{"id":2076,"date":"2021-09-08T12:40:23","date_gmt":"2021-09-08T16:40:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.namb.net\/church-replanting\/?post_type=resource&p=2076"},"modified":"2021-09-08T12:40:23","modified_gmt":"2021-09-08T16:40:23","slug":"comfort-for-the-ghosted-pastor","status":"publish","type":"resource","link":"https:\/\/www.namb.net\/church-replanting\/resource\/comfort-for-the-ghosted-pastor\/","title":{"rendered":"Comfort for the Ghosted Pastor"},"content":{"rendered":"

They join your church. You minister to them with the proclamation of God\u2019s Word week in and week out. You pray for them regularly, send them notes on their birthdays and keep them up to date on all the happenings at church.<\/p>\n

They sit across the desk in your office for counseling. You take them out to eat or for coffee, you visit them in the hospital and you go to their son\u2019s ballgames. They ask you to officiate their daughter\u2019s wedding and their grandpa\u2019s funeral.<\/p>\n

And poof! They\u2019re gone.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

In the blink of an eye, it\u2019s as if they disappear from planet Earth. No, they didn\u2019t die or move away; they ghosted you \u2026 and it happens a lot. I shared something along those lines recently on Twitter:<\/p>\n

Earlier that day, I spoke with a pastor friend who found himself in the same situation. I wanted to share the tweet because getting ghosted as a pastor is pretty common, and I thought I\u2019d encourage pastors on Saturday night before they gathered with their flocks on Sunday.<\/p>\n

The replies rolled in fast and heavy with comments like, \u201cI saw someone in a restaurant last week who passed us like strangers. Our daughter was there and recalled how 10 years ago, I was in the ER all night with her husband as he died unexpectedly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another said, \u201cYeah, that\u2019s hard stuff. Tears at you because you really do care about these folks. Regardless, when you stop caring, it\u2019s time to quit.\u201d Another replied, \u201cThere\u2019s an apt quote from Terry Wardle: \u2018Ministry is a series of ungrieved losses.\u2019 It really hits home for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

It can be especially difficult in the wake of the pandemic when\u00a0Lifeway Research found<\/a>\u00a0pastors were concerned with caring for members from a distance, maintaining congregational unity, and the health and safety of their people\u2014all while dealing with personal exhaustion.<\/p>\n

Even before the pandemic, a\u00a02015 Lifeway Research study<\/a>\u00a0of 1,500 pastors revealed:<\/p>\n