PASTORS ARE PEOPLE TOO, NOT WATER WALKERS
Dr. Richard Brown
Nebraska Christian College (retired)
When I said “Yes” to the Lord’s call to preach, I had no idea that the vocational ministry would be so spiritually dangerous. In fact, during my fifty-five years of leadership ministry. both as
preacher and Bible College professor and administrator, I found the ministry to be a spiritual mine-field.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I also found the ministry to be filled with abundant spiritual growth opportunities and spiritually exhilarating. The positives far outweighed the negatives! But the negatives, the dangers, were there and often associated with positive things and camouflaged. . .like a mine-field. That’s why Peter wrote that we should always “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (I Peter 4:6). Now I want to remind you that “pastors are people too, not water walkers.”
While I was a student at Lincoln Christian Seminary, I was shocked when, during a period of a year and a half, four of my colleagues in ministry and fellow students at the Seminary left the congregations they were serving and left the ministry for other vocations. These men were all capable, experienced ministers, Bible College graduates, serving in congregations that were not known as “preacher killers.” Three of them and I car-pooled every week from our homes to Lincoln to work on our graduate degrees. Those guys were like brothers to me. I spoke at length with each of them about the reasons for their decisions. While some details differed, their reasons all boiled down to be essentially the same: “Either I leave the ministry or I lose my mind.”
“Leave the ministry or lose my mind,” how could that be? Their decisions were so troubling to me that, as I was searching for a topic for my upcoming Master’s thesis, I eventually chose “The Minister’s Own Mental Health.” Research for that document led me to conclude that many ministers suffer from mental health issues. The stressors were both external and internal including:
Some common external stressors:
- Low salaries, growing families, increasing costs of living and few or inadequate salary adjustments.
- Unreasonable expectations placed on them by the congregation and community.
- Long days on the job and often a seven-day-a-week work schedule with little time-off.
- Church leaders that seem unresponsive to the preacher’s leadership efforts or personal
or family needs.
- Other peoples’ needs and wants set the minister’s priorities rather than his own priorities.
And there were some common internal stressors:
- Knowing his own sinful nature, the preacher often felt unworthy to lead and serve.
- Unreasonable expectations the preacher placed upon himself to be a model of the Christian Faith.
- Knowing that he needed help but feeling he had nowhere to turn.
- Expecting his own family members to set a higher standard for church families.
- The preacher may have a “Messiah Complex.”
This leads me to two conclusions: first, ministers really don’t walk on water despite their or others’ perceptions. In reality, ministers are fully human and experience stressors common to mankind. Second, the “Messiah Complex” is real and most ministers suffer from it to some extent.
What is a “Messiah Complex?” In short, a Messiah complex is when a person feels other people are depending on them so heavily that they must constantly try to help and serve them. The Complex may become so severe that the person may come to believe they are actually a savior for others. Such a complex is a common element of schizophrenia.
A Messiah Complex may express itself in ministers in a variety of ways. The minister may work a large number of hours per week to the point of neglecting his own needs or those of his family. The minister may be always “on call” seven days a week, once again foregoing personal or family time. The minister may feel that if he doesn’t get the job done people will go to Hell because of his failure. The minister may come to feel that if he can’t meet all the demands placed upon him, he must leave the ministry or lose his mind. The minister with a Messiah Complex is the one who believes he must “walk on water.”
I confess that in the early days of my ministry I had some indicators of a Messiah Complex. Marie and I had no children, she had her own career and I worked a horrendous number of hours per week and was always on-call. It was devastating to our marriage. Then we had children and I came to see that I must make changes in the way I set my priorities and managed my time. At that point, I became more mentally and physically “healthy.”
Now I didn’t just work like this because of my own internal pressures. I was serving a small congregation that made it plain they hired me to “do their ministry for them;” If I didn’t do it, it wouldn’t get done. In other words, many in the congregation expected me to “walk on water” and I fell into the trap. Here’s an interesting phenomenon I observed: the larger the congregation I served, the less they expected me to “walk on water.” The more they understood that Christian ministry is the work of all Christians and not just the hired-man.
So, what must we conclude? First, the minister must understand and make clear to the congregation that he is the Lord’s servant and is primarily responsible to the Lord and not to the church. (By the way, isn’t that true for every Christian?) Second, the minister must have a clear understanding about his motives, priorities and gifts for ministry. Paul said it this way: “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you” (Romans 12:3). Third, the minister must heed the advice Moses received from his father-in-law Jethro when Moses was serving as judge for all the people. Jethro said: “What you are doing is not good . . . . The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone” (Exodus 18:17-18). Finally, the minister and congregation must constantly work to clarify the expectations each has of the other so their relationship can be effective and prosperous for both.
