What are “biting sheep”? Most pastors and experienced leaders understand right off the bat, but if you’re new to church leadership, or new to the faith, the idea that people in the church can do hurtful, wrong, or just plain evil things can come as a shock. It can be disillusioning and discouraging. This is nothing new — it’s been around since the beginning. But don’t lose heart! Many people have been there before and found that the experiences strengthened them and prepared them for more effective ministry.

For many people, even raising the issue of pastor’s rage seems puzzling or inappropriate. How can pastors feel rage in the first place? Isn’t this a contradiction in terms? Pastors aren’t supposed to feel such things, so they are reluctant even to admit that they do. Besides, any admission of such feelings runs the risk of the pastor being sent off to the local psychiatrist for evaluation!

I read a great article by Rabbi Stephen Pearce called Bad Behavior in the Bible Delivers Timeless Lessons. In it he writes: “Other sagacious writers have echoed this prophet’s [Jeremiah's] bleak comment on human nature. Nietzsche observed, ‘Lying is a necessity of life, a part of the terrifying and problematic character of existence,’ while Goethe asserted that truth is ‘contrary to our nature because it demands that we recognize ourselves as limited.’

by Ed Ewart Before retiring as the President of Princeton Seminary, Dr. Tom Gillespie spoke to a graduating class of passionate seminarians. I will never forget the title of his address and the image that went with it. I read it just a few years after the unpleasant conclusion of a two-year pastorate that culminated [...]

Those of us who have been in the church for many years can cite too many examples of “saints” who read the Bible daily, preach, teach Sunday School, pray regularly and fervently, raise their hands high, sing praise choruses, are deacons or elders in the church, and yet from all behavior are just plain bad…bad to the bone!

Suicide: A Growing Problem Once absolutely unheard of, suicide among pastors and even their spouses is on the increase. Impossible expectations, and not being given the authority and tools to fulfill those expectations, have made a pastor’s life a living hell—twenty-four hours on call, three hundred and sixty five days of the year, constant complaints [...]

Pontius Pilate could possibly be the patron saint of the weary church person. Too many times following an abuse case in the church, before there has been any true justice, and before any confession of sin, repentance, and restitution or reconciliation has taken place, someone will say with finality, “Let’s just move on.”