Depression: the Pastor’s Vocational Hazard
Coping with Depression in the Ministry and Other Helping Professions by Archibald Hart, Word, $10.95
Reviewed by Timothy K. Jones, co-pastor, Christ Our Peace Church of the Brethren, The Woodlands, Texas
A pastor I know once fell into a severe depression. He managed to drag himself out of bed most mornings, but he dodged parishioners’ calls, took lots of naps, and coped by “unhooking” himself from contact with others. Only with time did his inward crisis eventually resolve.
Not every minister will face it in quite so stark a form, but Arch Hart believes depression has become the pastor’s vocational hazard. Coping with Depression in the Ministry and Other Helping Professions details Hart’s insights into mastering this troublesome emotion, which he calls the “dominant mood of our age.” Years of counseling pastors and teaching at Fuller Seminary’s School of Psychology enable Hart to open new doors of understanding. He offers a vivid exploration of depression’s many faces, its purposeful role, its varied treatment. It is a discussion he believes will unlock the depressed person’s “prison of misunderstanding.”
“It has been my experience in working with many ministers, Christian workers, and their families,” writes Hart, “that not only is depression the most common emotional problem, but it is also the most destructive.”
Hart’s writing reveals the touch of a man keenly aware of pastors’ pressures, needs, and hurts. In a phone interview, I asked him where he gained his sensitivity. He offered a telling anecdote from his D.Min. classes at Fuller. When he teaches about depression in the ministry, he said “a light goes on” in the pastors’ faces and “70 percent of the class says, ‘Yes! Depression has been a major hazard for me.’ ” And of the ministers Hart sees in counseling, “Depression is a factor in practically every instance when something has gone wrong.”
When depression is diagnosed and treated, however, Hart guesses that 70 percent “report dramatic improvement in their work satisfaction and self-esteem.”
Hart frames his analysis with another special sensitivity: He is careful not to ascribe depression to weak faith or a neglected prayer life. Spiritual life certainly plays an important preventive role in building resistance to depression, he admits, but to assign all depression to a spiritual cause he considers both damaging and simplistic.
Depression is more complex. To adopt a single-cause theory only increases misery for the depressed, says Hart. Instead he outlines an array of root causes.
Abusing the body, for example, takes an inevitable toll on emotions. “Depression is tied to our physiology as much as to our psychology,” he writes. Most of us have noticed a dramatic loss of energy and occasional moodiness after Sunday’s pastoral duties. Hart labels that “post-adrenalin blues.” Often, he writes, Sundays deplete the pastor’s supply of adrenalin, and temporary depression is a common side effect.
Hart uncovers other causes: the inherent loneliness of any leadership position, the responsibility of caring for others’ souls, and sharing daily in others’ sorrows. These conditions make it difficult to leave work behind at the office. And pastors seem especially prone to unrealistic career expectations.
Hart links some depression to biochemical problems beyond the individual’s conscious control. “More and more we are recognizing that defects in body chemistry, specifically in the neurotransmitters that link nerve to nerve, may cause depressions. … Fortunately they respond well to treatment with antidepressant medication.” Recognizing this can be liberating for troubled pastors who have gotten nowhere mastering their moodiness. Professional intervention can signal the end of self-recrimination, the beginning of healing.
Hart counsels pastors to use caution in quickly attributing their own (or a parishioner’s) depression to sin. If the cause indeed lies elsewhere, such a strategy will only increase the guilt and deepen the depression.
Hart offers another thesis that makes his book unique: Depression has a constructive, purposeful role. Too many miss what he calls “God’s creative purpose” in depression. While we surely do not seek depression, Hart writes, much misery is rooted in believing that depression is purposeless, unnecessary, and always destructive. The symptoms of depression-low mood, lack of energy, social withdrawal-point to depression’s purposeful place. These responses, like any pain, can prompt us to pull back so psychic repair can take place.
“Depression is a healing emotion,” he said in our interview. “You have to cooperate with it. It pulls you out of your environment . . . back into yourself.” Just as bereavement after a death allows a person to put loss into perspective, he explained, so with depression. It slows us down, conserves our activity, so that energy can be funneled into coping with the real or imagined loss. Sometimes something goes wrong; the sense of loss can get perpetuated in unhealthy ways. Normally, though, depression ends in healing and renewed effectiveness. “Now I have gotten into the habit of thanking God when I am depressed,” Hart added.
