Dealing With Depression in Ministry

How do you deal with anxiety and depression in ministry?

Too many youth pastors, pastors, and church leaders are being overwhelmed by depression every day—and losing their effectiveness (and joy) in ministry. What are some practical ways to combat these struggles?

Let’s dig in.

Also, if you prefer, here is a full audio recording of this conversation with Rob Conti from a panel discussion at our youth pastor conference:

Call it What it is

First I’d say to whoever wrote that in, I think it’s encouraging that you’ve identified it.

The first point I’d want to say to anyone is to be honest with yourself, because I think a lot of folks struggle with it and battle it, but they are in denial about calling it what it is, especially men. I think men have a hard time admitting weakness, it’s easier to say, “I’m just stressed out,” in that, you are indicating “I’m just carrying such a heavy burden that it’s wearing on me”, rather than saying that you’re depressed or you’re anxious.

Being honest and recognizing it is a really good step, and knowing that we are not alone in this struggle.

Examples of Depression in the Bible

You are not alone. Scripture is not silent about this.

Church history is full of people that we would call heroes in the faith who have dealt with depression and anxiety and talked about it, and they called it different things at different times. My favorite is when they called it melancholy because that just sounds funny rather than calling it depression.

A lot of the Psalms were written from the perspective of someone who is spiritually depressed. They use language to articulate how they feel, but they’re super real and raw with God about it. What you see from their place of spiritual depression is that they cry out to God, even when it doesn’t feel like God is close, even when their senses and their emotions make them feel that God doesn’t love them.

In Psalms 88, the Psalm writer says, “I’m cut off from You. Do you work wonders for those who are in the grave?” You may say, “Man, I feel spiritually dead,” He says the same, saying he feels like he’s in a pit. So be honest with yourself and with God and be raw and real with those feelings and thoughts. And then recognizing potential causes is helpful too.

When you evaluate your situation and realize this isn’t just normal sadness, that it has been prolonged depression in ministry (and life), then it’s helpful to recognize what started it. It’s not necessarily helpful to stay there and soak in what caused it, but it can be helpful to know.

Find and Address the Root

Realizing okay, this is probably where it is coming from, and maybe it’s something that has been left unresolved, that you can deal with even just over a conversation.

When you’re honest with yourself about having these issues, then you can begin to examine your life by asking the questions, “What brings this on, what causes this?” And if it’s something that is not essential to life, then men, cut it out. Hebrews talks with weight about things that would entangle us, maybe that aren’t necessarily evil in and of themselves, but if you can remove them, do that. I recognize silly things for me. There are types of music I don’t listen to and movies I don’t watch because they feed depression in my mind.

When I recognize those triggers, I avoid them if possible and I just don’t go there.

Remember Your Identity in Christ

Ultimately, I’ll say this, having your identity in Christ versus having your identity as a pastor, as a husband, a father, wife, mother, anything, is easier said than done.

I think if I asked, “Where should we have our identity?” Most people reading this would say in Jesus- but that takes work. It takes work because our flesh doesn’t naturally go there, and it’s easier to find superficial joy, peace, security and hope in things that are more tangible at times. It’s hard to do the work of surrendering myself and bringing my thoughts into submission to Scripture where I’m truly believing what the Bible says is true about me.

Remembering that truth is so hard when the thoughts that I wake up with attack me, and the thoughts speak to me non-stop throughout the day about my failures or my shortcomings.

Don’t listen, Talk

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, in his book, Spiritual Depression, said, “You gotta quit listening to yourself and start talking to yourself.” You know, like a crazy person.

But we all do it. Just the crazy ones do it out loud. So quit listening to yourself! To be honest, I struggle with this, I wake up with accusing thoughts, and it’s me talking to me, saying things like-

• I hate you, and
• You’re failing
• You’re a bad father
• You’re a bad husband
• You’re a bad preacher

Those types of thoughts assault me, and I can lay there and passively take it, or I can stand up metaphorically in my mind, and say, “No, this is true.” The primary weapon that I draw in that fight is Ephesians Chapter 1, I preach to myself the truth about what God says about me. I confront the lies with the truth of the gospel, and it takes work. It takes saturating your mind with Scripture, truly seeking to find your identity in Christ.

You have to deal with your whole person, there’s more to you than just mind, more than just emotion, soul, body, or spirit. No expert in any one of those areas or disciplines understands the complexity that is you.

Take care of yourself: Depression in MInistry is Common

Only God understands the way that you are woven together as a human being.

Sometimes we’re too simplistic, people in their field of expertise are a little arrogant in that they only identify one area and only deal with that area. I think sometimes it’s really arrogant of a doctor who hears what is going on and says, “Well, then you just need this pill,” and that pill can easily become a functional savior and have its own whole world of repercussions.

It’s equally dangerous and potentially very arrogant for a pastor to say, “Well, you just need to pray more, read the Bible more, you don’t need that medication,” and that’s equally dangerous because that medication very well might help. It could help you get your head out of the cloud long enough to be able to understand what Scripture is even saying. It’s important to get help from people in these different areas to help understand and deal with the whole person, and a lot of times we can do a lot for ourselves by taking care of our whole person.

It matters how you treat yourself physically, what you eat, how you rest, how you exercise, all that ties- we can’t just focus on the spiritual and let everything else go and think, that we’re going to have a right mindset. If I’m going to feel right, I’m going to act right, and I’m going to live right. There is value in recognizing that you need to take care of the life that the Lord has given you.

And talk to somebody! If you’re a youth pastor and there’s no one in your church that you would trust with that personal information. First, I’m sorry you’re in that situation. Come talk to us, we’d love to build that friendship with you.

Find somebody that you trust, that you don’t have to have say, “I’m depressed again. Will you listen to me talk about how sad I am?”

That’s not always helpful, but if you can say, “Hey man, I’m struggling right now,” and you have somebody that you trust and love who can just speak truth to you and know what you’re going through, that goes a long way.

3 Helpful resources on Depression

• Edward Welch wrote a book – Depression: Looking Up from the Stubborn Darkness
• John Piper has a sermon – Spiritual Depression and the Psalms
• We did a breakout on this subject, I encourage you to go listen to it – Dealing With Depression | Breakout

This panel discussion question was discussed during a previous youth ministry conference. Click here to listen to the entire panel discussion (of 6+ questions).