miracle of resurrection. If we are able to hold that space, we will grow in our comfort with not knowing. We will listen more than we talk and watch to see what the Spirit of God is doing as God stirs the waters. We will reconnect to purpose by holding space for our
first love expressed in remembrance of call and in service to others. We will hold space for loss by finding within ourselves greater courage for surrender and vulnerability and by walking with others through our valleys of grief. We will hold space for the woundedness of our church and the world by giving voice to and listening to the grief and anger of others, by being willing to be vulnerable and to use this time to grow relationships with those whom we have wounded and by whom we have been wounded.
If we are able to hold such space, we can move forward. We can enter fully into resurrection resurrection that is happening all the time and everywhere. This is also the mystery. Everything from the stars to atoms to the church is unstable, diversifies, interacts and returns in a new form. It’s all resurrection. It's all saying, “It looks like this, but wait a while and it really looks like that.” It's all moving toward a complexity that we call Spirit the ultimate complexity where everyone and everything belongs, which we call God. In this intense, focused, leadership moment, will we dare to enter into that complexity?
Eric Martin specializes in leadership development and systems change with Adaptive Change Advisors. His recent work draws on the Adaptive Leadership framework developed by Harvard faculty Drs. Ron Heifetz and Marty Linsky.
The United Methodist Discipleship Ministries is offering an online, 6 week teaching series beginning October 10, 2022. The Holston Children’s Ministry Team is hosting network groups to coincide with the teaching series to explore ways to apply the information to our own congregation.
You will have the opportunity to join others as we read the book, It Takes a Church to Raise a Parent by Rachel Turner and participate in weekly on demand video sessions with the author, Rachel Turner and Kevin Johnson, Discipleship Ministries’ Director of Children and Family Ministries. Plus, there will be a live chat feature with Rachel Turner and 3 webinar sessions (3:00P EST on Tuesday, October 11, November 15, and December 6). The sessions will be recorded to view later. The cost is $10 plus you will need to order the book from Cokesbury or Amazon. For more information and to pre register click on this link https:// www.umcdiscipleship.org/articles/new online teaching series it takes a church to raise a parent
Holston’s Children’s Ministry Team is excited to offer a network group during this teaching series. We will be gathering weekly beginning Thursday, October 20th December 8th (not meet Thanksgiving) from 10:00A 11:00A. Plus, there will be two evening network groups on November 3 and December 1 from 6:30P 7:30P. These network groups provide you an opportunity to discuss what we are learning and create a ministry action plan to enhance your ministry with families in your congregation.
The zoom link for the weekly sessions is https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88201464999. The zoom link for the evening sessions is https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81612472847.
2 CEU will be awarded by Discipleship Ministries. Please contact Susan Groseclose with questions at susangroseclose@holston.org or 615 417 1753.
Rev. Kennetha J. Bigham Tsai is the Chief Connectional Ministries Officer of the Connectional Table.As found on 09 23 22 at https://www.resourceumc.org/en/content/developing congregational leaders
Strong congregations require strong leaders, yet many churches do not prioritize leadership development within their ministries.
Christian leadership development is an extension of disciple making. Only good disciples make good church leaders. As Discipleship Ministries General Secretary the Rev. Junius Dotson points out, a good disciple is driven by love of God, committed to following Christ and bound in fellowship with other Christians. Discipleship Ministries’ See All the People Campaign has adaptable intentional discipleship models available that can assist churches in their disciple making.
In their article “4 Ways to Multiply Disciples the Way Jesus Did”
the Rev. Dave Ferguson and Warren Bird describe the Christian model for leadership development Christ left the church. Jesus started with 12 disciples with whom he spent most of his time, preparing them to take on the mantle of leadership. Two important characteristics of Jesus’ model according to Ferguson and Bird were his emphasis on relationship building and decision to concentrate on fully developing a tiny handful of leaders, rather than the massive crowds who came to see him. Jesus placed quality of leadership over quantity.
After Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, his disciples multiplied their number through evangelism and disciple making. As their numbers grew, they delegated responsibilities to new converts according to their talents and abilities. Some continued to preach and evangelize, while others took charge of charitable missions. Whatever their responsibilities, each new member learned the teachings of Christ from their leaders and were united in their mission to make new disciples. According to Ferguson and Bird the original disciples knew when to “hand off authority” to others the way Christ did to them.
Existing churches even those relatively new have people who chair committees and lead classes, small groups and specialized ministry programs like vacation Bible school, outreach and worship planning. When implementing development of new leaders, it is important for congregations to include these existing leaders. Those who feel left out or sidelined can become sources of resistance and obstacles to developing new leaders. At the same time, make sure these existing leaders have the proper traits. Rebekah Simon Peter, founder of Creating a Culture of Renewal, distinguishes good leaders from good managers.
“A manager helps an organization survive. A leader innovates so it thrives,” writes Simon Peters in an article in Ministry Matters. “A manager dots the i’s and crosses the t’s. A leader generates a
brand new vocabulary. A manager makes sure everything is in order. A leader envisions a brand new order. Managers tend to people and processes. Leaders build up new people and craft new processes.
Potential leaders should have these Christ like traits:
• They have a heart centered toward love of God and neighbor while being committed to reaching new people and raising up new leaders. The Rev. Tony Hunt states that this love and commitment will manifest itself in active participation in worship, generous stewardship to the church and good relationships with other church members.
• They need to be tuned into the congregation and well acquainted with most of its members. If they spend all their time with a particular clique, they will lack a good perspective on the culture and spiritual needs of the congregation. Encourage them to be more outgoing and inclusive in their relationships.
• They need to be good mentors who are able to see and bring out the best in others. The Rev. Joel Snider states that emotional intelligence is an essential characteristic of good mentors. Great Plains Annual Conference has a video on fostering Christ like emotional intelligence among church leaders.
• Like Jesus with the 12, they need to be open to trusting others with responsibilities and passing the torch to the next generation. Help them learn to let go and entrust others with more responsibilities.
When a church has leaders who are committed to developing their successors, it needs to entrust them to find and mentor others within the church to whom they can pass the torch when the time is right. The Rev. Kay Kotan of the Arkansas Annual Conference recommends this five step model:
1. I do. You watch. We talk.
2. I do. You help. We talk.
3. You do. I help. We talk.
4. You do. I watch. We talk.
5. You do. Someone else watches. You talk. I move on
Using this model, new leaders gradually assume the tasks of the mentors in a nurturing environment. They can make mistakes and receive helpful feedback. This model will look slightly different depending on the circumstance. For instance, small group leaders mentoring someone might start by having the developing leaders watch them lead a couple of sessions and then co lead the group with them for a couple weeks before stepping aside completely to let the new leader take charge. The director of vacation Bible school for one summer might have the leader for the coming year assist and watch them throughout the entire process on order to have first hand experience.
Taking a strong interest in every new member is one way churches can identify potential future leaders to mentor. Ann A. Michel, associate director of the Lewis Center for Church Leadership, recommends having
each newcomer fill out an interest form and identify areas of ministry and programming that excite them. When a newcomer indicates interest in a ministry, it is the duty of the church and its leadership to follow up quickly and connect them right away with the programs and activities.
As new leaders emerge and take the reins, it is vital that they become the new mentors, seeking new potential leaders to coach. The church may want to offer onsite coach training or connect leaders with opportunities outside the church to learn coaching techniques. As the pool of available leaders and mentors expands, the overall ministries of the church will become more fruitful. Delegating responsibilities to new leaders will help prevent burn out among the existing leaders and free them to take on new roles.
Under appreciating existing leaders: Make sure existing leaders do not feel forced out when they turn over certain responsibilities. Let them know they are valued and appreciated. One powerful way churches can illustrate this is through a ritual such as having outgoing leaders of specific programs and ministries pray over and bless those stepping into their former roles. It is also important that leaders always have new opportunities to grow. Help existing leaders see how God is calling them to do new things and help identify what those new things may be.The Rev. Cynthia D. Weems has tips on how churches can celebrate and reward leadership.
Satisfying the need rather than the person: Many churches desperately need more leaders and volunteers, making it tempting to fill roles based on the need rather than the people available. The result is ministries with leaders lacking passion or the necessary skills. This can be a major source of stress for both the leader and the ministry. While it may be difficult at times to find the right person to lead, it is always worth the effort. The Lewis Center for Church Leadership in their article on "50 Ways to Multiply Your Church’s Leadership Capacity" also warns against put too much stock in a person's professional skills and not enough in their spiritual interests or need to be challenged.
Micromanaging: Jesus devoted plenty of time to preparing his disciples to lead. When the time was right, he trusted them to do the work. Likewise, pastors need to trust ministry leaders who have been mentored to carry on the development process. Micromanaging leadership development sends a message that the pastor does not trust their leaders. This does not mean pastors step aside entirely. The pastor should check in periodically with mentors and make sure the relationship with their trainees remains positive and productive. Make certain mentors know the pastor is always available for support.
Jesus left a model of leadership development through disciple making that has worked for 2,000 years. When churches have leaders committed to mentoring the next generation they can become more fruitful, more effective and more expansive in their witness.
Philip J. Brooks is a writer and content developer with the leader communications team at United Methodist Communications, Nashville, Tennessee, USA.
4 Ways to Multiply Disciples the Way Jesus Did by Dave Ferguson and Warren Bird Developing an Intentional Discipleship System by Junius Dotson
Three Keys to Identify and Develop High Impact Leaders by Tony Hunt
Simple Strategies for Raising Up New Leaders by Kay Kotan
50 Ways to Multiply Your Church’s Leadership Capacity
5 Practices That Help Newcomers Get Involved by Ann A. Michel
Does Your Church Have the Necessary Leaders? by Joel Snider Rewarding Leadership by Cynthia D. Weems
Emotional Intelligence video from the Great Plains Annual Conference Intentional Discipleship Systems, Discipleship Ministries
5 Confessions of a Leadership Developer by Rebekah Simon Peters
Empowering Coaches: Coaching for Leadership and Transformation Holmes Coaching Group
International Coach Federation (ICF)
I have been United Methodist all my life, and I have participated in several United Methodist Watch Night services. However, it wasn’t until a very recent conversation that I learned there is more to the Watch Night service than simply welcoming in a new year.
Watch Night is also called Freedom’s Eve. It’s traditionally held on New Year’s Eve in African American churches as a celebration and commemoration of the Emancipation Proclamation, which was enacted January 1, 1863, and served to free slaves in the Confederate states during the American Civil War. On December 31, 1862, slaves were said to have gathered in churches to await confirmation that President Abraham Lincoln was in fact setting them free. The tradition of gathering on December 31 has continued through the years.
So, while I grew up thinking Watch Night was all about gathering with Christian sisters and brothers to usher out the old, welcome in the new, and eat a lot of food, I learned something very important that will forever change how I think about that special service of worship. I would have never learned the real story unless I had been in a conversation with someone from a different racial history who had different knowledge from mine.
It makes me wonder how much more we could be learning from each other. And it makes me excited and hopeful about the potential of an emerging United Methodist Church. Those of us who choose to remain United Methodist in a new, emerging church have the blessed possibility of both holding on to the history of who we are, and at the same time refocusing our present and our future in order to hear everyone’s stories. It's a rare opportunity to celebrate the beautiful diversity of gifts that everyone brings to the table, to write a new, more inclusive history.
One of the most exciting things about an emerging United Methodist Church is the determination that diversity within our unity is foundational to the plan. When limiting language is removed from our Book of Discipline, the powerful statement will be made that United Methodists want to honor and elevate our diversity. We want to claim boldly that God created all of us just as we are, and that we all have gifts to be celebrated. We want to declare that we believe Jesus welcomes all people, celebrates all people, and calls all people. If we allow that foundational theological and ecclesiological belief to be one of our guiding lights, then we have the potential to learn so much more and become so much richer in our church life and our faith understandings.
My current ministry is with the Council of Bishops as one of their Ecumenical Staff Officers. That means I get to help our episcopal leaders stay connected with other faith communions around the world through formal, ecumenical relationships. So much of what we do is to help The United Methodist Church stay connected with other Christian communions who often are very different from us. We do that because we believe all Christian groups have something to bring to a shared table, and together, all those gifts, placed on the ecumenical table, create a banquet that can transport us near to the divine.
For example, Lutherans bring theological prowess and a firm foundation in God’s grace. The historically Black Methodist churches in the U.S. bring a reminder of the truth of history and a passion for social justice. African Indigenous churches bring to the table the strength of self determination and
contextualization as an expression of free will in Christ.
My point is that when all these amazing gifts are shared at a common table of unity, the universal Body of Christ becomes stronger and more powerfully full of the Spirit.
It can be the same for an emerging United Methodist Church. When we proclaim that all United Methodist Christians bring holiness to the table, and when we bring our diverse gifts to the table, we can expect to experience a joyful overflowing of the Spirit as we come closer to that divine banquet.
Be forewarned: This is not an easy thing to do. It requires humility, patience, and the Golden Rule of Ecumenism a desire to understand others as we wish to be understood.
When I served as the pastor of an incredibly diverse congregation in downtown Louisville, our diversity was both beautiful and challenging. I remember my first Sunday, when I stood in front of the congregation inviting them to come forward to receive Holy Communion. Harold came dressed like a clown it was National Clown Sunday with big, floppy shoes and a red nose. Fade came gently in his African traditional dress. Richard came purposefully in his suit and tie. José and his family came and knelt together, as did Gil, the radical racial justice leader, Jimmy, the retired Navy cook, and Marvin and Margaret, the couple who had been married in the church just after he returned from World War II.
It was beautiful—until we had to decide what kind of music we wanted to sing as a congregation. The young people said they weren’t being fed by the traditional choir. The people of color said they wanted more music to which they could relate. The members who had been loving the church for 70+ years especially appreciated the organ and the hymns they grew up singing. It was a challenging time, full of thought provoking conversations.
But we worked through the disagreements and came up with a solution that functioned for years. We intentionally expanded the table. Pews were filled with The Songs of Zion, The Faith We Sing, and The United Methodist Hymnal. Three music groups were formed, and they took turns leading worship music in the styles of a traditional choir, a contemporary band, and a gospel chorus.
An emerging church can celebrate with lots of different music. We can welcome all gifts. The result will be a beautiful but messy diversity, and expected disagreements. But if we are prepared for them as we head into our emerging renewal, then we can watch something amazing happen. We can learn from each other and appreciate each other. We can grow deeper and more mature in our faith. And the Body of Christ can be as strong, unified, and powerful as it ever has been.
In 1740, John Wesley borrowed the idea of a “Covenant Renewal Service” from the Moravian Church. For Moravians, these services happened monthly on full moon nights. They were times of reflection, repentance, and gratitude. They were also opportunities for Christians to move forward with clean hearts full of prayer for whatever would come next. Wesley liked the idea of offering these opportunities for the people called Methodists, and eventually the Covenant Renewal Service became important in the Methodist movement.
Whether they be through Covenant Renewal Services or Watch Night services, times to renew the covenant and start again with a clean slate are gifts to us as children of God. The emerging of a new United Methodist
Church is just like that. It is a time to reflect, repent, give thanks, and look forward.
May we walk into this new time together, clinging to the declaration that all are welcome at the table. We are better when we elevate each other’s gifts, and the beautiful, messy diversity in which we will live is nothing short of a reflection of God’s creative power, alive and well in the Creation.
With that in mind, I offer the following prayer, written in 2018 by the ecumenical and interreligious staff of the Council of Bishops during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
Eternal Creator; immortal, invisible, God only wise:
With these words, we quiet ourselves before you again with awe and reverence.
We thank you for this day, a day that is new and fresh, a day we do not deserve, but a day you have given us. We praise you for your graciousness and your steadfast and generous love.
We confess we have not always used the days you have given us to further your Kingdom. We have been selfish, focusing on our own needs and our own advancements. Forgive us, we pray. Free us for joyful obedience to walk in your ways and to further your love in this world.
This day we thank you for our sister and brother Christians within our own faith community and throughout your world. In your creative genius, you have made all of us with different gifts to bring to your table, and your Spirit has given us the unity to appreciate and celebrate all those gifts. Thank you for that unity in the midst of beautiful, challenging diversity. Thank you for the many expressions of following your son’s Way that are making a difference around your world.
Today, we pray for your universal church. We pray for our shared mission to your world. We pray for open eyes and open hearts for those who need to hear your message of grace. We pray for kindness among our faith communions, even when we disagree with each other's theology or opinions. We pray for wisdom and insight to maintain unity without demanding uniformity; to celebrate our diversity instead of making it a cause for division, to claim that diversity as a part of your gracious gift to us.
Grant that we may speak, and act, and live, so that the world may see in us the promise of your will, and so that the world may be challenged to move toward that vision, in and through the Christ, who is our source and our goal.
Amen.
For more than five years, Rev. Dr. Jean G. Hawxhurst has served as an Ecumenical Staff Officer for the United Methodist Council of Bishops. Her responsibilities include general ecumenical engagement with organizations and groups, and leadership development. Dr. Hawxhurst holds a BA in mathematics and education, an MDiv in theology, and a DMin with a focus on theological diversity. She is an ordained elder in the Kentucky Annual Conference.
As found on 09 23 22 at https://www.emergingmethodism.com/new article/diversity within our unity
Black churches are the oldest institutions created and controlled by Black Americans. Black churches are a living testament to the achievements and the resiliency of generations of Black people in the face of a racialized and inequitable society.
Before most black people in this country became legally free, white masters did permit them to attend church. Lennon Seney is among the earliest expressions of church for the Black community in Knoxville. Black churches in other parts of the Holston Conference have a similar rich history. This is a history that must be told…however that is not the goal of this article.
When I was a child, my grandmother and I played a game… ”tomorrow is today and today is tomorrow.” Well today, the Black Church still plays a vital role in the community it serves, spiritually, socially, and politically. However, the Black Church of today faces significant challenges. There are powerful and detrimental influences facing our communities today, such as the pandemic of gun and gang violence, the pandemic of food insecurity in the midst of a food desert, the pandemic of a lack of affordable housing, and just the overall hardship of a Covid pandemic that continues to affect this community disproportionally.
And I must mention the recent loss of Rev. Autura Eason Williams a loss that I cannot shake; that continues to haunt me. I knew Rev. Eason Williams having served on a committee with her. She was the district superintendent of the Metro District in the Tennessee Western Kentucky Annual Conference, the pastor of Capleville United Methodist Church, and a Memphis Theological Seminary alumna. She was my clergy colleague and was gunned down brutally in front of her home by teenagers who “needed” her car. She was a courageous pastor whom I always admired, and she was tragically lost to the real threat of violence that I and others in our congregations in similar communities face daily. She worked tirelessly for and with the youth in her community. Such an ironic and heartbreaking loss of a life so well lived.
The traditional Black church has long been a spiritual anchor in the community. As well, it has been a driver, if not the driver of social justice and change for Black Americans. But now that the older members who have long supported our Black churches have gone on to be with the Lord, how then are Black churches to be supported? What is the effect on today and tomorrow?
Well, there’s no shortage of talk these days about a “new Black Church” led by a dynamic movement of anointed, intelligent, and innovative youth and young adults. So exciting and hopeful, yes!! What I find a bit perplexing, and troubling is that young people are labeled “The Church of Tomorrow,” or in words similar to that. To say that implies to me that their spiritual gifts, leadership and contributions are less meaningful and less significant today. It also implies that tomorrow is promised…which we all know is not the case.
Tomorrow isn’t promised. And as countless young people leave the doors of our churches, and
Rev. Dr. Autura Eason Williamsas still others sit restlessly in the pews waiting for a “tomorrow” to finally arrive when they too can leave, the question that must be confronted by our Black churches is when is “tomorrow” today? We don’t have any time to wait. Tomorrow is today.
We need our young people with us as we address the challenges not tomorrow but today too. And we need the support of all in our Conference. Black churches have been unwavering in supporting the United Methodist Church and this Conference for generations. Won’t you help us in this work today? It affects us all. Tomorrow isn’t promised. Today is tomorrow.
Thank you for listening to my perspective.
Rev. Leah Burns
References: 200 Hundred Years of Black Culture in Knoxville, Tennessee by Robert J. Booker
The Black Church: Current Challenges and Enduring Hope https://
Editor’s Note: This is a very long article (28 PAGES), but deals with a topic from a perspective many of us might not have considered. I hope you enjoy it. Also, bear in mind that his is an academic paper and it takes a while to get into the main part of the topic. -TDG
Academic Editors: Regina Chow Trammel and Hans Zollner
Religions 2022, 13(8), 721; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13080721
Received: 15 June 2022 / Revised: 18 July 2022 / Accepted: 2 August 2022 / Published: 9 August 2022
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Health and Mindfulness: A Christian Approach)
Historical literature demonstrates that Black women have exhibited a deep commitment to wellness and social change. Black women engage in various forms of mindfulness to sustain themselves as they make changes. There is a dearth of literature on the ways in which Black women in academia who identify as Christians describe Christian mindfulness and their applications of such to promote their own health and wellness in hostile environments. Autoethnography and narrative inquiry were used to describe and analyze the principles and practices a Black academic used to thrive in a historically hostile Christian institution. These findings suggest Christian mindfulness is vast and focused on God’s perspectives and applications of Godly wisdom. View Full Text
Keywords: mindfulness; Christian mindfulness; Black women; Black women’s historical wellness; health; feminist theory; misogynoir
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Ride on, King Jesus, no man can a hinder me.
Ride on, King Jesus, ride on.
No man can a hinder me, No man can a hinder me.
In that great getting’ up morning, Fare ye well, fare ye well.
In that great getting’ up morning, Fare ye well, fare ye well.
No man can a hinder me. (Allen et al. 1867)
This African American spiritual was composed when people of African descent were enslaved. Based on scripture, it helped those attempting to escape or survive slavery to visualize a king, not made of flesh, living in them or with them a king powerful enough to rescue them from the horrendous
conditions of slavery. The use of call and response, fast and rhythmic movement, and a slow melody made the singers aware of the majesty of God and eased the pain of their circumstance. Black people have long relied on forms of mindfulness that are attuned to suffering and God’s promises of hope and rest (Bryant et al. 2022; Evans 2021).
Throughout history, Black women, such as Sojourner Truth, Rosa Parks, Joy DeGruy, and bell hooks used mindfulness, and meditation as a form of mindfulness, to manage stress and increase their inner peace. Black women are exposed to persistent and toxic levels of stress related to gendered violence and structural racism. An interdisciplinary approach to understanding how Black women thrive in the academy in the face of such contempt and hostility is needed in order to fully understand this topic. Contemporary literature indicates that many Black women today who likewise encounter antagonism and adversity also use Christian forms of mindfulness to cope and thrive in the academy (Evans 2021).
Mindfulness is purposeful awareness, paying attention in particular ways, and non judgment (Shapiro et al. 2006). It rests on the values of acceptance, not striving, letting go, gratitude, and generosity. Essential components of mindfulness are intention, attention, and attitude (Steidle 2017; Trammel 2017). It employs practices, such as breath awareness, mind body movement, contemplation, and meditation.
The term “mindfulness based stress reduction” (MBSR) was coined by Jon Kabat Zinn in the 1990s. Since then, a growing body of research and theory has confirmed the effectiveness of contemplative approaches to stress reduction and overall wellness (Magee 2019), and mindfulness practices have been used with increasing frequency in clinical and non clinical settings to promote psychological and physical wellbeing. As practiced for centuries in non clinical settings, mindfulness involves meditation, connects movement and breath, and strives for oneness with self, a higher power, and others (Bryant Davis et al. 2015; Evans 2021; Magee 2019). Mindfulness is increasingly being used in connection with racial justice and social change (Magee 2019), topics that are very important to many Black women in the academy.
Mindfulness practices have sustained people for hundreds of years. Although a number of mindfulness practices can be traced to Buddhism, a growing body of evidence suggests that many civilizations with no connection to Buddhism, including African civilizations dating from at least 16 BC, have utilized forms of mindfulness in their everyday lives (Evans 2021). Historical documents on the Yoruba peoples suggest various applications of mindfulness including the use of drums, stomping, and clapping, all forms of grounding. The contemporary literature suggests that these ancient practices fall under the category of MBSR, and specifically discharging or grounding (Bryant et al. 2022; Mayo Clinic 2020). These practices, as well as attention to the breath, spending time in nature, paying attention in particular ways, artistry, and raising consciousness of a higher power, are common for Yoruba people, and part of their everyday culture.
Why is this important? The Yoruba diaspora extends into North and South America. An analysis of more than 4000 DNA samples from Africa, Europe, and America revealed that “the ancestors of current day Yoruba people from West Africa (one of the largest African ethnic groups) provided the largest contribution of genes from Africa to all current day American populations” (Montinaro et al. 2015). This connection suggests that today’s African American women still carry and benefit from the mindfulness practices that sustained their ancestors.
“My fullest concentration of energy is available to me when I integrate all parts of who I am, openly, allowing power from particular sources of my living to flow back and forth freely through all my different selves, without restrictions of externally imposed definition.” (Audre Lorde 1984, pp. 120 21)
Conventional applications of mindfulness promoted in health and social work do not always reflect the
cultural and spiritual knowledge, values, and experiences of Black and Indigenous individuals, as well as other people of color. The practices most often associated with mindfulness guided meditation, attending to and controlling the breath, paying attention in the moment, accepting self, and living in the present (Mayo Clinic 2020) fail to capture the culturally and spiritually informed ways Black people, especially Black women, view and practice mindfulness. For Black women, mindfulness practices include, but are not limited to, prayer as mindful meditation, guided or free style meditation, reflective or justice centered writing, the use or creation of music, music and movement, yoga, community, stillness, creating rituals focused on wellness, opening their minds, “saluting the sun,”, and the collective pursuit of liberation and justice (Evans 2021; Magee 2019). These qualities are discussed in the following extract:
“I awoke while it was dark. I reached my arms towards the ceiling, bent over, then pushed out my legs. Lowering my torso to the floor, I lifted my head and neck while laying on my stomach.” This salutation to the sun, Deborah Santana writes, awakened her to her inner connections and gave her peace. (Evans 2021, p. 291)
In their extensive work on Black women’s physical and mental health, Evans (2021) and Evans et al. (2019) researched what Black women consider to be mindfulness. Mindfulness for Black women includes, but is not limited to, remembering through autoethnography and memoirs, practicing yoga and self care, remembering to breathe, and participating in wellness activism. A close examination also reveals Black women’s use of positive affirmations, prayer, the study of history, understanding of trauma and wellness, writing, and meditation as mindfulness practices. The goal of mindfulness for some Black women is inner peace through integration and acceptance. From the Black feminist perspective, mindfulness is a lifestyle of paying attention in particular ways, living in the present, and becoming integrated with self, all for the benefit of self and others (Woods Giscombe 2010).
Although the literature on mindfulness is dominated by Buddhist or secular models, there is a growing interest in Christian applications of mindfulness. Hathaway and Tan (2009) suggested that religious accommodative treatments increase therapeutic effectiveness by adapting the mindfulness based interventions to incorporate the worldview of the client. Overlaps exist in terms of principle and practices, but the intentions are worlds apart (Hathaway and Tan 2009; Kopel and Habermas 2019).
According to Hathaway and Tan (2009), both Buddhist and Christian forms of mindfulness use breath meditation. The Buddhist is reminded of self, and the Christian is reminded of God’s presence. Music, words, scriptures, and thoughts centered on Jesus Christ are often used in Christian mindfulness to be attuned to God’s breath in oneself and the gift of life (Bryant Davis et al. 2015).
Christian mindfulness practices “are based on the doctrine and teachings from the Holy Bible” (Trammel 2017, p. 4). Hathaway and Tan (2009) suggested that Christian mindfulness is rooted in Christian contemplative practices. Adapting mindfulness to a Christian worldview requires the consideration and application of the following key doctrines: God is near, God is in us and separate from and greater than us, God is gracious and merciful towards us, God is all knowing and all powerful, and it is imperative to not serve other gods (Garzon and Ford 2018). Hathaway and Tan (2009) recommended that present-moment living be balanced with the hope of what God has promised to do or what is to come (according to the Bible). Hathaway and Tan (2009) offered presence of mind, acceptance, and internal observation as a model for tenets of Christian mindfulness. Presence of mind is resistance to mindlessness. When people mentally reflect or have a narrative focus, they leave the present moment. Here, memories and future plans may elicit sensations of worry, fear, or anxiety. Mindful meditation activates the here and now, interrupts rumination, and places attention on the uniqueness of each moment (Farb et al. 2007).
