Frustrations

I find it fascinating—and a little troubling—that when you look at seminary degree plans, there’s barely any focus on social sciences. Think about it: if your job is to oversee large groups of people and communities, how can you do that effectively without understanding how humans are wired? How belief is formed? How our interactions shape identity and self-perception? If you don’t grasp concepts like human development, grief, burnout, or cognitive dissonance, how can you truly lead and care for people well?

Every other helping professional—for example, therapists, doctors, and social workers—get specific training on compassion fatigue, secondary trauma, and signs of burnout. But those topics are missing from most Bible college and seminary degree plans. Why? We take men and women who are passionate about ministry and called to do meaningful work, teach them how to preach sermons, grow church attendance, and maybe give them some business and organizational training, but we skip over the most critical part of their job: understanding, loving, and caring for humans.

 Not only are ministry leaders unprepared for what they’re being asked to do, but we also throw them into the deep end without proper training. And when they inevitably struggle or fail, we criticize them, cast them aside, and move on to someone new. That cycle needs to change.