Hart has received a steady flow of letters since the book’s release. “Most of these,” he says, “come from ministers thanking me for giving them permission to see their depression as something normal.” As his book gains even wider readership, it is sure to challenge myths and offer fresh hope. Ministers and other helping professionals will benefit from the encouragement.
White-Collar Clergy in a Blue-Collar Church
Blue-Collar Ministry by Tex Sample, Judson, $12.95
Reviewed by Frederick A. Newenhuyse, pastor, St. Paul’s United Church of Christ, Franklin Park, Illinois
Many of us in ministry have graduate degrees and come from upper-middle class families, yet we find ourselves ministering to working-class congregations. In my church, for instance, only 5 percent of the members have college degrees. The fact that I’m an avid weightlifter and can hold my own in church softball means as much as my Harvard B.A. and North Park M.Div.
The issue of pastoring blue-collar churches has been a neglected one. Tex Sample’s book, however, addresses the issue squarely and promises to be a valuable contribution.
Sample, raised in a working-class family in southern Mississippi, knows his subject well. (“Tex” is his real name-he was named after a former slave named Texana.) At an early age, he realized there was a boundary between the working-class families and the upper-middle class members of his Methodist church.
While on summer vacation from Millsaps College, Sample worked in the oil fields and received what he describes as “the best education” he ever had. He spent the next fifteen years “trying to be an intellectual and escape my roots,” only in recent years to rediscover the values of his heritage.
Sample believes the church for too long has neglected its ministry to the working class-which he defines as “craft and kindred workers, operatives, laborers, and service workers.” Instead, the church has sought to identify itself with suburban white-collar culture. Pastors too often see working-class churches as steppingstones to more affluent parishes, and they neglect to participate in the richness of blue-collar society.
Now a professor at Saint Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, Sample manages to keep one foot in the blue-collar world. He teaches a course at the seminary entitled “White Soul,” which explores country music and Christianity. He also plays on black softball teams and frequents the bowling lanes and music halls of working-class Kansas City.
Sample advises pastors of working-class churches to “play” with their people. “Find out where they bowl and go bowl with them,” he said when I interviewed him. “If they play softball, join the team. ‘Play’ with them at church dinners and ice-cream socials.”
He believes blue-collar folk don’t go to church to learn from a white-collar pastor so much as out of deeply-held Christian convictions. “They go to church because they love Jesus,” he said.
In his book Sample describes how the dominant theme of Christianity in America has espoused a “winner religion.” Working-class people often feel left out of this theology. Deprived of the status society gives to the white-collar world, they need to hear the gospel that affirms we are saved not by our merits but by the free grace of God in Christ.
Too often a working-class Christian feels trapped by society’s rules: rules he didn’t make. He may show up in church sporting an orange jacket and green slacks to be “color-coordinated” and not understand the mores that label him poorly dressed.
Sample’s book offers practical advice to the pastor. He describes how the working-class world relies upon a system of “reciprocity” whereby favors are done and then a favor is expected in return. The new pastor in a blue-collar church will find a reservoir of goodwill and kindness extended to him; and yet at some point he will be expected to do something tangible in return. The political “ward-heeler,” Sample writes, serves as a helpful model for ministry-he makes the rounds of the community, knows his people in their daily situations, and bestows favors upon them. They in turn support him.
Sample analyzes the working-class ideal of “belonging,” which is different from the upper-middle class ideal of “individual achievement.” Ministers in such a setting must be sensitive to this subtle difference in values, particularly being careful not to preach an ethic of success that eliminates the majority of the congregation.
Blue-Collar Ministry is rich in both theory and practical considerations, and it can give pastors of working-class churches a new appreciation and understanding of the people they daily serve.
The Preacher and the Act of Worship
Preaching and Leading Worship by William H. Willimon, Westminster, $7.95
Reviewed by Doug Beacham, pastor, Franklin Springs Pentecostal Holiness Church, Franklin Springs, Georgia
“I am excited about the preaching I hear today; particularly some of the younger preachers are taking the Bible with renewed seriousness,” says Will Willimon, author of a newly released book that effectively deals with the related issues of preaching and worship.
