It’s the week of Christmas. I know some pastors will do Christmas Eve services, others are officially done with their Christmas sermons.
Next week, I’ll start sharing resources for new year sermons, but this week I want to talk about pastoral health.
These last few days of 2025 are a great time to step back and take inventory of where you are spiritually, physically, and emotionally.
I had a conversation with a pastor recently that broke my heart. He had a stroke the previous year and I asked him how long he took off after his stroke to recover.
He said, “a week and a half.” I wanted to give him hug. But then he said, “I felt like it was important for my people to see I was ok,” and I wanted to cry.
He said the first week he preached after his stroke he had to hold on to the sides of the pulpit to keep from falling over.
I haven’t been able to get that conversation off my mind. Even when we’re unwell, we feel the pressure to get well for them.
I’ve written more about the challenges of healthy preaching here.
Today I’m giving you 1 stat, 1 quote, and 1 story about pastoral health.
You can’t use them in your sermon, but hopefully it will inspire to you to make a few healthy decisions as you start a new year of leadership.
One more thing: If you haven’t downloaded your free preaching calendar yet, you can download it here. I would love to help you get ahead in your sermon planning.
Story
In Henri Nouwen’s biography, Wounded Prophet, Michael Ford describes a season in Nouwen’s life when the famous writer, priest, and professor quietly unraveled.
On the outside, Nouwen was admired everywhere he went. But on the inside, he carried an ache he didn’t know how to name: a lifelong hunger to feel safe and loved.
He began seeing a therapist who helped him uncover what was behind his anxiety and restlessness. At one appointment, after listening to Nouwen describe his chronic loneliness, the therapist suggested something startling.
“Henri,” he said, “I want you to allow yourself to be held.”
The therapist knew Nouwen’s deepest wound was not intellectual or theological, but emotional. He needed to experience, in his body, the affection he preached so powerfully about in his sermons and books.
Over the next several sessions, Nouwen allowed himself to simply be held. He wept with a kind of grief and relief he didn’t know he had been carrying. He called it “one of the most frightening and healing experiences of my life.”
“I let myself be held,” he said. “And in that embrace, I felt the tenderness of God.”
Takeaway: We often work so hard because we just want to be loved.
Source: The Wounded Prophet by Michael Ford.
Interesting Links
The Challenges of Preaching Every Week
This is the link to the article I mentioned about the physical and emotional toll of weekly preaching. In this article, I present the startling science of what happens to your brain and body as you prepare to preach.
Best Books I’ve Read on Pastoral Health
If you’re interested in reading more about mental and emotional health as a pastor, I gave a list of the best books I’ve read on the topic.
Free Prayer and Fasting sermon series (and book)
My friend Pastor JC Worley just released a new book called Deeper21: Experience the Power of Prayer and Fasting in Twenty-One Days. I’ve read it. It’s good.
He’s giving away a free 3-week sermon series you could use in January on the topic of prayer and fasting, and selling books in bulk for $10 if you want to purchase copies for your church. You can email kshaw@mygochurch.com for the books and/or sermon series.
