Introducing Voyage Pastoral Counseling

Welcome to the first blog post from a new initiative to support pastors and leaders. 

Whether you serve in ordained ministry, corporate leadership or in a lay position, its hoped that this will be an encouragement for you to be the person you are created to be, in all of that fullness.  There’s plenty working against that these days.

The pandemic was a destructive time for so many, and pastors not the least.  This was reported and widely shared through the work of the Barna Group, that offered the surprising and shocking stats marking that time.  You’ve probably seen them. 

While there has been some improvement in the picture since the pandemic, it’s still apparent that over one third of pastors are looking for a way out.  In any other occupation that would be considered disastrous, and yet there are not nearly enough resources to support pastors toward flourishing, especially in times of crisis.  I found this to be true during my own season of crisis, along with a pervasive attitude to assume the worst of leaders.  Certainly there are abusive leaders and pastors, and they should be appropriately dealt with.  But there are far more abusive churches or systems that abuse pastors, unwilling to hear all of the stories, including the leaders’ and offer restorative solutions (more about that in the next post).

One episode stands out as a tragic example—Pastor ‘Bubba’ Copeland in Alabama.  By all reports he was a caring, merciful and compassionate shepherd of his flock.  He welcomed all to his Baptist church and sought to help people know Jesus where they were. After a website revealed some questionable behavior of his online, he resigned in shame and ultimately took his own life.  Detractors pointed to this as evidence of his deep moral failings.  His supporters (and there were many, including his church board) saw it for what it was—a campaign to publicly humiliate and shame him, politically motivated in the name of ‘purity’.  Some discipline would have been appropriate (up to the church board) but the ocean of shame into which he was driven meant not only the end of his ministry, but his life.  And his story is not alone.  Tragically there have been plenty of others, along with those driven into dark and lonely places, without support and provision.

Such support is the work of Voyage Pastoral Counseling, to come alongside pastors and leaders, in times that are good and also those that seem tragic.  Our shepherds are tired, misunderstood and suffering, often at the hands of their own sheep.  Sadly there aren’t enough places of refuge and understanding, yet there is now one more. If this resonates with you, please know that it doesn’t need to be your last chapter, and with compassionate care and understanding it won’t be.