Untitled Sermon

Shepherding a Small Church Summary

This course was great it had great content and was filled with great idea’ of what we really need to do to pastor a small church in America.I am a pastor of a small church in Boulder City Nevada that has a very strong Mormon influence through out the city there are four wards and the city government is mostly made up of Mormons.

You can tend to get a little discouraged when trying to minster in this community or any community that has a strong dominate influence of any false religion. This class was great because it helped me to see that I need to get more involved in my community and find ways to interact with the community leadership and to also prepare the people for a greater influence within our city.

Question 1. What was there in this course that you didn’t know before this course?

I didn’t know or should I say understand about burnout according to your notes on page 13 and the New York Times August 1st, 2010 “that members of the clergy suffered from obesity, hypertension and depression at a higher rate than most Americans.” This is alarming to me as a pastor that has high blood pressure and would be considered overweight or obest because I am 40 pounds over weight. I take an antidepressant to help with anxity and my A.D.D. and dyslexcia.

I know one of the greatest struggles I have as a pastor is making time for the gym and any type of excersise in my day. I know how to make every excuses there is out there. make making the time to take care of myself. when we start to look at the rate at which pastors are dropping out of the ministry it can be a little overwhelming at times. The heart and focus of the ministry has to be on the Lord.

I do know that if we don’t make time for ourselves and take a sabathical then we will suffer or sucumn to burnout.