One day in 1993, the Rev. Steve Hickle picked up his phone and received news of a death. Even for a minister who deals with funerals and burials at least once a month, this particular demise was especially troubling. The victim was just 48 years old, a father of five and, like Mr. Hickle, a Methodist pastor in the Piedmont foothills.
Until recently, Mr. Hickle had thought of his colleague’s death as an object lesson in the capricious impermanence of life. Several months ago, though, as he attended a discussion on the subject of health in the clergy convened by the Divinity School at Duke University here, he began to wonder if there was more involved in a middle-age man’s fatal heart attack than the mystery of the divine plan.
That discussion was one of the first stages of an ambitious effort by Duke to assess and improve the health of ministers, specifically the 1,800 United Methodist pastors in North Carolina because the Divinity School serves as a seminary for the denomination. What underlies the study ”” and what Mr. Hickle, among others, has experienced firsthand ”” is a concern that in serving the Lord, ministers neglect themselves.
“It’s a personality trait that accompanies the sense of divine calling,” said Mr. Hickle, 58, who has been the pastor at Fairmont United Methodist Church in Raleigh for 19 years. “You’re feeding your need to be liked, your need to be valued, your need to be needed.”
It is a good thing that experts give attention to this matter. Our priests do not have nine to five jobs and in my observation and personal experience I believe that many clergy overlook health preservation in their efforts to fulfill their multiple and time consuming duties.