Coping with Pastoral Burnout Using Christian Contemplative Practices

Autor: Thomas V. Frederick, Yvonne Thai, Scott Dunbar
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2021
Předmět:
Zdroj: Religions, Vol 12, Iss 6, p 378 (2021)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2077-1444
DOI: 10.3390/rel12060378
Popis: Three Christian Devotion Meditation (CDM) practices—lectio divina, centering prayer, and the examen—will be offered to aid in coping with ministerial stress and to prevent burnout. CDM or Christian contemplative practices are uniquely suited to develop the emotional resources pastors need for coping with burnout. The office of the pastor faces pressures which can cause burnout and threaten their ministries and personal relationships. The experience of pastoral burnout consists of acedia. Pastors experience spiritual emptiness due to two unique aspects of pastoral life. First, because pastors often work alongside with their families in the church while simultaneously serving their congregants, they experience inter-role conflict due to the high level of boundary ambiguity between their vocational and family lives. Second, pastors need to rely on their psychological resources to provide for their church members due to the emotional labor required of their positions. Consequently, pastors must rely on emotional labor strategies to respond positively to their congregations, which in turn can lead to emotional exhaustion.
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