Christians have examples from the scriptures to inform ideas about mindful meditation (Bryant Davis et al. 2015). For example, Matthew 12:23 draws a picture of Jesus going into seclusion to be alone with God in order to be present and attuned to him. David, “a man after God’s own heart” (I Sam. 13:14), followed a similar pattern, in that he rose early, secluded and stilled himself, and surrendered to God. Practices that can be seen as mindful meditation are making time throughout the day to be present with God, stilling oneself, secluding oneself, and exerting control over one’s heart, mind, and body (Bryant Davis et al. 2015; Stanley 2021).
Presence of mind skills increase one’s capacity to be aware of God’s presence and leading (Hathaway and Tan 2009). Acceptance embraces non resistance, non judgment, and flow. It sits with uncomfortable feelings, such as fear, anxiousness, and sadness, without trying to judge the feelings or escape them. It de emphasizes mastery and evaluation. It aligns with an act of surrender to Jesus Christ. The feelings and experiences are released into God’s hands. Lack of acceptance has been pinpointed as a source of internal struggle and torture (Forsyth and Eifert 2016). Acceptance of feelings is associated with an increased ability to tolerate a range of emotions (Forsyth and Eifert 2016). Acceptance of feelings requires internal observation, the ability to watch one’s feelings, thoughts, and reactions. Observing feelings and reactions non judgmentally enables people to separate who they are from how they feel or react. Christian mindfulness requires these feelings and thoughts be aligned with God’s word. This alignment may require interrupting some thoughts, confessing sins or offenses, and taking on new ways of thinking based on biblical principles (Garzon and Ford 2018). These actions enable people to become more non reactive and make conscious choices about how to respond to what is happening internally or externally (Steidle 2017; Magee 2019). They can help Christians surrender to God and stay focused on biblical principles, practices, and values.
Living in the present moment is a hallmark of mindfulness, including Christian mindfulness; it is essential to achieving and maintaining a state of peace. However, for Black people, much of the present moment is anything but peaceful. Historically, Black people have been targets of physical, mental, spiritual, economic, and psychological violence. This violence has been perpetuated through chattel slavery, Jim Crow laws, integrated schools, the criminalization of Black children, mass incarceration of Black people, voter suppression, and eugenics movements. Historical documents evidence characterizations of Black people as “inherently/genetically inferior to Whites” (DeGruy 2005). This perception has been presented as scholarship and “documented” as fact in highly respected journals and textbooks in almost every major discipline including social work, medicine, psychology, and education (Hill 2003). During the educational process, many people are indoctrinated to view Black people as inferior and detrimental to themselves and others. They may not be aware of these implicit biases, but the biases impact perceptions of and interactions with Black people and are embedded in structures, policies, and practices that create racialized outcomes. Long term exposure to this structural racism and identity based threats, without proper interventions, results in decreased perceptions of safety, increased depression, and toxic stress for Black people (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention n.d.; DeGruy 2005). These conditions often manifest as high blood pressure, diabetes, and other auto immune deficiencies within Black people’s bodies (Morsy and Rothstein 2019; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention n.d.).
The stress endured every day by Black women in American society is magnified for those working in historically White Christian institutions (HWCIs). There are over 140 Christian colleges in the US that are part of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. Although students need not have a specific religious affiliation to attend many of these colleges, the faculty, staff, and leadership often make attestations of faith and are required to integrate specific biblical doctrines into their teaching, research, mentoring, and service. These institutions have the potential to be resources for health and racial reconciliation (Hathaway and Tan
2009; Trammel 2017). However, rampant structural racism in these organizations has created racialized and gendered outcomes for Black women. This racism impacts Black women’s tenure, promotion, retention, compensation, and student evaluations, as well as their overall sense of safety on campus and their perceived value in the discipline (Edwards et al. 2011). Hostility and lack of support are reinforced through practices and policies that claim to be colorblind but actually close their eyes to the unique positioning of Black women (Barna Group 2020; Giles 2010; Green 2003; Nzinga 2020).
Unfortunately, hostile HWCIs have protected, maintained, and used structural racism to oppress and exploit Black women (Edwards et al. 2011; Nzinga 2020). These institutions fail to demonstrate value for the experiences, knowledge, and lifeways of Black women. Rather, they stereotype Black women as highly emotional, angry, strong and tough (not feminine), and as prioritizing “products and outcomes” over relationships (Cox 2008; Hine et al. 2008). These stereotypes create a unique distance and strain between colleagues and with superiors the people likely voting on promotion, tenure, and contract renewal decisions. Structural racism is pervasive in the everyday policies, practices, laws, and structures of hostile HWCIs (Powell 2008), and contributes negatively to the job satisfaction and mental health of Black women in these organizations (Finkelstein et al. 2016).
Typically, a shared religious background would be a source of strength and protection for women. However, misogynoir and racism present complexities to relationships in many organizations (Green 2003). A study conducted by the Racial Justice and Unity Center found that 38% of White Christians believed the US had racial issues, whereas 78% of Black Christians believed racism was an issue. Furthermore, 61% of White Christians believed race to be an individual issue stemming from personal beliefs and prejudices, whereas 66% of Black Christians believed that racial discrimination is built into the structures of US society and all of its institutions (Barna Group 2020). Findings from the American Values Survey showed that White Christians were twice as likely as White respondents not affiliated with religion to believe that killings of Black men by police were isolated incidences (Vandermaas Peeler et al. 2018). Compared to non religious White people, White Christians registered higher median scores on the racism index, with evangelical Protestants having the highest median score (0.78) (Vandermaas Peeler et al. 2018). This is an important fact, given the study setting was a liberal arts private evangelical Christian university.
Normal responses to the stress of hostile environments are to fight, leave, not do anything, find new friends, or mend broken relationships. Racial stress causes “existential angst” or hypervigilance. It may present as anxiety. People experiencing racial stress engage in constant mental gymnastics and censoring (Bryant et al. 2022). Black women in the academy often think about other people’s perceptions of their hair, family arrangements, speech patterns, intelligence, research interests, research agendas, or approaches to teaching (Edwards et al. 2011; Nzinga 2020). Black women censor their speech patterns, tone, body language, questions, research agendas, and how they interact with others on campus in an effort to avoid stereotypes (Steele 2011). This process of overthinking and constantly scanning rooms to identify indicators of safety or threat creates mental exhaustion and weathers Black women’s minds, bodies, and souls (Crenshaw 1991; Bryant et al. 2022). It also contributes to depression, eating disorders, and suicidal ideation in Black women (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention n.d.).
As a means of coping, Black women may leave the institution, underperform, or leave the profession altogether (Nzinga 2020). Those who choose to stay must find ways to mitigate the toxic environments (Edwards et al. 2011). Many have done so with regular use of religious or spiritual practices, academic and reflective writing, meditation, movement, Kemetic yoga, music, service, mentoring, clinical therapy, teaching, advocacy, activism, storytelling, and other culturally adapted, values based practices (Hall et al. 2007). Many Black women identifying as Christians tend to adapt strategies to
incorporate culture and religion/spirituality (Bryant et al. 2022). Black women commonly use prayer and affirmations of faith with yoga and other mind body or movement based activities. Black women’s strategies tend to also be more collective in nature. For example, Black women partner with friends, family, or community in their efforts towards wellness by sharing their goals, inviting others to participate, or joining others in prayer or mindfulness activities.
Many of the strategies used by Black women to cope and thrive in hostile environments fall under and extend the large umbrella of mindfulness based stress reduction (MBSR) (Bryant et al. 2022; Magee 2019). The use of MBSR and meditation as mindfulness are associated with increased health and wellness. Specifically, MBSR has been linked to decreases in blood pressure, reductions in the production of cortisone, and increases in oxytocin, serotonin, endorphins, and dopamine. Furthermore, regular use of these practices is also associated with enhanced activism and social change (Evans 2021; Magee 2019; Steidle 2017), which are important to many Christian people.
Sensorimotor and strengths based interventions have been recommended for dealing with racial stress and trauma. Explicit and intentional conversations about race, journaling, and discussions about how to navigate have been shown to be effective for healing racial trauma (Anderson 2017; Bryant et al. 2022). Clinicians working with people of color have identified a process of having clients recall and discuss strategies they have used in the past to get through or overcome challenges as a strengths based intervention for racial stress and trauma (Bryant et al. 2022).
Clinical settings dominate the health and wellness literature, but the clinical literature has not always respected ways of knowing other than the scientific method. Many of the cultural practices associated with Black people tend to be demonized in both religious and clinical settings (Hill 2003). Not until recently has science caught up with the fact that many of the cultural and spiritual attitudes and behaviors of Black Christian women have been shown to promote health and wellness (Bryant Davis et al. 2015; Kabat Zinn et al. 1992). We find one such example within predominately Black Christian churches.
Black people attend church or engage in religious activities at three times the rate of other groups (Pew Research Center n.d.). Evidence suggests that participation in these activities protects against poor mental health and dysregulation (Bryant Davis et al. 2015; Kabat Zinn 2013). Predominately Black churches have historically integrated storytelling, hand clapping, foot stomping, body tapping, rocking, affirmations, faith, physical embrace, and a focus on welcoming its members (Bryant et al. 2022). Embedded within these activities is an emphasis on education, liberation, and justice (Evans 2021).
According to findings from the National Survey of American Life, the social emotional and, at times, physical and financial support found in churches positively benefits the mental health of those attending regularly, and it has been determined that “Frequency of contact with church and family members was inversely related to symptoms of depression” (Chatters et al. 2018). Negative church interactions, on the other hand, were associated with depressive symptoms. Unfortunately, even in churches and race or culture based groups, Black women are often the recipients of racialized and gendered violence (Crenshaw 1991; Evans 2021). Despite these truths, literature on mindful meditation and MBSR considers some of the practices within Black churches to be effective in reducing long-term anxiety and stress, and in promoting bonding and self regulation, two important aspects of a regulated nervous system (Clond 2016; Denison 2004).
As a Black woman who has struggled, nearly given up, and eventually thrived in the world of Christian higher education, this author illustrated and examined the use of mindfulness for sustaining wellbeing in the face of gendered and racialized violence commonly associated with hostile HWCIs. To describe and analyze my personal feelings and experiences, I used an autoethnographic and narrative inquiry approach, in which the author is both the subject and the interlocutor. Autoethnography and narrative inquiry make insider experiences available to larger audiences and allow for the sharing of experiences unique to individuals in specific cultural settings to the larger cultural group.
Other Black scholars have used autoethnography and narrative inquiry to explain, describe, and analyze their experiences with mindfulness and with educational institutions (Evans et al. 2017). Anderson (2017) used autoethnography and feminist theory to analyze her self care, relying on her travel journals as a primary data source. Black women scholars use autoethnography to disrupt commonly held stereotypes and myths about Black women as strong, passive, aggressive, stoic, and lacking intelligence (Burack 2004; Panton 2017). Autoethnography is also an effective tool for speaking out against the everyday violence perpetrated against Black women at the intersection of race, gender, religion, and the academy (Crenshaw 1991; Evans 2021).
Research is often criticized for lacking context (Latunde 2017). To best understand the conditions in the which the study took place, contextualizing is critical. I first learned of the term “mindfulness” when I was going through a tumultuous time at a predominately and historically White Christian institution in the western United States. At this point in my career, I had completed my fifth or sixth year in the academy and, based on my scholarship, contributions to the field, good teaching evaluations, and service to the academy, the discipline, and the community, had been promoted to associate professor. By this time, I had seen structural racism in the academy, primarily the repeated narrative of an “achievement gap” between Black and White students, and inferences that the gap was the result of Black parents not caring about their children’s academic success. I recognized this deficit based perspective as a denial of fact and truth, a wile of the devil. This wile the perpetuation of lies kept my department and the college from focusing on ways we could use spiritual gifts and skills to interrupt racialized outcomes for our students and the students they would serve.
In my first five to seven years at the HWCI, I witnessed no interventions that would counter the deficit thinking about people of color, no practices or policies that would disrupt the racialized and gendered outcomes that continued to play out in student support, hiring practices, wage gaps, and a general sense of a lack of belonging in the college and university. I also observed that when initiatives were developed to disrupt or intervene, they were fragmented, under resourced, and those persons affiliated with the initiatives were often demonized, accused of being secular, and eventually demoted or displaced.
I came to work one day to find that a leader, a woman of color, had been replaced. A few months later one provost, then another, then an associate dean, and others were either demoted or left the university altogether. In the span of 18 months several key people were gone and most of the programs around inclusion and diversity they had developed or supported were dismantled. All of these people who were demoted or displaced had been foundational in the progress the university was beginning to make in terms of inclusion, diversity, equity, and university reputation and ranking. Consequently, I found myself, along with many others, the recipient of toxic leadership, racial harassment, and nearly impossible working conditions.
A university wide study at the HWCI revealed that faculty and leaders of color often felt unsupported, unwelcome, and pushed to the margins. Students of color reported a less than satisfying experience on the campus in general, citing instances of racism and gendered discrimination. Conversations about race were avoided and were, when they occurred, over spiritualized. Statements, such as “we are all in Christ so there is no division”, conflicted with the racialized and gendered findings from our internal and external studies of our programs, colleges, and university. Data showed a lack of ability to hire and retain Black, Latino, Asian American, and native/Indigenous leadership and faculty.
Almost immediately after a new leader was assigned to my college, I began to experience
microaggressions and racial harassment that created a hostile work environment for me. I was accused of submitting the same application for an internal college grant that I had previously submitted for another grant. Although I provided evidence that this was not the case, my application was not accepted for review and no further discussion was permitted. Black people are frequently suspected of lacking integrity and being unwilling to work hard. The criminalization of Black people that is common throughout the country is also present in Christian spaces.
The scholarship and service of Black women in the academy is often minimized, scrutinized, and devalued (Edwards et al. 2011). In a review of my yearly goals involving teaching, service, and scholarship, my immediate supervisor commented, “We like to see more academic service.” At that time, I was on several university wide and college wide committees, a mentor for first generation college students, a spiritual mentor to a number of people, editor of a professional journal, and a reviewer for several highly competitive and well cited peer refereed academic journals and conferences. The message stung; a Black woman’s performance can never be good enough. However, this was a lie.
Actually, the institution was steeped in lies lies that said White was supreme, Black was evil, and culture and race did not matter. I recognized these falsehoods as wiles of the devil (Ephesians 6:11), tricks, ploys, and schemes Satan uses to divert attention from what is true and good. Navigating the hostile HWCI was complex and difficult for me because the religion and spirituality that were used to unite people against sin and spread the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ were also being weaponized against faculty, staff, and students of color in covert and destructive ways. Meetings that started in prayer proceeded to microaggressions, racialized and gendered violence, exploitation, and a general lack of love and hospitality.
I knew my time with this particular university needed to end when I published a single author book through Palgrave Macmillan. A direct supervisor dismissed my accomplishment, stating, “At the level you are at, you should be publishing with Harvard and Oxford Press.” This supervisor had made several attempts to characterize my scholarship as not meeting our university’s and college’s standards, and refused to apply my book towards the college and university scholarship requirement for that year. Oddly enough, neither this supervisor nor anyone else from my college or university had ever published a book with Oxford or Harvard Press.
Whereas White Christians in academia are assumed to be virtuous and provided immunity in questionable situations, the university system is not set up to notice or intervene in situations not involving racial slurs, bodily harm, or unequal treatment based on gender or race (Crenshaw 1991). Higher education leadership tends to lack knowledge of intersectionality, the impact of stereotypes, or patterns of racial harassment towards Black women (Harding 2004). Therefore, although my HWCI’s human resources personnel were able to clearly see that I had met the scholarship requirement and had not been recognized for it, they could not see the equally clear pattern of misogynoir.
The impact of the racism and misogynoir in a Christian institution on my health and wellbeing was layered and wide. When I had conflict with another believer, I felt awful. I wanted to be at peace with this person, so I asked her to mentor me. I sought her professional and career advice and made every attempt over a period of time to heal the relationship. Things would quiet down for a time, then new racialized incidents would occur, usually in our one to one meetings. She inferred that I was ill prepared or ill suited for higher education or that my service and scholarship did not meet the “standard.” The inference ignored the fact that I far exceeded the standards for service, teaching (above the national average), and scholarship as outlined in the university’s handbook. This is important because it illustrates the ways people have been socialized to think about Black people.
Over time, I became so anxious I began to make mistakes that were not normal for me. I lost my keys, overbooked myself, and forgot simple steps in work processes. For two or three months I was unable to sleep more than a few hours a night. I could not digest my food and my stomach hurt during 60% of a day. I
became extremely angry and frustrated because my attempts to resolve the issues in the relationship through meetings, prayer, and other interventions were not changing the situation. I began to overwork to earn my mentor’s acceptance, which made me impatient with my children and burned out at work. At one point, I wished something terrible would happen to her. Eventually, my skin was covered in large sores and my hair started to thin. I cried as I drove to work for about a year. As the sole income earner for my family and a mother to two young children, I felt immense pressure to keep my job. Although years earlier I had seen myself remaining at this very fine institution until retirement, I began to look for other places to share my gifts. At one time, I would have accepted any offer. This set of circumstances led me to seek professional medical, spiritual, and mental health interventions. It was at this point that I was introduced to mindfulness. I eventually discovered that practicing mindfulness helped alleviate some of the stress. The first thing I learned was that if mindfulness means paying attention to the present moment and Christian mindfulness demands truth in that moment, understanding present reality is foundational to Christian mindfulness. That meant recognizing lies wherever they are asserted. For Black Christian women in hostile HWCIs, remembering that certain widely accepted assumptions are lies of Satan and intentionally rejecting those lies is an essential mindfulness practice.
It is important to state that my experiences in the hostile HWCI occurred in the context of being a Black woman in US society. As such, I was active in schools, partnering with teachers and administrators to improve student services and protect my own children from structural racism. I attended board meetings and met with teachers and school leaders to discuss how to more effectively serve students from diverse backgrounds. As one of a few (12% or less) Black parents in the schools, I was often labeled aggressive. I was regularly isolated by teachers and other parents. There were times when my movement on campus was monitored and restricted. Our family was dealing with a huge wage gap. Although I had a terminal degree and worked at a university, I made less than most new K 12 teachers with MA degrees. The low wage made finding adequate housing difficult. And the location of the home dictated the quality of the schools and the safety of the neighborhoods.
These things raged unchecked—whether interpersonal conflict, intrapersonal issues, or societal injustices and ravaged my body, mind, and spirit. They heightened my awareness of the need for some way of restoring peace and wholeness. I found that way in Christian mindfulness.
This study used Black feminist and standpoint theories because they allowed me to share my feelings, everyday experiences, and knowledge of hostile HWCIs while describing my use of Christian mindfulness. The findings are presented in the context of my social position, which is disadvantaged in society but privileged in Christ. Standpoint and Black feminist theories help to contextualize the complexities of my experiences, feelings, and knowledge in a highly racialized and gendered society.
Biblical principles help the reader understand what influences my thinking, attitudes, and practices as they relate to mindfulness and making change in the institution and the world.
In Black feminist theory, attributed to Patricia Collins, writing and reflection are encouraged (Collins 2005). Writing is a common and everyday practice for many Black women in the academy (Collins 2005; Hardaway and Williams 2018). Autoethnography enables Black women to use their writing to describe and analyze their experiences and understand why they may respond to life in particular ways. “Black women writers have used writing to define their ideological positions” (Evans 2021, p. 204), some of which are universal to all Black women. Black women write as a means of self care, as therapy, to be productive, to meet academic requirements for promotion and tenure, to advocate, to encourage, and to challenge (Latunde 2022). Evans (2021) observed that the Black feminist practice of writing and talking about everyday experiences aligns with the commonness and consistency of
breathing, thinking, and acting most often associated with mindfulness and meditation. Standpoint theory, on the other hand, coined by Sara Harding to categorize sources of knowledge that center women’s knowledge and later theorized by Dorothy Smith and Patricia Collins, places me, a Black woman, at the center of the study to develop a particular Black feminist epistemology. Standpoint theory is a tool for understanding collective group discourse (Collins 2005). It assumes all women have similar experiences, and this is why it is paired with Black feminism and intersectionality (Harding 2004). Black women’s experiences in the academy are unique. Standpoint theory provides an intersectional insight focused on the social positioning of Black women at the junctures of race, class, and gender, but also situates me as a credible source of knowledge.
2.3.1. Setting
This study took place at a university offering bachelor, master’s, and doctoral programs on campus and at seven regional centers. The university enrolled 3800 4500 full time undergraduate students and approximately 4500 graduate students from 2013 to 2018. For the past 11 years, the undergraduate enrollment was approximately 5700, of which 44% were White, 4% were Black, 29% were Latino/Hispanic, and 9% were of Asian descent. Because more than 25% of students are from Hispanic, Chicano, Mexican, or Latino backgrounds, the institution has the designation of a “Hispanic Serving Institution.”. The demographics of the state where the school is located were as follows from 2010 to 2020: 5 6% Black, 13 15% Asian, 38 39% Latino/Hispanic, and 35 40% White (Public Policy Institute of California 2022). Approximately 75% of the university’s students are from within the state in which it is located. The tuition, depending on the program, is between $45,000 and $66,000 per year.
This study used Black feminist theory, autoethnography, standpoint theory, and narrative inquiry to explore the stories of a Black woman in the academy and their connection to the experiences of other Black women. These methodologies are acceptable when the researcher’s story is intrinsic to the study and when the researcher is a full member of the group researched, a visible member of the group in terms of published text, and committed to a research agenda focusing on improving theoretical understandings of the broader phenomenon (Anderson 2006, p. 375). In this study the researcher did not create distance between the narrator and researcher, but rather was an interactive voice. The study was guided by the following questions: How do Black women describe Christian mindfulness? What applications of Christian mindfulness do Black women use to promote health and wellbeing in hostile HWCIs?
Autoethnography was used to describe and analyze the stories of a Black woman to better understand her ideas about Christian mindfulness and how she used and continues to use Christian mindfulness to cope and thrive in the academy. Autoethnography allows for varying levels of description. Garza (2008) used it to critically interpret and reflect on his first year as a school district superintendent. His primary data source was a personal journal. He presented journal entries chronologically with no interpretation but concluded with lessons learned. Autoethnography requires personalization; first person voice is used to recount context, purposeful activities, and planned behavior. Autoethnography allowed me to be reflexive, and to examine my feelings, behaviors, and motives. The process was an intersectional strategy of resistance against “hegemonic power, economic exploitation, patriarchy, racial domination and gender oppression” (Esposito and Evans Winters 2021, p. 17). Descriptive research methodologies, such as surveys or interviews, would not have allowed me to be both subject and examiner, to be reflexive, or to use first person. Autoethnography acknowledges my subjectivity while permitting critical interpretation.
Narrative inquiry was first used to describe the personal stories of teachers (Connelly and Clandinin 1990). Since then, it has been used by Black women to describe and analyze their experiences in academia
(Walkington 2017; Nzinga 2020). Narrative inquiry is based on a belief that people understand and give meaning to their lives through stories. It involves gathering written and oral narratives while focusing on the meaning the researcher ascribes to the experiences presented in the stories; thus, it provides insight into some phenomenon or experience (Esposito and Evans Winters 2021).
Researchers using narrative inquiry attend to the ways the story is constructed, as well as the “cultural discourses that it draws upon” (Trahar 2009, p. 5).
Narrative inquiry and autoethnography make great companions because the blending of the two methodologies permits flexibility in how stories are gathered and analyzed while being mindful of the audience. Some researchers have criticized both narrative inquiry and autoethnography on the contentions that storytelling is not academic or analytic, that they lack supporting evidence, or that they exhibit Cartesian dualism. Patricia Collins (1986), in her extensive work using autoethnography, and Stephanie Evans in her significant works analyzing Black women’s memoirs (Evans 2021; Evans et al. 2019), described autoethnography and narrative inquiry as essential to understanding Black women’s experiences in highly racialized and gendered societies.
Autoethnography influenced the way the data were collected. In this case, it involved a systematic view of personal experiences in relation to the experiences of other Black women. The data sources for this study were journals, notes from discussions with others, written documents evidencing experiences, and observations. Data reviewed covered a span of about five years (2012 2017). Autoethnography is an appropriate tool “for fragments of experiences to be articulated and arranged in a collage” (Anderson 2006, p. 381). In order to ensure accuracy, I consulted notes; emails; photographs; and letters to or from mentors, therapists, doctors, people in my support systems, human resources personnel, and people from outside regulatory agencies. I recalled memories and made notes of them. I coded the data in ways that connected with the literature on mindfulness, Christian mindfulness, and Black women in academia.
The data were analyzed initially using a five step process. I sorted the data, reviewed and analyzed the data in view of the literature, created codes, revised the codes, and created categories. The initial coding yielded concepts of mindfulness, mind body stress reduction, Christian mindfulness, and Black women. These themes were re analyzed using an intersectional Black feminist lens and connected across themes to reconstruct and condense items. This process resulted in fewer themes, namely the following: the vast nature of mindfulness, Christian principles of mindfulness, and applying those principles in culturally and spiritually modified mindfulness practices.
Despite many efforts to reduce bias and autoethnography’s potential to make contributions to the development of knowledge, this study was limited by the subjective nature of the methodology. I used reflexivity to help me bring awareness of my multiple identities (Esposito and Evans Winters 2021). I may favor or dislike specific situations based on my own observations, feelings, experiences, and the experiences I share with others. I tried to balance this tendency by using literature, notes, and conversations to only share information that could be confirmed. In narrative research there is usually a separation between what is being studied and the one studying it. Although autoethnography often presents the voices and perspectives of those in power, I, as a Black woman in the US, represent only 2% of professors, 4% of all faculty of color, and 1.2% of the US population with terminal degrees. I believe that in this research, as with other autoethnographic studies of many Black women, we are empowered but not in power.
2.3.5. Findings
Three findings emerged from this exploration of my use of Christian principles and cultural and spiritually informed practices to maintain my health and wellbeing in the presence of racialized and gendered experiences in a hostile HWCI. First, Christian mindfulness encompasses a vast array of ways of thinking and being that promote awareness, attunement, focused attention, and openness to God. Second, Christian mindfulness sees things from God’s perspective. Thus, it involves an intent to serve and obey God, an increased awareness of God, and an openness or attitude of surrender. Third, Christian mindfulness applies the wisdom of God in specific practices, such as creating rituals and routines, following mind body spirit disciplines, attuning oneself to God, and remembering.
The data coalesced around three important themes, as follows:
Christian mindfulness is vast;
Christian mindfulness involves seeing things from God’s perspective;
Practicing Christian mindfulness in order to cope and thrive in hostile environments involves applying Godly wisdom.
The research showed that the principles found in scriptures and biblical teachings about the mind, heart, and body have influenced my understanding of Christian mindfulness. My racial and cultural background in the context of my religious experiences as an active Christian have also informed my ideas about Christian mindfulness. Results indicate that I define Christian mindfulness as an awareness of God, an openness to God, and paying attention to God. The principles and practices I use to experience this mindfulness are informed by biblical doctrines. These doctrines include, but are not limited to, the beliefs that God is near, God is personal, God is all knowing and all powerful, and that trials in the lives of believers serve a purpose. These biblical doctrines help me see things from God’s perspective.
Fortunately for me, I was given tools for success as a young child. We practiced good hygiene each morning in our home good physical, emotional, and spiritual hygiene. In addition to washing our faces, eating breakfast, and brushing our teeth, we gathered in a circle in the early mornings to renew our minds and hearts with words of God and affirmations. My mother guided us through a short prayer, shared a scripture, and offered specific words of affirmation for each child and our father. At school, songs, scripture memorization, and prayer constantly reminded me of God’s presence, his ideas, and his ways. This upbringing served as a template for me. During difficult times I reached back to some of these practices in order to cope and thrive.
