2023 Evangel Gathering - Friendship and Flourishing for Missions

48 • 2023 E vangel G athering • S acred R oots T hriving in M inistry : F riendship and F lourishing for M issions

C. Contemporary reasons to engage the spiritual classics:

1. Pastors in this generation are tired, having faced a plague unlike any other in the last one hundred years.

a. Results from the 2022 Evangel Conference Delegate Survey.

b. Sacred Roots Leaders: Pastor Cuco Moya, Pastor Robert Vasquez

2. “The Great Resignation” and pastoral burnout

a. According to surveys conducted last summer by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research at Hartford International University, 37 percent of clergy had “seriously considered leaving pastoral ministry” at least once during the preceding year, and 67 percent had thought at least once during that time that it was the hardest year of their ministry experience. 28 b. Likewise, Barna Group, a research firm that focuses on religion, found in fall 2021 that 38 percent of pastors had considered quitting full-time ministry within the past year, up nine percentage points from January 2021. 29 3. Leaders of movements today need to find ways to help congregational leaders nurture their souls so they can finish running their race with excellence.

IV. How SRSC Help Leaders Flourish as Apprentices to Wise Historical Mentors

A. Defining “Flourish” and “Apprenticeship”

1. What does it mean for leaders to “flourish” or “thrive” in ministry?

https://doi.org/10.1353/scs.2020.0017. 28 Edie Gross, “The Great Resignation: Are Pastors Resigning, Redefining or Reevaluating?,” Faith and Leadership, July 26, 2022, https://faithandleadership.com/the-great resignation-are-pastors-resigning-redefining-or-reevaluating. 29 Gross.