Pastors “keep their shoulders back and they keep marching, with no sense of mindfulness of how they’re losing resilience and vitality.” This crippling depletion of emotional energy can lead to a loss of job satisfaction that drives 5 out of 6 pastors to quit long before retirement. “People sometimes forget that pastors are as human as everybody else,” warns Howard.
Though young men and women typically enter full-time ministry bursting with enthusiasm for the work, he says even the most spiritual of shepherds get bruised in the emotional blender. “They may have been at a funeral they just did, but then they have to go out in public and go out to lunch, have a pleasant time and be encouraging to people…so that ‘switching back and forth’ in roles in the modern day pastor really contributes to the burnout.”