As a follower of Jesus Christ, I have the following mandates: renew my mind daily, have a clean heart, put on the armor of God, and surrender my body to his will. Because I trust God, I have an attitude that is happy to comply. The study showed that I evidenced an intent to take on God’s perspective and to intentionally accomplish the mandates by asking for and applying God’s wisdom in dealing with the toxicity I experienced in the hostile HWCI. The wisdom God gave me led me to apply Christian principles in mindfulness practices.
The faith to believe what God says and act upon it is at the core of my personal relationship with Jesus Christ. From God’s perspective, trials serve a purpose in my life. I expect trials, and if I handle them properly (applying God’s wisdom), they help me to develop patience and perseverance. They teach me lessons I might
use to support someone else or in my own future trials. The Bible has over one hundred scriptures on trusting God. The holy scriptures encourage me to ask God for wisdom when I am in a trial. Clearly, my experience in the hostile HWCI was a trial. I needed to take on the attitude that Jesus Christ wants what is best for me and believe that God is making everything work for my good. The Christian mindfulness principles that enabled me to see things from God’s perspective during those five tumultuous years were an awareness of God, openness to him, and paying attention.
In the highly stressful situation of the interpersonal conflict described earlier, my first response was fear. I was frozen, with no idea of what to do. My next response was anger; I wanted to make this person pay for what I saw her doing to others and to me. I devised ways to let everyone know the evil she was doing. I was ready to fight back. Fortunately for me, my therapist, my family, and my friends helped me realize this was not the solution. Instead, I chose to focus on God’s character, nature, and words. This decision raised my awareness of the capabilities of my God. I was reminded of his nature; he is a gracious, loving, all powerful, and righteous God. I reminded myself of my position in Jesus Christ. He is with me, he is in me, and without him I can do nothing. I was reminded through scriptures, prayer, and conversations to keep my focus on God. Reading scriptures that affirmed God’s concern for whatever mattered to me (Psalms 138:8) reminded me that he would not leave me and increased my confidence in him. That was exactly what I need to cope with the conflict.
The increased awareness that God was with me and the realization that I was totally dependent on him positioned me to be more open to God. I sought God’s will. In doing so, I noticed that I needed more time and space to connect to God. I set an intention to be open to what he may be doing with or in the situation. I acknowledged my feelings by writing them and communicating them to God in prayer. I thought about God’s faithfulness, nature, and character. After a while, this openness led to moments of feeling hope. My attitude shifted; I no longer focused on coping or survival. Instead, I entered into a season of praise and worship. I sang, listened to music, and danced to words that reminded me of the good news of Jesus. Once, I came out of my office to a note on my car window that read, “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9). At the time I did not know who left this inspiration on my car, but I was encouraged by it and open to it being true.
Openness increased my awareness and helped me to pay attention to what was happening around me, in me, through me, and with others. I saw clearly that not only was I the victim of a spiritual attack, but so was the person who was harming me. The following are some of the instructions God’s wisdom gave me during this time; these instructions are connected to some of the mindfulness practices that would heal my body, soul, and spirit, and provide rest for my mind:
Join a community of believers engaged in scholarship, community service, and the study of God’s words;
Increase your service in your community;
Develop rituals and routines that include work boundaries and increase self care;
Pay more attention to your physical health;
Develop and enforce a writing routine (discipline, obedience);
Engage in mind body spirit practices that you enjoy;
Spend more quality time with family and friends (bonding, increased safety, joy);
Continue to see a mental health therapist;
Take copious notes about incidences at work;
Increase time walking, especially in nature (quiet, reflective, movement);
Decrease time spent watching TV;
Refocus your attention on what God has done for others, and what he did for you in the past (gratitude, praise, worship);
Develop affirmations of faith.
What was I paying attention to? Not always to scriptures and God’s words, but often to people’s behaviors and to how the behaviors might hurt me. My mother often reminded me that the enemy is not people, but powers and principalities working in and through people. This truth has served as a great reminder that what I pay attention to grows, and I cannot allow myself to focus on the wrong things. I had to refocus my attention from the particular person who offended me to God and myself. I began recalling scriptures I had heard and read since childhood. These became my prayers and words of affirmations for myself, as follows: “I am more than a conqueror through Christ Jesus.”. I remembered the many times God had brought me through difficulties. I also thought about how God had seen other Black people through very horrendous situations and the fact that despite many obstacles we are still here and many of us are flourishing. I started to visualize myself putting on the whole armor of God to fight this spiritual battle against principalities and powers.
I fasted and prayed and asked God what he wanted me to learn and what he wanted me to do. Time away from specific foods, activities, and conversation gave me time to focus on and pay attention to God. I became aware of my specific times of vulnerability. I noticed that negative reactions and responses to people and situations occurred during specific times and circumstances. I realized that when I was not well rested or when I was extremely angry, anxious, or lonely I responded poorly. I did not respond well when I was rushed or when an immediate response was requested. In these situations, I sometimes become defensive, raised my voice, shut down, or said or thought unkind things. I saw the negative cycle these reactions created, for example, something happens, I react, my reaction triggers others to also respond poorly and the result is conflict, miscommunication, or misunderstanding.
I noticed that when I did not sleep well my digestion was poor, my hair thinned, and I felt sick. I found myself holding my breath as if to hold on to the memories of the hurt and anger. I noticed that I did not want to release the anger or the situation to God. Because I paid attention to these things about myself, I began to think about God’s perspective.
God’s perspective came to me through reading the Bible, spending time in prayer, having conversations with others, and paying attention to situations and circumstances. It is where I obtained wisdom about how to apply Christian principles and how to shift my behaviors. For example, I paid attention to staying rested, fed, and giving myself permission to move at a slower pace. I worked intentionally to stay full of joy and peace. I took time to pause in my responses and better prepare for the day. I developed rituals and routines that helped me pay more attention to God and myself, and to see others as God sees them. God sees people as made in his image. I was able to make more conscious choices about how to prepare for the day, how to care for my body, and how I might respond to various situations, even if the best response was no response at all.
My intent as a follower of Christ has always been to listen to and obey God. Listening enabled me to see myself, my circumstances, and my experiences from God’s perspective. Obeying meant applying the principles he showed me, using spiritually informed and culturally adaptive mindfulness to improve my health and wellbeing. I developed practices that promoted what I believe to be God’s ultimate goal for my life, namely a clean heart, a renewed mind, and a surrendered body (Garzon and Ford 2018). I created rituals and routines that integrate mind, body, and spirit disciplines into my daily habits. I scheduled time for these things and did them no matter how I felt or where I found myself geographically. They became physical and spiritual disciplines for me.
The practices described in this section are the exercises and routines that enabled me to overcome the toxicity of those difficult years in a hostile HWCI and to emerge healthy and successful. I continue in them today. Many of these practices are strategies of mind body stress reduction and meditation as mindfulness, each with scientific evidence of its efficacy in improving the overall health and wellbeing of those who engage in it routinely. Many techniques have been modified to align with biblical doctrines, and all are culturally informed.
Much has been written about the power of morning routines. I first learned morning routines and rituals from my mother. She learned them from her parents, who owned a large farm and were solopreneurs, business people, and parents to 10 children. My mother, owner and principal of a school, gathered our family of eight in a circle in our kitchen at approximately 5:45 each morning. Before beginning our other responsibilities, before the children headed for school, we had a time of prayer and edification. I can still hear her praying and making statements of affirmation about each one of her six children and my father, such as “We thank God for Alexis; she is such a friendly child and is doing so well in mathematics. Bless her, Lord”.
Today I rise by 5:45 a.m. I am mostly quiet for the first two hours. My routine is flexible and the order of activities varies, but the disciplines are consistent. My morning routine begins with a ritual of prayer; it is very important that I begin the day with a focus on God. Then a short Qigong or yoga practice stretches my body and gets oxygen flowing to my brain. I take a 10 to 15 min walk in nature; this is my quiet time. The walks wake up my body and give me space to cultivate mindfulness by focusing my mind on God. During my walks I talk with God and listen to him. Our conversations involve adoration, thanksgiving, confession, and forgiveness. During this time, I am keenly aware of God and open to what he wants to say to me.
In those difficult years, I concentrated on paying attention in particular ways during my morning walks and throughout the day. Because I was paying more attention to God, I began to notice what was happening in me. I tended to ruminate on the ways Satan used “Christian” people in the academy to enact and perpetrate violence on Black people. This made me feel angry, discouraged, and depleted. I noticed what those feelings did to my body and energy level; they made me tired and anxious. I also noticed pain in some parts of my body. I began to acknowledge those feelings. Previous to working with a therapist, I had believed I should ignore or get rid of my feelings. Once I began paying attention to them, I just recognized them without judging them. As an intervention to rumination, I gathered the promises of God on little cards, read them aloud to myself, and meditated on the words. I practiced acting as if the words were true and made myself feel the reality of the words. This exercise left me feeling perplexed, inspired, or hopeful. I shared my concerns with God in prayer, in journals, and in other writings (brain dumps). As I paid more attention to God, I was confronted with the fact that I did
not completely trust him; if I did trust, I would not be anxious or fearful. This realization led me to identify a set of affirmations of faith and create a ritual of using those affirmations in the mornings and whenever else needed.
I continue to make affirmations of faith a part of my morning ritual. Affirmations are short statements that combat negative thoughts or mindsets. I first learned about affirmations in my home and when I attended a predominantly Black Christian school as a young child. We memorized scriptures and made affirmations, such as “I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me” and “I am somebody.” I use affirmations to interrupt negative thoughts and wrong thinking. I tend to be a high achiever and ruminate on what went wrong or what I would like to fix. I counteract this unhealthy tendency through affirmations of faith.
Unlike secular forms of mindful affirmations, the declarations I center my attention on are statements of God’s greatness, not my own strengths or the powers within nature. Thus, my affirmations are usually scriptural and not based on positive self talk. They include statements, such as “I am justified by grace”, “I am reconciled by grace”, and “I am forgiven”. These affirmations are reminders of what God says about me and others (Colossians 1:20; I John 1:9; Romans 5:1). Making affirmations of faith is a ritual I carry out throughout the day to interrupt negative thoughts and lies Satan tells me about myself and other people. I try to imagine, visualize, and feel the truth of what I am saying. When the affirmations are not enough to build my confidence in Christ or settle my fears and anxieties, I listen to the words of God through biblical lessons, in prayer, or in conversations with others.
As a follower of Christ, I set an intention to have the mind of Christ. In order to raise my awareness of what the mind of Christ is, I engage in a ritual of reading and hearing scriptures. Each morning I recall the promises of God and God’s words by reading scriptures or listening to inspirational biblical messages. As I engage with scriptures, I raise my awareness of God’s thoughts, ways, and character. Anything that reminds me of the words of God, whether scriptures, notes, or songs, make me more open to the all powerful, omnipresent, and all knowing God I serve, who resides within me. This awareness increases my confidence in him as my Lord and savior. There is relief in knowing I do not have to fight any battle alone. I am reminded that God is with me and that if I dwell in his secret place with him no evil will come near me (Psalms 91). Even when this is not how I feel, the Bible states it to be true, and I choose to believe God’s words.
The holy Bible demonstrates patterns of favor and faithfulness to those who love God and keep his commandments. I read old prayer requests, review my journals, and recall God’s faithfulness in my own life. Three specific memories that always remind me of God’s faithfulness are my completion of a doctorate program in the summer of 2007, the offer of a full time faculty position at a private Christian university immediately after graduation, and the birth of a healthy 10 pound 2 ounce son despite an umbilical cord being wrapped around his neck. Not only do I remember God’s grace, but I also remain aware of some of the strategies I used to get through those stressful times. Some of the strategies I used were remaining in community, praying, reciting affirmations of faith, and spending time in nature.
I am from a background that embraces music and movement in all aspects of life. In the Yoruba culture, music is life. My mother is a trained dancer, musician, and educator. My father is a martial artist and licensed therapist. They are both devoted Christians and it is impossible to separate what they do from who they are. Their faith is ever present in all they do, from music selection to the choice of words used in affirmations to the types of movement used at any given time. Most of their examples I witnessed involved Christianity and mind body spirit practices that promote the integration of music and movement into life.
I listen to God’s words as I engage in mind body movement. My favorite movement exercises are short Qigong practices and prescriptive yoga. Prescriptive yoga is geared for specific purposes or issues. I most often use yoga for focus in the mornings. I practice forward folds, lotus and warrior ½ poses, and neck stretches. There are three simple yoga moves I use each morning to get started, as follows: Dangling pose, Warrior II, and Triangle pose. On rigorous or heavily emotional days, I use very upbeat and inspirational music; “Immediately” by Tasha Cobbs is my go to.
Before the sun rises I enjoy three quick Qigong practices, namely the opening exercise, turning of the moon, and arm swings. Qigong is a moving meditation focused on light movement, breathing deeply, getting the body to open up and relax, and calming the mind. I stand in a comfortable position with my feet firmly on the ground, knees slightly bent and shoulders back, and focus on coordinating my breaths with the movements. A cultural modification I make is moving energy, especially when I feel weighed down. I start by bouncing vigorously, swinging my arms, tapping, stomping, or even clapping aloud. Then, I proceed with a brief Qigong or yoga practice. I engage in a 10 to 25 min intense cardio workout that includes dancing, clapping, jumping rope, and stomping. Hearing the word of faith through gospel music inspires me to keep moving and builds my confidence and faith in God as I discharge energy and move my body. I also plan a 15 min mid-day nap during particularly stressful times. Songs like “The Blessing” by Elevation Worship resonate and increase my awareness of God. The lyrics are as follows:
May His favor be upon you
And a thousand generations
And Your family and your children
And their children, and their children
May His favor be upon you
And a thousand generations
And your family and your children
And their children, and their children
May His presence go before you
And behind you, and beside you
All around you, and within you
He is with you, He is with you
In the morning, in the evening
In your coming, and your going
In your weeping, and rejoicing
He is for you, He is for you
He is for you, He is for you
He is for you, He is for you
He is for you, He is for you
Writing has been a vehicle for healing for me (Evans 2021). Writing, like other mindfulness practices,
runs deep within me. My parents are writers. I have vivid memories of my mother writing down everything from her goals to business documents. My father wrote notes for his Bible study lessons, presentations, and sessions as a licensed marriage and family therapist. At this very moment my mother, at 79 years of age, has written over 10 books and has an office covered in written prayers and goals. My father, at 77, has maintained a Christian blog and created a Facebook community for martial artists.
My writing discipline consists of one hour writing blocks five days a week. Writing is a part of my morning routine, following my ritual of prayer. This is important because I depend on God to assist me with writing.
Since my doctoral program, I have prayed specifically regarding what to write about and how to do it effectively. Therefore, without fail, I sit with a timer to work on books, articles, and other peer reviewed manuscripts. I play NeoSoul, African drums, and Latin jazz funk instrumentals to keep me inspired. Music and aesthetics have played a huge role in my professional success and personal healing. I make my space aesthetically appealing by integrating candles, books, fresh flowers, and essential oils.
I am intentional about writing in ways that spread the good news of hope. As a scholar I can write on many topics and perspectives, but I want to be a voice for those who have had their voices marginalized. I have noticed that much of the scholarship on Black and Latino families blames parents for the achievement gap; it characterizes them as uninvolved. When I became aware that there was a dearth of literature on what works to support Black and Latino students in their success and wellbeing in school, I shifted my scholarship. I began writing to raise awareness of the abundance of gifts and strengths that lie within all people. I chose qualitative methods to capture the stories and perspectives of those from whom I learn. I now use my writing to center the voices and perspectives of people from historically marginalized communities, including widows, the fatherless, and the oppressed. I write to promote mindfulness and concepts of Christian hospitality in schools and universities. My academic writing is not, however, all for me, but also to serve the academy, students, families, and communities by spreading hope.
Mindful yoga has been an important tool in my thriving. Mindful yoga integrates attention and control of the breath, affirmations, visualizations, music, and physical movement. I use yoga prescriptively. For example, if I am grieving, I engage in a yoga exercise targeted for grief. I often use yoga aimed at writing and creativity Cat Cow, shoulder exercises, seated forward folds, setting intentions, creating awareness of the breath and body, three legged dog, runner’s lunge, and more. Because the most accessible forms of yoga tend to be secular and centralize Whiteness, I make cultural and spiritual adaptations. For example, I carry a great load as a Black woman, so I may need to move before I sit for a quiet practice. I imagine myself shaking off worries, fears, and other people’s responsibilities. I may use Latin funk, the sounds of African drums, or no sound at all. In yoga there may be instruction to affirm oneself, and I make my affirmations about who I am in God or who He is in me. It is common in yoga to engage in a prayer hand posture; I use that time to listen to God or to thank God for something. I pay attention to what I am being guided to think, say, and do, and ensure that what I choose aligns with my beliefs.
One of the practices of mindfulness is noticing. Yoga asks that you notice what is happening with your breath and in your mind and your body. I take time to notice during and after a morning walk. This discipline helps to ground me. It keeps me in the present moment. It keeps my mind from wandering and worrying about the day before it has even started. I have noticed that as soon as I wake in the morning I become overwhelmed with thoughts about the things I need to do. This surge of cortisone causes me to feel stressed, become impatient, and complain. By noticing this, I am able to intervene, to refocus so that I notice what I am doing in the present moment. What I notice as I walk and in my morning routine are my thoughts, the moment, my body, and my breath. After a mind body activity, I notice how my body and mind feel. Intentionally noticing
brings awareness to things that may be going on in my body, such as pain or worry. I have recognized pain or feelings of depletion in my body that sparked a visit with my physician. Those visits were revealing.
I have noticed that the more I am present and noticing, the less judgmental I am. I am more patient, slower to respond, more grateful, and more aware of God’s presence in myself and others. This noticing has improved areas of my life. For example, when I noticed that I like to move and do things quickly, I realized that quiet time and a slower pace were areas in which I needed to grow. I noticed that I like to rush the yoga exercises and I grow impatient with sitting to ground or breathe. I also noticed that when I sit in the moment to be fully present and engage in the process, yoga and other experiences are more gratifying. I saw this pattern of rushing and, thereby, missing key moments at academic conferences, meetings, and with friends and loved ones. I realized I was cheating myself of the full experiences by not taking my time, slowing down, and engaging in the entire process even if I thought some parts contributed negligibly to my desired outcomes. Noticing this pattern enabled me to understand that it is in the quiet, slower times that I see and hear from God and am able to best reflect.
Community is cultural and spiritual for me. The relationships within the communities of which I am a part are essential to my thriving. During my difficult season, I joined a small group of Christians focused on writing for publication. We met weekly to discuss all sorts of things, including strategies for integrating our faith into our writing, as well as strategies for overcoming hostile interactions on campus. I was also a part of several campus wide initiatives geared towards creating an inclusive climate for neurodivergent individuals, as well as a racially and linguistically diverse faculty, staff, and students. Coming together with other believers in Christ to solve real problems in ways that aligned with my faith was empowering. Conversations in these communities often reminded me to focus on and pay attention to God’s words, His nature, and my identity in Christ. They reminded me that anything was possible with God. These communities made space for sharing difficult stories, but also affirmed me with words of faith and with friendships. I was able to notice that I was not the only one in distress. Others were too, and I was able to encourage, pray for, and affirm them as they affirmed me.
On a similar note, I continued to gather with fellow believers in small church groups, one on one, and in large group gatherings. These affiliations and interactions kept my focus and awareness, for the most part, on Godly things. Each week, our small group dove into the scriptures and had discussions about their applications for our lives. I was able to share my struggles with Christian academic settings. Monthly gatherings with my sorority, mostly Christian women, also provided me with social, emotional, and spiritual support. Black women value community and service; these are what bring many Christians and Black women together. Therefore, I increased my time in service to people in community with others. This decision removed the focus from me and my issues.
The study took place in a predominately White, private, evangelical Christian institution in the West over a five year period. The stress and structural racism often associated with the experiences of Black women in HWCIs is the reason I call these institutions hostile. The long history of exclusion, isolation, devaluation, and violence from the academy towards Black people, especially women, is well documented and still happening. The inappropriate use of Black bodies in the academy dates back to (1932), and comes in many forms, including unethical experimentation, low wages, stealing runaway slaves, the weathering of Black women, and the disproportionality in number of contingent workers
(Savitt 1982). To ignore and dismiss this history and then blame Black women for their skepticism of mental health and healthcare is victimizing and violent, and ignores social constructs and structural systems of oppression (Giles 2010; Pew Research Center n.d.).
Concepts of religion, culture, race, and gender were emphasized in this study because of the unique setting, and to highlight the interplay of dynamics within the setting and for Black women. This study used autoethnography and standpoint and Black feminist theories to describe and analyze my personal experiences using Christian mindfulness to cope and thrive in the academy. These methodologies and methods have been used by other researchers to understand the experiences of Black women in the academy (Esposito and Evans Winters 2021). Black feminist and standpoint theories have been used in conjunction with memoirs, ethnography, and autoethnography to understand the experiences of Black women in dehumanizing spaces (Evans et al. 2017). Literature describes the academy as a place that devalues scholar practitioners and community based research, disproportionately situates Black women as contingent workers, fails to promote Black women to senior leadership positions, and fails to protect Black women from racial aggressions inside and outside of classrooms all practices that contribute to dehumanization for Black women (Cox 2008; Nzinga 2020).
In this study, a definition of Christian mindfulness emerged, which centered on being open to God, being aware of God, and paying attention to God. This definition is in line with Kopel and Habermas’s (2019) understanding that Christian mindfulness begins with philosophical and biblical truths and is followed by personal application of that truth. Kopel et al. described Christian mindfulness as a variant of mindfulness found in the West that emphasizes reflection on biblical teachings and God’s interactions with man, nature, and things (2019). My definition of Christian mindfulness aligns practices with biblical truths and centers my personal relationship with God, while also raising awareness of God’s greatness.
The emphasis on God is a distinctive feature of Christian mindfulness; rather than having an open and empty mind, I think about my personal salvation, my relationship with God, and who God is to me and to the universe. Because I see God as the creator of all, my focus is on scriptures, words of faith, and God’s attributes, character, and promises (Kopel and Habermas 2019). My focus is not on my own powers or the powers of nature.
There is little research that discusses how other Black Christian women describe Christian mindfulness, but what is available suggests their practice of mindfulness supports the above definition. A significant number of African American women identify as Christians. Indeed, 83% of all African Americans believe in God, and 75% pray daily (Pew Research Center n.d.). African Americans are more likely to identify as Christian than any other religion. When Black women are explicitly asked about mindfulness they often reference prayer, prayer with attention to and control of the breath, and mindful meditation on biblical readings or teachings (Evans 2021). These practices are among those detailed in this study as culturally informed elements of Christian mindfulness.
The findings of this study point to two concepts that distinguish Christian mindfulness from secular forms. These are as follows: seeing things from God’s perspective, and using Godly wisdom to shape practice.
Seeing things from God’s perspective necessitates paying attention to God, increasing one’s awareness of God, and being open to God. My intention to become aware of and pay attention to God comes from my personal relationship with Christ. This intent is what discriminates Eastern forms of mindfulness from Christian mindfulness (Kopel and Habermas 2019). Garzon and Ford (2018) understood that “adapting mindfulness to a Christian worldview requires the acceptance of key doctrines of the [Christian] faith” (p. 11).
This study clearly showed my practice of mindfulness was influenced by my following doctrinal positions: God is near, God is personal, God is all knowing and all powerful, I should avoid spiritual influences that are not from God, and God is in me but also separate from me (Garzon and Ford 2018). Holding these doctrines enabled me to use approaches to mindfulness that aligned with my belief system.
My reliance on biblical doctrine to shape my mindfulness practices is typical of the behaviors of many Black women seeking Godly ways to achieve and maintain mental and emotional health. A phenomenological study of seven Black women found the women used positive religious strategies, including meditation on God’s word, gathering with community to study the Bible, use of scriptures to focus attention, and viewing God as “with us”, to cope and thrive (Avant Harris et al. 2019). In her in depth study of the practices three Black women used for mental healing and body nurturing, Panton (2017) described the “Christian perspective” on mindfulness as a connection between the physical, spiritual, and emotional parts of a human; she linked this perspective to an explicit awareness of and openness to God. A study of 50 female Black or African American mental health practitioners or academic professionals in mental health fields demonstrated that spirituality played a dual role for the participants’ Black female clients. The clients reported aspects of peace when engaging in prayer or meditation, and some also chose prayer over seeking help from mental health professionals (Bell 2017). These findings are not surprising because most African Americans describe themselves as “religious” or spiritual (Musgrave et al. 2002).
As the findings illustrate, I use Christian principles to guide how I practice mindfulness. As an integrated person who brings a spiritual and a cultural lens to most of the things I do, I have difficulty calling some things Christian and others not as long as the “others” do not contradict biblical teachings. Rather, I am careful to seek God’s perspective and apply Godly wisdom. For example, although some forms of mindfulness invite non judgmental acceptance of experiences, thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, my faith informs me to bring these things in alignment with the mind of Christ. Therefore, a big part of what I do entails adapting mindfulness practices to my worldview (Garzon and Ford 2018).
The way I approach mindfulness is also influenced by the fact that I am a Black woman. For Black women, meditation and mindfulness have long included affirmations, the use of specific types of music and movement, dance, quiet time, prayer, walking, time in nature or engaged in a relaxing activity, and writing or reading (Anderson 2017; Evans et al. 2019; Magee 2019; Watson et al. n.d.). Thus, the practices that have healed and continue to sustain me and countless other Black women are both spiritually and culturally informed. This finding is in line with the National Board for Certified Counselors’ observation that integration of an “individual’s religious background is not only culturally responsive, but ethically responsive” (quoted in Avant Harris et al. 2019, p. 10).
One practice detailed in this study that is associated with Christian mindfulness, as well as the religious background of many Black women, is prayer. In Christian tradition, mindfulness includes kataphatic and apophatic prayer and breath awareness that is, meditating on words and images related to the scriptures, as well as practicing the presence of God or quiet contemplation, and practicing breath awareness (Garzon and Ford 2018; Hathaway and Tan 2009).
Prayer recurs in the literature describing how Black women cope in difficult circumstances. The prayers of Black woman are often collective and focused on salvation, liberation, peace, justice, and forgiveness. Mendenhall et al. (2017) analyzed the experiences of eleven Black mothers parenting in violent contexts and found the mothers used prayer and breath work to “transcend” or shift attention from their plights in order to persist. They used prayer deliberately “to calm down or change their
behavior” (Mendenhall et al. 2017, p. 192).
In a study using duo ethnography and critical race feminism to explore the experiences of Black women in the academy, Roby and Cook (2019) and Hicks Tafari and Simpkins (2019) found that the women used prayer and writing tools for resistance. An interesting finding on mindfulness research is that most Black women pray as they engage in yoga, perform movement based activities, listen to music, serve, meditate, write, or use affirmations (Evans 2021). I often integrate prayer into my walking, writing, Qigong, yoga, and other activities.
Whereas prayer is frequently associated with Christian mindfulness, yoga is sometimes disregarded by Christians. Although in some contexts and forms yoga is associated with evil or cultish behavior (Panton 2017), I found ways to incorporate my religious and spiritual beliefs into the practice without making references to “other” sources of power, including myself. This adaptation to mindfulness gives a Christian approach to yoga. Historically, the literature on Black women’s wellness describes the use of yoga and meditation as mindfulness. This form of yoga encompasses physical poses, use of music, use of writing to heal, travel and journaling, prayer, meditation, and mindful eating or drinking with a focus on the breath, non judgment, paying attention, and being open (Evans 2021). I use these practices as Christian mindfulness, and what distinguishes my practice of yoga from more traditional forms is my explicit acknowledgement of God before, during, and after these activities, and my clear intention to raise my awareness of God. I and other Black women pray and adapt yoga and other forms of mindfulness to align with our spiritual and cultural knowledge.
The study showed that the spiritual and cultural pieces also inform my use of music, movement, and writing. My music choices reflect both my cultural background and my personal relationship with Christ. Music with movement, music to write by, music to celebrate, and music to motivate run deep in Black culture. In the Yoruba culture, music is intertwined with all aspects of life. Yoruba people are known for advanced drumming; perhaps this is why the drums resonate with me during my writing routine and motivate me to persist in writing. Johnson and Carter (2019) found that Black Americans use instruments of traditional African values related to positive ideas and behaviors.
