Maintaining Pastoral Resilience Through the Spiritual Disciplines

This week, I read a report based on a late 2022 study by the Barna Group indicating that “only 52 percent of pastors are ‘very satisfied’ with their jobs; only 50 percent are just as confident of their calling as they were when they began; and only 38 percent are very satisfied with their current church assignment… The numbers show categorical declines as high as 20 percentage points from seven years ago [2015] when Barna last studied pastoral resilience.”

Indeed there are many causes for this decline, not the least of which are the effects upon the church and pastoral ministry caused by the Covid pandemic and the political/social upheaval of recent years. 

Amid this turmoil, how can a pastor avoid joining the unusually high number of pastors voluntarily leaving the ministry? Of course, there are important health, nutritional, and exercise habits to consider, but most pastors are at least aware of these, even if they are careless with them. So I will not address those here.

This is a series about pastors and the spiritual disciplines found in Scripture. Thus, I intend to use this final article to speak to perseverance in those disciplines to maintain in stressful times. It’s what the Barna article referred to as “pastoral resilience.”

Spiritual dryness

I find it hard to believe that many pastors would resign during a time of personal spiritual vibrancy. It seems much more likely that a pastor would leave the ministry during a season of spiritual dryness. This condition is similar to that which Martyn Lloyd-Jones describes in one of his best-known books, Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cure. Similarly, the Puritans often wrote about what they termed “spiritual desertions,” when believers feel like God (seemingly contrary to His promises) has deserted them and left their souls in a spiritual desert. In The Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan portrays this struggle in a narrative when he writes of his pilgrim going through “the valley of the shadow of death.”

I think God brings every pastor (and Christian) through such seasons. Knowing this is a normal part of the Christian life may bring comfort. In part, the Lord allows these times to teach us perseverance in the disciplines, to walk by faith, and to encourage us to find Christ sufficiently satisfying, even when He seems to disappoint us.

Still, how should we remain resilient when we feel spiritually dry? I have only a few paragraphs in which to make suggestions. For more in-depth insight and encouragement, I recommend reading the books and writers mentioned above. To them, I would add a piece by Spurgeon on “The Minister’s Fainting Fits,” which is taken from his great book, Lectures to My Students. Even Spurgeon, you may recall, often battled depression, especially from mid-life onward, when his struggle with gout likely contributed a part.

Let me suggest that you drink from three wells of refreshment the Lord provides even when He places you in a spiritual desert. Some of what follows appears in the chapter on “Persevering in the Disciplines” in my book, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life. May the Lord open your eyes to see these wells as He did for Hagar when He opened her eyes to the well she had not seen when Abraham sent her to the desert (Gen. 21:19).

The Well of the Holy Spirit

As important as they are, the spiritual disciplines are not the source of our spiritual life and strength. Jesus is. We don’t remain spiritually strong because we faithfully practice the disciplines, but only when we seek Jesus and His strength by faith through the rightly motivated practice of the disciplines. 

You are a supernaturalist, right? You believe two people live in your body—you and the Holy Spirit of God Himself. In this way, you have become one of the “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet. 1:4). And thus, “God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control” (2 Tim. 1:7). Ask the Lord to help you experience His indwelling Spirit’s “power and love and self-control.”

Do you still have a flicker of desire to serve the Lord as one of His undershepherds? Take heart: this is evidence of the Spirit’s work in you. “For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13).

Once when describing his labors as a minister, Paul wrote, “For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me” (Col. 1:29). Notice that it was Paul who toiled and that his ministry was often “toil.” He is the one who went to bed weary and often discouraged, not God. But how did Paul manage to get up the next day—perhaps after a beating or stoning and other forms of persecution—and keep “struggling” on? It was “with all His [i.e., God’s] energy that He powerfully works within me.” Paul toiled, but the desire and the power to persevere in ministry was from God. If God has called you to pastor, He will do the same for you.

The Holy Spirit who indwells you is the Spirit of Jesus. And Jesus promised: “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we can confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?’” (Heb. 13:5-6).

Moreover, the Spirit is praying for you: “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God” (Rom. 8:26-27). What do you think is the percentage of prayers the Spirit prays for you that are answered? It’s probably pretty close to the percentage of prayers of Jesus that are answered, right? And by the way, this assurance is one of the reasons why Paul begins the beautiful promise in the very famous next verse (Rom. 8:28) with “And we know that….” 

