Updated: Dec 21, I no longer have a desire to serve as a pastor in the church. In my sermon, I told my congregation that I was exhausted from writing, memorizing and preaching sermons week after week for 10 years, which is true.
However, there are other reasons why I'm leaving that I didn't have time to discuss in my sermon and I want to utilize this article to do a deep dive into how I came to my decision. I have become part of what is known as the Great Pastor Resignation that came in the wake of the pandemic. The reasons for this are myriad, but the top five reasons given are as follows:. I can relate to all of these, but in particular, the top two are the ones that figured heavily into my decision.
Being a pastor is like being a parent. The same is true for being a pastor. You think you know what to expect, but the lived experience is very different from your imaginings of what it will be. As a pastor, you are there for all the peaks and the valleys. You are there to celebrate the weddings and the births. You are also there for the sicknesses, tragedies and deaths. However, the reality of what this does to you mentally and emotionally is taxing over the long haul.
As an example, for most of my tenure at First Pres, we had around members. Of those , only about 50 percent would attend on a regular basis. Out of those , I really got to know about people beyond name recognition. What this means is I know their stories, their history, the intimate details of their lives. Sometimes this happened because they were in crisis. Sometimes I learned these things while performing functions for them like funerals, weddings and baptisms.
Sometimes this happened because we became friends. Irrespective of how I learned their story, I carry that history wherever I go. Whenever I see them, they know that I know intimate details about their lives; details that are rarely shared with others. Since I see these people most every week, that personal information is always at the top of my mind because I will often ask how they are doing.