This eight-chapter book can be read in a few hours and is useful for both the beginning preacher and the preacher who has practiced the art for years. It is one of five new releases by Westminster called The Pastor’s Handbook series. Other titles include Helping Laity Help Others, Planning for Your Church, Developing Spiritually and Professionally, and Cultivating Religious Growth Groups. I also read the last book mentioned and found it useful with up-to-date analyses of small groups and specific guidelines regarding the entire lifecycle of church small groups.
Willimon stresses the “handbook” nature of the entire series: “We wanted to keep it nontechnical. There were areas about which I wanted to write more, but the editors insisted that it remain a handbook. So we tried to keep it specific and concrete.” And they have.
At first glance I wondered, Why another book on preaching? The fact that it was written by Willimon, however, offered enough incentive to test the waters. A United Methodist minister, his most recent pastorate was in Greenville, South Carolina. This summer he became minister to the university at Duke in Durham, North Carolina. He has taught preaching at Duke Divinity School as well as other seminaries.
Willimon has written extensively on preaching, including Word, Water, Wine, and Bread (Judson), an excellent brief study of how three specific church worship practices have evolved over the past two thousand years; Worship as Pastoral Care (Abingdon) which analyzes the effects of worship; Integrative Preaching (Abingdon) which relates preaching to the pastoral needs of a congregation; and Preaching and Worship in the Small Church (co-authored with Robert Wilson) which is part of the Abingdon Creative Leadership Series edited by Lyle Schaller. These books, obviously, go into greater detail than Preaching and Leading Worship.
There were only two main areas that I thought suffered from the handbook approach. First, while not completely absent, there was a lack of illustrative examples. For instance, in an otherwise excellent chapter, “The Word in Worship: How to Construct a Biblical Sermon,” Willimon mentions in brief paragraphs “the typical ways biblical texts are used (and abused) in sermons.” He lists transference, allegorization, parallelism, universalization, psychologizing, and moralizing. After brief descriptions he writes, “Few preachers are able to avoid all these pitfalls. In fact, any of them may be legitimate interpretive devices-as long as we know that we are using a device that may abuse the meaning of the text if it is not employed with care” (italics his). Although sentence examples are given for the six problem areas, we could use a few more pages of analysis and example.
Second, Willimon is a strong advocate of lectionary preaching. The weakness of what he wrote is not in content but in assuming most pastors use the lectionary and are aware of the resources available to assist in exegesis and commentary on the three-year cycle of Bible texts used in the mainline Protestant churches and Roman Catholic Church. These aids-such as Proclamation: Aids for Interpreting the Lessons of the Church Year (Fortress), a multi-volume set that covers the liturgical seasons-can be of special value to pastors not accustomed to using the lectionary.
These two weaknesses, caused primarily by a desire to be a “brief handbook,” do not minimize the strengths offered by Willimon regarding preaching and leading worship.
The first of these strengths is his emphasis on lectionary preaching. He introduces his argument in the first chapter, “Sunday Morning: Evaluating and Planning the Service.” While dealing with common weaknesses in worship, he offers his reasons why lectionary preaching can help remedy a “lack of focus and coherence in the acts of worship.”
“I see the Bible as setting the agenda for preaching. I am sure you remember the remark by Karl Barth that preachers should preach with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other, and I agree with him. … But sometimes I think we preachers make the mistake of asking our questions and then running to the Bible for answers. I think it is a better discipline to hear what the Bible has to say and let it set the agenda and raise the questions.”
Such arguments naturally lead to a discussion of the liturgical year. “Without the aid of the church year,” he writes, “our Sundays could lose their focus on Christ and become a programmatic year in which the worship of God degenerates into a mere pep rally for the latest denominational cause or an expression of the pastor’s personal whims.”
For those of us in nonmainline churches, Willimon’s argument deserves a hearing. I use the lectionary for about half my preaching and find it especially useful during Advent and Lent.
