Cultivating Pastoral Contentment

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

The apostle Paul tells the Corinthians, “I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities” (2 Corinthinas 13:10). ¹ More than that, he told the Philippians, “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content” (Philippians 4:11). How can pastors in the 21st century display something even approaching that kind of contentment? In this article, I want to examine challenges to contentment and outline some resources to overcome them. Contemporary pastors do not face the exact pressures Paul did, but they face many challenges to contentment. However, they have the same God as the apostle Paul, who enables pastors to be content, even when facing the most difficult of challenges. 

Challenges to pastoral contentment 

All pastors face challenges: difficult people in the congregation, opposition from outside the congregation, property issues, family pressures, and health (physical and mental) struggles. For the sake of this article, I will summarize them under three headings: comparison, stress, and disappointment. 

Comparison

In some ways, this challenge is the easiest to deal with. After all, what does it matter what other people are doing or how successful their ministries are? But as a pastor, it can be very discouraging to labor away faithfully with very little fruit when the church down the road thrives, and their pastor is being invited to speak at high-profile conferences, etc. Comparing ourselves to others and focusing on their successes and triumphs is a quick route to disappointment and discontentment. 

Stress

By stress, I mean a catch-all term for anything difficult or challenging that a pastor might face. I know a number of pastors who face various challenges, from difficult congregation members to chronic health struggles to family issues to prohibitively expensive property repairs. In a sense, every Christian—every human being—faces these sorts of struggles, but for pastors, they are amplified as they face them in the context of the need to care for churches. As Paul reminded the Corinthians of all the pressures he faced, he added: “apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches” (2 Corinthians 11:28). Studies consistently show that pastors are among the careers most likely to suffer burnout. 

Disappointment 

Related to stress is a particular challenge – disappointment. Disappointment with people you thought were reliable letting you down; when plans don’t come to fruition; when money doesn’t come in; when people seem to go backward in their Christian life; when people leave. 

All these factors and others can contribute to a sense of discontentment. What resources can a pastor draw on? 

Biblical resources for pastoral contentment 

God’s strengthening care

Fundamentally and most basically, God can strengthen the struggling pastor and turn their discontentment into contentment. When Paul reflects on being content in “whatever situation” (Philippians 4:11), he affirms that he can “do all things through him who strengthens me” (4:13). It is the Lord who strengthens us. He enables us to keep going, to keep serving, and to cultivate pastoral contentment. What does this look like in practice? It looks like the ordinary means of grace: prayer, Bible reading, meeting with God’s people. But there are two additional aspects I find particularly helpful. 

Example of Christ

It is important to remember that we follow a master who had “nowhere to lay his head” (Luke 9:58) and who became a slave and went to the cross for us (Philippians 2:5-7). Jesus’s life on earth was the opposite of a life of ease: it was a life of opposition, disappointment, and betrayal. And yet, he remained steadfastly joyful and faithful to his Father. However, it is not just the example of how Jesus lived that helps us, but also what happened to him. After a life of faithful suffering, God “highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name” (Philippians 2:9). Remembering that the things that tempt us to be discontent are only temporary and that “this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:17).

Thankfulness

Another important dimension is that of thankfulness. Scripture reminds us multiple times of the importance of thankfulness (e.g., being a Spirit-filled Christian means “giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father”; Ephesians 5:20). And studies have shown that being intentionally thankful (especially if we write down the things that we are thankful for) can have a massive impact on our mental health and particular our sense of contentment.²

The job of a pastor is a challenging one. As one pastor friend wrote, “There is not a day that goes by when I don’t think of leaving the ministry.” They are tempted to discouragement as we all are, but the particular pressures of that job make it especially challenging. However, God, in his grace, has provided wonderfully powerful resources to help cultivate pastoral contentment. We can help them do that as we prayerfully support them in their role. 

1. All Scripture citations from the ESV. ↩︎
2. Martin Seligman et al., “Positive psychology progress: empirical validation of interventions”, American Psychologist 60 (2005):410–421. ↩︎

©2023 Peter C. Orr. Used with permission.