I’m working on some topics that ought to be covered here in the next 2-3 months. Here’s what I have so far:
So those are some of my ideas. What would YOU like to see covered?
I’m working on some topics that ought to be covered here in the next 2-3 months. Here’s what I have so far:
So those are some of my ideas. What would YOU like to see covered?
I am a Lutheran pastor who has a son with OCD. One of the difficulties of dealing with a person who suffers from OCD is trying to distinguish when the person needs to hear the Gospel as an answer to his anxiety and when the anxiety is simply OCD talking and the person must then be referred to the various “coping” tools he has been trained to use. It would be interesting and helpful to me to explore this issue further with another person who holds the same faith as I. I would be glad to clarify the issue stated above if need be.
I originally logged on simply to thank you for offering such a blog as this. Then I forgot about thanking you as I left my previous comment. This blog is a wonderful idea and I am very thankful you have started it. I look forward to the ongoing conversation.
These topics will need to be explored all the more so as at least in the case of CTS in Fort Wayne, the new curiculum features only a minimal crash course called “Pastoral Counseling.” I look forward to your discussion and hope it will provide insightsw for my future ministry.
Thanks for giving me this opportunity to talk about matters that pastors usually try to work through by themselves. I’m a pastor who has occasional bouts of depression which I try to work through by simply clinging to routine—playing the part of pastor. I’d say that about half the adult women in my congregation, half of the teens of both sexes, and a good number of the adult men are being treated pharmacologically for anxiety disorders and/or depression. Every time I see my doctor, she asks me if I “need anything” to help me cope with the stress of my work. I decline. Perhaps drugs help—but I see too many minds dulled by drugs to favor this approach. Maybe I’m just pig-headed, but I see a pastor’s struggle with these problems as part of carrying one’s cross—not that it saves us, but that it enables us to better understand sin and grace. Again, thanks for this blog.
Thank you for this. It comes at a most opportune time for me.
You should address pornography – one of the fastest growing struggles among clergy – yes, even LCMS clergy.
Thanks for creating this needed blog.
I hope this time my post works. I saw this blog and I identified immediately.
I’m hardly anonymous anymore about this, but I had clinical depression since childhood, anxiety disorder since childhood, and am a survivor of post traumatic stress disorder, incurred mostly at prep (synodical high school/jr college) school.
I was a workaholic and perfectionist and determined which is how I made it through the systme, ministry and family, thought there were many problems along the way.
Without going through the whole story I receieved treatment 18 + years ago with good therapy, psychotropic medications which had no side effects and which I am still on, and a spiritual based program and way of life. I lay it all to the grace of God, who also took away many phobias and my paranoia.
My connection today is with daily prayer and meditation with God, a support group of like minded Christian and spiritual oriented people, and a pastoral care oriented ministry.
I no longer get invovled in other people’s ego and political competition. I do still have challenges today, but, eventually, I turn them over to the care of God and continue with what He has planned for me.
I know many Lutheran pastors who have been down the same road. I can flesh out more of my story and am willing to share more support and conversation if anybody else cares to listen. I also appreciate others’ comments
As a Lutheran Pastor who has also struggled with depression I just wante to encouage the broter who has denied himself the help of appropriate medications because of “dulled minds”. While that is possible, there are actually quite a few different medications available. Work with a good Dr. who will help you find one that is right for you. Finding the right medication can make the difference between feeling dulled, and feeling energized and enabled. Trial and error is, as far as I know, the only way to work through this process to see what works for you.
I think Americans need to wake up as to why so many good people are being put onto ssri and other mood stabilizing pharmacological drugs. Yes some disorders exist. But the phrase: people are sicker nowadays gets thrown around. Btw HOW AND WHY are people sicker? We have drugs to prevent things like tb, polio, tetanus and smallpox. We don’t deal with those outbreaks anymore. Thank you for noticing sir that there are so many dulled minds on these drugs. Frankly I would start researching other possibilities as to why people are being put on these meds that can cause people to zone out and commit suicide. Why do people trust these psychiatric doctors?
Also please check out psychiatrist Dr. Colin Ross of Texas. He originally was from Canada and went to medical school there. Please research his writings.
Though they are not “distinctly” Lutheran in origin, there are two resources that I lean on in the “dark times”
They are both by the same author/artist.
The first deals with true depression, and sorrow, and is a book called “The Sacred Sorrow” by Michael Card. It looks at the depression/sorrow of Job, Jeremiah, David, and the sorrow of Jesus.
