by: Jim Schlottman
10/1/2003

October has been declared Pastor Appreciation Month, and I know you’ll enjoy Dan Hauser’s tribute to a pastor in this issue. Pastors have various experiences during this declared event. In “Build One Another Up in Love” I share different perspectives on the expectations pastors have for this month. But here I just want to ask you, as a lay person in your church, if you really know how your pastor is doing in his or her personal life? If you’re a pastor, have you shared your life with someone in your congregation? Are you truly accountable to someone outside of your family?

I wonder about that when I receive communications like the email I got last week. It read, “Our senior pastor and his wife are called by God and have great vision. It is seen in the fruit of their labor. Without going into the nitty-gritty details, crisis intervention on their behalf is needed, for the survival of their marriage and the ministry. We are at an end of knowing what to do next.”

Then there was the phone call from another church lay leader telling me their pastor had been given a leave of absence because of infidelity.

I’m concerned that no one picked up on these problems before they became crises. Quiet Water is about helping churches and pastors in just such situations. But Quiet Waters is also about crisis prevention. What are you doing to prevent a crisis?

In this issue of Compass we’ve reprinted an article from a rural community newspaper about one type of crisis. In his article, Pastor Randy McKinley talks about church splits in his community. You may not be on the verge of a split in your church, but is everyone working in a positive direction to prevent a split, the burn out of the pastor, or some other negative outcome?

We invited Pastor Melanie Rosa to address the specific stressors she, as a woman in the pastorate, experiences. Female pastors face some unique challenges that can often lead to the crisis of burn out. We know the role of women in the church is controversial, and, for the record, Quiet Waters Ministries of the Bethesda Foundation does not take a position on this subject. We do, however, serve all those in ministry who come and, therefore, have served female pastors.

You’ll also read Dennis Gorton’s preventive prescription: “You begin to dream His dreams, to imagine His kingdom here on earth, through you and your church. You begin to see the invisible, because, just sometimes, that is what dreams are—God’s invisible presence made visible through our minds and thoughts focused on Him.”

As we touch on these different aspects of ministry, I want to again ask you, pastor or lay person, “What are you doing to prevent a crisis?”.