The Missing Link in Pastoral Wellbeing: Rethinking Spiritual Health

Clergy Commentary by Pastor Steve Clark

I thought I did everything right to avoid burnout in ministry. I had a clergy peer group. I had an accountability partner. I took a weekly Sabbath and all my vacation time. Sure, an unprecedented global pandemic happened nine months into my first call. Yes, my church was empty on my first Easter, except for me and a live-streaming iPad precariously balanced on a stack of hymnals. COVID had brought plenty of changes and challenges. But still: I was only 25 years old when I began my call as a solo pastor. I’d wanted to be a pastor most of my life. I’d even won a pastoral ministry award at seminary! I doubted I was a burnout candidate.

Then the cracks started to show. First, a panic attack over a minor conflict; later, a teary meltdown in front of denominational leaders. Eventually, less than three years after accepting my first call, I told my church I had to go. It was painful and confusing for my congregation and for me.

Ever since I burned out, I have had two goals: 1. Get healthy again; 2. Try to understand why it happened. As I continue to grow in my new call as an assistant pastor, that first call is being realized. The second goal? Last year’s EPIC report has provided some insight.

Traditional Self-Care Strategies Fall Short

The report is titled, “I’m Exhausted All The Time,” exploring pastoral wellbeing and clergy discontent. According to the report, 44% of pastors have given serious consideration to leaving their call since 2020, with over 50% considering leaving ministry altogether. Difficult as it was to tell my church I was leaving, half of my ministry colleagues have dreamed of giving the same speech!

What strikes me is that a lot of burnt-out pastors are doing all the right things to avoid burnout. According to page 22, “While providing some benefit, relatively few traditionally supportive measures such as clergy peer groups, coaches, therapists, sabbaticals, or days off made a statistically significant difference whether a clergy person was considering leaving.” And, 69% of surveyed clergy participated in a peer group and 74% took a day off, but these supports did not inoculate a pastor from burnout.

If these strategies aren’t preventing burnout, what does work? Something much harder to program into a weekly schedule: spiritual health. To quote the report once more: “The healthier a pastor is, the less likely they are to consider leaving.” Pastors with strong mental health, strong spiritual disciplines, and an overall sense of wellbeing were least likely to leave. This does not mean we should skip our Sabbath, cancel our counselor, and ditch the peer group. It’s just that these critical supports aren’t enough to prevent burnout on their own. That makes spiritual health just another to-do list. Spiritual health isn’t a formula: it’s a relationship.

Rediscovering the Heart of Ministry

Jesus told his followers this in John 15:4: “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.” Though I’d preach to my congregation that Jesus would complete his mission, I still felt it depended on me. Though I told people fruit could only come from abiding in the vine, I’d skimp on my morning devotions to prepare a sermon. Though Christ spoke for my self-worth on the cross, I still felt I had to earn it in the pulpit. Deep down, us pastors know better. But hurry, conflict, and disappointment have a way of making us forget the very gospel we preach.

If a relationship with Jesus just becomes another item on the to-do list, it becomes a burden instead of a gift. Sabbath becomes inconvenient; the clergy peer group is just another meeting. But if our relationship with Jesus is the key to pastoral success, we think about it differently. One of my mentors often quotes: “The strength of my ministry is my relationship with God.” Whatever enables us to abide in Jesus might be the most important thing to prioritize in our ministries.

What might work for someone else might not work for us. We know this in other areas of life. My dad died of heart failure, his brothers had heart surgeries and his dad died of a heart attack. The Clark heart functions differently. At age 30, I already have to watch what I eat. What might be healthy for another 30 year old might not be healthy for me. It’s the same for spiritual health. Conversations with good friends seem to renew me more than clergy peer groups. A walk in the woods sometimes does my spirit more good than morning devotions. What might it look like if you think about health, burnout, and our relationships with Jesus in terms of what uniquely works best for you – then go do that?

Prioritizing Divine Appointments

Here’s a tangible way to put it into practice: find what works best for restoring your relationship with Jesus, and literally put it on your calendar. Eugene Peterson would block out half-hour conferences with St. Paul on his appointment calendar. When I have a date with my wife, a call with a friend, or a silent retreat on my physical calendar, I’m a lot less likely to say yes to a meeting I don’t really need to attend. If you were “just going to pray,” someone might pressure you to show up; but if you “have a commitment to get to,” further questions are rarely asked: even if that commitment is time alone in the woods with Jesus.

At the end of the day, if the strength of your ministry is your relationship with God, that deserves top priority. The other stuff can wait. Your spiritual, mental, and physical health shouldn’t. That, EPIC shows us, is what leads to a pastor thriving, lasting, and not burning out.

Steve Clark is an assistant pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Bonita Springs, Florida. He has lived in Florida since 2022 with his wife, Kim, and their 4-year-old nutcase of a yellow lab, Scout. After growing up in Rhode Island, Steve received his B.A. in Liberal Arts from Cedarville University and his M.Div from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and was ordained in ECO (Presbyterian) in 2019. He is currently studying for his Doctorate of Ministry at Fuller Seminary. In his spare time, Steve enjoys getting lost on mountains, playing board games with friends, and lamenting the playoff fortunes of the Atlanta Braves.