For some pastors, practicing spiritual disciplines comes naturally. They get up at 5:30 A.M., read five chapters of Scripture (translating one from the original languages), then pray for an hour before their morning run. They journal daily, fast twice a week, and take an annual retreat to a monastery for a week of silence.

For other pastors, perhaps most, it's not that simple. While they pray frequently, both publicly and privately, most of the time their prayers are "on the run." They struggle to read the Bible through cover to cover in one year, despite the latest systematic reading program they ordered in the mail. They live with persistent feelings of inadequacy over their "devotional life."

Is there hope for such pastors?

LEADERSHIP contributing editor Bob Moeller found a self-confessed "unstructured personality" in Charles Killian, professor of preaching and drama at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky. They discussed Killian's experiences ...