Greg Surratt knows very well the deeply personal struggles that many pastors experience in their lives. The founder of Seacoast Church in Charleston, South Carolina, and member of the leadership team of ARC (Association of Related Churches) dealt with deep depression in his early twenties that took him months to climb out of.
In the more than 40 years since, Surratt has experienced many challenging times in his personal and pastoral lives, but nothing quite like those times in his early twenties. The leader has helped more than 1,000 ARC churches launch in his career, and he is now focusing his attention on supporting other church leaders in their mental health journey.
Surratt is particularly focused on small churches with fewer than 500 members, which account for 94% of all churches in America. Here are some of the things he’s learned and is hoping others will learn to include rest in their calendar.
Burnout is Real Among Pastors
Burnout has become a major challenge for people across all industries in the last few years, and it’s being felt in ministry as well. A study conducted by Barna Research in 2021 found that 38% of respondents considered quitting full-time ministry over the last 12 months, which represented a 9% increase from the start of the year.
What’s more, 46% of pastors under the age of 45 said they thought about leaving the ministry, compared to 34% for older pastors. The potential loss of so many younger pastors from ministry is alarming, as these are the people who are needed to lead the next generations of followers to God.
One of the biggest challenges that pastors face is mental health issues. Recently, those issues have become accentuated by events in society, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the George Floyd murder, and much other civil unrest. Those challenges, of course, layer on top of other burdens such as financial, personal, and church pressures.
How to Avoid Burnout
Greg Surratt of ARC (Association of Related Churches) identifies three things all church communities should focus on to help support their pastors — rest, remuneration, and resources. So many pastors never even take a day off, he says, and that doesn’t help them regenerate and be ready to do everything all over again.
A major aspect of allowing pastors the time to rest is paying them enough so they can afford to do so. If they have to work all the time to support their own families, it’ll be hard for them to step away for a period of time for fear of their own financial demise.
More than just money, though, Greg Surratt says church communities should make resources available for pastors to take advantage of, too. This includes resources that help them feed their soul, such as retreats, sabbaticals, and counseling.
All of this is even more important during the summer months, when many other people in the church community are taking time off — leaving pastors, in many cases, to have fewer people to interact with and resources to rely on.
Pastors should continually ask themselves how they’re doing, who they’re telling, and what they’re using as a way to stay on top of their own mental health, Greg Surratt said. This will help them gauge their current mental health state so they can address any issues they identify.
About ARC (Association of Related Churches)
ARC (Association of Related Churches) is a cooperative of independent churches from different denominations, networks, and backgrounds that strategically resource church planters and pastors to help them reach people with the message of Jesus. ARC exists to see a thriving church in every community, reaching people with the message of Jesus. Since its beginning in 2000, ARC has grown into a global organization and has helped plant more than 1,000 churches.