This study demonstrated that practicing Christian mindfulness promotes spiritual, emotional, and physical healing and wellness. Specifically, it enabled me to cope in a hostile HWCI. This finding is confirmed by the literature that suggests that journaling (a mindfulness practice) and meditation are effective methods for healing emotional pain and critical to problem solving and navigating the academy (Hall et al. 2007). Discussing the interlocking systems of race, class, and gender oppression is Black feminist, intersectional, healing, and informative. Black feminist thought, which is culturally informed, has been promoted in therapeutic approaches with Black women (Collins 1986; Woods Giscombe 2010). One scholar described a womanist approach to wellness for Black women in the academy in very practical activities including drinking water, getting high quality sleep, exercising, breathing properly, spending time in nature, having quiet time, practicing regular meditation, visualizing, and maintaining sources of spiritual inspiration (Evans 2021). In this study, my integration of a Christian worldview and personal beliefs related to my experiences proved effective in the attainment of mental health (Day Vines et al. 2021).
The literature points to some of the ways the mindfulness practices in this study promote health and wellness. For example, walking reduces stress hormones, anxiety, and blood pressure, and increases focus and clarity (Harvard Medical School n.d.). Walking raises endorphins and dopamine, two hormones associated with mental health. Walking in nature boosts the immune system, increases optimism, and lowers cortisol (Harvard Medical School n.d.).
Along the same lines, writing has been shown to be helpful for managing anxiety, reducing stress, and
increasing hope and gratitude. Journaling and other forms of writing, such as brain dumps and writing for advocacy and justice, are associated with empowerment and wellness (Evans et al. 2019; Evans 2021; Hicks Tafari and Simpkins 2019; Watson et al. n.d.).
Prayer has been associated with decreased depression and positive emotional health for Black women (Chatters et al. 2018; Woods Giscombe 2010). Affirmations have been demonstrated to be protective against the negative effects of stress on the mind and body (Creswell et al. 2005), and to decrease rumination, increase perceptions of safety, promote healthier eating, and improve academic achievement (Moore 2021). I modified the idea of affirmations to align with biblical doctrines. I added tapping, an emotional freedom technique, which is helpful for depression, anxiety, and stress, to make my affirmations a part of my subconscious (Bach et al. 2019).
I gathered in community as a means of healing, coping, and thriving. Gathering with community is aligned with my cultural and biblical worldviews. Socializing, connecting, and a focus on relationships have been identified as strengths of Black people (Avant Harris et al. 2019). This form of collective identity is manifested in symbols, speech patterns, attitudes, values, beliefs, and feelings. It is cultural and associated with wellbeing (Johnson and Carter 2019). I gather with people who share my faith and/or racial and cultural background. We share a belief that we depend on one another for our survival and success, whether regarding promotion, tenure, or advocacy for our children and others. Although I do gather with specific Christian groups, I also connect with secular groups for the purpose of serving the community. I believe service to others is aligned with biblical principles even when it includes non believers. Focusing my attention on those I can serve is both biblical and cultural and has been healing for me.
Volunteering may lower blood pressure, decrease depression, and increase connectedness (Watson et al. n.d.). Black women in the academy value service, and often integrate it into their teaching and scholarship. Gathering with believers and serving others are biblical principles taught in many churches (Garzon and Ford 2018). Although racism is pervasive and can be encountered in any group, including those organized for service, it exists in some settings to a greater extent than in others. Mental health professionals recommend that Black women leave an environment when racism is evident, pervasive, and pronounced (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention n.d.; DeGruy 2005; Edwards et al. 2011). Culturally proficient clinicians realize the choice to leave the academy and have other options is a privilege (Edwards et al. 2011; Nzinga 2020). As a Christ follower, my intent, focus, and motivations are often, but not always, centered on God. Therefore, in the plethora of strategies I use, including prayer, quiet time, morning routines, affirmations, community, service to others, praise and thanksgiving, mind–body practices, and attention to the breath, the intent is to obey God.
Incorporation of culturally and spiritually specific practices “that raise consciousness and foster resilience and empower Black women” has been associated with decreased toxic stress and increased wellness (Bryant Davis et al. 2015; Evans 2021; Woods Giscombe 2010). I used the mindfulness practices of rising early, writing, being in a community, and implementing rituals and routines to raise my awareness of God and to pay attention to God, myself, and others in ways that were not previously available to me. The literature suggests that other Black women inside and outside of the academy have used early rising times, rituals and routines, journaling, writing memoirs, storytelling, mindfulness as meditation, and community to heal themselves, their loved ones, and their communities (Anderson 2017; Bryant Davis et al. 2015; Evans et al. 2017; Hall et al. 2007).
In addition to the findings discussed above, this study contributes to the social science field an example of a valuable approach to research and knowledge creation. The process I used to collect, reflect, and analyze my narratives in conjunction with the literature is a model that can be useful for other groups and other settings. Autoethnography and narrative inquiry created space for me to identify, acknowledge, and discuss my feelings and experiences related to working in hostile HCWIs. A review of my journals, notes, emails, and other documents provided me with data to create the stories that explored my experiences. This methodology is credible and has been used to increase society’s knowledge about the ways Black women cope and thrive in various settings, including the academy. Anderson (2017) used autoethnography to examine travel journal and blog entries over a period of five years and reported that her “planned behaviors” were part of her self care, healing, and empowerment. Evans (2021) detailed the ways Dr. Anna Julia Cooper used journaling to gain insights and develop theoretical frameworks to understand how identity and education intersect. Braid, as cited in Long (2014), demonstrated that reflective writing is one of the best means of measuring one’s personal frame of reference.
Increasing amounts of scholarship within the academy encourage Black women to identify, acknowledge, and express their feelings about their conditions and treatment (Hooks 1984; Woods Giscombe 2010). Black feminism suggests this is both empowering and healing at the same time. The empowerment comes from sharing stories and perspectives often lost in spaces, such as the academy, that place great value on disintegration, monetization, and competition. These values are often misaligned with those of Black women. Furthermore, the autoethnography process aligns with standpoint theory, narrative inquiry, and healing centered practices. Unfortunately, there are movements within the academy to hinder these critical processes and the conversations they provoke. This is unfortunate because discussions about race are critical in interventions for racial trauma associated with racism (Bryant et al. 2022).
This qualitative autoethnographic study of my narratives describe my ideas about Christian mindfulness and explain how I use them to cope and thrive in the academy. Autoethnography of Black women’s experiences is an effective method for adding to the literature on Black women’s health and wellness. The process of engaging in autoethnography is healing in and of itself. The opportunity to describe, analyze, and reflect upon my own experiences in conjunction with the experiences of other Black people is empowering and affirming. Black women’s use of narratives and memoirs as primary sources is well documented in the literature (Esposito and Evans Winters 2021). It is aligned with Black feminist thought, standpoint theory, and intersectionality.
I believe that taking on God’s perspectives of life is a form of Christian mindfulness. My relationship with Jesus Christ and adoption of biblical doctrines set the parameters of the principles and practices I would use to cope and thrive in a hostile HWCI. I set an intention to raise my awareness of God, be open to God, and pay attention to God. The practices motivated by these principles were rituals, routines, writing, and walking, among others. This study identified the ways I adapt mindfulness culturally and spiritually to cope and thrive under the stress, structural racism, and the gendered violence I encounter.
I believe the negative conditions that exist for Black women are a result of sin and the fall of man. I also believe there are opportunities for individual and organizational healing and reconciliation in hostile HWCIs, but these are available only in community and with the active participation of people inside and outside of the academy. Christian mindfulness does not happen in isolation. It is an experience that requires individuals to be aware of, open to, and paying attention to God so they can come together collectively in faith and service to make individuals, organizations, systems, and structures better. Black women have been situated at the margins of society. They often lack position and power in the academy to make change. Black feminism
and standpoint theory help to bring the complexities of race and gender in a highly racialized society to the forefront.
The process of using autoethnography of narratives helped me to document my experiences, process my emotions, and problem solve. Journaling, writing, and leaning into the literature on Black women’s wellness and the academy helped me to heal and create new knowledge while learning how to navigate the academy as a Black woman. Acknowledging the structural barriers, both racial and gendered, and engaging in critical conversations about race and racism are healing interventions that enable Black people and make contributions to knowledge. Despite their positioning, Black women in the academy are not powerless. They continue to use their cultural and spiritual strengths to positively impact their spheres of influence. Specifically, they use their scholarship, teaching, and service as mechanisms for healing, advocacy, knowledge creation, and change.
Adapting mindfulness to a Christian worldview helped me remember my position in relation to Jesus Christ and not to react out of the fear or anger commonly associated with racial stress and trauma. Using some of the mindfulness strategies mentioned connected me so closely with Jesus Christ that I became confident about his character and his promises to me. I created space for Christian mindfulness with rituals and routines. I used writing, music and movement, walking, community, remembering, and affirmations of faith to heal and promote openness. Overall, these strategies calmed some of my fears and made me less anxious. Eventually, I was able to sleep and digest my food. Over time, I made fewer mistakes and reacted less negatively to the microaggressions, lies, and insults to my intelligence and leadership preparation.
My personal relationship with Christ became central to coping and thriving. As I leaned into specific mindfulness practices and Christian principles, my awareness of God and my personal relationship with him grew. I paid more attention to our relationship and become open to his will and instructions for me. In regard to the hostility I experienced, God never changed the situation for me; instead, he changed me by leading me to the application of Godly principles through spiritual and secular practices. Because I engaged in culturally informed Christian mindfulness practices, I was able to see the goodness of God while still in the same hostile situation.
Eventually I had the option of leaving the specific hostile environment, and I chose to do so. Before exiting, I met with human resources and shared carefully documented incidences and artifacts to support my observations. I also filed a formal complaint with a local agency overseeing employment harassment and discrimination. Shortly thereafter, I was offered a better position with higher pay by an institution only fifteen minutes from my home. Because my heart was clean and my ears in tune with God, I was able to join a new community with a clean heart, free of resentment. I have since participated in several international research and community engagement opportunities to address educational inequities. Bringing hate and unforgiveness from the old situation into these settings could have permanently ruined my health and new relationships. It could have resulted in me triggering others or precluded me from new opportunities because I could not see them or did not feel safe in them. Rather, I have gone on to mentor other academics, write books and book chapters, and publish journal articles about how we thrive as integrated people in toxic and hostile environments. I recently published a book that was inspired by God and full of hope and strength for underserved children and youth. The time and energy once used to grieve and defend myself is now used to fuel God’s will and purpose for my life.
It is my hope that others begin to learn more about the practical and spiritual supports Black women and other women of color use to thrive in the academy. Black women need to be valued, respected, and protected, as they are often brought into institutions to make transformative change. Mindfulness is not a strategy that should be used to exploit Black women’s labor or to make them content with
poor conditions. True mindfulness happens collectively when we all work to disrupt violence, oppression, and exploitation of Black women. Black feminism, autoethnography, and standpoint theory are tools that can help us to find ways to do this. We can use Christian and culturally informed mindfulness practices to intentionally interrupt all of Satan’s ploys that cause spiritual, emotional, and physical harm to Black women, Indigenous women, Latina women, and the LGBT community. Gendered and racialized violence from others is a sin. Whether intentional or not, the mindsets, practices, and policies that create or maintain negative racialized and gendered outcomes are wrong, and followers of Christ are commanded to oppose them.
Funding: This research received no external funding. Conflicts of Interest: The author declares no conflict of interest.
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By the time you receive this, there are three online seminars remaining. All of those seminars have the maximum number of persons signed up to for each seminar. It is very important that you meet the pre class work submission/participation deadlines. If you fail to complete the pre class work, Dr. Stephens will not admit you to the classroom. If that happens, you cannot simply go to the next scheduled class. At that point you will be required to complete the Lewis Center online training.
You can click the following text link to pay for and complete the Lewis Center for Church Leadership Online Learning Course: Understanding Clergy Sexual Ethics (click here to register: https://www.lewisonlinelearning.org/CourseInfo/10004). The Course is $49. Upon completion, you will receive a certificate of completion. Once you forward your Certificate of completion to dcom@holston.org we will mark that you have completed the course.
As a reminder, this course is mandatory for all clergy under appointment or those serving in an extension or appointment beyond the local church. In addition, all Supply, CLS, or CLM’s that are under assignment are also expected to be certified.
For Saul of Tarsus, it was on the Damascus Road. On that fateful day...blinded by the light...the Lord spoke to him and he was called to a different kind of ministry than he had when he began that journey.
It was a swift and decisive moment in Saul’s life. Saul the persecutor was about to become Paul the proclaimer.
In my own life, there was no dramatic Damascus Road experience. I grew up in an Independent Missionary Baptist Church. Somewhere around the 5th grade, there was a church split and my family was on the losing side. They never went back to church...neither did I until I was a senior in high school.
In the spring of my senior year, the high school choral director, who was also the music director at Alcoa First UMC, took the Heritage Singers to the church one Sunday so that we could sing something in Latin for the anthem.
What struck me so much about this first church service that I had attended in about seven years, was the sermon. The Rev. Doug Brown was preaching and he preached about a God that loved me and sent his son to die for my sins. This was in stark contrast to the fires of hell motivation that I had heard growing up in that small Baptist church.
A God that loved me. I was intrigued. The next Sunday I got up and went back to church...much to my families
amazement! That fall, I made a public profession of faith and was baptized.
In that church was a man named Andy Piercy. He took me under his wing and helped me with the voracious appetite I had for the scriptures. He had me join him in the Tuesday night visitation ministry of the church. He taught me how to share my faith and I grew deeper in my faith because of his tutelage.
The Rev. Doug Brown also kept in conversation with me and was a ready source of answers to my probing 19 year old theological questions. He did not tire of the questions and he was there to help guide me through those years of searching and prayerful discernment that eventually led me to understand I had a call of God upon my life to the ministry.
I say all of these things to remind pastors of the important role that the church environment has in the development of persons in their faith and in their response to God’s call to ministry.
Alcoa First UMC was an place that showed me God’s love. It was a place that had dedicated lay persons willing to help me become a disciple of Jesus Christ. It was a place in which the pastor prayed with me and for me during those difficult times as I sought to respond to God’s call.
I say these things because my executive assistant, who is a Certified Lay Speaker and attends a United Methodist
Church said one day, “I don’t know if I have ever heard a pastor preach a sermon or teach about how you hear or respond to God’s call to ministry on your life. I think you ought to encourage them to do so.”
Well. This is my encouragement. It is my witness as to how God moved in the life of an 18 year old young man without a church affiliation. Eventually, after much discernment and prayer I found myself on the road to ministry in Holston Conference.
I wonder, is there some 18 year old young man or young woman in your church that is struggling with what might be a call to ministry? If so, do you know about their struggle? Are you doing anything to encourage or assist them in that struggle?
Think about it. God might be putting you in the path of the next young man or woman that could one day make great strides for the Kingdom, if only they get the right encouragement.
—Rev. Terry Goodman• Mon Oct 24: 900am 500pm: BOM Full Connection Interviews at Concord UMC
• Thu Nov 3: 1000am 500pm: BOM Executive Committee Fall Meeting in person at the Conference Center
• Thu Nov 10: 1000am 500pm: BOM Fall Meeting in person at the Conference Center
• Dec 5-8: GBHEM Quadrennial Training We will be seeking to purchase some online access to this event for some of the BOM members.
• Tue Jan 3: 5:00 pm: DEADLINEProvisional & Associate Membership materials must be submitted electronically to Basecamp
• Sat Jan 7: 900a 300p: Candidacy Summit via Zoom
• Mon Feb 6: 800am-500pm: Associate and Provisional Interviews
• Feb 27 Mar 1: Convocation at Music Road in Pigeon Forge, TN
“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?
Isaiah 58:6 (NIV)
A church is not meant to be the model of operational efficiency. Ministry is inefficient because serving people is not the same as streamlining a manufacturing process.
The Great Commandment is not called “The Great Convenience.” You do not serve and love others only when it works for you. It is never convenient for you when others are in need! The Good Samaritan had things to do just like everyone else. But he stopped anyway.
While ministry can be inefficient, pastors should be good stewards of time. You cannot control when someone needs help, but there are plenty of time wasters you can handle.
1. Stop going on social media crusades. Congratulate your church members on their accomplishments. Wish people a happy birthday. Encourage others who had a rough week. You can and should—shepherd your congregation online. But that theological debate you’re about to enter? Or the temptation to sling some mud in denominational politics? Don’t. You are not likely to change anyone’s mind on social media. And most of the people you are about to engage do not even go to your church. You will waste time and might even harm your ministry.
2. Start delegating more time-consuming tasks to people who will enjoy them. Several years ago, I took the responsibility of locking up the church after Sunday evening activities. The task took about thirty minutes to walk the campus and check every door. While I did not mind the chore, the time was better spent with my family. An older deacon approached me and volunteered to lock the doors. He wanted to prayer walk the church and allow me more time with family.
3. Stop punching a clock when it is unnecessary. For example, some churches require all staff to be onsite Monday through Friday, arriving around 8:00 a.m. and not leaving until 5:00 p.m. This schedule is archaic and does not consider the time ministers are on the field. While work from home every day is not wise, much time is wasted in the office when people simply punch a clock.
4. Start scheduling your emails. There are two kinds of people: pagans with inboxes full of unopened emails and the sanctified who zero out inboxes every twenty four hours. I understand the urge. An email pops into the inbox, and you want to get it answered. The problem with this approach is how you teach people you will respond immediately to every request. You can also find yourself in a back and forth message that consumes time. Most email systems have a way to schedule emails. Reply right away if you must but schedule the email
to go out later. It will save you time and not set the wrong expectation you respond to everything immediately.
5. Stop feeling the need to lead every meeting out of obligation or fear. Churches have a lot of meetings. Pastors do not need to lead all of them. I’ll never forget my father’s advice when I mentioned how many meetings I attended and led. He said, “Push less and people will love and respect you more.” He was right. You are not shepherding when you lead out of a sense of obligation or fear of losing control.
6. Start confronting potential churchwide conflict earlier. A wise pastor will not jump into every church spat. But you should not dodge conflicts that have the potential to spread churchwide. You don’t save time in the near term because your thoughts consume you. In the longer term, potential conflict is like a simmering pot. At some point, everything boils over. Turn the heat down earlier, and the conflict makes much less of a mess.
Most ministry is not efficient. But there are ways to steward time better. Some of the biggest time wasters can be avoided.
As found on 09 23 22 at https://churchanswers.com/blog/six big ministry time wasters and how to avoid them/
You’ve likely heard the adage. How you communicate is an essential component of what you communicate. Content is critical, but so is delivery. Finding the voice in which to share content is sometimes just as difficult as determining the content itself.
Leaders are often the first to communicate a new message. As a pastor, your delivery of content will affect how the church receives it. The first time people hear something noteworthy, there is weight to the message and prominence given to the one delivering it. Tone is key if you’re doing the communicating.
How might leaders set the tone in their organizations? What different voices might they use in communicating a message? Consider these options as a church leader.
Coach. Use a coach’s voice to get people pumped up about something. This voice works well when relaying positive news while attempting to recruit people to serve. An in your face yet encouraging coach will set the tone of enlistment with excitement.
Theologian. Not all theologians are leaders, but all leaders within the church should be theologians. A pastor should use this voice when working through complex biblical issues. For example, what will the church do about a multiplicity of viewpoints among the congregation on a hot button topic? A theological voice helps set the tone of looking at the issue with the proper amount of emotion.
Engineer. Inevitably, most churches will have a group of people who attempt to solve problems from a structural perspective. For them, problems are solved with policies, charts, and spreadsheets. While not all vision needs to be structural in nature, vision does require structure for proper implementation. Leaders should use an engineer’s voice when communicating this structure, especially to the group of people who default to the structural approach of solving problems.
General. Few want to be on the receiving end of general barking orders on a regular basis. When a crisis hits, however, someone must step up quickly and take charge. When a problem includes a real sense of urgency, the voice of a general becomes an effective way to set the tone of urgency among followers.
Friend. Some leadership messages require less of an inspiring appeal to the masses and more of a friendly interaction with followers. Using the voice of a friend sets the tone for long term buy in and loyalty among followers.
Church leaders should use different voices in different venues with different groups of people within a congregation. Followers will respond to the tone of leadership just as much as the actual content of the message. Match the correct tone with the right content, and people will better respond better to the voice of a lead.
As found on 09 23 22 at https://churchanswers.com/blog/the various voices a pastor must use to communicate/
What can we learn about congregational revitalization, Fresh Expressions, and evangelism from the Methodist Church in Britain? Lewis Center Director F. Douglas Powe Jr. interviews Trey Hall, a Methodist pioneer, church planting strategist, and evangelist.
Listen to this interview, watch the interview video on YouTube, or continue reading.
Douglas Powe: Can you share a bit about your professional journey and how a child of the American South ended up serving in Britain?
Trey Hall: I’m in Britain, but I still say “y’all.” I’m trying to convince all the British Methodists that y’all is the most inclusive way of referring to the people of God. I’m a child of the South. I grew up in Memphis and then went to seminary at Candler, in Atlanta. My home conference is the Northern Illinois Conference where I served for 15 years as a pastor of a suburban church, as a pastor of a city church, and then helped start a new multi site church in Chicago. So, most of my ministry in the States was as a church planter.
Now one of the things we are seeing here and in the States is that there is a marked interest in spirituality among the younger and rising generations.
Right after seminary, I had an internship with the British Methodist Church serving a circuit in British Methodism. I fell in love with a Brit. We moved back to the States in our 20s. But after 15 years, it was time for me to follow my spouse, so we moved back to Britain. I started coaching “pioneers” which is the term in Britain for church planters. And then I worked a few years for a British Methodist district, which is sort of like a conference in United Methodism, helping them think about church planting, pioneering, and evangelism. And then about four years ago, when the Methodist Church in Britain started a new emphasis on evangelism and growth, I was stationed or appointed to that role.
Douglas Powe: Can you share a little bit about the British context and the similarities and differences you see with the U.S.?
Trey Hall: There are lots and lots of cultural differences between Britain and the U.S., and some of those things sort of sit underneath the surface. There’s the phrase “being separated by a common language.” American English is different from British English, but there are loads of cultural differences, like there would be between any countries. In terms of its relationship to church, to Christendom, to organized religion, Britain, like much of Western Europe, is several decades ahead of the U.S. The trends seem to be the same. In the U.K.:
51 percent of folks identify with Christianity, which is down from 60 percent 10 years ago, 38 percent identify as having no religion, which is up from 32 percent 10 years ago, and 53 percent of those in their twenties identify as having no religion.
So, that gives you a sense of the British public and how they identify in terms of religious affiliation.
With the folks who identify as Christian, 51 percent sounds like a lot in the British context. In American context, the number would probably be much higher. In Britain, within that 51 percent, only a third marked “Christian” because they believe in the teachings of Christianity. Others marked the “Christian” box because they were baptized Christian as a baby or because Great Britain is a Christian country. As in the U.S., there is a cultural Christianity, but that has waned quite a bit here. That’s the trend line of U.K. Christendom.
Now one of the things we are seeing here and in the States is that, though those religious affiliation numbers are going down, there is a marked interest in spirituality among the younger and rising generations. There is an interest in the paranormal and talking about being spiritual but not religious or another kind of spiritual phenomenon. There’s an interest that is higher in the rising and younger generations than in the previous generations. So, as religious affiliation declines, spiritual interest seems to be increasing.
Douglas Powe: Given that religious affiliation is declining, how is the Methodist Church in Britain dealing with the challenge of connecting with people? How do you balance decline and engaging new people?
Trey Hall: We do this in a number of very different ways. The Methodist Church in Britain is different in its relationship to British culture than the United Methodist Church relationship is to U.S. culture. Here the dominant church is the Church of England, the Anglican Church. When I was in the States, the United Methodist Church was one of the larger Protestant denominations. My Episcopalian colleagues had a
beautiful tradition but were, in terms of numerical adherents, much smaller. Here the Church of England is the main church and understandably as the Church of England and because of how Britain’s constitution works to the extent there is a constitution their church and state are ostensibly joined. So, here Methodists are a free church a free church or a dissenting church or a nonconformist church. Now within Methodism there are loads of different strands, as it is in Methodism across the world, but Methodism occupies a much smaller footprint. A few years ago, the Methodist Church began paying more attention to these numbers that we were describing and realized that there was not one solution or one way of more fully engaging these trends.
We’re trying to help established churches get really clear about what their context is, what their mission is, how to engage in their communities and make friends with people they haven’t made friends with before.
How have we done it? We’re trying to help established churches get really clear about what their context is, what their mission is, how to engage in their communities and make friends with people they haven’t made friends with before and to help established, more traditional churches stabilize and renew themselves by God’s grace and find stability. We are also talking about new forms of church, church planting, pioneering, Fresh Expressions, and all the different ways of being church or being religious community that may or may not call itself church.
A term that we use to talk about our reality is “mixed ecology,” which I think was first used by the former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. Much more than the Church, we human beings are a mixed ecology. Organizations are a mixed ecology. That is a way also of talking about the Church’s mission and ministry. The Church has hopefully always been a mixed ecology and has served God and glorified God and served God’s people and reached out to the world in really different ways. But in the state that we find ourselves now with the numbers that we just described, there’s a greater need for that mixed
ecology approach, one that is really life giving, creative, and energy inspiring. It is critically important for ministers, missionaries, lay and ordained folks, people across the theological spectrum and across the ecclesial spectrum to know that their gifts are needed and valued and can be engaged and deployed in all these different horizons and kinds of groups. The reality is that one size has probably never fit all. It certainly doesn’t fit all now, and that’s a beautiful thing. The Methodists are trying to live in that mixed ecology space. In the past two or three years, we’ve made a concerted effort to “norm” mixed ecology.
Douglas Powe: Established churches in Great Britain are much older than established churches here. How do you work with established congregations to talk about how their context is ever changing? How do you help individuals who have firmly been planted for a number of years start thinking differently about what it will mean if they want to continue to be vital moving forward?
Trey Hall: Do our Christian communities that inhabit buildings in particular places know and love the communities of which they’re part? In order to do this, we start with prayer and prayer walking or prayer in community. This is basic and foundational, but sometimes we avoid it or just don’t pay attention to it. How do churches consciously spend time in their communities? We encourage people to do prayer walks, to knock doors, to introduce themselves not as people who have all the answers but as people who want to learn about what their neighbors are anxious about or worried about or need prayer for, in order to build relationships. What do Christians notice as they as they walk their neighborhoods?
The established Church, who loves the expression of Christianity as the first language, has to learn to be at least a translator and maybe learn a new language.
There’s a woman in a little village not too far from here, and she has made friends as she’s walked every morning at 6:30. And the little village church that she’s part of has grown over the past two or three years. A number of those folks are people who have come because of my friend’s walking the village. Now the prayerful walking doesn’t always lead to church growth, but it does lead to an understanding of the context. Congregations must know their context, and there are loads of different ways to do that.
Another thing is to think about Christianity as first language and Christianity as second language. For those of us who have been part of the Church for a long time and maybe been born, baptized, and raised in the Church, Christianity is our first language. We know the concepts and the language, and we can play with different idioms and the thought world with flexibility and ease. For people who are in that 51 percent who’ve had no contact with organized religion or Christianity, Christianity will not be their first language. If they are to become people who explore grace and eventually become Christian, they will learn Christianity as a second language. The established Church, who loves the expression of Christianity as the first language, has to learn to be at least a translator and maybe learn a new language. Learning or teaching a second language is tough. If we are to take the words and concepts that we love and know like our breathing (grace, salvation, transformation, communion, eucharist, all the language of faith), can we translate that language into a vernacular? Are we skilled? Can we “skill up” to be able to do that translation more regularly?
The second thing in terms of that second language is being able to talk about our own spiritual experience and give testimony to our experience of God. What does it feel like to be undergoing the living God? That kind of question, that testimony, is not only one that is offered to people who are not Christian and who may be exploring grace but a way of receiving from people who are living in the community who may be exploring grace, exploring Christianity, or not.
