Help for Hurting Pastors

Recovery is God leading us down unfamiliar paths.

Shine

Isolation is Optional

Join us on the journey of recovery!

Churches

Recovery: Finding the Missing Piece

Recovery begins with the feeling that we've missed something important.

Civic Involvement

The Painful Clarity of the Truth

The truth requires a lot less energy than deceit.

Action

Spiritual Poverty Never Feels Good

We await the blessing promised to the poor in spirit.

Action

WELCOME!

The Clergy Recovery Network exists to support, encourage and provide resources to religious professionals in recovery. If you are a pastor, missionary, religious professional--or a spouse of one--and you need help . . .welcome home. We have been waiting for you.

Dale O. Wolery
Executive Director

Welcome

 We welcome you to our site and our hearts. Make yourself at home! Are you struggling with life, marriage or ministry and you are a ministry professional, spouse or someone who loves one? This site is for you. Real humans and real solutions await. Simple fixes and pat answers are scarce but you will find insight, grace and hope.  Read Disclaimer, go to Finding Help or click here to contact CRN.

  • Help us Help pastors and their families–We are not talking about money. At least share your thoughts here.
  • Need Information? Our SERVICES, if you are SEEKING HELP? or if you are STRUGGLING? are all on the right. Specific issue? Look under ARTICLES BY TOPIC.
  • Blogging: Blog with us! Blog regarding our regularly changing ”Featured Article” below. New to blogging? Click here to learn. Your voice matters!
  • Polling: Help! What is our shared reality? Tell us your truth as a Christian Leader or spouse. Our anonymous polls, bottom right, result in significant snapshots. Click on Poll Archives to see earlier polls. Christmas and New Year celebrations tend to be family times. As a Ministry Professional or spouse of one take the latest poll regarding family time. It will help orient you toward honest assessment as the new year begins.
  • Anonymous Recovery Groups: Join one of two private, password protected forums for pastors and spouses. Click here to learn and join.

Live Dangerously!! Join Dale W. at the last minute!

Aug 7-12 At Barnabas Family Ministries  40% OFF! Cruise Like Food. Childcare. Singles, Families, Couples. The Ultimate Vacation!

 

Featured Article: You Cannot Delegate This

Time. It flies. It waits for no man. It cannot be slowed, rushed, hurried or stopped. It silently, relentlessly ticks off its measured, irretrievable increments. Its perpetual motion cannot be stalled. Its pendulum just keeps swinging. There is seldom enough of it. It is indifferent too. It consumes life without feeling.  It cares not when we look wistfully back and see the relentless loss of life in time’s wake. We cannot stop it. So, please, don’t ask me to do one more time/life consuming thing.

As a busy ADD Minister of the Gospel I find the nature of time quite frustrating. It is finite. There is so much to do. No matter how hard I milk a day for more minutes I only get 1440. Don’t waste a minute calculating this number–I’ve already wasted too many minutes doing it three times. We only get 1440 minutes a day. But, life, like time is also finite. At my current life stage, I experience a fairly constant conscious mixing of aging with time’s finite nature. This leaves me feeling cramped, bound. I am ever more aware of my life, my time passing away. It is beginning to get personal. So, please, don’t ask me to do one more time/life consuming thing. 

The heart heavy pressure of fleeting, fleeing time/life is inescapably with me. I usually cringe when someone suggests there is one more thing I should do. I have learned to ignore most of these suggestions. I know I cannot do what everyone says I should do. So, even if you ask, I may not spend time doing what you think I should. 

But, recently, a general newsletter sent to thousands suggested there was an activity I should spend my life and time doing. The author of the newsletter even suggested I could not delegate this activity. I came face to face with some-one’s should I could not avoid or delegate. I did not even cringe. I adopted his suggestion as mine and share it with you. The newsletter came from the keyboard of Marshal Shelly, the Editor in Chief of Leadership. Want to know why I listened to Marshal without trying to avoid his time/life consuming suggestion? 

 Mr. Shelley and I were at a small gathering or Christian Leaders two or three years ago. The second morning of the meeting I wandered wearily into the motel coffee shop to sample the breakfast offerings. Having spoken the night before my soul was troubled with the familiar shame attack stuff. Inside I was telling myself what I should have said and what I should not have said. I felt pangs of shame because I was realizing I had spoken too plainly; been to self-revealing. I had not been professional enough. I should have been less forceful. These self-loathing thoughts swirled in my interior as I looked for a breakfast booth. Suddenly, Marshall, already seated, waved inviting me to join him for breakfast. I sat down. He thanked me for what I had said the night before, spoke of his own journey and told me of the Arizona adventure he anticipated at the end of the week with his teen age son. He talked, asked questions, listened. He just plain treated me like peer. 

Since then his newsletters regularly cross my desk. I always gladly use minutes of my finite time to read them. I find these newsletters a profitable use of my time and life. Because of my personal experience of Marshall the man and my regular interaction with his pen I have come to trust Marshall Shelly. Because I trust him I believe his suggestion is so completely worthy of my time and yours I pass it on to you.  Here is part of his email newsletter. 

Hello Friends,

There’s one task no leader can delegate. And that’s to make sure you continue (click to continue reading)