The liturgical year forms the clear connection between preaching and leading worship for Willimon. His discussion of the pastor’s role is exciting and offers positive ways for the pastor to be more involved in actually “leading” worship. He does not argue at the expense of lay participation; rather, he argues that effective pastoral involvement enhances lay participation. The pastor should think of himself as “the gracious host (who) makes people feel comfortable, welcomed, prepared for. . . . The pastor sets the tone for the (service). If a pastor approaches the Sunday service in a half-hearted way, half-hearted worship will result. Enthusiasm . . . is contagious-so is nervousness, boredom, and fatigue.”
Specifically addressing pastors in the free-church traditions, chapter three deals with “Public Prayer.” He argues that public prayers are simply private prayers prayed out loud, but they should involve the corporate dimensions of the congregation. Such prayers should be thought out and even written. You may not agree with Willimon, but he engages you in serious thinking about the significance and power of public prayer.
Another area that will generate critical thinking is his view regarding children in worship. He argues they should be fully included in the worship service with adults. If the pastor uses children’s sermons, they should not be moralistic devices actually intended for the adults. Nor should children be removed to another section of the building in a glorified nursery. “Our worship is too verbal and cerebral,” he writes. “Children remind us of the emotional and visual aspects of the faith. … Jesus himself has given children a central place.”
His chapter on the Lord’s Supper and Baptism is an appropriate criticism of the ways Protestants of all stripes have neglected this rite and offered it poorly. He offers some creative suggestions for congregational renewal in celebrating the Lord’s Supper, most of which seek to move the church toward deeper fellowship.
The final chapter, “Getting Everyone into the Act,” is concerned with making worship an act of the people. A major strength is the brief case study of how he and members of his congregation planned the Sunday services during Advent. It shows how to include people in planning and how a pastor can properly guide the group for maximum participation and results.
It is clear Willimon is concerned for the renewal of the church. His concern centers on the central acts of the worshiping community: preaching and congregational worship. His purpose is clearly expressed: “Your enthusiasm, commitment, and competency as a preacher and leader of worship are the first keys to the renewal of worship in the church. Enabling you to be that sort of pastor has been the chief purpose of this book.”
NEW AND NOTEWORTHY
Several titles have been published in 1984 that, while perhaps not appealing to every church leader, do address some specific needs.
For small churches (ninety or fewer regular attenders) struggling to provide adequate ministry, Marshall Schirer and Mary Anne Forehand have written Cooperative Ministry: Hope for Small Churches (Judson).
“A small church can be a healthy church,” they write. “But what if there are not enough people to launch a program of evangelism because they are all busy with maintenance functions? What if there is not enough money to pay a pastor? Suppose there is not a meeting place. Cooperative ministry may be able to provide options.”
Six types of cooperative arrangements, with their pluses and minuses, are listed. For small congregations wondering what they can possibly do, this overview offers options . . . and hope.
One of the areas small churches wrestle with especially is youth ministry. How can you have a youth program with only four young people?
Carolyn C. Brown’s Youth Ministries: Thinking Big with Small Groups (Abingdon) is an encouraging array of ideas for youth groups small enough to meet in a Toyota. She includes teaching techniques, worship activities, games, and service projects.
With these creative approaches, small churches needn’t feel impotent. Real ministry doesn’t demand a traditional youth program. As Brown points out, Martin Luther and John Calvin never enjoyed our traditional youth group, yet they managed to attain a certain Christian maturity.
And finally, the puckish periodical The Wittenburg Door has published a book, 101 Things to Do During a Dull Sermon, illustrated by Door art director and sometime LEADERSHIP cartoonist Dan Pegoda. It may help pastors who want to know what thoughts are really lurking behind those blank faces in the pews.
So in the spirit of the Tennessee moonshiner who always showed up at church for the annual temperance sermon “just to find out what the competition is up to,” we quote Dull Sermon Endurance Strategy 59-Baptismal Surprise:
“Hide in the baptismal fount wearing a ‘Creature from the Black Lagoon’ outfit. Stay out of sight, but begin calling softly, ‘Pastor Billy Clyde . . . Oh, Pastor Billy Clyde. … ‘ When he finally stops and comes over to see who is calling his name, grab his tie and see if you can pull him in.”
Forewarned is forearmed.
Copyright © 1984 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.