I mentioned earlier the increase in spiritual interest among people generally in the U.K. at least and the U.S., too. We can ask people to talk about their spiritual lives, even those who aren’t in our religious group. One of my colleagues on the Evangelism and Growth team in the Methodist Church asks people, “Tell me about something spiritual that’s happened to you lately.” And people have an answer to that. Now, some of those answers are ones that might feel naturally really beautiful to us; some of them might feel really fringe to us or sort of extraordinary. But loads of people are happy to talk about their spiritual experiences.
Fresh Expressions are communities of Christianity, communities of spiritual exploration, designed particularly by and for people who are unaffiliated, people who are not currently part of the Church.
Can established churches go into that sort of language play around religious concepts and spiritual experience? To the extent that established and committed Christians are willing to go into that “relanguaging” and that language school, we will be better at offering Christ to people who haven’t experienced Christ yet or have not been part of the Church, and we may receive Christ in ways we didn’t expect from people who are living in our neighborhoods who are not part of our religious group.
Douglas Powe: I appreciate thinking about the first and second language because I think you’re right on target. And here in the U.S., we need to start thinking in that same manner. We have taken it for granted that everybody knows the Christian language, but that certainly is not true today in ways that it was at one point in time.
Fresh Expressions are ways to create faith communities that may look more like traditional churches but also don’t look like traditional churches. They are expressed in various forms and fashion. How are you working to create these Fresh Expressions of faith communities? And who do you
find to start these communities?
Trey Hall: The Fresh Expressions movement started here in England as an ecumenical project by the Church of England (C of E) and the Methodist Church. It’s wonderful to see it coming into its own in the U.S. context in different ways. Fresh Expressions are communities of Christianity, communities of spiritual exploration, designed particularly by and for people who are unaffiliated, people who are not currently part of the Church. Fresh Expressions often refer to a really, really small micro church or micro experiment, which is beautiful. A Fresh Expression might be a really big worshipping community, a really small micro church, or a social enterprise that has a discipleship pathway built in. In the British Methodist Church, we started using the language of new places for new people to describe that broad spectrum. For Methodists, this broader term holds all these different kinds of experiments and modalities for creating new faith community, new spiritual community, for people who are unaffiliated across the spectrum.
We are looking for people with a love for people who are not part of Church, a natural connection to folks who are not part of Church to start new places for new people. People who enjoy talking about big deep spiritual issues. People who go where people are living their lives and are more interested in making community and space where they are living their lives as opposed to trying to get them to come to a place where religious people are living their lives. People who are happy in spaces beyond church buildings and are willing to even think about church beyond the church building permanently. People who like starting new things. People who are really interested in moving beyond the one on one relationship at the beginning. We need people who can move beyond the one on one sort of pastor/pastoral/chaplaincy kind of relationship into creating community around a big idea, around a spiritual process.
Lay folks are reminding us of what the Church of the past has been like and what the Church of the future can be like if we all work together.
In the British Methodist Church, unlike in the United Methodist Church, most of the pioneers are lay folks. There are some ordained ministers who are pioneers, and we want to see more ordained ministers who are pioneers, but it started mostly as a lay movement.
Douglas Powe: Going back to Wesleyan roots.
Trey Hall: Going back to our Wesleyan roots. There’s a gift in that, and there’s a joy in that. There’s a challenge in that, too, sometimes around the recognition of the ministry. Even in the British Methodist Church with rich DNA of a lay movement, we have times where clericalism overrides what the Spirit’s doing in lay leadership even though we guard against it. Lay folks are reminding us of what the Church of the past has been like and what the Church of the future can be like if we all work together. Lay folks are also reminding ordained folks what their ministry should be more like more of the time.
Sometimes the folks that we go out to evangelize will evangelize us so in that mutuality, that reciprocity, we expect God’s goodness.
Douglas Powe: Look into your spiritual crystal ball and think where you would like to see the Methodist Church of Britain move about 10 years from now. Where do you think it will be 10 years from now?
Trey Hall: I would love to see a church that commits to evangelism as a core part of our discipleship, that it’s not something for only a particular theological orientation but something that we all are committed to. In the British Methodist Church, we say everybody is an evangelist. I hope we lean into that. We are all called to be evangelists across the diversity of the human spectrum, and this can release thousands and thousands of committed Methodists to be evangelists.
I would love to see churches established and new places for new people be really, really committed
to developing one-on-one relationships in their community.
As we live into our commitment to be evangelists, I hope we will expect to be evangelized alongside the people that we are engaging. Sometimes God evangelizes us in the process of being in evangelism. Sometimes the folks that we go out to evangelize will evangelize us so in that mutuality, that reciprocity, we expect God’s goodness. We expect to hear God’s goodness from others as much as we expect to speak it to others, and that we all live that out together. Mutuality is so crucial.
I would love to see churches established and new places for new people be really, really committed to developing one on one relationships in their community and making that a core practice of discipleship going out routinely, turning over every stone, asking people for coffee, building that kind of relationship into their discipleship. I would love to see church planting and pioneering become a top priority for every district’s mission strategy, that it would be not only a sort of an optional extra but would be what we do because we’re Methodist. We’re Methodist Christians. We plant churches. We start new Christian communities.
I would love to see the Church take missional risks to go where the people are. And this could be community festivals, sports, sports clubs, all the places where people live their lives, the margins, the economic margins where people are impoverished, and not just to go and to be in mission to these places, but to expect God, to ask God, to show us the leaders that God is raising up already in those places. One of the things that’s most exciting right now is seeing all these movements for social change, for environmental justice, for social transformation, and seeing how many of the leaders are young and more able to talk about transformation in multileveled and wonderful kind of ways that acknowledge past oppression and liberation as something that God’s offering to us. I’m interested in how these movements credential their leaders. And I look
forward to how the Church can learn from those movements as we welcome younger and more diverse leaders that God’s already raising up in different places and different parts of God’s creation. How can we learn from them?
I would love to see the Church take missional risks to go where the people are.
I pray that we’ll be able to go where God leads into the big gritty questions and not be afraid of people talking about their experience of God in ways that might sort of be outside of our norm, to just simply norm the weird. You want the Church to be distinctive, and we have a lot to learn from folks who are at the margins and from these burgeoning movements.
“Lessons from the Fresh Expressions Movement,” a Leading Ideas Talks podcast episode featuring Luke Edwards
Increasing Active Engagement Video Tool Kit
How One to One Conversations Reintroduced a Church to Its Neighbors by Travis Norvell
Taking Church to the Community Video Tool Kit
I usually make a practical list in these blog posts, but today I want to tell a story. I pray it will challenge you as it has me.
For twelve years, a woman had suffered with some type of blood disease.¹ Most likely, this disease was a menstrual problem, making her unclean in her culture. She would not have been welcomed in any public place. She could not have gathered among the worshippers in the synagogue, and she would not have been permitted to touch the rabbi.
For over a decade, she had gone to the doctors. Surely she hoped day after day that a new doctor would have the cure, but no healing came. Surely she longed for the day when the bleeding would stop, yet that day did not come. Surely she dreamed of a time when she would be welcomed among the crowds; however, no such time would come.
By now, this woman had had all she could take . . . but, Jesus was coming through her town. Tossing aside all cultural prohibitions, she somehow snaked her way through the crowd to touch Jesus. Perhaps with a bit of superstition but with enough genuine faith that Jesus responded to her she reached out to touch just the bottom of His garment. Instantaneously, Jesus did what no physician had been able to do in twelve years.
Why did all this happen? Because somebody had been talking about Jesus (“Having heard about Jesus” Mark 5:27). Somewhere, somehow, this woman had heard something about Jesus. We don’t know who spoke to her, nor do we know what she heard. Regardless of who it was, she heard enough that she would risk all to get to this one named Jesus. There, He made her well and proclaimed her His daughter.
Don’t miss this fact, though: someone pointed this woman to Jesus, but whoever that “someone” was received no credit. His or her name would not have appeared in any denominational newsletter or on anybody’s website. In fact, Mark did not even include the name when he recorded the story.
Have you ever wondered why that would be? It’s really quite simple: the gospel is about the one to whom we witness rather than about the ones who witness. The focus is on proclaiming the majesty of Jesus rather than giving glory to the evangelist.
If you and I are going to be Jesus proclaiming witnesses for Christ, we can’t worry about our names being in print when God works miracles through our ministries. We can’t get stressed if everybody hears what God has done, but nobody knows our name or recognizes our work.
Our job is to point to Jesus. After all, as strong evangelistic leaders know, the story’s never been about us, anyway.
[1] Adapted from Chuck Lawless, Nobodies for Jesus: 14 Days toward a Great Commission Lifestyle (p. 50). Rainer Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Editor’s Note: The hyperlinks are not active due to the format in which this document was received.
Peacemaking has been heavy on my mind … peace with neighbors, peace at home, peace in the Church, peace in communities, and peace in the world. Why is peace sometimes so difficult to find? My husband, John, took on the role of peacemaker in a contentious circumstance several years ago and his father said, “John, just remember that when you are peacemaker, you get beat up by both sides.”
It doesn’t have to be that way. As we choose to live in a Christlike and countercultural way, we can be peacemakers who are both a blessing and blessed.
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5 “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“having a strong religious or spiritual quality; indicating or suggesting the presence of divinity.”
11 “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Peace is a sign of the Christian faith that is both an individual characteristic and a communal goal.
The Hebrew Scriptures go beyond peace as external good wishes, material blessings, and an absence of war. The Hebrew concept seeks shalom, which includes reconciliation, well being, and protection. It is a fruit of the Spirit and a sign of faith and discipleship. It requires grace and it flows from a sense of calm, trust, and assurance.
Written by Renni MorrisThe peace we are called to share with others and with each other comes from a life steeped in the blessedness of The Beatitudes.
The way of blessed living, where we are also a blessing, is of product of tending to life together.
Paul uses the human body to remind us we are not to live in opposition of
each other; instead, we should be a whole body. We may have personal ideas and opinions, but we are part of the communion of Christ. We are part of one another’s stories and when one part suffers, every part suffers (1 Corinthians 12:26). We have a covenantal responsibility to each other.
We tend together as we practice discernment, we confess and forgive, and we live as the body of Christ.
Peacemakers are willing to do the hard work of decision making based on holy discernment. Parliamentary systems are helpful, and they can help keep us on track. Prayerful discernment promotes and maintain Christian unity. It invites us to see from different perspectives while we seek God’s will. Holy discernment leads to clarity and peace. The Wesleyan quadrilateral of Scripture, tradition, experience and reason may be a helpful tool in discernment. While seeking discernment, we give others space to wrestle with decision making. We pray for ourselves and for each other. We practice holy waiting until we find peace.
Peacemakers are willing to confess and forgive. They address those they have neglected, their distrust of one another, and their lack of faith. They are willing to acknowledge and work toward the healing of their relationship with God and with others.
When we visit a physician, we are often encouraged to get more exercise, to lose weight, and to eat a low fat/low cholesterol diet. The doctor assures us that will help us have a healthy body.
How can we make the body of Christ healthier? What are our strengths and weaknesses? What harms us? The body of Christ is made up of humans who can be frustrated, sinful, weak and downright mean!
Yet God made us the body of Christ and we are called to be the presence of Christ in the world.
Paul tells us to clothe ourselves in love and to let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts. We should treat each other well and make everything we do something we do in the name of Jesus Christ (Colossians 3:14 17).
The Church can be conflicted, inefficient, and partly broken down, yet it is still the body of Christ.
…
We don’t have to be “beat up by both sides.” Instead, we can choose to love God and neighbor as we discern, confess and forgive, and work toward a healthier body of Christ.
Soul Tending: Life Forming Practices for Older Youth and Young Adults, multiple authors, 2002, Abingdon Press
The Upper Room Dictionary of Christian Spiritual Formation edited by Keith Beasley Topliffe, 2003, Upper Room Books®
Here are some quotes about peace you might scatter through the article: Peace is our final good. (St. Augustine, The City of God) Speak, move, act in peace, as if you were in prayer. In truth, this is prayer. (François de Salignac de La Mothe Fénelon) Peace is not absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice. (Benedict de Spinoza)
by Sam Rainer President & Senior Consultant
Setting annual goals is mundane and unemotional but completely necessary. Without these goals, the pathway through the year lacks clarity, like a group of people navigating a trip with unstated directions in their heads and no agreed upon route to a particular destination. That’s how horror movies begin.
Annual goals should be more tactical and less visionary. Tactics are the operational steps to achieving the desired end. Your yearly goals act like step by step instructions moving the church closer to a broader vision. Think of vision as the place just beyond the horizon and annual goals as the plan for the next leg of the journey towards the horizon.
One of the key roles of a lead pastor (or whoever manages the staff) is coordinating the staff’s annual goals. Below are five steps to set annual goals with your team.
1. Let the staff write their own goals, then negotiate with them. Goals should begin with the staff person. Then you can negotiate with them on the details. If a staff person is incapable of writing goals, you have more significant issues with that person. Additionally, you’re likely micromanaging if you feel the need to write everyone’s goals. Staff
should write their own goals and then negotiate with you on changes.
2. Require specific goals. Here is a good example: “Start a children’s choir for elementary children during Wednesday programming by the second quarter.” Here is a bad example: “Preach more passionately.” Specific goals act like markers on a map. You will know if the children’s choir begins as planned. You can’t hold people accountable for vague goals.
3. Make goals measurable. If a particular ministry needs to grow, then determine by how much. By twenty people? Ten percent? These figures are often called lag measures because they indicate performance. More importantly, you should set ways of achieving this goal. These figures are often called lead measures because they indicate improvement. Here’s an example: I want this ministry to grow by twenty four people over twelve months (lag measure), so I will contact six new people each month, hoping to gain two of them (lead measure).
4. Give goals timelines. Some goals may require an entire year. Other goals may only require a month. Make sure the specific and measurable goals have reasonable timelines. Without a stated timeline, an otherwise good goal could languish because of procrastination or apathy.
5. Hold staff accountable on an ongoing basis. I don’t believe everyone needs a quarterly review.
However, a good lead pastor will check in periodically to see where staff stands with their goals. This ongoing accountability can be either formal (through scheduled meetings) or informal (through casual conversations), so long as everyone agrees to the process.
There are two other items to consider as a lead pastor, one on the front end of the year and the other on the back end of the year. On the front end, your job as a staff leader is to make sure staff goals complement each other and are not in conflict. Don’t blame the staff mid year for conflict if you did not properly align their goals at the beginning of the year. On the back end, these goals should become the basis for annual reviews: Did people on staff accomplish their own yearly objectives? This way, no one is surprised by a year end review.
As found on 09 23 22 at https://churchanswers.com/ blog/how to set annual goals with your church staff/
It’s painful enough to lose any church members, but it is particularly painful when the church member was highly committed. We call these dropouts
“Goners,” because they were once one of your best church members. Now they are gone.
It has been both painful and amazing to see the consistency in the patterns the Goners follow. Though Goners have been a sad phenomenon for years, the pervasiveness of Goners is a reality since the pandemic.
1. Lower commitment in key roles. Goners begin their dropout journey by attending small groups less frequently, by attending elder or deacon meetings
less frequently, or any number of reductions in key roles.
2. Less frequent worship attendance. At his or her most active state in the church, the Goner was present in worship services at least three or four times a month. At this stage, they attend worship services once or twice a month.
3. Resigning of a key position. In stage 3, the Goner steps down from a key position such as teacher, elder, or a key ministry leader. Their stated reason is typically “family reasons” or “personal.” They will keep the reason vague lest someone suspect they are simply less committed to Christ’s church.
4. Reduces or stops giving. When the Goner gets to this stage, he or she is almost gone. Most pastors don’t have access to financial records, so they don’t see this stage. That is why it is important for the person with access to the records to let the pastor know that the church member might need a visit.
5. Leaves for a “good” (not really) reason. The most common reason is that they are not getting fed. You would think these members would have learned how to feed themselves by this point. Another reason is that the church does not have adequate ministries for their children. Can you imagine a missionary saying that about a church? Someone with a true mission heart would see this void as an opportunity to start a ministry.
Yes, losing any church member is painful. But when that church member was once one of your more committed members (and/or a good friend), it is particularly painful.
By the way, most of the Goners never find another church that meets their perceived needs. They are gone from any commitment to a local church.
They are truly Goners.
As found on 09 23 22 at https://churchanswers.com/ blog/the five stages of a church dropout from highly committed to goners/
As Found at: https://www.churchleadership.com/leading ideas/3 leadership shifts for the current reality/
Olu Brown says that a new paradigm of leadership is required given the challenges of the present age. Church leaders need to shift the conversation from problems to promise, shift their outlook from church to community, and shift the momentum by believing that miracles can occur.
As a leader in this present age, your world and the people you lead are constantly shifting. The paradigm has changed. As new kinds of venture leaders managing new paradigms, we have to pay attention to the following shifts:
This paradigm shift means we have to monitor and adjust our conversation about our current reality. Have you ever been in a tenuous life situation and each time you talked to someone, for some strange reason, you mentioned your current challenges? When you reflected on your conversations, you realized you interjected your difficulties because you were hyper focused on your problems. The same can be said for us as leaders while helping others get through their challenges loss of job, sadness caused by the passing of loved ones, anxiety of not being able to control the world, which seems to give more trials than victories. In these times, we may feel tempted to join in the conversations of others and interject our own challenges. We may fail to see that even in the most difficult times, there is hope. I am not saying you shouldn’t mention your problems to anyone or they shouldn’t mention their problems to you, but we have to closely monitor our conversations.
When our outlook shifts, we can hear and see God’s promises again, and these promises affirm that there is more life to live and more blessings to receive.
As a leader, what is the content of your current conversations? Are you constantly talking about what you don’t have and what you have lost, or are you focusing on what you have and the promises of God in your life? Those who follow us take cues from our conversations. If we are not careful in managing our conversations, others will adopt our language. Give them language of peace, hope, love, and faith. I made a conscious decision as I transitioned through the pandemic to talk less about my problems and more about my promises. Even with all that is happening and all that will happen in the world, I am blessed. I am blessed more than I deserve and realize.
After we shift our conversations, we have to shift our outlook. Pastors hear the very best and the very worst of life experiences in a single day. Even before the pandemic, I wondered how some individuals and families made it through their toughest moments. It was only the grace of God that allowed them to wake up every morning and press through each day. As I had conversations with people over the years who experienced loss, one of the consistent themes has been how people eventually have to move on from their place of pain and grief, even if the pace seems slow. As their outlooks shift, they can finally see the sun shining through the clouds again. When our outlook shifts, we can hear and
see God’s promises again, and these promises affirm that there is more life to live and more blessings to receive. The good news is that God’s promises did not die at the place of your loss. God’s promises are alive, ready to be fulfilled in your lifetime.
I am thankful that I am wired as an optimist, even though there are still times when I don’t see the world through rose colored lenses. When the entire world shifted in March 2020 and our team realized we could no longer meet in person in our church buildings until it was safe, I panicked. While I kept a calm demeanor on the outside, I was anxious on the inside. Through the grace of God, a fantastic team, and the support of colleagues, I slowly shifted my outlook away from potential tragedy to possibility. God was with us. Our Impactors (congregants) were generous people, and our ministry continued to focus on the positive as we did all we could to stand in the gap for those in need.
Not only did I shift my outlook towards God’s promises and presence, but our church also shifted our outlook towards more direct outreach. We began to focus less on how the church would survive to focusing more on how our community would survive. Through passionate volunteers and generous donors and partners, we began weekly food distribution to brothers and sisters in need. Our outlook can always shift when we dare to focus more on others than ourselves. I learned some hard lessons about myself and my leadership during this season. In particular, I learned I had been too focused on myself and our church and not focused enough on others. I had also become siloed in my leadership and forgotten that ministry is a team sport. No one can successfully fulfill ministry alone. I also learned that I needed a faith booster because, somewhere along the way my faith had plateaued. I was doing ministry out of muscle memory, not relying on the power of the Holy Spirit and God’s promises. I believe I am a better leader and our church is a healthier church because we had to face some hard facts. We made the necessary adjustments and changes, and our outlook shifted, allowing us to see all that God had in store for our ministry and to focus on those God is calling us to serve.
Once you make the conversation and outlook shifts, then you have to make the momentum shift. When God is ready to move us in a new direction, it never feels like the right time. So often in our journeys with God, this momentum shift takes place when and where we least expect it, offering the roller coaster ride of your life. Do you remember a moment in your life when it seemed as if nothing would work out right? Suddenly, you received good news, and everything quickly shifted in the right direction. A family member was struggling with a health condition, time was slipping away, but suddenly a new medical breakthrough made the difference and their health began to improve. Maybe you were approaching a large payment that the church owed and there wasn’t enough money in the bank account. Then, unexpectedly, a donation appeared from someone you had never met, and the memo line read: “God told me to give this to your church.” These sound like fiction, but I’ve experienced these types of miracles. Miracles can’t be explained, and miracles always shift the momentum.
I believe that if your leadership and your church’s momentum haven’t already shifted, they will. Are you ready for your momentum shift? Stop looking for the right time and start looking for your miracle. In this season, I am praying that God will give you and your church a momentum miracle so big and grand that no one will be able to explain it. Sometimes momentum doesn’t come with a lot of details and fine print. Sometimes, all you get is a few words before your faith has to be activated for the miracle that is at hand.
Adapted from A New Kind of Venture Leader (Market Square Book, 2021) by Olu Brown, available through the publisher and at Cokesbury and Amazon. Used by permission.
Related Resources
“Normalizing Next,” a Leading Ideas Talks podcast episode featuring Olu Brown
7 Mindset Shifts that Can Reshape Your Church’s Future by Lia McIntosh, Jasmine Smothers, and Rodney Smothers 4 Shifts for More Authentic Community Engagement by Dan Pezet
Editor’s Note: I like to share ideas from a different perspective. Dr. Thom Rainer comes from the Southern Baptist perspective. He has been a local church pastor and CEO of Lifeway (the Baptist publishing house). He currently is a consultant on matters of church growth. I have followed his writings and podcasts for several years. He offers sound advice that often, but not always, translates well to the Methodist way of thinking.
TDG
Thom S. Rainer Founder & CEO
Have you ever received a backhanded compliment? Just beneath the veneer of a compliment lies a stinging insult. It may not register at first, but then you feel the pain.
t expect you to get the job!”
s no surprise you haven’t found
You really look nice on Instagram.”
I wish I could be as relaxed as you about all the clutter in the
Several sentences spoken about churches today seem to be affirming on the surface, but they have a negative connotation. I try to give the person articulating these sentences the benefit of intending.
intending at all.
The church is not the building; it’s the people.” This sentence is the most common of these five, and it seems to be coinciding with attendance declines. It is biblically true on the surface, but it usually means that fewer people are gathering in the building. It is also a convenient excuse for someone who does not gather with other believers regularly.
Our church is a discipleship church rather than an In other words, our church and its
members are not reaching people with the gospel. But we will pretend it’s okay and say our members are growing more deeply as believers. The New Testament clearly affirms that a maturing disciple is an evangelistic disciple.
3. “Jesus and I get along just fine by ourselves.” No, you don’t. Jesus wants you to get off your idle posture and connect with other believers. From Acts 2 to Revelation 3, the Bible is about the local church or written in the context of the local church. The local church is God’s plan A, and he didn’t give us a plan B.
4. “It’s not how many are attending; it’s how many we are sending.” Yes, sending people is important. Indeed, it is the mission of the church. But sending is never put in opposition to attending in the New Testament. It’s both/and, not either/or.
5. “We need to grow in discipleship before we start a new church or a new campus.” The challenge with this sentence is that the level of discipleship growth needed is never articulated. Lack of discipleship becomes a convenient excuse for not starting a new church or a new site. You are never fully ready to start a new family. You are likewise never fully ready to start a new church. You will have to depend less on yourselves and more on the Holy Spirit.
The Apostle Paul was clear that the life of a Christian would be challenging, even painful. Among other things, Paul was beaten, imprisoned, confronted by angry mobs, shipwrecked, worked to exhaustion, forced to endure sleepless nights, and deprived of food (see 2 Corinthians 6:5).
Our life is to be one of obedience. The five sentences above are usually clever verbiage to cloak disobedience.
As found on 09 23 22 at https://churchanswers.com/blog/five seemingly well intending sentences that are hurting the church/
There is not much doubt that this pumpkin has seen better days. I am sure that its creator was proud of their carving skills. I does look like a good job. Personally, I was never very good at carving pumpkins. Seems this one did okay...until the candle was lit. Then, something started to go wrong. Rather than illuminating the interior and casting light forward, it began to smoke. In essence, it burned out in a pretty spectacular manner.
I imagine that at first there was just a little bit of smoke. But it appears as if no one wanted to take care of the pumpkin as a result, things got out of hand and we get the situation above.
I do not seek to make fun of pastoral burn out, but I do think my little story of the pumpkin might provide something for us to think about. Most of us do not seek to go down in flames and leave a smoking hulk behind, but if we are not careful...if we do not heed the signs...then that that starts off small can grow bigger and go out of control.
In this special section that follows, you will find some articles on burn out and I hope you will read them. Some of them are quite long, but all of them provide some tools or thought provokers to help you not become like the pumpkin above.
Rev. Terry Goodman Director, Clergy ServicesArticle by Scotty Smith Pastor, Franklin, Tennessee
April 24, 2022 AFO Sept 17,2022
“Scotty, I understand. There was a time when the pressure I felt from church concerns was overwhelming and, unfortunately, daily. The stress was crushing far beyond my ability to endure. I despaired of life. I assumed death wasn’t far off. The main attacks didn’t come from four legged beasts in an arena, but two legged ones roaming the world and church. I became so weak, and I burned within.”
I can’t overstate how much the honesty and vulnerability of “my friend” meant to me. The gift of “me too,” has been a vital part of my healing. His story gave me the needed permission to begin the process of diagnosis and care at a desperate point in my pastoral ministry. But why the quotation marks around the words “my friend”?
Some of you, no doubt, heard echoes from 2 Corinthians 1 and 11. In a most profound way, the apostle Paul became a very close friend of mine during my most disheartening, disillusioning, and despairing season of life and ministry. His second letter to the Corinthians became, and remains, a kiss from heaven and my GPS setting for gospel sanity an invaluable conduit of peace, healing, and hope. It’s an honor to be able to pass on his mercy and comfort to others in faith crises and heart depletion.
In 45 years of ordained ministry, I’ve never walked with as many weary leaders. So, what do you do when darkness begins to hide the lovely face, voice, and hand of Jesus? Here’s a bit of my story, and what I learned from Paul.
After experiencing eleven years of a church planter’s grandest dreams, bad dreams became more the norm, and then nightmares. Paul talked about “fighting wild beasts in Ephesus” (1 Corinthians 15:32) gladiator imagery describing intense relational conflicts and spiritual warfare.
Since I love the ocean, I’ll use aquatic imagery. I never encountered what might be likened to a great white shark attack: a cataclysmic church blowup or full bore assault of evil. Some of my friends have. My experience was more like an occasional moray eel chomping down on one of my limbs, and a steady stream of piranhas nibbling away at my heart, joy, peace, and sleep. The cumulative effect left me burned out, used up, and running on empty.
“
Severe mercy is still mercy, and hard providence is still directed by the heart of our loving Father.”
I remember praying, “Father, ceasing to exist looks really attractive right now heaven or no heaven. I just want to stop feeling this way. I want to stop feeling anything.” I never had “a plan,” and I never put myself in a position to “easily die.” The brevity of this article won’t allow for all the details, but thankfully, I found the help I needed. Sometimes we have to cry “Uncle” so that we can cry “Abba.” Severe mercy is still mercy, and hard providence is still directed by the heart of our loving Father.
Gleaning from different portions of 2 Corinthians, here’s what I learned, and the advice I now share with other weary leaders. There’s usually a need for both triage and long term care.
Don’t suffer in silence, isolation, or pride. Gather your friends, and get a proper diagnosis.
Paul gave us this important gift: “We do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia” (2 Corinthians 1:8). He let others know just how difficult his situation had become.
