Jump directly to the Content

Sacrificing the Body

Too many pastors are neglecting their physical health—and it's killing them.
Sacrificing the Body

For years, dinners consisting of granola bars or peanut butter crackers on the run were good enough for Pastor Ross Varney.

He'd munch them as he sped off to one evening meeting or another. He saw it as putting the church's needs ahead of his own. The habit seemed harmless until he couldn't sleep at night, couldn't concentrate by day, and felt just plain lousy much of the time. Acid reflux exacerbated by late-night ice cream binges to, as Varney put it, "soothe the day" was keeping him awake and wreaking havoc on his ministry.

"I always feel a bit guilty in self-care pursuits, be it rest or exercise or time with food," said Varney, pastor of Belleville Congregational Church in Newburyport, Massachusetts. "My calling as a solo pastor is to maximize my time caring for and serving the people. It's a mindset I have, which I know is extreme. With any extra time or energy I have, I should be out serving somebody."

Varney's situation ...

March
Support Our Work

Subscribe to CT for less than $4.25/month

Homepage Subscription Panel

Read These Next

Related
James Brown: The Word of God Undergirds Everything I Do
James Brown: The Word of God Undergirds Everything I Do
The sports broadcaster opens up about preaching, calling, and straddling two different worlds.
From the Magazine
Empty Streets to the Empty Grave
Empty Streets to the Empty Grave
While reporting in Israel, photographer Michael Winters captures an unusually vacant experience at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
Editor's Pick
What Christians Miss When They Dismiss Imagination
What Christians Miss When They Dismiss Imagination
Understanding God and our world needs more than bare reason and experience.
close