Gary R. McIntosh and Robert L. Edmonson, M.D., It Only Hurts on Monday: Why Pastors Quit and What You Can Do About It. ChurchSmart Resources, 1998.
LifeandLeadership.com Summary
McIntosh provides churches with helpful insight and workable solutions for pastoral burnout. Each chapter ends with a brief “You Can Help” list of action items addressed to congregations. Topics include unique stresses for ministers (e.g. role ambiguity), disparity between the emphases of seminary preparation and the realities of ministry, unrealistic expectations, pastoral isolation, change and conflict related to cultural shifts (generational data is outdated but the principles are still helpful), pastoral compensation, loneliness and friendships, and spiritual warfare.
Perhaps the best way to read the book is to start with chapters 10 and 11. Chapter 10 discusses four facts of pastoral life – a pastor is never off duty, a pastor is too often in “crisis” mode, a pastor is responsible for more than he controls, and a pastor lacks an objective measure of success. Chapter 11 summarizes the practical suggestions for churches that are developed more fully in the previous chapters. These chapters provide a reader’s guide to the rest of the book.
The appendix includes the findings of a study, “Contributing Causes of Pastoral Resignations.”
From the Publisher
Pastors are quitting! Some leave for what they hope will be greener pastures in another church. Some drop out of ministry altogether. Why? The pressures of ministry are such that many pastors spend their days off simply trying to recover. When a fellow pastor was asked how thing were going in his ministry, his wry answer was It only hurts on Monday.
Evidence suggests pastors are moving or dropping out at an increasing rate. The Barna Research Group found that the average pastorate twenty years ago was about seven years in length but had dropped by 1993 to about four years. The authors have researched over 60 ex-pastors and their churches to discover some of the causes of this crisis in pastoral leadership.
Topics include: burnout, professional isolation, inadequate education, unrealistic expectations, resistance to change, poor pastoral accountability, tight finances, personal loneliness, and spiritual warfare. Each chapter concludes with helpful and practical suggestions on what you can do to help your pastor have a longer and more fruitful ministry in your church.
About the Author
Gary McIntosh is an experienced church consultant who has analyzed over 100 churches in some 53 denominations in the USA and Canada.
Robert Edmondson is a pastor in Brownsville, OR.
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