Who knows how bad you are hurting? Some of us fear being labeled “soft” or “whiny.” Some of us fear losing our jobs. Some of us are too proud to be known and seek help. Some of us are clueless about how dangerously ill we have become. I needed medical, emotional, and spiritual care. Start with your most trusted friends. My journey to health began with falling apart in front of a couple of old friends.
Resist the temptation to minimize your suffering or discount your pain by reading Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, or by comparing your suffering to the suffering of others. The gospel makes us more human, not superhuman.
Listen to Paul: “We were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death” (2 Corinthians 1:8 9). If this sounds like your trauma, pain, and weariness speaking, take it seriously period.
When I experienced burnout, our church was doing great. But I wasn’t aware of how much backed up pain, emotional exhaustion, and spiritual depletion I was carrying. It’s not just our bodies, but also our hearts and minds that keep score.
Take your turn on the mat, like the paralyzed man with mobile friends, and let others carry you to Jesus (Mark 2:1 5). Get over the myth and cult of self sufficiency.
I love this. I needed this. “That was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us . . . [as you] help us by prayer” (2 Corinthians 1:9
11). No one better modeled an aversion to self-reliance, and a constant surrender to praying friends, than my spiritual father, Jack Miller. In time, I followed his example.
When in triage mode, there’s no need (or time) to start with the most gifted counselor. Who are your praying friends? Who’s in the gospel posse you’re walking with? Get on the mat and let them carry you to Jesus. Humble yourself.
I was far better at caring for others than letting others care for me. That wasn’t nobility; it was stupidity. Self reliance and the gospel are antithetical. Grace always runs downhill, and sometimes through unexpected means. “Our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted at every turn fighting without and fear within. But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus” (2 Corinthians 7:5 6). Learn to receive comfort from whomever the Lord sends.
After my “bleeding” stopped, and I began walking again with the help of good counseling, mutual burden bearing friendships, and the appropriate medical care, here are some of the long term measures I put in place — disciplines and delights that remain with me today.
Spend more time than you ever have before beholding and contemplating the beauty of Jesus. Don’t just appreciate Paul’s spirituality; practice it. “We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18). Leading up to my burnout, I replaced abiding in Jesus with working for Jesus.
“Leading up to my burnout, I replaced abiding in Jesus with working for Jesus.”
Satan’s main goal is to rob us of intimacy with Jesus. “I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:3). Communing with Jesus and adoring him must always take precedent over the demands of a job description, people’s expectations, and the tyranny of the urgent. This conviction led me to transition out of being lead pastor at least a decade before I had originally planned. I have zero regrets.
Jesus is true, good, and beautiful. Often, the convergence of prolonged spiritual attack, relational conflicts, and mental/emotional stress first robs us of Jesus’s beauty. Then we lose our sense of his goodness. Finally, we can begin to question the truth of the gospel, and the trustworthiness of Jesus.
Develop a greater appreciation for the “already and not yet” of life and ministry between the resurrection and return of Jesus. Consider Paul’s wisdom: “We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything” (2 Corinthians 6:8 10).
The ministry of the gospel, this side of life in the new heaven and new earth, will include incredible blessing, and unimaginable difficulty. If you stay in any church or ministry long enough, you will be both disappointed and disappointing. Because we enjoyed a nearly eleven year gospel renewal when we planted Christ Community Church in Franklin, Tennessee, I was naive to assume it would never be different.
Learn to accept and delight in your weaknesses. Don’t wait for broken downness to start living in gospel brokenness. We matter, but we’re not the point.
We have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. (2 Corinthians 4:7)
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. (2 Corinthians 12:9)
I have never been more aware of my weaknesses, brokenness, and limitations. Hallelujah! I now live and minister with much less stress, even though my schedule is just as full as when I was a young church planter. Your competency is not your sufficiency.
Become a curious, childlike explorer of the hope of heaven, and the fullness of the new creation we will enjoy forever when Jesus returns.
Following Paul’s example, I have never spent as much time meditating on heaven and groaning for our coming life in the new heaven and new earth. “In this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling. . . . He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. . . . If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:2, 5, 17; see also Revelation 21:1 22:6).
Nothing helped me overcome my spiritual depression, deep shame, and emotional pain of ministry more than connecting my head and heart with the glorious hope of heaven.
Scotty Smith (@ScottyWardSmith) is the founding pastor of Christ Community Church in Franklin, Tennessee.
By Dr. Jim Denison December 17, 2020
As Found on 09 17 22 at https://www.apastorsview.org/pastoral burnout in a pandemic a wise article and biblical promise/
Mark Turman and I recorded our latest APV video yesterday (see here and here), offering an update on the pandemic in the context of pastoral leadership. Mark told me about a conversation he had with a mutual friend of ours whose pastor recently resigned. According to our friend, this pastor grew so weary from dealing with congregational conflict over the best response to the pandemic that he could not go on.
It’s not hard to feel for and with this pastor. The pandemic has brought challenges to the church we have not seen in a century. I remember the pain of 9/11, the turmoil of the 2000 election, and natural disasters that shut down our church campus over the years. None, however, comes close to this.
If your church has not been doing in person worship or programs, you have gone for many months without the physical community so vital to our lives, wellbeing, and ministry. You have probably faced questions from members of the church who feel that your church should open up. Some may claim that staying closed denotes a lack of faith or courage on your part.
If your church has been meeting in person, you probably fear the possibility of someone contracting the virus and becoming gravely ill or dying as a result. And you likely face questions from those who believe you are risking lives and not loving your neighbor as you should.
Legal issues regarding in person worship continue to swirl as well. Skeptics claim that churches are dangerous during a pandemic. And there is the constant background stress of dealing with this personally if you are meeting with people, are you risking yourself and those you love? If you are not, are you fulfilling your ministry?
I found an article today that offers practical wisdom and encouragement for these days. It’s by Garrett Kell, lead pastor of Del Ray Baptist Church in Alexandria, Virginia, posted on the 9Marks website.
He suggests first, “discern your souls”, asking, “What are you anxious about? Where is the pressure coming from? Who are you afraid of disappointing? What are you running to for comfort?” His questions remind us that we serve God first and foremost. His will must be our will. Before we try to manage the expectations of others and arbitrate leadership disputes over our response to the
pandemic, we need to seek and follow his leading.
The Lord often leads us through the wisdom of others in congregational process. In fact, I’m convinced that managing this crisis in consensus with others is vital to our leadership and long term effectiveness. But our first calling is to the One who called us.
Second, Kell recommends “embrace your limitations.” He writes: “I can’t make a pandemic stop or visit every lonely member. I can’t be a perfect husband, father, pastor, or friend. Yet God has strength that works through my weakness, so it’s OK (2 Cor. 12:9).” He adds: “God has not called me to be a politically savvy epidemiologist who creatively navigates the unprecedented opportunities of technology in a global pandemic. My knowledge has limits, but God has understanding beyond measure.”
Third, “change your pace.” If you’re working from home, don’t try to husband, parent, and pastor at the same time in the same place. Find a rhythm that works in these unprecedented days.
Fourth, “check your disciplines.” Beware of slothfulness in eating, exercise, and entertainment. Guard time for and with your family. Focus especially on spiritual disciplines during this undisciplined time.
Fifth, “don’t compare yourself with other pastors.” Each church and ministry is unique. Kell notes, “If you live and die upon the expectations of others, you will become exhausted, tempted to compromise, and forgetful of Jesus. Compare yourself only with Jesus. Devote yourself only to his approval. Turn off social media if it invokes envy. Spend time with the Lord in his word and feel free not to follow what everyone else is doing. Fulfill your ministry for God’s pleasure” (his emphasis).
Last, “come to Jesus.” Kell reminds us of our Lord’s invitation, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Spend time with your Lord in his word, knowing that he is working in ways you cannot see. Confess sins and seek accountability and encouragement from others.
Kell concludes: “Do not lose heart. Jesus promises to care for you and give you rest. Hear afresh this promise from God’s Word: ‘They who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint’ (Isaiah 40:31).”
I would add this word: God knew about the pandemic before we did. He knew you would be facing these days when he called you into ministry. If he could not use you in these days, you would not be facing these days.
It is by his providence that you were not alive a century ago or a century from now if the Lord intends. You are where you are “for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14). And never forget: “He who calls you is faithful” (1 Thessalonians 5:24).
This is the promise of God.
As found on 09 17 23 at https://www.bu.edu/articles/2022/why are so many religious leaders facing stress and burnout/ written on March 17, 2022
Steven Sandage, a Boston University School of Theology professor of psychology of religion and theology, has found rates of post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms in clergy at levels higher than those in post deployment military personnel. Photo by Dave Green, courtesy of the Albert & Jessie Danielsen Institute by MARA SASSOON & ANDREW THURSTON
Faith leaders contend with low pay and a high exposure to suffering problems compounded by the pandemic. A new project aims to study and support clergy mental health and well being
Many people who experience trauma or mental health challenges turn first to religious leaders in their community for help. But assuming the role of spiritual and psychological care provider can take a toll on clergy and chaplains, causing high rates of stress and burnout. The pressure on religious leaders has only worsened during the pandemic. In a recent poll of US pastors, the faith based research company Barna Group found that 38 percent had considered quitting full time ministry in 2021.
Steven Sandage, the Boston University School of Theology’s Albert and Jessie Danielsen Professor of Psychology of Religion and Theology, has observed this in his own research.“We did a couple of studies with clergy where we found their rates of post traumatic stress disorder symptoms were at an alarmingly high level in fact, at a level that would be higher than post deployment military personnel,” he says.
Sandage, who is also research director at the Albert & Jessie Danielsen Institute, which conducts research and provides clinical care at the intersection of spirituality and psychology, wants to help change that. He and his research team have received a $2.19 million grant from thePeale Foundation, which will allow them to explore ways to address the mental health needs of spiritual leaders and therapists in a five year project. It’s the largest gift ever awarded by the foundation, which was founded by Norman Vincent Peale (GRS’24, STH’24, Hon.’86), a minister who was interested in religion and psychology.
The Brink spoke with Sandage—who has also studied humility in religious leaders—about clergy burnout, current gaps in care, and how he hopes to provide new resources to support mental health.
The Brink: You found rates of trauma among clergy at higher levels than in post deployment military personnel. What’s causing such a high level of burnout?
Sandage: There’s a set of things that can make the job really tough for people who are in religious
leadership. We see a lot of direct exposure to suffering. People in religious leadership get to be with folks in really wonderful times in life, but what’s sometimes underrated is the amount of direct exposure to suffering difficult losses, deaths, existential crises, and often with a kind of unpredictability to it they can get called in at a moment’s notice. For myself, as a psychologist doing therapy, I would never be called over to someone’s house after a family member had just died by suicide. And yet chaplains, clergy sometimes find themselves in situations like that.
Depending on the congregation, they might also be expected to be experts in finance, counseling, inspirational leadership, and event planning. Then the third big dimension is sometimes there are very few boundaries there can be expectations of being on call around the clock. We’ve also seen in our research difficult relational boundaries, where, for example, board members, if they’re frustrated or angry at the leader, can sometimes be intrusive in ways that are really difficult experiences of relational aggression have been prominent in our research with religious leaders. Then the final one is just that the levels of support and remuneration are sometimes small. When you take all of those factors together, it’s quite a complicated landscape for many religious leaders.
And then the pandemic on top…. It has been obviously a tipping point for many congregations and leaders. The adjustments that needed to be made, the declining attendance at services, the declining support, the multitude of losses have intensified all those factors [for burnout] I just mentioned.
What does that mean for congregations and communities—and for the support their religious leaders can provide for them?
If our faith leaders are under high risk of trauma, severe stress, and under supported, there’s only so long that that’s a sustainable situation, and so that does inform a lot of the reasons for our project funded by the Peale Foundation. We’re concerned with finding ways to better sustain these caregivers, healers, and leaders in our community who give so much. When we see rising rates of mental health struggles or occupational burnout, it certainly doesn’t bode well for the caregiving. We need to remember that our leaders are human beings too.
Where do most clergy go for help now and why hasn’t that been sufficient?
Part of the reason that we want to do this project is to better understand that whole landscape: What are the practices that are helping sustain some clergy? Why are other clergy not able to access those resources, what are the obstacles to that? Anecdotally, from my experience, I can see that some clergy are plugged in to good peer support networks with other leaders; maybe their denomination or religious body offers some ongoing training and continuing education and support; maybe that leader accesses personal therapy or spiritual direction or retreats. But I definitely see other cases where leaders are quite isolated: maybe their particular congregation or religious body, for whatever reason—financial or philosophical—doesn’t offer all that much ongoing training or enrichment; maybe the other faith leaders they know in their community are more competitive than collaborative, or they themselves are. And so it’s hard for them to connect with other leaders. And again, the financial aspect is an important one: some leaders don’t have the kinds of income to access certain resources.
In phase one this year we’re conducting a national survey of caregivers to try to continue to better understand their particular stressors, and the factors and practices that help mitigate stress and contribute to well being.
We’re also conducting research with students at the School of Theology. We want to think preventatively for people like them who might be moving into these vocations. And we’re going to do a continuing education event that will bring in spiritual leaders to talk about these issues of stress and burnout and create some community dialogue.
How has your previous work at the Danielsen Institute informed this project?
We discovered during the pandemic that there are some pretty accessible, convenient ways to offer support to leaders in these settings, and give them a place to connect, to process the impact of their work, and to try to deal with some of the profound existential and psychological challenges of their work. At the Danielsen Institute, we started offering Zoom based relational spirituality support groups, and we’re going to expand on that program in phase two, which will be years two through five. Those will be led by clinical staff at the Danielsen Institute. They’ll still be Zoom based, and we’ll have a research component where we try to evaluate the effectiveness of those groups, and learn what would make them more helpful.
What else will the second phase involve?
It will involve introducing online resources about self care and well being to spiritual leaders. We’ll do a series of education events, so that we can keep the dialogue going. Clergy members, chaplains, and therapists will be able to come to those events and help us continue to figure out how to better make use of these resources.
We also want to draw in other collaborators who are interested in these issues of formation, well being, and overcoming suffering, so that we create a network committed to making a difference in helping folks on the front line. This includes researchers in the field of positive psychology, folks in the clinical mental health and psychotherapy communities, and people involved in various capacities in spiritual and religious communities across many traditions. Our vision is to bring folks together who have a stake in each of those areas and to make use of that interdisciplinary network to move our work forward.
What advice would you have for any religious leaders reading this who are perhaps in a bad place themselves?
I would encourage leaders—and this is part of what we’ll do in our project—to pause and to reflect on what are some of the resources, connections they could really use in their life. Then to boil it down to, “What’s the next step toward one of those resources?” It can be overwhelming to look at, “Oh, I need more peer support, I probably need a therapist, I need to get spiritual direction, I need to negotiate my salary.” It could be too much to do all of those things at once, so boil it down to the next step, trust that there are people out there who want to be helpful, and start to look for that.
Mara Sassoon is the editor of print and digital publications for the College of Fine Arts, the School of Hospitality, and the College of General Studies. She also writes for a variety of magazines for BU’s other schools and colleges, as well as for Bostonia and BU Today. Originally from South Florida, she’s not sure she’ll ever get used to Northeast winters. Profile
Mara Sassoon—WRITER/EDITORAndrew Thurston is originally from England, but has grown to appreciate the serial comma and the Red Sox, while keeping his accent (mostly) and love of West Ham United. He joined BU in 2007, and is the editor of the University’s research news site, The Brink; he was formerly director of alumni publications. Before joining BU, he edited consumer and business magazines, including for corporations, nonprofits, and the UK government. His work has won awards from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, the In House Agency Forum, Folio:, and the British Association of Communicators in Business. Andrew has a bachelor’s degree in English and related literature from the University of York. Profile
As Found on 092322 at https://visual.ly/community/Infographics/lifestyle/pressures pastoral ministry
As found on 09 17 22 at https://www.premierchristianity.com/features/burnout has the pandemic pushed pastors to the point of no return/12717.article
By Megan Cornwell24 March 2022A record number of church leaders are thinking about quitting ministry. Megan Cornwell speaks to the pastors experiencing burnout to find out why the spiritual health of the Church is under attack
Pastor Pete Killingley was rundown and ready for his forthcoming sabbatical when Covid 19 hit. “I can just about get there,” he had previously warned his eldership team, “but I’m gonna limp over the finish line.” When the country ground to a halt in March 2020 and the media scrambled to understand a deadly new virus, thoughts of a much needed ministry break began to dissipate. His congregation were looking to him for reassurance and support, so he sprang into action.
In the disorientating early months of the pandemic, when church services moved from in person to online, the then 36 year old leader of a 70 strong evangelical church in Surrey suddenly found himself “doing everything”. Speaking to me over Zoom from the home office that became church for a time, Killingley explains: “I’m quite tech minded so, in many ways, I quite enjoy the tech side of things. But at the same time, there was lots to do.” From recording worship songs with his wife to editing service contributions and live streaming his sermon, overnight, the Killingleys became responsible for teaching, preaching, leading worship, tech support and pastoral care. Simultaneously, they were home schooling their two autistic children during lockdown.
In between sips of Coke, Killingley tells me that adrenaline powered him through the initial crisis response. But when his church reopened six months later, he sensed his reserves were dangerously depleted. “There were a thousand questions that you never had to think about before,” he explains, referring to the swathes of government guidance he was then wading through to understand how social distancing and tier systems applied to his church. “It’s not just the time it took to work through the decisions, it’s the mental energy to process it all. I would get to Friday and think: I feel like I’ve worked a full week and now I’ve got to start thinking about the sermon. If you have that week after week, it adds up and drains you.”
Emotionally and mentally exhausted from pivoting through a foreign and ever changing landscape, Killingley eventually took his sabbatical in summer 2021, but says he just crashed. For the first time in his six and a half years as a pastor, he began to question his calling: “I couldn’t imagine myself doing anything else, and I can’t imagine myself really going to another church, but I very much felt: Can I go back? Am I able to go back?”
When he caught Covid just days before Christmas that year, putting paid to his family’s festive celebrations and throwing into confusion the church services he had planned, it was the final blow. “When I came back in January [2022], I had a panic attack. I was feeling agitated, stressed and unable to do anything except lie in bed.” Completely burned out, Killingley reduced his working hours by half, stepping back from everything but preaching.
The four signs of burnout
1. Are you emotionally fatigued? Not just a little tired but deep exhaustion that goes all the way to your bones? A few days off will not cure this fatigue.
2. Do you have a diminished sense of accomplishment? You may be doing the same work but everything feels harder and you just aren’t getting the results you used to. Work that used to bring you joy, now drains your soul.
3. Have you lost your sense of self? You have forgotten what you enjoy, what you value, or why you do your work? You just don’t recognise the person in the mirror?
4. Are you feeling hopeless? You’ve lost your optimism? You don’t see how change is possible? You feel stuck – maybe forever?
If you answered “yes” to all four questions, you are probably in burnout. The good news is that it’s possible to work your way out.
The above list was compiled by Sean Nemecek, whose book on burnout will be available from Zondervan next year. A podcast co hosted by Nemecek, which covers some of the issues raised in this feature, including what to do if you’re experiencing burnout, is available here.
The World Health Organization defines burnout as “a syndrome conceptualised as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed”. It is characterised by feelings of exhaustion, increased negativity towards one’s job and reduced professional efficacy. Although it’s difficult to know how many pastors it affects, a Church of England wellbeing survey found that 42 per cent of clergy said their mental health deteriorated during the pandemic. Recent research from thinktank Barna reveals 34 per cent of American pastors considered quitting during 2021.
“I don’t know anybody that wasn’t affected by it,” says David Holden, leader of New Ground, part of the Newfrontiers network of churches, when I catch up with him over Zoom to discuss the impact of the pandemic on church leaders in the UK. “It didn’t matter how long you’d been in pastoral ministry, how much experience or training you had, what your personality was, what size of church it was, I was surprised by how it really did affect people.”
Holden, like others I speak with, says the last three to four months have been the hardest: “I describe it as coming out of the cinema and into the bright light. You got so institutionalised and conditioned to this rather darker place. I know leaders who have found preaching on Sunday more taxing than ever before, and they used to do it without thinking.”
Holden’s assessment is echoed by Marcus Honeysett, the analytical and straight talking Living Leadership director and author of Powerful Leaders? When church leadership goes wrong and how to prevent it (IVP). He tells me not one of the ministers he mentors is currently in a positive frame of mind, and that even pre pandemic, he estimated burnout to be as high as 40 45 per cent. Traditionally, the danger point in ministry comes at the two pastorates’ mark, or 15 years in, he
warns.
Honeysett believes all the factors that have driven pastors to exhaustion in the past have been magnified by the pandemic long hours, poor work/life balance, competing demands (elderly parents and/or young children), declining energy levels, lack of support from peers, isolation and discouragement. What’s more, the Covid crisis turned leaders into shock absorbers for “the trauma of the flock” and into “content producers as opposed to shepherds”. In addition, the various and sometimes critical opinions about the Church’s response to legislative changes were directed straight at those steering the ship through choppy waters.
This reminds me of something Killingley said to me. The notion that “we’re all in this together”, which characterised the early months of lockdown, has now given way to: “I wouldn’t have made that decision and I’m going to let you know,” he says. “And also, a lot of people are quite angry at the government, at life or at God, but there’s not many outlets for that. One way that they can express their anger and frustration is towards their church leadership… you almost feel that you’ve become a proxy for people’s frustrations…that wears you down.”
“Burnout is so complex there are any number of factors that could contribute to it,” explains Sean Nemecek, who has been working with ministers in crisis for a number of years. The gently spoken pastor turned coach believes that the condition of a leader’s relationship with God is more important than external factors.
“When I’m talking with pastors, I usually say: ‘Burnout is what happens when our inner walk with God isn’t sufficient to sustain our outer work for God’…And so they have to learn to reprioritise their time with God, their relationship with God, their time in prayer, their times of rest and Sabbath, and that helps them to establish some rhythms that are sustainable for their work.”
But establishing a healthier pace and experiencing healing does not happen immediately. Nemecek says it takes most leaders two to five years to fully recover. But the good news is that if pastors are willing to recalibrate, there is every possibility they will become better, more resilient leaders in the long run: “We can look at this as a gift from God, in some sense, because it’s an invitation from God to be closer to him; to receive his love at a deeper, more relational, level. And then, out of our relationship with God, to be able to serve others with that sense of security rather than anxiety, with a sense of freedom rather than shame.”
Alongside his work coaching leaders, Nemecek also counsels churches to create environments in which pastors can flourish, something he believes is a crucial part of the picture. His recommendations include: helping ministers observe a day of Sabbath rest, providing space for monthly and yearly prayer retreats, and introducing sabbatical plans where they don’t already exist.
BURNOUT IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN OUR INNER WALK WITH GOD ISN’T SUFFICIENT TO SUSTAIN OUR OUTER WORK FOR GOD
This list might seem obvious; surely paid pastors, of all people, have the time for devotion? Not necessarily,
according to Honeysett, who believes overactivity is diverting the attention of leaders – and lay people from the main business of worship and listening to God. “I think a lot is going to be revealed about unhelpful success metrics,” he says, pausing as the idea percolates. “Many of us think that vibrant, spiritual healthiness is demonstrated by a multiplicity of programmes…because we’re large, because we have small groups, because we do this, that or the other ministry. When in fact, we may have been using activity as a substitute for vibrant spiritual healthiness.”
If too much activity is impeding spiritual wellbeing, as Honeysett suggests, what’s the antidote?
“Most churches say: what is the most we can do with the resources we have?” he adds. “I wonder whether we should be asking the opposite: what’s the least we can do?”
This idea is radical in its simplicity and something about it resonates, not least because of the challenges that Killingley and others have shared. Leaders say they feel discouraged that previously committed Christians in their churches are less engaged now. Volunteers have dropped off serving rotas and some are staying away from in person services. Perhaps it’s not just shepherds suffering from weariness and looking for a gentler pace of life?
His words also bring to mind Nemecek’s view that prioritising time with God provides pastors with a greater ability to discern which activities to say yes to and which to say no to. Or as Martin Luther supposedly put it: “I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.” Perhaps the answer to the problem of burnout lies somewhere between increased spiritual discipline and decreased activity.
As the pandemic comes to a close and freedom beckons, one question many of us are asking is: will life return to normal? There has been a lot of discussion not least in the pages of this magazine about what our churches could look like post Covid. But after the pandemic wiped the slate clean, do we really want to return to the status quo?
What I’ve discovered from speaking with pastors and experts is that burnout was prevalent before 2020. Covid simply pushed many over the precipice. That raises the question: if many of our leaders – and by extension, our churches – are spiritually ill, what steps can we take towards convalescence?
Honeysett might be onto something when he suggests that, rather than rushing to fill serving rotas or to reimagine church, we wait on the Lord. That’s not an easy thing to do in a world that prizes performance over presence and which measures success by statistics. But, as Jesus told Martha when she complained that her sister wasn’t making food or tidying the house: “Mary has chosen what is better” (Luke 10:42). Mary was far more interested in sitting at the feet of her Lord and learning from the one whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light (Matthew 11:30). I have an inkling that, after such a time as this, it’s exactly the tonic we need, sheep and shepherd alike. Who knows what God might do with an offering like that.
Dr Isabelle Hamley is theologian to the House of Bishops. She caught Covid 19 at the beginning of the pandemic and, two years on, is still unable to walk up the stairs without getting out of breath. Here, she explains how long Covid led to feelings of exhaustion and burnout
Even though, physically, I am getting slightly better, the feeling of being overwhelmed and burned out is actually getting worse. My initial being off work after I caught Covid was really about caring for myself physically, but I need to stop and catch up with myself to a degree, and there hasn’t been much space to do that.
As the long Covid symptoms continue, you just think: Is this going to be permanent? Is this a disability? And I need to then find space to come to terms with it. That’s quite a big thing for anyone to deal with. We don’t know whether anybody will find treatments that actually deal with the cause rather than the symptoms.
As the pandemic has carried on, everybody is exhausted, so the support networks that normally you draw on they are struggling and trying to cope. There are less avenues for support and to help you process things. My mental health is very fragile at the moment. I started taking antidepressants a few months into Covid, because I just couldn’t process it all. I’ve now come off those, but I’m not sure whether it’s the right decision. I still feel incredibly fragile and that takes a toll and makes it harder to concentrate.
When you work in the Church, you naturally end up dealing with a lot of difficult situations that’s part of the job but I feel I have less emotional reserves to deal with conflict and distress in other people. I just haven’t got the capacity I used to have to hold all of that.
Isabelle has been working with the Clergy Support Trust and St Luke’s, a charity that helps clergy and their family when they are experiencing ill health, to explore how to better care for clergy with long Covid. Find out more at clergysupporttrust.org.uk
Megan Cornwell is deputy editor of Premier Christianity magazine. She previously worked at the Guardian and The Tablet. When she's not writing and editing features or interviewing well known Christians she can be found scrambling around the floor with her one year old and pretending to be a puppy with her five year old. She loves all things faith, ethics and journalism, and her tea strong, with lots of milk.
As found on 09 17 22 at: https://www.campbellsville.edu/university faculty/campbellsville review/understanding burnout and pastoral burnout practical principles implications for pastoral ministries/
No Author was cited published on March 18, 2022
The greatest asset of a successful organization is its people (Schneider, 1987; Parris & Peachey, 2012). Healthy organizations invest time and financial resources to promote the physiological and psychological well being of their personnel. Individuals are expected to engage in their work enthusiastically and innovatively in order to help their organizations succeed (Bagi, 2013). Nevertheless, high levels of job stress caused by a lack of support and guidance, long hours, work overload, and other pressures, can lead to burnout (Bagi, 2013; Schaufeli, Leiter, & Maslach, 2009; Michie & Williams, 2003; Maslach & Jackson, 1981a).
Burnout is “a prolonged response to chronic interpersonal stressors on the job” (Maslach, Schaufeli, & Leiter, 2001, p. 397). The phenomenon is characterized by emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and low levels of personal accomplishment (Martin, 2018; Maslach et al., 2001; Maslach & Jackson, 1981a). The study of burnout is rooted in the research of H. Freudenberger, C. Maslach, S.E. Jackson, A. Pines, W. Schaufeli, M.P. Leiter, T., and R.L Schwab (Schaufeli et al., 2009). Since the concept was first developed by the Freudenberger (1974) and Maslach & Jackson (1981a), many factors have been found to contribute to burnout (Martin, 2018; Bagi, 2013). This article examines the various constructs of burnout and their associated impacts on individuals and organizations, particularly as related to pastoral ministry.
