In the news|May 06, 2014 04:41 EDT
Is Being a Pastor One of America's Toughest Jobs? Many of God's Called Have Succumbed to Infidelity, Scandal, and Even Suicide
There are about 300,000 congregations in the United States and the job of a Pastor is showing to be one of the hardest to attain, keep, and survive lately. In 2014 reports show that Pastors in America are stepping down, committing suicide, or not being hired.
Religion & Ethics said the job of a protestant pastor "is a diminishing job," claiming that not as many people are attending mainline churches so there is not enough money to afford a pastor.
According to the Des Moines Register on Monday, another pastor has committed suicide. This time it was a family pastor, George DB Antrim III, of the Westwind Church in Iowa. He leaves to mourn, his wife of 17 years and his sons.
Teddy Parker, Ed Montgomery, and Isaac Hunter, were all Pastors who committed suicide within the past year.
Although suicide is an overall rare occurrence, The Schaeffer Institute reported that there is another way Pastors are leaving the ministry. The report states 80 percent of seminary and Bible school graduates will leave the ministry within five years.
Senior pastor Mike Wilkerson of The Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington, has reportedly announced that he is suddenly leaving the church and immediately moving out of state. It is unclear why Wilkerson is leaving, though some outlets suspect that it has something to do with controversy that has been storming at Mars Hill.
In another instance according to executive Pastor Dale Swanson, Rev. Mark Crow, founder of the multisite Victory Church in Oklahoma, resigned Tuesday "after confessing infidelity."
"Mark will be focusing his full attention on his personal relationship with God, and beginning the process of bringing healing to the fractured relationships in his life and family. Victory Church is fully committed to providing the counselors and ministers who will guide him through the process of reconciliation with God, and ensuring the best possible outcome for this next season in his life," Swanson said in a statement.
The Bible speaks of the office of the Pastors calling the desire to be a pastor a noble task, it also says those in authority should be lifted up in prayer. Let us remember the Antrim family in our prayers and continue to lift up all of God's laborers.
"Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood,"Acts 20:28
