Dean Stone's October reflection

One of the most persistent challenges facing the Church today is not simply finding people called to ministry but helping those people sustain a life in ministry over time. 

Clergy fatigue is real. Pastors carry the ordinary demands of preaching, teaching, administration, pastoral care, conflict, and institutional leadership while also accompanying people through some of the most difficult moments of their lives. Too often, we respond by telling ministers to become more resilient, manage their calendars better, or practice more self-care. All of those things may help. But pastoral sustainability cannot rest entirely on the shoulders of individual pastors – especially since their shoulders are already carrying quite a lot. It is also a question of how we form ministers, structure and sustain congregational life, understand vocation, and share the work of ministry. 

That is why this month’s Perspective focuses on clergy fatigue, pastoral care, and preaching – and why Episode 2 of our new Theology Matters podcast is devoted to “Sustainable Pastoral Ministry,” featuring Rev. Dr. April Bristow and Rev. Dr. James Woods. At Perkins, we want to prepare leaders not simply to enter ministry but to inhabit their vocations with depth, imagination, healthy practices, strong communities, and the capacity for lifelong learning. Formation in preaching, pastoral and spiritual care, and supervised ministry all contribute to that work. Just as importantly, we want our graduates to understand that faithful ministry does not require doing everything themselves. 

Fall Break, October 12–13, offers a timely reminder that rest is not the opposite of vocation. Sometimes it is one of the conditions that makes vocation possible. Universities are not always especially good at remembering this in October, when calendars are full, assignments are multiplying, and everyone has begun to realize just how far away December still is. October also concludes with Reformation Day. Whatever else we may say about the Reformation, it reminds us that faithfulness sometimes requires change. Churches and institutions can develop habits, structures, and expectations that once served them well but no longer do. Reform is not necessarily a rejection of tradition. At its best, it is one way of asking how a tradition can remain alive, truthful, and capable of serving its calling in a changing world. 

The same is true of ministry. Sustainability requires more than endurance. It requires the freedom to reconsider expectations, to share burdens, to cultivate practices of rest and renewal, and sometimes to change the way the work itself is done. 

Sustainable ministry is not ministry without difficulty. It is ministry shaped by life-giving habits and practices, healthy relationships and institutions, and forms of wisdom that make faithfulness possible for the long haul.