Your pastor preached about rest last Sabbath. Then he went home and answered emails.
Nobody is leaving Adventist ministry over theology. They’re leaving over exhaustion. Research on our own pastors keeps finding the same thing: a large share report emotional exhaustion, spiritual dryness, and loneliness — 16% say they feel spiritually dry “too often.” And that’s among the ones still in the pulpit. The ones who left don’t show up in the surveys.
Here’s the part we don’t say out loud: we did this. We built a system where the pastor is expected to be CEO, counselor, theologian, and spiritual guru — sometimes on a salary that quietly requires a second income — and then we act surprised when the light goes out. The board votes him three more committees and calls it “support.”
Pastors don’t need another appreciation Sabbath with a gift card. They need sabbaticals that are actually honored, salaries that don’t humiliate, and a congregation that lets them be human — tired, doubting, in need of a pastor themselves.
The church keeps praying for laborers for the harvest. Maybe it should start by not destroying the ones it has.
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