And they show how they dealt with it. (it has a pretty intersting understanding of the Theology of the Cross involved)
Too many I work with today, have the ability to discern between appropriate and inappropriate depression. Never mind their doctors.
The other, is a CD, also by Michael Card, called “The Hidden Face of God”. I think the author has been where many of us are, and those questions arise. It doesn’t gloss over them, but instead recognizes the reality of dealing with those times.
It helps putting scripture to music, the words assure and reassure us of God’s presence, in the midst of those dark places. And the music is carthartic as well.
Godspeed!
I am a Lutheran pastor who has a son with OCD. One of the difficulties of dealing with a person who suffers from OCD is trying to distinguish when the person needs to hear the Gospel as an answer to his anxiety and when the anxiety is simply OCD talking and the person must then be referred to the various “coping” tools he has been trained to use. It would be interesting and helpful to me to explore this issue further with another person who holds the same faith as I. I would be glad to clarify the issue stated above if need be.
I originally logged on simply to thank you for offering such a blog as this. Then I forgot about thanking you as I left my previous comment. This blog is a wonderful idea and I am very thankful you have started it. I look forward to the ongoing conversation.
These topics will need to be explored all the more so as at least in the case of CTS in Fort Wayne, the new curiculum features only a minimal crash course called “Pastoral Counseling.” I look forward to your discussion and hope it will provide insightsw for my future ministry.
Thanks for giving me this opportunity to talk about matters that pastors usually try to work through by themselves. I’m a pastor who has occasional bouts of depression which I try to work through by simply clinging to routine—playing the part of pastor. I’d say that about half the adult women in my congregation, half of the teens of both sexes, and a good number of the adult men are being treated pharmacologically for anxiety disorders and/or depression. Every time I see my doctor, she asks me if I “need anything” to help me cope with the stress of my work. I decline. Perhaps drugs help—but I see too many minds dulled by drugs to favor this approach. Maybe I’m just pig-headed, but I see a pastor’s struggle with these problems as part of carrying one’s cross—not that it saves us, but that it enables us to better understand sin and grace. Again, thanks for this blog.
Thank you for this. It comes at a most opportune time for me.
You should address pornography – one of the fastest growing struggles among clergy – yes, even LCMS clergy.
Thanks for creating this needed blog.
I hope this time my post works. I saw this blog and I identified immediately.
I’m hardly anonymous anymore about this, but I had clinical depression since childhood, anxiety disorder since childhood, and am a survivor of post traumatic stress disorder, incurred mostly at prep (synodical high school/jr college) school.
I was a workaholic and perfectionist and determined which is how I made it through the systme, ministry and family, thought there were many problems along the way.
Without going through the whole story I receieved treatment 18 + years ago with good therapy, psychotropic medications which had no side effects and which I am still on, and a spiritual based program and way of life. I lay it all to the grace of God, who also took away many phobias and my paranoia.
My connection today is with daily prayer and meditation with God, a support group of like minded Christian and spiritual oriented people, and a pastoral care oriented ministry.
I no longer get invovled in other people’s ego and political competition. I do still have challenges today, but, eventually, I turn them over to the care of God and continue with what He has planned for me.
I know many Lutheran pastors who have been down the same road. I can flesh out more of my story and am willing to share more support and conversation if anybody else cares to listen. I also appreciate others’ comments
As a Lutheran Pastor who has also struggled with depression I just wante to encouage the broter who has denied himself the help of appropriate medications because of “dulled minds”. While that is possible, there are actually quite a few different medications available. Work with a good Dr. who will help you find one that is right for you. Finding the right medication can make the difference between feeling dulled, and feeling energized and enabled. Trial and error is, as far as I know, the only way to work through this process to see what works for you.
Though they are not “distinctly” Lutheran in origin, there are two resources that I lean on in the “dark times”
They are both by the same author/artist.
The first deals with true depression, and sorrow, and is a book called “The Sacred Sorrow” by Michael Card. It looks at the depression/sorrow of Job, Jeremiah, David, and the sorrow of Jesus.
And they show how they dealt with it. (it has a pretty intersting understanding of the Theology of the Cross involved)
Too many I work with today, have the ability to discern between appropriate and inappropriate depression. Never mind their doctors.
The other, is a CD, also by Michael Card, called “The Hidden Face of God”. I think the author has been where many of us are, and those questions arise. It doesn’t gloss over them, but instead recognizes the reality of dealing with those times.
It helps putting scripture to music, the words assure and reassure us of God’s presence, in the midst of those dark places. And the music is carthartic as well.
Godspeed!