Pastors and Monday Morning

Monday mornings can be bad for pastors. Most pastors seem to take Monday off (if they take a day off at all). Here are some feelings that pastors typically have on Monday:

Loneliness-If the pastor's wife works (more common in the U.S. than in the Developing world) and the kids are in school, the pastor is alone to think about what happened at church on Sunday. If things did not go as planned (which is usually the case) the pastor's thoughts can quickly turn negative.

Exhausted-Everything the week before has lead up to the Sunday service. The pastor usually shoulders the burden of getting everything together and combined with his other responsibilities during the week, many pastors wake up Monday morning exhausted. Not a good way to start the week.

Depressed-Here are some reasons many pastors wake up Monday morning not only depressed but ready to quit:

The service did not go exactly as planned (think technical foul ups like the music was too loud, the person running the projector wasn't competent, the lightning left the pastor in shadow, the ushers were late taking the offering, you forgot to give an important announcement.

The attendance was down.

The offering was down.

Someone said something critical about your message.

No one commented on your message at all, whether good or bad.

Someone said something critical to your wife, again.

Your kids ran in the hallways and were admonished by an older person that it's not appropriate to run in church.

Finally, Tuesday is right around the corner and you realize you have to gear up mentally and emotionally for another week of trying to meet the expectations of people who have no idea what you go through each week.