“Job burnout” emerged as an important concept in the 1970’s. Freudenberger coined the term in an article entitled “Staff Burn Out” which observed that “dedicated and committed” caregivers who worked at St. Mark’s Free Clinic in New York’s East Village (himself included) had experienced “burnout” (p. 159). Later studies appear to concur with Freudenberger’s initial observations claiming that burnout limits the physiological, psychological, and behavioral abilities of individuals (Martin, 2018; Dolghie, 2018; Lourenco, 2016; Bagnall, Jones, Akter, & Woodall, 2016; Begi, 2013). At the same time, social psychologist Christiana Maslach and her colleagues independently noticed the term “burnout” during interviews with human services workers in California (Schaufeli et al., 2009, p. 205). Maslach observed that the individuals interviewed used “burnout” to describe their emotional exhaustion in connection with “negative perceptions and feelings about their clients or patients, and that they experienced crises in professional competence as a result of emotional turmoil” (Schaufeli et al., 2009, p. 206).
Recently, multiple studies have identified emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and low personal accomplishment as three measurable constructs (or dimensions) of burnout (Maslach, 2018; Martin, 2018; Dolghie 2018; Santos 2014; Bagi, 2013; Schaufeli et al., 2009). Emotional exhaustion is the basic stress dimension of burnout. Scholars describe emotional exhaustion as the feeling of being emotionally overextended, short of one’s emotional resources, a wearing out, a loss of energy, a depletion, a debilitation, and fatigue (Dolghie, 2018; Martin, 2018; Danielson, 2017; Bagi, 2013; Maslach, Jackson, & Leiter, 1997). The principle sources of emotional exhaustion are work overload and personal conflict at work (Dolghie, 2018; Lourenco, 2016). Cynicism represents the interpersonal dimension of burnout. Researchers define cynicism as a negative, or
excessively detached response to other individuals (Martin, 2018; Dolghie, 2018; Lourenco, 2016; Bagi, 2013; Maslach et al., 1997). Cynicism often includes a loss of idealism and irritability (Martin, 2018; Danielson, 2017; Maslach, Jackson, & Leiter, 1997). Low personal accomplishment represents the self evaluation dimension of burnout. This often results in low job performance, a decline in feelings of competence, a low morale, a withdrawal, a failure to handle daily demands, and reduced productivity or capacity at work (Martin, 2018; Dolghie, 2018; Lourenco, 2016; Bagi, 2013; Maslach et al., 1997). This lowered sense of self efficacy has been connected to depression and an inability to handle the daily demands of the job (Rossler, 2012; Hakanen & Schaufeli, 2012).
Although Freudenberger’s initial observations on burnout were not empirically based, his early claims were validated. Burnout is positively correlated with emotional exhaustion experienced by workers who are exposed to stressful job conditions which transcend their mental resilience (Martin, 2018; Rossler, 2012; Maslach et al., 1997; Freudenberger, 1974). Maslach (1998) adds that burnout has been recognized as an occupational hazard for various people oriented professions such as human services, education, and health care. This increased risk exists because the therapeutic or service relationships that such caregivers provide require “an ongoing and intense level of personal, emotional contact” (Maslach, 1998, p. 68). Maslach (1998) writes:
The experience [of burnout] can impair both personal and social functioning. While some people may quit the job as a result of burnout, others will stay on, but will only do the bare minimum rather than their very best. This decline in the quality of work and in both physical and psychological health can be costly not just for the individual worker, but everyone affected by that person (p. 68).
Maslach & Schaufeli (1993) identified five common elements of the burnout phenomenon that are present in most, if not all, the various professional fields. These elements consist of dysphoric symptoms, mental and behavioral symptoms, work related burnout symptoms, symptoms manifesting in normal, healthy individuals who have not suffered from psychopathology before, and decreased effectiveness and work performance due to negative attitudes and behaviors. Although high levels of fatigue/stress and depression seem to be one of the five commonalities experienced by burned out individuals of various professional fields, it must be clarified that stress, depression, and burnout are not the same constructs. Burnout is a prolonged response that is specific to the work environment, while depression tends to permeate every domain of an individual’s life (Maslach, 2018; Leiter & Durup, 1994). Burnout may have its roots in stress, but goes beyond the negative impacts of stress. “While some amount of stress is essential for productive performance, excessive stress greatly affects the health, productivity, and engagement of an organization” (Bruce, 2015).
Research purports that work engagement is an antidote for burnout (Danielson, 2017; Schaufeli et al., 2008; Schaufeli et al., 2002). Work engagement is “a positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind which is described by experiences of energy, dedication, and absorption at work” (Upadyaya et al., 2016, p. 102). Workers who experience high levels of vigor, dedication, and absorption at work are indeed often vaccinated against the symptoms of burnout.
Schaufeli, Taris, Le Blanc, Peeters, Bakker, and De Jonge (2001) affirmed that workers with high levels of work engagement are different from those addicted to work. These individuals seem to find meaning not only in their work, but outside their work as well. They seem to experience what
researchers call “life satisfaction.” Life satisfaction is positively associated with work engagement (Upadyaya et al., 2016).
Workaholism, however, may actually cause burnout (Schaufeli et al. 2008). It may be that individuals whose levels of work engagement are high and individuals who are considered to be workaholics are in truth both walking on the same path towards burnout. Research seems to support this line of reasoning when it claims that both work engagement and burnout are positively correlated to workaholism (Shimazu, Schaufeli, Kamiyama, & Kawakami, 2015). Perhaps the main difference between highly engaged workers and workaholics is that the high levels of life satisfaction function as “rest areas” for workers whose levels of work engagement and life satisfaction are high.
Scholars argue that this correlation shared between work engagement, burnout, and workaholism “may also reflect the ‘dark side’ of engagement” (Upadyaya et al., 2016, p. 106; Salmela Aro, 2015; Sonnentag, 2011; Bakker, Albrecht, & Leiter, 2011). If this “dark side” of work engagement can be empirically tested and proven, then work engagement, the supposed antidote for burnout, may be mere anecdote rather than antidote. Yet perhaps high work engagement does make for a slower and less painful journey to burnout.
Studies seem to demonstrate that workers experience burnout symptoms when job demands are high and/ or there is a lack of job resources to perform assigned tasks (Upadyaya et al., 2016). The combination of high job demands and a lack of job resources has been proven to cause individuals to experience not only the most common and detrimental symptoms of burnout such as emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and low job performance, but also “depression, musculoskeletal pain, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and premature mortality” (Bagnall et al., 2016, p. 6; Maslach, Schaufeli, & Leiter, 2001, p. 397 422).
There may be a relationship between empathy and burnout, but research on this relationship is confounding. Wilkinson, Whittington, Perry, and Eames (2017) conclude that there is consistent evidence for a negative association between burnout and empathy (p. 18). They find that caregivers who lack empathy toward their patients are more likely to experience burnout. However, previous studies indicate otherwise (Rothschild, 2006; Figley, 2002). Fitzgerald Yau and Egan (2018) argue that empathy tends to create vulnerability to stress. High levels of stress for extended periods of time may lead one to experience emotional exhaustion, one of the primary constructs of burnout.
Bagnall et al. (2016) and Schaufeli et al. (2009) suggest that burnout limits people physiologically and psychologically. At the personal level, studies seem to demonstrate that burned out individuals are more likely to experience depressive symptoms and lower life satisfaction (Upadyaya, 2016; et al., 2016). Martin (2018) and Maslach (2018) add that burned out people tend to be more anxious and psychological distressed. Dolghie (2018) and Lourenco (2016) also claim that burned out individuals complain of low levels of energy and are more likely to be ill.
Burned out individuals also have problems establishing boundaries between their work and their family (Hessel, 2015; Wells, Probst, Mckeown, Mitchem & Hiejong, 2012). This lack of well defined boundaries may have serious familial consequences, especially when said worker experiences chronic illness, jobs loss, and/or premature death (Bagnall et al., 2016; Hessel, 2015). On an inter personal level, researchers appear to agree that people suffering from burnout are more arrogant and cynical when relating to others, especially their coworkers (Martin, 2018; Lourenco, 2016; Upadyaya et al., 2016; Schaufeli et al., 2009; Maslach & Jackson, 1981a; Freudenberger, 1974). This negative behavior resulting from burnout is called cynicism (Maslach, 2018), and has been positively correlated with low job performance (Upadyaya et al., 2016).
Examining burnout at an organizational level, researchers seem to be unanimous in affirming that low job performance is one of the measurable constructs of burnout (Upadyaya, et al., 2016; Santos 2014; Maslach & Jackson, 1981a). Studies further indicate that burned out individuals are not only dissatisfied with their jobs and life; they are also more pessimistic; they produce less work and with lower quality; they are more prone to absenteeism; and they are more likely to experience job turnover (Upadyaya et al., 2016; Bagnall et al., 2016; Schaufeli et al., 2009; Maslach & Jackson, 1981a; Freudenberger’s, 1974). According to Maslach (2018), burned out workers do the minimum necessary to keep their jobs. When burned out workers reach the point of taking sick days in order to cope, their absenteeism increases the workload and stress levels on their healthy counterparts and it becomes apparent that burnout may be cyclical (Lourenco, 2016; Begi, 2013). A higher stress level in healthy employees caused by the absenteeism of employees suffering burnout in turn increases the likelihood that those healthy individuals will experience burnout too (Michie & Williams, 2003).
Bagnall et al., (2016) purport that most of the discussions on burnout interventions focus on individual centered solutions (p. 8). While such interventions may produce temporary positive results, those solutions tend to be relatively ineffective when compared to interventions implemented at the organizational level (Maslach, 2018; Bagnall et al., 2016, p. 8). In addition, Bagnall et al. (2016) claim that the most effective and lasting solutions to burnout are obtained not when they are only initiated at the organizational level, but rather, when solutions are implemented simultaneously at organizational and individual levels. Ironically, while most of the research produced on burnout focuses on organizations, especially large organizations, most studies, research projects, and proposed solutions to burnout seem not to be aligned with the search for more effective, practical, and lasting interventions which would incorporate individual and organizational solutions in unison. So far, solutions to the burnout syndrome appear to be limited to palliative treatments implemented to keep the organizational machinery functioning. Such solutions tend only to alleviate one’s emotional and physical exhaustion temporarily, all the while masking the real roots of the burnout syndrome high job demands and the lack of job resources (Upadyaya et al., 2016; Demerouti & Bakker, 2011; Demerouti, Nachreiner, & Schaufeli, 2001).
Hessel (2015) agrees with Maslach et al. (2001) when he asserts that the treatment of burnout has progressed in other areas; however, more research needs to be conducted to identify situational factors in certain work occupations and cultures (Hessel, 2015, p. 173). One such field where burnout deserves more focused study is the clerical one. While review of the literature indicates that more studies on pastoral burnout are conducted in the western world than in the eastern world, pastoral burnout is a real issue for pastors worldwide (Barna, 2020; Nichols, 2019). Whether chronic pastoral stressors may vary from country to country, one’s prolonged response to chronic ministerial stressors might lead to emotional exhaustion, and consequently to burnout despite geographical location (Nakano, 2017; Santos, 2014). Therefore, advancing from the above general survey of burnout, this study now turns attention to understanding pastoral burnout with its causes and effects.
It may be that faithful ministers in times past considered the idea of leaving ministry unthinkable, Exantus (2011) estimates that 1800 pastors from all types of denominations abandon their ministries each month. As Pinion (2008) puts it: “pastors in the United States are dropping like flies” (p. 93).
The average pastoral tenure within the Southern Baptist Convention, for instance, is three to four years (Exantus, 2011). Presently, scholars seem to agree that many good ministers are leaving their ministries and/ or are being forced out of their congregations (Exantus, 2011; Pinion, 2008; Baggi, 2008). In a study of 734 former Protestant pastors, Lifeway Research (2015) confirmed this previous research. They discovered that 32% of the participants experienced burnout and considered leaving their ministries as a consequence. Fifteen percent of the pastors who began their first pastorate left their ministries within five years and never returned to church leadership. Out of the 15 percent, 44% of these pastors left ministry because of unresolved conflict or ministry burnout. In summary, multiple studies confirm that churches are rapidly losing good leaders because of burnout and/or ministry disappointments (Exantus, 2011; Baggi, 2008).
As might be expected, stress is a leading cause of burnout among pastors. In a study of 424 male and female ministers, Tomic, Tomic, & Will (2004) discovered that ministers who faced high levels of stress in ministry experienced burnout in all three dimensions of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI): emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and low job performance (Tomic et al., 2004). While any job can have high levels of stress there are specific factors associated with the stress of pastoral ministries, and as Exantus (2011) argues seminaries are not adequately training ministers for these aspects of ministry life (p. 26).
Research on pastoral stress and burnout has found multiple causes related to the nature of pastoral ministry and pastoral life. Hessel (2015), for example, found a variety of stress contributors related to pastoral burnout, which he organized into seven key themes. These themes are: (a) spiritual care, (b) family concern, (c) poor control of schedule, (d) managerial control, (e) unnecessarily elevated status, (f) absence of a mentor, and (g) [poor] relational skill. Hessel (2015) further condensed these themes into three categories: (a) spiritual formation, (b) family support, and (c) management skills. He concludes pastoral burnout may or may not occur depending on how well adjusted and balanced these three factors are. Working from Hessel’s observations and adding to them, the following is a summary of factors associated with pastoral burnout.
Poor daily devotional habits. Hessel (2015) and Chandler (2009) assert that pastoral burnout may be mitigated if pastors learn to rely on God for strength. Sadly, Exantus (2011) reports, “Eighty percent of pastors spend less than fifteen minutes a day in prayer, [and] seventy percent say the only time they spend studying the Word of God is when they are preparing sermons” (Exantus, 2011, p. 40; London & Wiseman, 1993). Ministers who have a positive attitude towards prayer and have a regular devotional life tend to experience lower levels of burnout from emotional exhaustion and cynicism, even while they maintain higher levels of personal accomplishment (Hessel, 2015; Turton & Francis, 2007).
Lack of confidence. Personality factors and emotional stability seem to have significant impact on burnout (Golden, Ciarrocchi, Piedmont, & Rodgerson, 2004; Tomic et al., 2004). Beaumont (2010) and Mueller & McDuff (2004) agree that a lack of confidence may be another factor in pastoral burnout. Pastors who lack confidence to deal with pastoral demands may experience high levels of stress which may lead one to experience burnout (Maslach, 1993; Maslach et al., 1986; Maslach et al., 1981).
Ministerial family issues. Ministers who lack social support at home may have higher chances of experiencing burnout than those who do have support at home (Tomic et al., 2004). Moreover, a lack of boundaries between ministerial demands and personal family care may also lead pastors to experience pastoral burnout (Hessel, 2015; Wells, Probst, Mckeown, Mitchem, & Whiejong, 2012).
Lack of companionship. Research conducted with 1,482 Catholic parochial clergy in England and Wales demonstrated that clergy who experienced the companionship of dogs scored lower on emotional exhaustion and cynicism than those who did not have a dog, which suggests that the companionship of dogs in particular seems to mitigate the negative constructs of burnout (Francis, 2007).
Ministerial longevity. Studies have shown that younger ministers are more vulnerable to burnout (Santos, 2014; Randall, 2007; Tomic et al., 2004). Ministerial longevity seems to play a crucial role in pastoral burnout and turnover (Lifeway Research, 2015; Hessel, 2015; Santos, 2014; Beene, 2007). Studies seem to agree that pastors with longer tenure in ministry are less likely to experience pastoral burnout. Sadly, whereas 50% of pastors serve beyond their first five years of ministry, the rest tend to leave ministry to pursue other fields (Barna, 2006; Zondag, 2004).
Pastoral dissatisfaction. Studies seem to indicate that dissatisfied pastors are more likely to leave their ministries (Lifeway Research, 2015; Hessel, 2015; Santos, 2014; Barna, 2011; Zondag, 2004). Other studies have established the positive correlation between job satisfaction and burnout (Upadyaya et al., 2016; Schaufeli et al., 2009).
Pastoral autonomy. A lack of pastoral autonomy appears to be another possible contributor to pastoral burnout (Miner, Dowson, & Sterland, 2010). Rainer (2016) suggests that pastors tend to feel frustrated when church members disrespect their authority and leadership. Hessel (2015) argues that a lack of well defined leadership roles could be one of the reasons why pastoral autonomy is violated. Evers and Tomic (2003) concur with Hessel (2015) when they observe that “role ambiguity and a lack of social support” could lead clergy to burnout (p. 329).
Nichols (2019) claims that burned out pastors tend to be more impatient with church members. Frustration, disrespect, and impatience generate conflicts between pastors and church members (Rainer, 2013; Cordeiro, 2009). For Rainer (2013), ongoing church conflicts and criticism could lead pastors to emotional exhaustion. Emotionally exhausted pastors are more likely to become dissatisfied with their ministries and to abandon their congregations (Martin, 2018; Dolghie, 2018; Santos, 2014). In summary, pastors whose ministerial autonomy is low are more likely to be unsatisfied with their ministries, to experience pastoral burnout, and consequently to abandon their congregations (Hessel, 2015).
Lack of existential fulfillment. In 2009 research demonstrated that 36 individuals, mostly nurses and physicians, who traveled to South America as short term mission workers experienced improvement in burnout rates after they returned to the United States (Campbell, Campbell, Krier, Kuehthau, Hilmes, & Stromberger, 2009). Perhaps short mission trips may work well to help pastors recuperate their physical, emotional, and spiritual levels of energy, as well as their sense of existential fulfillment (Stetzer, 2017; Bolsinger, 2015).
Creating space. Stetzer (2017) recognizes that ministers often have highly demanding agendas, and, because of this, he recommends ministers purposely schedule rest into their day, week, month, and year. This can consist of recovery from work in the evenings and on weekends, physical exercise, good dietary habits, one two days off with family, time spent in personal spiritual growth, and an
annual vacation with extra finances for vacation costs provided by their church (Stetzer, 2020; Upadyaya et al., 2016; Hessel, 2015; Rainer, 2013; Sonnentag, 2003). Pastors needed three types of relationships to help them avoid spiritual dryness: friends who know them personally and intimately, mentors to hold them accountable for their spiritual lives and to provide them with guidance, and organized boards to help them lead (Stetzer, 2020). Although Stetzer (2020) suggests three types of relationships to help ministers cope with pastoral burnout, this author suggests adding a fourth type of relationship to the list familial friendships. Pastors must use their days off to enjoy their families and participate in activities that promote closeness amongst family members.
Highly Demanding Congregations. Pastors whose daily meditation lives are dry are less likely to be able to provide healthy spiritual leadership for their congregations (Hessel, 2015; Exantus, 2011). Highly demanding congregations seem to be very detrimental to a pastor’s emotional, physical and spiritual health (Hessel, 2015; Exantus, 2011; Vitello, 2010). Whereas Hessel (2015) claims that large congregations are more demanding than small congregations, Danielson (2017) and Santos (2014) claim that small churches are more likely to cause pastors to experience pastoral burnout. Despite this disagreement about the size of the congregation involved, these and previous studies seem to agree that highly demanding congregations seem to be a relevant factor in pastoral burnout. Highly demanding congregations appear to be negatively associated with job satisfaction (Hessel, 2015). One could easily conclude that, whereas healthy work environments have psychological safety impact on individuals’ health, highly demanding working places such as congregations may be toxic to their ministers (Upadyaya et al., 2016).
Extended work hours. Extended work hours is another factor which seems to contribute to pastoral burnout (Hessel, 2015; Exantus, 2011). Exantus (2011) argues that pastors work on average 46 hours a week. Vitello (2010), though, seems to indicate higher numbers. In his view, pastors tend to work long hours, feeling as if they are on duty 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Management responsibilities. Flynn (2009) indicates that pastors see management type responsibilities as another burnout contributor. The demand to manage building issues, educational programs, and staff, especially when placed upon an individual who lacks managerial skills, may lead to a pastor experiencing burnout.
Rural locations. Data also suggest that rural clergy have higher chances of experiencing emotional exhaustion and burnout (Rutledge, 2006). A study by Danielson (2017) seems to support this finding by demonstrating that solo pastors in small churches in the state of Montana scored lower in work engagement than did pastors who served in congregations with more than one paid ministerial position.
Rainer (2016), Exantus (2011) and Malphurs (2003) seem to agree that the American evangelical church is in crisis. The crisis appears rooted within pastoral families burned out from the high demands of ministerial responsibilities (Barna, 1993). Clearly, churches as organizations and pastors as individuals are not divinely immune to burnout syndrome. Indeed, studies clearly demonstrate that churches and their pastors are negatively impacted by burnout, perhaps even more so than in secular environments due to the added spiritual pressures involved in pastoral burnout (Nakano, 2017; Abernethy, Grannum, Gordon, Williamson, &
Pastors claim that a church’s demands on them and their families are often unrealistic (Hessel, 2015; Exantus, 2011). According to Barna (1993), pastors tend to believe that pastoral ministry impacts their families negatively. One out of three pastors classify pastoral ministry as a “hazard to their families” (Exantus, 2011, p. 22). Yet, ironically, clergy at the same time feel immense familial pressure because their congregations expect them to have ideal families. What is more, pastors tend not to find enough time for their families (Hessel, 2015). They often face sexual problems and appear to have difficulties raising their children (Exantus, 2011). On top of these issues, pastors seem to believe that their lack of compensation contributes directly to marital conflicts. Not only is pastoral burnout detrimental for the pastor and his or her family, but burned out pastors tend to experience a decrease in the quality of their ministerial performance (Nakano, 2017; Santos, 2014).
Consequently, churches also suffer negative effects from their minister’s burnout.
The question that arises from this ample research: It is clear that pastoral burnout is a problem for pastors, their families, and their congregations, but what can be done to improve the current situation? It is the opinion of this researcher that churches and denominations should educate on burnout, promote early awareness, and promote big conversations. Issues related to burnout, pastoral or otherwise, should be learned, taught and discussed by educational institutions with leaders, workers, and employee’s families to help prevent burnout (Bagnall et al., 2016; Hessel, 2015). Seminars, workshops, and new curriculum should be considered as possible avenues to promote awareness and individuals suffering from burnout should be identified, examined by experts, and offered restorative treatment options (Upadyaya et al., 2016). Melville & Reuters (2020) report that the Church of England is currently pursuing “Big Conversations” with clergy, parishes, dioceses, and the wider church by defining boundaries in order to fight pastoral stress and burnout with the intent to call individuals involved in the life of the church to share responsibility “for the welfare of ordained ministers and their households.” The “Big Conversations” initiative has established a working group to provide clergy with coaching, consulting, and/or mentoring to enable ministers to feel more confident and better equipped for ministry (Beaumont, 2010; Golden et al., 2004; Tomic et al., 2004).
While this review has shown that clerical burnout is problematic for pastors; it has also led to the realization that pastors’ families and their congregations are also affected by this burnout. However, pastors have been the primary subjects of almost all the studies, and there remains a clear need for future qualitative, quantitative, and mixed method studies on the effects of burnout on the clergy member’s spouses and children.
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Religions 2021, 12(6), 378; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12060378
Received: 31 March 2021 / Revised: 8 May 2021 / Accepted: 19 May 2021 / Published: 24 May 2021
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Health and Mindfulness: A Christian Approach)
As found on 09 17 23 at https://www.mdpi.com/2077 1444/12/6/378/htm
Three Christian Devotion Meditation (CDM) practices lectio divina, centering prayer, and the examen will be offered to aid in coping with ministerial stress and to prevent burnout. CDM or Christian contemplative practices are uniquely suited to develop the emotional resources pastors need for coping with burnout. The office of the pastor faces pressures which can cause burnout and threaten their ministries and personal relationships. The experience of pastoral burnout consists of acedia. Pastors experience spiritual emptiness due to two unique aspects of pastoral life. First, because pastors often work alongside with their families in the church while simultaneously serving their congregants, they experience inter role conflict due to the high level of boundary ambiguity between their vocational and family lives. Second, pastors need to rely on their psychological resources to provide for their church members due to the emotional labor required of their positions. Consequently, pastors must rely on emotional labor strategies to respond positively to their congregations, which in turn can lead to emotional exhaustion.
Keywords: lectio divina; centering prayer; examen; Christian Devotion Meditation; pastoral burnout; emotional labor; work and family balance.
Burnout is becoming an increasing concern for the office of the pastor. Burnout in the pastorate is derived from inter role conflict suggesting that pastors are uniquely situated to increase risk of burnout as they express their vocation in a community alongside their family. Pastoring means that one lives with one’s congregation, which makes inter role conflict a certainty. Second, pastors tend to experience emotional exhaustion as they support and nurture their congregations. As a result of the emotional investment in the lives of their congregations, pastors need to rely on their psychological resources in order to provide for their church members. When the inevitable conflict arises, pastors must rely on emotional labor strategies, i.e., surface and deep acting, in order to respond positively to their congregations. Emotional labor strategies consume precious psychological resources for pastors which results in their experience of emotional exhaustion. Due to these unique aspects of the pastorate, Christian Devotion Meditation (CDM) or Christian contemplative practices are uniquely suited to develop the emotional resources pastors need for coping with burnout. This article presents three CDM practices for pastors to use lectio divina, centering prayer, and examen to stave off and cope with ministerial stress which could lead to burnout. This article will describe the ravages and causes of burnout. Then, discussion will turn to how the pastorate is a crucible for encouraging burnout via work and family conflict and emotional exhaustion. Finally, the main contribution of this article focuses on how mindfulness practices and their corresponding Christian contemplative practices (or what is more generally known as Christian Devotion Meditation (CDM)) allows one to incorporate Christian accommodative practices with mindfulness, especially for pastors experiencing
burnout. That is, the unique family and occupation context which pastors and their families inhabit creates a crucible that facilitates higher levels of burnout. The three CDM practices of lectio divina, centering prayer, and the daily exam not only directly address the causes of pastoral burnout, but they also provide Christian spiritual resources that tailor mindfulness practices for pastors seeking to incorporate this type of spirituality into treatment.
The construct of burnout was coined and first studied in the 1970s by Herbert Freudenberger and Christina Maslach. The current widely accepted definition of burnout is “a prolonged response to chronic emotional and interpersonal stressors on the job, and is defined by the three dimensions of exhaustion, cynicism, and inefficacy” (Maslach et al. 2001, p. 397). Since its inception, burnout scholarship has moved through three distinct stages: 1. the pioneering phase; 2. the empirical phase; and 3. the expanding phase. The pioneering phase is the initial phase of the study of burnout as it is now understood and took place in the 1970s and the 1980s. The focus on this initial phase was exploratory in nature and sought to describe and define the phenomenon of burnout. The empirical phase, which took place from the 1980s to the 1990s, saw the phenomenon of burnout move to longitudinal studies, and from qualitative studies to quantitative studies. Additionally, research during this phase branched out to a multitude of occupations (Maslach et al. 2001). The expanding phase followed the empirical phase. Researchers in the expanding phase continued to apply the study of burnout to a wider array of occupations and began to study the effects of technology (email, texts, tablets, computers, smartphones, and applications) on burnout (Dunbar et al. 2020). Research indicates that burnout can occur in any industry, organization, position, or job
type. In short, no burnout proof career or vocation exists. While the majority of burnout studies are conducted in the medical field (physicians, nurses, intensivists, hospital departments, nonpatient care, ancillary services, residents, volunteers, students, etc.), areas of study continue to expand. Recent studies have researched burnout in populations such as parenting (Roskam et al. 2018), university students (Portoghese et al. 2018), psychiatry (Schonfeld and Bianchi 2021), teachers (Meredith et al. 2020), and athletes (Gerber et al. 2018). Additionally, the relationships between burnout and various psychological phenomena continues to grow. Examples being studied in conjunction with burnout include depression, job performance, cognitive performance, stress, self esteem, personality traits, job resources, organizational politics, empathy, work overload, supervisor support, and role ambiguity. For example, role ambiguity has a significant effect on job burnout and performance (Wu et al. 2019), and job burnout negatively affects job satisfaction and job performance (Liu et al. 2020). In other words, individuals not understanding their work roles (duties, expected outcomes, procedures/processes, reporting structure, etc.) can experience burnout and low levels of job satisfaction. Weigl et al. (2016) found that emotional exhaustion is related to work overload and low supervisor support. This translates to emotional exhaustion occurring when an individual experiences demands that are perceived to be unreasonable and/or he or she does not receive support from his or her supervisors. Consequences of burnout affect both the organization and the individual experiencing burnout. Burnout can result in employee turnover, neglect, depression, unhappiness, isolation, health problems, attempted suicide, diminished satisfaction and achievement, poor work performance, and substance abuse (Atalayin et al. 2015; Basar and Basim 2016; Taylor and Ayyala 2019; Walburg et al. 2015).
