Pastors have worse health
February 27th, 2008 by Marc
Just read this in the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s Daily Update:
February 26, 2008
Health-Care Costs Stress Churches
Churches are caught in a major financial bind as health-care costs escalate, reports Religion News Service.Church memberships are declining — making finances tight — and the proportion of older clergy members is growing, so the cost of insurance for them is rising fast, the article says. What’s more, research shows that Protestant ministers tend to be more overweight, stressed, and depressed than the general population, adding to the overall increase in health costs borne by churches.
In response, some churches have made changes to their health-care plans and are encouraging pastors to get health-risk assessments and are offering incentives for taking steps to improve their health.
See The Chronicle’s article on the efforts under way by grant makers and others to help clergy members deal with physical and emotional stress.
(Free registration is required to view the Religion News Service article on the Washington Post site.)
“Protestant ministers tend to be more overweight, stressed, and depressed than the general population…”
What does that say about what we expect of pastors?
I’m constantly letting Vineyard Church of Waterville people know that I’m not the end-all-and-be-all of church life. God is no more available to me than He is to any of us.
I’m also clear on my limititations, like counseling. I’m not a “is-everyone-feeling-happy” pastor. I can’t play that game and stay sane.
Everyone comes into church with their own opinion of how a pastor is supposed to be. Usually it could be defined as “the person that meets all my needs and is always at my beck and call.”
Not even God meets all our “needs”!
I’m blessed to be pastoring a church that is supportive of my living in my limits. Sure, I constantly do things I’m not great at, like shoveling, cleaning ice off the roof…basically the stuff that just needs to get done.
And I pray all the time for counselor types to fill our congregation. We need people with spiritual gifts of mercy and compassion. (2 gifts I constantly score very low on!)
So, if VCW is your home, thanks. It’s an honor to be your pastor.
And if your home is somewhere else, please re-think your relationship with your pastor. He or she is simply a finite human being sincerely trying to live out of their spiritual gifting. It’s really easy to confuse that with meeting everyone’s needs. But that’s a sure fire way to lose. People can be voracious like 3 year olds—enough is never enough.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 27th, 2008 at 9:11 am and is filed under church planting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
February 29th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Marc:
God didn’t put “mercy and compassion” as big items in your particular quiver, because he knew he was giving you a wife with large amounts of both in her own quiver—thus ‘the quiver is full.’ Something to be said for soul-mates, huh?
March 3rd, 2008 at 10:03 am
So true!