Supporting Pastors

25% of Clergy time off in the Church of England is caused by depression - but no-one seems to be talking about it. A lot of clergy stress comes from oughts and musts - things we can impose on ourselves but also things that can be imposed by church members. This can come from a confusion about what being a pastor is - are they allowed 'time off' for example?

 If pastors are to develop more balanced relationships, this will mean that the whole church will also need to change as people will no longer be able to use pastors as before.

So what are you doing to help your pastor's mental health?

Mental health problems are increasingly talked about in churches and pastors often find themselves in the position of 'expert' or at least someone people go to for answers. It can therefore be very difficult when their job (or the way they are being asked to do it) is making them unwell. Maybe it is time that congregations started doing something to help their pastors mental health. Here are some ideas:

1. Don't ask the impossible. They only have so many hours in the week and if they consistently work a full week including Sunday with busy evenings and an interrupted day off - something will crack at some point. Are you / other church members aggressively defending their time off and ensuring their working week is manageable?

2. Don't pretend they are perfect. Does your pastor know it is okay to be vulnerable with some or all of his congregation if they need to be? Is it explicitly OK for them to have the occasional duff sermon or make a mistake when chairing a meeting. 

3. Are you asking them to be jack-of-all-trades and do things that they are not good at, skilled at or happy with? Are you helping them discover their areas of strengths and weakness, then supporting measures to ensure they receive help staffing/delegating in their weak areas?

4.Are they ever allowed time off to develop their own spirituality or knowledge? Are you encouraging them to attend conferences, visit other churches and have a full weekend with their family not leading every Sunday? When did they last have a sabbatical. 

If you are a pastor, some practical tips for pastors making changes are: have a support group with teeth (i.e, who can actually control your diary), have friends who are not in your church and ideally who are not Christians or even interested(!), and have people who you can lean on emotionally who do not ask anything back.