Just as the Holy Spirit does, Jesus Himself is praying for you. In His Great High Priestly prayer (Jn. 17), Jesus prayed not only for His disciples, but He also said to the Father, “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word” (v. 20). Hebrews 7:25 adds, “He always lives to make intercession for them.” In His loving providence, the Father may have put you in the desert for a season, but He has not abandoned you there. The Holy Spirit is with you, and Jesus is praying for you there.

“Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16).

The Well of Fellowship

Although this series has been about personal spiritual disciplines, the interpersonal ones are just as important for pastors as for any other Christian, especially when you are spiritually dry. But engagement in many of these disciplines—public worship, prayer with others, serving the people of God, and more—are inherently a part of your ministry responsibilities.

There is one interpersonal discipline, however, even though it is a constituent part of pastoral ministry, that has more of a voluntary side to it. That discipline is fellowship. By that, I do not mean socializing, which is talking about news, weather, sports, work, and family. Though socializing has its place in a Christian’s life, too often, what passes for fellowship is just socializing with other Christians. But real koinonia (the Greek word usually translated as “fellowship”) involves talking about God and the things of God. I maintain that we do far less of that than we think, even at church.

Without intentionality, koinonia rarely happens. In this way, koinonia is similar to evangelism. When you evangelize, you almost always are the one who takes the initiative to turn the conversation to the things of God. The same is almost always true with fellowship as well. To experience koinonia, you must also take the responsibility to turn the conversation to spiritual matters. It is helpful to keep a list of koinonia-cultivating questions on my phone. 

Pastor, you desperately need koinonia, not only in ordinary times but especially when you are spiritually dry. There should be mature believers in your church with whom you can find the encouragement of true fellowship. But suppose you have an immature church or are on the verge of quitting. In that case, you probably need to be more intentional about talking about the things of God with trusted believers (especially fellow ministers) outside your congregation. And your soul needs this often, even if only by phone or live video. 

Beware of the temptation to turn inward during times of spiritual dryness or ministry desperation. No amount of faithfulness and consistency with the personal spiritual disciplines can supply your need for what God provides through the interpersonal spiritual disciplines, including koinonia.

The Well of Struggle

You may be thinking: I can see how the Holy Spirit and fellowship are “wells” from which I can draw refreshment in times of spiritual dryness, but “struggle”? 

Remembering that the Bible says struggle is a normal part of much of the Christian life and ministry can encourage you. 

The theme verse for this series has been 1 Tim. 4:7, “Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.” Just three verses later, Paul writes, “For to this end we toil and strive” (v. 10). There’s that word “toil” again. I think Paul has in view both your personal pursuit of godliness and your ministry of cultivating godliness in others. That means you can be as faithful as Paul in your Christian life and pastoral ministry, but you will often find that you “toil and strive” in both. That’s normal. 

One reason for your frequent struggles in following Christ and serving Him is that you always have fierce opposition for doing so—both internally and externally—from the world, the flesh, and the Devil. If you were on their side, there would be far less struggle. We all get weary from warfare sometimes, and the weariness can leave you spiritually dry and feeling deserted. So do not despair; even the best soldiers get battle weary.

Another reason you—and all Christians—struggle is that this is how the Lord separates His true followers from those who merely profess to be. Peter explains how this struggle can be a well of joy: “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 1:6-7). Anyone can stay faithful when things are going well, and their ministry seems to enjoy the Lord’s favor. But only those who continue to love Jesus and serve Him faithfully when there is no evident, immediate benefit for doing so are the ones who can enjoy the assurance that their faith is genuine and they do not minister as mere “hirelings” (Jn. 10:12-13).

Dear struggling, discouraged, spiritually dry pastor: persevere in the spiritual disciplines. The resilience you seek will not be found apart from them, for they are the means God has given you to experience and enjoy Him. Keep asking, seeking, and knocking. The Lord has not, nor will He ever, desert you (Mt. 28:20; Heb. 13:5). 

When you walk from the sunlight into the shade, the sun is no less near, even though it feels that way. Sometimes we walk in the warmth of God’s presence; at other times, we must walk in the shadows. But He is no less near in the shadows. Walk on, for you may almost be in His sunlight again. 

Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God .(Ps. 42:5 and 11)

May the Lord give you the resolve of Puritan Pastor Richard Alleine when he prayed, “I will die fighting. I will die hoping. I will die praying.” Let us die practicing those God-given disciplines by which we experience the presence and power of God.

©2023 Donald S. Whitney. All rights reserved. Used with permission.