Spiritual Well-being: Clergy Colleagues and Congregations

The importance of spiritual well-being for clergy members cannot be overstated. I would be remiss, therefore, to end this book without some common sense advice for clergy colleagues and congregations.

What should be the most obvious statement of all warrants repeating here: clergy can help one another. They can be spiritual directors, spiritual friends, and members of spiritual groups. They can reach out to a colleague who appears to be suffering from spiritual dryness in ways that only another ordained minister can know. Our seminary training in pastoral care - to be an empathic listener, non-judgmental and a non-anxious presence - can be called on here with respect to colleagues as well as to the laity for whom it is usually intended.

Some years ago, a former spiritual director suggested that I could greatly benefit from a mini-retreat with a particular priest to address a spiritual dryness issue. I approached him reluctantly, not knowing what I was getting myself into and what it was going to cost me. I shall always be grateful for both the response and the retreat, which got me unstuck enough to move forward on my own and which was delivered, in his words, as "a gratuity of ministry."

Most of us don't have a lot of excess disposable income, but we have the skills to assist our clergy friends when they need it. As we frequently say in the field of addictions and other human services, when asked by people how they can make up for the help that they have been given: "Pay it forward." We have all been helped by other clergy at some point in our own lives; we can all help others along the way.

Congregations can help to insure the spiritual well-being of their pastors and families by easing up on the pressures, demands and expectations imposed on them. Calls during holidays, vacations and at odd hours of the night should be limited to true emergencies that cannot be handled by anybody else. Pastors need uninterrupted time for private prayer and to reconnect one-on-one with God.

In that same vein, offering sabbaticals for the clergy should also be considered as a possibility - either within the initial negotiated salary and benefit package or as an extra benefit after a number of years on the job. Sabbaticals allow clergy an extended period of time to pursue spiritual growth, gain deeper knowledge and re-balance their personal lives and priorities - leading to more renewed pastorates and providing intangible benefits for both the clergy and the congregation.