Sometimes, pastors experience much worse than just the Monday Blues or a hard week of ministry.
Every year, six percent of men and ten percent of women suffer from depression. The National Institute of Mental Health defines depression as a “common but serious mood disorder” that “causes severe symptoms that affect how you feel, think, and handle daily activities, such as sleeping, eating, or working.” Sometimes, pastors suffer from clinical depression and they need to get help too. It shouldn’t be this way, but because ministry is lonely, stressful, raw, and never-ending—and because we live in a fallen world—depression can be a reality that your pastor faces from time to time, or regularly.
Nobody is immune. It can happen to anyone.
As Psalm 30:6-7 reminds us, “As for me, I said in my prosperity, ‘I shall never be moved.’ By your favor, O Lord, you made my mountain stand strong; you hid your face; I was dismayed.”
There can be many contributing causes of depression for pastors.
I’ll only list five of them.
The first cause could be loneliness or isolation. Loneliness can contribute to feelings of depression, when a pastor feels that he has no one else to talk to. If he cannot share his deepest laments and struggles with anyone, bottled up emotions can become toxic and lead to bouts of depression.
A second cause is the weight of pastoral responsibility. With everything a pastor sees and hears, being in the trenches of ministry, it’s easy to get jaded and to begin to resent the church. People say nasty things, people do wicked things, and we are on the frontlines of all that activity. Being exposed to the underbelly of the church can be disheartening for pastors. And on top of this, he must continue to carry the emotional weight of the pains, fears, criticisms, suffering, and transitions happening in the body life of the congregation. This is no light task.
A third cause is when ministry doesn’t go as planned. A family leaves. The church budget has dropped over the past several months. Attendance is low. The staff is cut. People in the church you thought you knew and trusted turn on you. Pastors take these changes personally. The feeling of failure can overcome a pastor and lead him toward depression.
A fourth cause has nothing at all to do with the performance of the pastor or successes (or failures) of his ministry. A pastor could be depressed just because. Depression can happen to anybody, and a pastor is no exception. Pastors are truly human, just like you. Some people are more prone to depression than others and depending on life circumstances or genetics, a pastor can get depressed too.
A fifth cause is that this could be a spiritual problem. Sometimes depression is caused by spiritual warfare. I mention this last cause because all too often Christians jump to this as the first and only reason, when in fact it might be physical or cognitive. Spiritual symptoms do not necessarily mean there is a spiritual cause for depression.
Some Healthy Steps
If you are a pastor and you are experiencing depression, know that you are not alone. And if you are a church member and you are aware of your pastor’s battle with depression, do not leave your pastor alone in this battle. The single most important thing you can do for your pastor is to pray for him daily. But for some pastors, prayer will not be enough.
Pastors who suffer from clinical depression will need family support, counseling, friendship, pastoral care (from another pastor in the area or a group of pastors), healthy diet and regular exercise habits, adequate rest, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), and possibly repenting of any sinful habits (such as substance abuse or pornography addiction—yes, it’s possible for pastors to fall into these categories!) in order to continue to survive in ministry, with the goal of not just surviving but thriving.
A pastor may need to see a psychiatrist for antidepressants. I would recommend that every pastor—even those who don’t suffer from any symptoms—see a counselor or a therapist regularly to have an outlet to talk about their emotional health and the challenges of the ministry calling. Coaching or mentorship of some kind could also facilitate these healthy conversations and be an adequate substitute for individuals who are otherwise healthy.
These meetings are confidential and provide a safe space for pastors to vent without needing to worry about their unedited words somehow coming back to them in harmful ways. It also offers personal growth for the pastor to develop emotional maturity and in order to better understand life beyond black. And if for some reason none of these options are feasible (though they should be and it’s important to at least try to find one of these options or several of these options), then find someone (a friend) or a group of confidants (colleagues/friends) to share your burdens, struggles, and frustrations with.
In these ways, pastors who deal with depression and those who seek to care for their pastors can develop a new system for the pastor to learn healthy coping strategies for the calling God has given him.