Blue Monday
Most pastors know what you’re talking about when you say “Blue Monday.” They’ve had them—maybe often. Blue Monday is more than a Monday morning hangover. It’s closer to a feeling of failure—wanting to give up and walk away. Usually by the middle of the week the gloom lifts and you are back to your old self. But not always. The pastors I talk with can often name what triggered their Blue Monday. If these stories sound true it is because they are
- After several years of prayerful planning you bring to the church your relocation plan with unanimous support of the board. It does not pass.
- You persuaded your mentor to come as a guest speaker for a Saturday night marriage seminar. A few older ladies showed up, all widows. You discovered Sunday morning that your younger couples had gone as a group to a hockey game.
-You preached a powerful sermon yesterday on the Lord’s will and sensed God’s anointing. The biggest response you got was from the member correcting your pronouncing of Phrygia.
- Yesterday you had your farewell Sunday after pastoring the same church for 30 years leading it to more than 900 from zero. They gave you a clock.
- You become gradually convinced that what your people really want is general sermons that encourage and entertain, not specific sermons that convict and challenge. You are tempted to give them what they want.
- Your Treasurer tells you that they can no longer afford to pay your family’s insurance because they need to build up the church’s Rainy Day Fund.
- You preached your heart out yesterday after an almost sleepless night burdened with your congregation’s spiritual poverty. Your people sat like gravestones during the service, and those who needed the message most nodded off to sleep several times.
- After leading a dozen people over a month to put on yesterday’s big attendance drive, once the results were in you totaled an increase of exactly 5 from the Sunday before.
- After thinking over this week’s board meeting for several days, you have concluded that this church really wants a YMCA director to coordinate all the programs, and not a pastor-teacher like you’ve trained to be.
- You write a check to the plumber for five hours work. It is more than your whole week’s paycheck.
- You gave your fifteenth consecutive altar call yesterday to which nobody responded.
- Almost everybody responded to your invitation to seek racial reconciliation last month. It occurs to you today that nobody did anything more about it.
- The people clearly like your assistant pastor much more than you.
- Yesterday your senior pastor told you that you don’t work hard enough.
- You read your denominational paper this morning to discover the only pastors who get praise are those whose churches are fast-growing. Yours isn’t even growing slowly.
- The major employer in your town laid off 200-300 people last month. Every second week another couple tells you they’ll be moving out of town.
- The Treasurer tells you after the service that the giving has been slipping over the last few months because several key members seem to be withholding their tithes for some reason or another.
- As your people left the church yesterday they didn’t seem to notice that you had preached.
- You wonder if both you and the church are just going through the motions—that this isn’t the real thing.
So, have you ever had a Blue Monday triggered by something like this? Have you been tempted to just give up, toss in the towel and walk away? Most pastors have.
But the question isn’t why pastors feel this way on some Mondays. The question is: Why do they stick in there anyway? Even through a string of Blue Mondays, why would a pastor still keep on keeping on? Is it the money? Fame? Personal satisfaction? Just for the fun of it? I don’t think so.
I think it has something to do with The Call. The Call takes you through Blue Mondays…even Blue Februarys. Those who do ministry for fun or money or a nice career, or because their grandmother prayed them into it, don’t make it through Blue Mondays. They’d rather hang drywall or be a security guard. I think it’s The Call. What do you think?
© Keith Drury, 2005.
www.drurywriting.com/keith
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Keith Drury served The Wesleyan Church headquarters in Christian Education and Youth leadership for 24 years before becoming a professor of religion at Indiana Wesleyan University. He is the author of more than a dozen books of practical spirituality, including Holiness for Ordinary People, Common Ground and Ageless Faith. Keith Drury wrote the Tuesday Column for 17 years (1995-2012), and many articles can be found on his blog “Drury Writing.”
Keith Drury retired from full time teaching in 2012. Keith is married to Sharon and has two adult sons and several grandchildren. He is retired in Florida with Sharon and enjoys cycling.