The main instrument for measuring burnout is
the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). The MBI was developed in the Empirical Phase and is considered to be the gold standard for measuring burnout (Maslach et al. 2012). To date, five versions of the MBI exist to distinguish between populations: (a) Medical Personnel (MBI HSS (MP)); (b) Human Service Workers (MBI HSS); Educators (MBI ES); (c) General Use (MBI GS); and (d) Students (MBI S). Each version of the MBI is composed of three scales: (a) Exhaustion or Emotional Exhaustion; (b) Cynicism or Depersonalization; and (c) Professional Efficacy or Personal Accomplishment. One or more versions of the MBI has been translated into 47 languages. When first developed, the authors of the MBI viewed burnout as a process model or phase model, in which one dimension of burnout led to the next dimension of burnout, which led to the last dimension of burnout. For example, the initial stage of emotional exhaustion led to depersonalization, which led to reduced personal accomplishment. However, there has been a move to view burnout as a one dimensional construct of exhaustion. It is important to note that the preeminent scale for measuring burnout is the emotional, or emotional exhaustion, scale. In fact, the authors of the MBI (Maslach et al. 2018) state, “Exhaustion is often considered the strongest, primary element of burnout, and thus a suitable proxy for the entire phenomenon” (p. 72). Maslach, Jackson, and Leiter also state, “For use in applied settings, a prudent approach when deciding to take action on the basis of burnout scores is to give the most weight to Emotional Exhaustion scores as they are the most reliable” (2018, p. 3). The emotional exhaustion component has also been incorporated in burnout instruments other than the MBI. For example, the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI) refers to physical and emotional exhaustion. However, the MBI has received criticism for not adequately reflecting the occupation of the pastor (Francis et al. 2004; Randall 2013). These are two main concerns regarding the relationship of the MBI and pastors: (1) the implied theory to emotional exhaustion drives the other burnout dimensions, and (2) the MBI items themselves do not reflect pastoral ministry, i.e., refer to clients
instead of parishioners or congregants. The evidence suggests the modified MBI adequately assesses burnout among pastors (Francis et al. 2004; Randall 2013; Rutledge and Francis 2004); however, emerging research suggests that other theories of pastoral burnout more accurately reflect this unfortunate pastoral concern (see below).
Two concepts that continue to be applied to the phenomenon of burnout are work family balance and inter role conflict. Grzywacz and Carlson (2007, p. 455) define work family balance as, “accomplishment of role related expectations that are negotiated and shared between an individual and his or her role related partners in the work and family domains”. In short, work roles and family roles affect each other and the individual performing in both roles. One role can positively enrich or negatively affect the other role and the individual’s stress level. When work and family are in conflict (work family conflict), individuals can experience stress and burnout (Smith et al. 2019). A study conducted by Greenhaus and Beutell (1985) found that work family conflict exists due to time constraints formed when one of the roles makes it difficult to successfully perform the requirements of the other role, strain from one of the roles makes it difficult to successfully complete the requirements of the other role, and the specific behaviors of one role make it difficult to successfully complete the requirements of the other role. Research indicates that long work hours and weekend schedules are associated with high levels of work family conflict (Asiedu et al. 2018). Because pastors routinely work weekends and long hours, work family conflict can become an issue and can ultimately lead to burnout.
Work family balance is often studied in conjunction with inter role conflict. Inter role conflict is defined as “a form of role conflict in which the sets of opposing pressures arise from participation in different roles” (Greenhaus and Beutell, p. 77). Demands in one role impact the stress in both roles, as well as the other life areas (Smoktunowicz et al. 2017). In short, the pressures, demands, and stress in one role bleed over into the other role, causing conflict. Burnout
can be caused by inter role conflict (Dunbar et al. 2020). Additionally, a study conducted by Kozak et al. (2013) found that burnout can be predicted by inter role conflict. Pastors may experience high levels of inter role conflict as they feel an obligation and calling to serve Christ, His church, and their own immediate families. Serving multiple roles can initiate the causes that lead to work family conflict (time constraints, strain between roles, and specific behavior expectations).
Ultimately, burnout as the experience of exhaustion as a result of inter role conflict or work family balance requires the use of emotional labor as a self regulation strategy.
Service sector workers are required to exert emotional competency while on the job. This concept, known as emotional labor, is the act of expressing socially desired emotions during service transactions. Specifically, it is the management of feelings to create a publicly observable facial and bodily display, which is then sold for a wage and therefore has exchange value (Hochschild 1983, p. 9). It involves managing emotions in order to conform to organizational or professional display rules in order to satisfy job requirements (Shankar and Kumar 2014). Thus, emotional labor involves actively modifying, creating, and altering the expression of emotions in the context of paid employment (Choi and Kim 2015).
As individuals attempt to manage their emotions, they can engage in surface acting or deep acting. Surface acting involves simulating emotions that are not actually felt, by changing outward appearances (i.e., facial expression, gestures, or voice tone) when exhibiting the required emotions. Deep acting, on the other hand, is when one attempts to actually experience or feel the emotions that one wishes to display (Ashforth and Humphrey 1993). Unlike surface acting, deep acting
involves changing one’s inner feelings by altering more than the outward appearance. In surface acting, feelings are changed from the “outside in”, whereas in deep acting, feelings are changed from the “inside out” (Hochschild 1983). Utilizing these strategies allows employees to perform the emotional labor that is required of them on the job (Ashforth and Humphrey 1993; Grandey 2003). Research suggests that the demands for emotional labor result in negative outcomes including job satisfaction, memory performance, and depersonalization. It has also been found to be positively related to job stress, hypertension, and heart disease (Mann 2004). Emotional labor has also been found to exacerbate emotional exhaustion and burnout (Zapf 2002).
Hochschild (1983) argued that there are pernicious effects of both surface acting and deep acting on the laborer. First, portraying emotions that are not felt (SA) creates a sense of strain that she terms emotive dissonance. Ultimately, this dissonance could lead to personal and work related maladjustment such as poor self esteem, depression, and cynicism. Second, it is argued that emotional reactions help one to make sense of situations. Deep acting, thus, may distort these reactions and impair one’s sense of authentic self thereby impairing one’s well being. Deep acting, then, may lead to self alienation as one loses touch with his/her authentic self, which could impair one’s ability to recognize or experience real emotion (Ashforth 1989). The root problem is the discrepancy between what the service worker is expected to emote and what is actually experienced.
Burnout, viewed from an emotional labor lens, occurs when workers are unable to maintain sufficient psychological distance between the emotional requirements of their job and their sense of self (Shankar and Kumar 2014). Burnout is a result of the stress experienced
by the individuals, and anything causing stress and tension is thought to have an effect upon burnout. Burnout research implies that burnout is not an individual stress response, but rather it is related to an individual’s relational transactions in the workplace. Specifically, surface acting was found to be related to stress outcomes (Brotheridge and Lee 1998; Brotheridge 1999; Erickson and Wharton 1997; Pugliesi and Shook 1997), whereas deep acting has been found to be related to a greater sense of personal efficacy of work (Brotheridge and Lee 1998). Interaction with people, besides leading to fatigue, requires the regulation of emotions and is thought to trigger burnout (Rafaeli and Sutton 1989). In the studies conducted by Zapf (2002), it was reported that there is a positive correlation between emotional labor and burnout. Brotheridge and Grandey (2002) discovered a correlation between emotional exhaustion and the need to prevent the negative feelings. As such, workers employed in the categories of “high emotional labor” jobs (Hochschild 1983) and “high burnout jobs” (Cordes and Dougherty 1993) report significantly higher levels of employee stress than do other workers. Specifically, occupants of health care, social service, teaching, and other “caring” professions are more likely to experience burnout (Cherniss 1993; Jackson et al. 1986; Leiter and Maslach 1988; Schaufeli et al. 1993).
Francis has advanced the theory and research on clergy burnout by focusing on the balanced affect model (Francis et al. 2011; Francis et al. 2017; Robbins and Francis 2010). The balanced affect model of burnout understands well being as a combination of positive and negative affect. That is, negative and positive affect are theorized to be two different psychological phenomena, not ends of the same continuum. Pastoral burnout, from this perspective, is the subjective evaluation of the ratio between ministry satisfaction and emotional exhaustion. Pastors are at greater risk for burnout and other psychological distress when they experience higher levels of emotional burnout and
lower levels of ministry satisfaction. Two that end, Francis creates two distinct measures the Scale of Emotional Exhaustion in Ministry (SEEM) and Satisfaction in Ministry Scale (SIMS) to operationalize this approach. Francis’s research has supported this theory with Presbyterian Clergy (USA) (Francis et al. 2011) and Anglican clergy in England (Francis et al. 2017; Francis et al. 2019).
The Francis Burnout Inventory and the balanced affect model provide much improvement for understanding the unique sources of pastoral burnout and provide tools to assess this experience. The main focus is on the experience of burnout and how one’s experience of ministerial satisfaction may provide a buffer to pastoral burnout. That is, pastors that experience high levels of emotional exhaustion and low levels of ministerial satisfaction are most at risk of experiencing burnout. Ministerial satisfaction is associated with ministerial calling. These are two items that load the highest on the SIMS: “The ministry here gives real purpose and meaning to my life” and “I gain a lot of personal satisfaction from fulfilling my functions here” (Francis et al. 2011, p. 16). These items tie directly into calling and purpose in ministry as described below. Ministry satisfaction provides crucial resources for coping with emotional exhaustion.
Work and family conflict is perhaps one of the main challenges of the pastorate. In approaching this inter-role conflict, it is helpful to understand how boundary ambiguity (BA) describes a fluid boundary between the pastor’s family and the congregation (Lee 1995; Lee and Iverson Gilbert 2003). Because there are many overlapping social interactions where both the pastor and his or her family are embedded in the congregation’s life, stress and conflict arises as demands are made on the pastor from both the family and the congregation. These demands may be intrusive as when congregants interrupt family life with their needs. Lee (1999) describes these intrusive demands as violating the boundary between the congregation and the pastor’s family. For example, boundary ambiguity (BA) on the ministry demands inventory (MDI) consists of items like “congregant came by the pastor’s home unannounced” or “family time interrupted by a phone call” (Lee
1999, p. 482). These experiences create conflict with the pastor’s family. Additionally, these intrusions may be experienced negatively, especially as they increase in frequency and intensity. Self regulation strategies may aid the pastor in negotiating BA (Dunbar et al. 2020). Emotional labor provides a heuristic in understanding the psychological challenges pastors face and how these challenges may contribute to burnout. A recent study adopted a dyadic level of analysis to understand the interpersonal effects of ministry demands (Kim et al. 2016). Both pastors and their spouses responded to the Ministry Demands Inventory (Lee 1999). The primary factor for ministry couples’ well being is associated with their perceptions of ministry demands and not the severity of those demands.
Pastors experience the working conditions associated with emotional labor (Hochschild 1983) as they have repeated interpersonal contact with the public and are expected to manage their own emotions in addition to the emotions of those under their care (Kinman et al. 2011). Evidence demonstrates that parishioners more frequently approach pastors for help and support during times of psychological distress or trauma compared to other counselors or mental health professionals (Chalfant et al. 1990; Stanford and McAlister 2008). However, many members of the clergy report lacking the skills and support needed to effectively manage the emotional demands of their work (O’Kane and Millar 2001). In their study, Kinman et al. (2011) found significant associations between emotional labor, greater psychological distress, and lowered job satisfaction in a sample of UK based clergy. Specifically, results of their study demonstrated that members of the clergy who perform emotional labor more frequently and intensely, and who perceive dissonance between emotions that are genuinely felt compared to those that are required for the job role, tend to report greater psychological distress and reduced intrinsic job satisfaction.
Pastoral burnout is better described along the lines of questioning one’s experience of calling and acedia (Frederick et al. 2018b) similar to the balanced affect model. Due to the high levels of stress resulting from BA as well as the emotional labor required to minister to one’s congregation, pastors may necessarily begin to question God’s call on their life. That is, their identity as a pastor may be questioned. Wilson (2021, p. 23) reminds us that “the role of pastor is inextricably connected to a particular people for whom and to whom the pastor is covenantally responsible”. This covenantal responsibility is reflected in the call of God through the congregation to the pastor. Intense conflict between the pastor’s family and congregation (or the pastor and the congregation) creates stress and potentially burnout. As a result of this conflict, as described in BA above, pastors may begin to question their call their identity as a pastor (see Dunbar et al. 2020; Frederick and Dunbar 2019). This is one dimension of burnout unique to pastors.
Next, acedia describes the emotional emptiness, uncaring attitude, and lethargy associated with the psychological experience of burnout (Frederick et al. 2018b). Care is the virtue used to describe productive, meaningful, and prosocial work associated with being an adult (Capps [1987] 2000). Acedia, on the other hand, reflects an absence of care. Acedia entails a fundamental apathy that is reflected in unconcern and lack of energy. For pastors, apathy is expressed “in a loss or emptying of the motivational and compassionate aspects of the individual engaged in helping others” (Frederick et al. 2018a, p. 270). Compassionate shepherding of one’s congregation is crucial to the pastor, and apathy reflects the psychological depletion of the necessary resources to provide that shepherding. Apathy connotes a self depletion of psychological resources. These resources aid the pastor in caring for the congregation and for his or her family (See Capps 1993).
Finally, acedia as indifference describes how
care is proffered (Frederick et al. 2018b).
“Indifference entails lack of care regarding distressing situations and individual suffering” (Frederick et al. 2018a, p. 270). Under the effects of indifference, the pastor addresses the needs of congregants and family members out of a sense of obligation without demonstrating emotional connection and concern for the actual needs of those being cared for. Indifference describes how pastors go through the motions of providing care while maintaining emotional distance from those in need. This indifference objectifies both the congregation and the pastor’s family by removing the emotional and psychological connection in humanizing the care being offered.
Apathy and indifference not only reflect depleted psychological resources, but they also reflect spiritual dryness. At its most devastating and depleting level, acedia means lack of care and connection for God (Capps [1987] 2000). That is, the spiritual lethargy whereby pastors become apathetic and indifferent to the needs of others also results in alienation and isolation from God, the maker of those in need. God’s divine revelation is an act of ministry. Therefore, ministry and ministers always reveal something (positive or negative) regarding God’s character (Anderson 1997) as ministry is given on God’s behalf. When the pastor is apathetic and indifferent to others, it reflects apathy and indifference toward God. This makes burnout a spiritual phenomenon at least as much as a psychological one.
Burnout as resulting from BA is best described as questioning one’s calling as a pastor as well as experiencing acedia. Both calling and acedia describe the psychological and spiritual effects on the self of the pastor which further impact the congregation and the pastor’s family. Additionally, calling and acedia reflect the two dimensions associated with the balanced affect model (Francis et al. 2011; Francis et al. 2017; Francis et al. 2019; Robbins and Francis 2010). Ministry satisfaction is derived from the Lord who calls and ordains ministry as well as provides the ultimate purpose of that ministry. Acedia as emotional exhaustion reflects the negative emotional experiences of apathy and
indifference (The treatment of acedia as a spiritual condition is the use of Christian spiritual disciplines in order to enliven the pastor’s spirit).
Research suggests that individuals practicing mindfulness have lower levels of burnout and that mindfulness can be a protective factor against individuals becoming burned out. In short, the ability of an individual to be consciously aware of the current moment may reduce burnout and provide a buffer against burnout (Braun et al. 2017; Sox et al. 2018). Further, lower levels of mindfulness have been associated with higher levels of burnout (Frederick et al. 2018b). One concern is the appropriateness of mindfulness approaches for Christians due to the Buddhist influence and worldview behind these practices. Buddhist psychology is foundational for mindfulness practices and interventions developed for psychotherapy (Grabovac et al. 2011). Additionally, increasing spirituality has been demonstrated as an outcome of MBSR programs, despite model developers specifically trying to distance from Buddhist spirituality while incorporating mindfulness into interventions (Labelle et al. 2015). In other words, clients have increased spirituality despite the intentional efforts of model developers to remove the explicit Buddhist background and context of mindfulness practices.
The three Christian contemplative practices of the lectio divina, centering prayer, and the examen, provide the spiritual disciplines needed to address burnout in the pastorate. We are approaching these contemplative practices from an Ignatian spiritual perspective (Frederick and Muldoon 2020). The rationale for using Ignatian spiritual practices involves its focus on deepening intimacy with God, its focus on work, especially on call, and emphasis on love. Ignatian spiritual practices encourage deeper intimacy with God via engaging with life and the world, making this a communal or relationship focused approach. Next, Ignatian spiritual practices foster a sense of calling which is connected to one’s identity as an envoy of the
God. Engagement with the world expresses one’s calling. Finally, this type of spiritual practice encourages the deepening love of God based on intimacy and calling.
Lectio divina is an intentional contemplative practice designed to allow the practitioner to imaginatively engage in scripture reading. Further, lectio divina allows one to actively discern God’s active involvement in one’s experience, especially as the participant engages the imagination while reading the scripture. A specific approach to imaginative Bible reading will enhance how pastors understand and live out their calling. In other words, the lectio divina offered below is intended to address pastors’ concerns with calling which arises from burnout.
Lectio divina is a scriptural drama meditation (CDM) type of spiritual intervention as defined by Garzon (2013). This type of CDM encourages the individual to engage the imagination to visualize being part of a specific scriptural scene. Knabb and Frederick (2017); see also (Knabb et al. 2017) incorporated lectio divina into a multiweek intervention for Christians that worry. This intervention demonstrated promising results.
Lectio divina is a spiritual practice of developing a life lived in response to God’s revelation in Jesus Christ. This is reflected in the spirituality encouraged in the gospel of Mark (Barton 1992). Mark’s gospel opens with the declaration of the word of prophecy from Isaiah announcing that Jesus Christ is the one described in the prophecy. Throughout Jesus’ ministry, from demonic encounters to healing to teaching, he embodies and fulfills the word of God. Jesus typifies life under God’s word, and he teaches others through his words and deeds to do likewise. Barton eloquently writes of spirituality in the Gospel of Mark focusing on “life under God,” meaning that it is “a response to the revelation of the divine” (1992, p. 43). Lectio divina allows pastors an imaginative experience of life
under the divine revelation of God and the Bible.
A lectio divina practice takes around twenty minutes. Pastors should begin by sitting comfortably in a chair, positioned in an upright yet relaxed position. Pastors should say a brief prayer welcoming God’s active, loving presence during the reading. Time should be given so that the pastor enters a relaxed state where the breath is slowed (perhaps five to ten minutes on deep breathing). The passage the pastors should read focus on Jesus’ baptism. The passage to read is Matthew 3: 13 17:
Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. But John tried to stop Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and yet You come to me?”
Jesus answered him, “Allow it for now, because this is the way for us to fulfill all righteousness”. Then he allowed Him to be baptized.
After Jesus was baptized, He went up immediately from the water. The heavens suddenly opened for Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming down on Him. And there came a voice from heaven:
This is My beloved Son.
I take delight in Him!
As the pastor slowly reads this passage, he or she should engage the imagination and enter the story. Some questions to aid the imagination: (1) What do you see and hear as you witness the interaction between John the Baptist and Jesus? (2) How does the sun and sand feel on your body? (3) Are there many people present? (4) What surprises you about John the Baptist saying he needs to be baptized by Jesus? (5) Did you hear the words and see the spirit descending on Jesus? What was that like? How did it make you feel? (6)
Imagine Jesus speaking these words over you during your baptism. How does hearing Jesus say these words over you make you feel? After sitting with the imagination in this story and contemplating these questions, the pastor
should say a prayer of thanksgiving over the entire experience.
The baptismal story and ritual provide important insights into the nature of the pastor’s call first as a disciple, then as a shepherd of God’s flock. The insights developed from the lectio divina allow the pastor to remember God’s embrace as well as empowerment to fulfill the call to the pastorate. This spiritual exercise speaks directly to the brokenness of the pastor’s experience of burnout that challenges God’s calling.
Centering prayer is a four step process that encourages pastors to surrender to God’s active, loving presence in all experience, both positive and negative. Gregg Blanton (2011, 2019) has contributed significantly to Evangelicals wanting to incorporate centering prayer into their spiritual practices by describing the benefits and process for using this spiritual discipline. Practitioners utilize Keating’s (2014) four guidelines to foster an interior silence that is crucial to move through the four moments of centering prayer. This inner silence facilitates surrendering to God’s active, loving presence in the inner life of the Christian. First, pastors should identify a sacred word. This word represents the pastor’s desire and intent to engage with God, especially within inner experience. Next, one experiences rest and inner peace as the sacred word allows movement regarding one’s usual awareness. That is, pastors begin to repeat the sacred word as they attend to their inner experiences. As their minds wander and more experiences arise, the sacred word becomes a focal point for God’s active, loving presence. As practitioners gain more and more experience with the sacred word and experience more rest, more negative experiences should surface. The term for this is “unloading” (Keating 2014 p. 46), which is the third moment. Finally, evacuation happens due to releasing and accepting one’s experiences, positive and negative, in God’s loving presence. Practitioners usually spend twenty minutes in focused attention on one’s thoughts and the sacred word (see Blanton 2011, 2019). Blanton’s work on centering prayer is a useful resource for
Christians. There is also a workbook that provides guidance on using centering prayer with chronic worry (Knabb and Frederick 2017).
Centering prayer is one spiritual practice that fosters a sense of the divine presence. Experiencing the presence of the divine is a central theme of the spirituality of Matthew (Barton 1992). In Matthew, the emphasis is on “God is with us” or Immanuel. Immanuel is emphasized in the genealogy of Jesus presented in Matthew one. The title of Matthew literally means book of genesis biblos geneseos in Greek (Barton 1992). The spirituality Jesus teaches in Matthew views God as fatherly which ties into God’s providential care for his people; it also emphasizes God the Father’s ultimate and final authority over the cosmos, and it fosters the spiritual relationship with God the father as mediated through Jesus Christ. Centering prayer fosters these same experiences as pastors use it to develop increasing awareness of God’s active and loving presence in all of experience. Christ centered present moment awareness is another type of Christian devotion mediation as described by Garzon (2013). Centering prayer and the examen are examples of this type of spiritual intervention. Knabb and Vazquez (2018) developed a Christ centered intervention for daily stress using the Jesus Prayer (See also Vazquez and Jensen 2020). This approach incorporated a 20 minute daily practice of saying the Jesus Prayer (“Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, Have Mercy on me, a sinner,”; Talbot 2013). Results suggested that this approach provides relief for daily stress. Centering prayer provides the spiritual invigoration needed to redress acedia expressed as apathy. “In Centering Prayer, you put yourself at God’s disposal. The person is only interested in being open to God so the results are up to God” (Blanton 2011, p. 136). Centering prayer facilitates pastors surrendering to God’s loving, active presence in their lives as God leads, guides, directs, and walks along with pastors through their struggles with burnout. Further, centering prayer infuses daily life with God’s living, active, loving presence. Ferguson et al. (2010) describe how centering prayer increased Christians’ collaborative relationship with God, (b) decreased a deferring religious coping style, and (c) decreased religious coping self
directed style while reducing stress and worry. This suggests that centering prayer fosters the building of relationships with God, and these relationships have positive psychological benefits (See Frederick and White 2015; Johnson et al. 2009). Centering prayer is not solely about ameliorating negative experiences, it is about connection with God at deep levels. Spiritual intimacy revitalizes the soul ravaged by acedia (Capps [1987] 2000), and centering prayer is a spiritual discipline useful to accomplish this goal.
The examen focuses on the individual’s intentions, motivations, and attitudes in the present and how these subjective experiences align with God’s intentions (Frederick and Muldoon 2020). In other words, the examen as a spiritual discipline allows Christians to see God’s activity in daily life. Further, reflecting on how one responds to God’s activity illuminates one’s inner motivations.
“Reflecting on one’s actions and motives in God’s loving presence allows one to deepen intimacy and freedom to live out one’s purpose” (Frederick and Muldoon 2020, p. 16). This focus on motivation, action, and purpose is crucial to connecting the calling of being a pastor with shepherding the congregation, which speaks to acedia as indifference.
The examen reflects Jesus’ spiritual practices for seeing God’s active presence in the moment. A telling example of this is Jesus’ teaching on anxiety (Matthew 6: 25 27): Don’t worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing? Consider the birds of the sky: They don’t sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth more than they? This passage follows the famous Lord’s Prayer and the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5). The focus here is following Jesus’ teaching and
orienting one’s heart to seeing God’s providential care, and humbly submitting to God’s will orients one to God’s intended purpose for the cosmos. Further, once this orientation occurs, anxiety is ameliorated because Christians understand Father God’s providential presence and care God is with us in the midst of daily life and experience.
A useful process for practicing the examen comes from Ignatian Spirituality (https:// www.ignatianspirituality.com/ignatian prayer/ the examen/, accessed on 15 March 2021):
Become aware of God’s presence.
Review the day with gratitude.
Pay attention to your emotions.
Choose one feature of the day and pray from it.
Look toward tomorrow.
This process is best utilized with daily journaling so patterns may be identified. These patterns reflect one’s inner motivation and how that motivation is reflected in one’s emotional experience as well as action. The metaphor of a compass may aid here (Frederick and Muldoon 2020). The emotions, in Ignatian spirituality, allow pastors to see where their hearts or inner experiences are oriented towards or away from God. Moments of consolation express times when pastors live out their calling and express God’s beliefs, attitudes, and actions to others. Moments of desolation describe those times pastors express attitudes, beliefs, or actions away from God’s desires. Notice that consolation and desolation are not positive and negative feelings, respectively. Sometimes a pastor may have a negative feeling that is actually expressing God’s attitude, belief, and action (moment of consolation) during a
challenging ministry experience.
The examen is a useful spiritual discipline to address acedia as indifference. With the examen’s focus on purposeful action and call, it directly addresses both the motivational and action aspects of indifference. The examen fosters a deep reflection on the pastor’s inner life, and how this life reflects God’s call. The examen also orients one’s inner motivations to be authentically expressed in one’s action.
This paper described how pastors experience burnout due to work and family conflict. Work and family conflict is most aptly described as boundary ambiguity, which takes an emotional toll on the pastor. Boundary ambiguity and conflict leads the pastor to question the call to be a pastor. This emotional experience is described as acedia which contains two dimensions apathy and indifference. Apathy describes the emotional depletion and emptiness pastors experience as a result of burnout. Indifference describes the depersonalized provision of care to others as a result of burnout. Lectio divina, centering prayer, and the examen are offered as ways in which pastors may experience spiritual reinvigoration after burnout.
T.V.F. Introduction, Literature Review, Pastors and Burnout, Burnout as Lack of Calling and Acedia, Entire section of Christian Contemplative Practices Designed for Pastors, and Conclusions. Y.T. Emotional Labor, Surface and Deep Acting, Emotional Labor and Burnout. S.D. Burnout, work family balance, and inter role conflict. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
This research received no external funding. Institutional Review Board Statement Not applicable.
Not applicable.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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Graphics on this page were found on 09 23 22 at https://www.crossway.org/articles/ infographic the common yet neglected problem of burnout/
If
suspect or know that you are experiencing burnout, then you should reach out for help. The Rev. Kathy Heustess, our conference counselor, provides confidential counseling services to ministers and their families. You can reach her at (843) 421-3536.
