Playing Hurt
Pastoral Ministry After the Pandemic
*I wrote this article nearly 10 years ago and as the pandemic is waining just a bit, I found it apropos that these words ring even more true now than they did a decade ago. I updated the language a bit to reflect the current date.
I love sports. I grew up playing them. More particularly I love football. I grew up watching and playing the game, and I even had the privilege of playing at a small D3 college in Wisconsin. I love football.
Most people who know me well know I am a HUGE Atlanta Falcons fan. I know they don't look too good right now, but I'm still a fan, why because I love football.
Football taught me a lot of great lessons. Lessons on teamwork, toughness, and training to be the best. Some of my greatest life lessons came not from pastors and teachers, or even my parents. Some of the greatest lessons I learned about life came from coaches teaching me the game of football.
I love football, but over the course of the last few years I have noticed a trend that has opened my eyes to my life, and once again football has taught me a lesson.
Recently yet another player for the ATL Falcons injured himself during the game. Julio Jones, following a foot injury, was declared unable to perform for the remainder of the season. I was disappointed, and yet it raised an issue that I believe most pastors and ministry leaders have been struggling with for some time.
It's an old adage that the NFL stands for NOT FOR LONG. This is just a clever way of pointing to the idea that in a game so violent and riddled with injury after injury, careers are extremely short.
Football is a violent contact sport, and while the players accept that, the league has tried for years to reduce the causes of serious injury. The problem is that as a former player, I know that there is a tough lesson that football has taught players throughout the course of their careers, that is extremely difficult to unlearn. Among the many great lessons the game has taught, one lesson that can be a detriment to players' health and lives is the lesson of playing through the pain.
When I played the game, we learned that lesson very early. In fact, I remember several seasons of playing through injuries that became more serious as time went on. In all reality, most players won't report their pain, simply because the culture of contact sports does not allow space for the admission of injury and pain unless it becomes glaringly obvious that the player is hurting.
From my perspective, there were 5 critical reasons I felt the need to play through my pain no matter what type of pain it was. From head injuries to back, knee, and shoulder ailments, I found myself willing to play hurt and injured for the following reasons.
1. My team needed me. I'd play at 80% rather than sit it out.
2. I didn't want to lose my spot in the starting lineup.
3. I really believed in my head that I was not too hurt to play.
4. I had something to prove, how tough I was, how hard I worked, how quickly I could recover, etc.
5. Coaches and teammates pressured me into performing even at great risk to my own health.
There are many other reasons that players are playing hurt weekly, and I'm actually thankful on some level that the NFL is a least attempting to change the culture and teach a new generation of players new life lessons about guarding their physical and mental health, but I really don't want to talk about the NFL.
Here's the point to all that I've shared, over the last several year I've come to discover that ministry is also a contact sport. Every day pastors and church leaders "play hurt" because the lessons we learned early in the "game" taught us to embrace the culture of playing through the pain. What's interesting is the same list of reasons we play through injury in church, is strikingly similar to the aforementioned list that shaped my decision to play through pain on the football field. I have many many colleagues in ministry who may never admit this, but their list is the same. Take a look at it again.
1. My congregation needed me. I'd pastor at 80% rather than sit it out.
2. I didn't want to lose my job.
3. I really believed in my head that I was not too hurt to pastor.
4. I had something to prove, how tough/spiritual I was, how hard I worked, how quickly I could recover, etc.
5. Membership/deacons/elders etc pressured me into performing even at great risk to my own spiritual and mental health.
Church and ministry can be a contact sport. Pastors and ministry leaders get hurt every day, yet they keep playing/pastoring through the pain because that's the lesson we've been taught and the culture of the "league" we play in. Sadly the NFL adage of NOT FOR LONG is equally applicable to pastors and ministry leaders. Statistics show that the average tenure of a local church pastor is around 3-4 years. I believe most pastors can't stay put for too long because every person who has played a contact sport knows that there are some injuries you sustain that simply won't heal until the season is over. So we move on from the places that cause us pain because eventually, we become unable to perform the way we did when we initially joined the local church we call our "team."
Now I don't have all the answers, but perhaps we can take some lessons on changing the "game" and challenging the culture from the NOT FOR LONG league. If pastors are going to be healthy, then the church must be involved in changing the way they see pastoral leadership as pawns and players used only to help their team get some wins.
Here are a few thoughts:
1. Develop a way of providing pastors and ministry leaders with experts who can monitor their mental health from an objective perspective. Churches need spiritual leaders, elders, deacons, etc. But just like the NFL discovered, the "team doctor" approach doesn't always suit the player’s best interest. After all, if you work for the team, your job is influenced by the team's success and not necessarily the player's best interest. This makes it hard to be totally objective. Pastors, like players, need someone who isn't a member of the church or the board to assess how healthy they are.
2. There should be an increase in "penalties" for persons who intentionally attempt to do damage to pastors mentally, emotionally, and even spiritually. The NFL calls it unnecessary roughness. Some shots that members, boards, elders, deacons, etc take at pastors are really unnecessary. If churches want to change the culture that leads to unhealthy leadership, find ways to protect your pastors better and to have meaningful consequences for persons who play outside the rules. Often times pastors are disciplined for out-of-bounds behavior, but seldom do we see them protected from having to take horrific blows to their spiritual and mental health by deacons, elders, and membership. Many pastors are spiritually concussed, from taking too many shots to the head, and no flags are thrown and no fines are handed out, instead, pastors are encouraged to keep playing hard in hopes their head and heart injuries won't get in the way of the team winning.
3. Disconnect performance from the paycheck. Most people don't realize that in the NFL, there is very little guaranteed money. Most players get paid by how they perform, and you can't perform if you don't play. Unfortunately, many guys will play through the pain because they need to provide for their families. In many ways, the church has adopted the same model. Many pastors can't admit that they are playing hurt because they need to survive. They can't afford to take a few games off. They can't afford to rest for a season because they will lose their job. Here's the reality, the NFL has very few superstars who are signing multi-million dollar deals. The average guy is making the league minimum. Now, I understand that many players are still making a very nice living, however, I use that to make a point. The superstar mega church pastor is the exception, not the norm. The average church has approximately 70 members. Most pastors are bi-vocational, and far too many people believe that pastors make tons of money because they are measuring us all based on an exception, and not the norm. For most pastors every paycheck counts, and resting for a season to recover from injury is simply not an option.
In 2012 I tore my right Achilles' tendon. It's an awful injury, and the realistic recovery time is more than a year. Was I able to function? Sure. Was I able to return to exercise? Yes. But the God's honest truth is, no matter how much rehab and training I did over the year following my surgery, the injury is still a slight limitation for me, even 10 years later.
So I realize that I'm still trying to unlearn both what the football field and the church have unconsciously taught me. Both as a player and now as a pastor, I've been taught to play through the pain, but my prayer is that pastors and churches everywhere will learn to unlearn the culture that creates unhealthy pastors and unhealthy churches.