{"id":10408,"date":"2022-05-02T01:22:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-02T01:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=10408"},"modified":"2026-10-02T01:34:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T01:34:11","slug":"a-simple-suggestion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=10408","title":{"rendered":"A SIMPLE SUGGESTION"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lifeway Research asked 1,000 pastors to look over a list of 44 common challenges faced in ministry and then indicate which ones were current struggles for them. I listed the top 11 challenges a few days ago from <a href=\"https:\/\/research.lifeway.com\/2022\/01\/11\/u-s-pastors-identify-their-greatest-needs\/\" target=\"_blank\">the Lifeway website<\/a>, but lets narrow our focus today to six of those top 11.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here they are with their ranking and the percentage of pastors who indicated this as a current challenge:<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"background-color: white\">#2 &#8211;\u00a0<span style=\"background-color: white\">Consistency in personal prayer: 72%<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"background-color: white\"><span>#3 &#8211;\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"background-color: white\">Friendships and fellowship with others: 69%<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"background-color: white\">#5 &#8211; Consistency of Bible reading not related to sermon or teaching preparation: 68%<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"background-color: white\"><span>#6\u00a0 &#8211;\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"background-color: white\">Trusting God: 66%<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"background-color: white\">#8 &#8211; Consistency in taking a Sabbath: 64%<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"background-color: white\"># 11 &#8211;\u00a0<span style=\"background-color: white\">Confessing and repenting from personal sin: 61%<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Why focus on these particular 6 items?<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They are all indicators of the spiritual health of the pastor.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Is it ironic that 75% of pastors say their congregation&#8217;s lack of commitment is a big problem while roughly the same percentage of pastors are struggling in their own spiritual lives? (Consider the likelihood of the percentages for these six items being a bit underestimated, considering how difficult any one of them would be for a pastor to admit.)<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Every church should have some sort of board or committee overseeing the pastor. (Most do.) And the pastor&#8217;s spiritual health should be fair grounds for inquiry.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And then fair grounds for compassionate action.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What sorts of actions? Offering to pay for a spiritual retreat, gifting books, or even paying for an extended sabbatical.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But if you are on one of those church committees and looking for a way to boost your pastor&#8217;s spiritual vitality in a simple, ongoing capacity, I have for you what sounds like a radical idea on first hearing.\u00a0 But chew on it a bit and you might find it makes loads of sense:\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pastors should be encouraged to think of their personal prayer and Scripture time as part of their church work week. Perhaps even their first and most important duty.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Could change everything.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lifeway Research asked 1,000 pastors to look over a list of 44 common challenges faced in ministry and then indicate which ones were current struggles for them. I listed the top 11 challenges a few days ago from the Lifeway website, but lets narrow our focus today to six of those top 11. Here they [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10408"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10409,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10408\/revisions\/10409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}