Podcast

041 – Where Does a Pastor Go for Personal Help

Personal Growth

Posted on August 14, 2020December 4, 2023 by Ryan Sparks

What’s in this Episode?

I’m in ministry and where in the world do I turn to for help? I mean, the risk of talking to someone about something deeply personal to me, and maybe even a failing of mine, is too risky. So maybe I’ll just wing this on my own. Let me tell you, friend, I wouldn’t do that. In fact, in this episode, we’re going to talk to you exactly about how a pastor gets help and where they can turn for help.

Show Notes:

1. The Hideaway Experience
https://intensives.com/
806-290-0055
Texas, Georgia, California
2. Emerge Ministries
https://emerge.org/
800-621-5207
Ohio, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan
3. Family Legacy
https://www.familylegacycounseling.com/
515-727-1338
Iowa and Midwest
4. Hope Restored from Focus on the Family
https://hoperestored.focusonthefamily.com/
866-875-2915
Michigan, Georgia, Missouri

Read the Transcript

Dick Hardy 0:29
I remember the place I was standing when I talked to our senior pastor, about a fellow pastor on staff who was in crisis. And I said to our lead, Pastor, man, what are we doing? And he explained to me how he had met with the pastor, the staff pastor and their spouse, and infidelity was involved. And this family was a major leader in our church, and yet they were in crisis. And so the church took the initiative, of course they had to have the cooperation of the pastor and spouse, and sent them to a place where they could get help. And the reality is, when we’re in ministry, we’re not superhuman. And we want to talk today about the kinds of things that pastors can do to get help. You may not be in this position, and we pray, you’re never in this kind of position. But pastors face personal issues all the time.

Jonathan Hardy 1:30
Yeah, this is a reality and whether it’s marriage related things, whether it’s personal, you know, just emotional. Your emotional well being.

Dick Hardy 1:40
Substance abuse.

Jonathan Hardy 1:41
Sure. All these things, they play a part.

Dick Hardy 1:45
I mean, the suicide issue is very, very real. Even particularly now with the COVID issue is really accentuated things. The whole point is, you’re a pastor, you’re a leader and there are times that you need help. Now, nothing that we’re talking about today is designed to substitute for what God can do in your life. What we’re going to talk to you about today is designed to help augment the things that you can do humanly to help you do what the Bible says for you to do in your own personal life.

Jonathan Hardy 2:25
Yeah, I think that’s a really important point. Because I mean, certainly the spiritual component is massive. I mean, we have to, you know, if you’re struggling with your time with the Lord, if you’re not connecting with God on a regular basis, like you should in spending time in the word, well, then that’s a great place to start. But we also honor God not just from that spiritual, those spiritual disciplines, but there’s, you know, honoring God with our mind, and our emotions in our, you know, our heart.

Dick Hardy 2:56
Our marriage, everything.

Jonathan Hardy 2:57
All those components. They’re the physical Human components that are also aspects that we have to make sure that we are staying healthy. And hey, we get it sometimes it you know…

Dick Hardy 3:09
Sometimes you need help.

Jonathan Hardy 3:10
Yes.

Dick Hardy 3:11
You need help.

Jonathan Hardy 3:11
Yeah, in fact, we talked about how to stay mentally fresh in Episode Three, and that’d be a good episode to check out if that’s pertinent to you on seven ways for pastor to stay mentally fresh. And so that’s just one component and so there’s there’s all kinds of areas of life. I think bottom line is we’re saying there’s all kinds of areas of life where we recognize pastors may at times need some help. And and so we want to be able to give you some suggestions today of what to do if you find yourself in a spot where you need some help. Personal help could be all these different examples we’ve mentioned: marriage, personal, emotional…

Dick Hardy 3:51
And we didn’t mention pornography is battering pastors. If that’s you and it’s private, it’s personal, it’s deep, you need help. You need help. Now what we’re going to do here in this episode is we’re going to give you four places that you can go for help. This is not leaders.church endorsing them, this is not an affiliate relationship where if you go there, we get some sort of a kickback. We have just done some research around the country. So this is for pretty much in the United States. But certainly, your country would have places where you could seek help, although even if you’re another country, I would feel free if I were you to check with these to see what’s available online, even if you’re not able to take advantage of them in certain locations.

Jonathan Hardy 4:41
Yeah, and there might be other ones out there too that we aren’t aware of, you know, but these are some that you know, you know of.

Dick Hardy 4:48
That’s right, and what we’ve got in the show notes for each of these, we’ve got the website, the phone number and contact. So Jonathan, what’s the first one.

1: Hideaway Experience

Jonathan Hardy 4:57
First place is called the Hideaway Experience and their website is intensives.com. And this particular place has three locations that we’re aware of at least that are options for you, in Texas, Georgia and California. So that’s kind of nice if you live in different parts of the United States, you might be able to tap into those.

Dick Hardy 5:16
And we want to mention when we mentioned these states, obviously, nobody’s going to sit there and say, well, you’re from Iowa, you can’t come.

Jonathan Hardy 5:23
Yeah, we’re just saying that’s the location. So kind of gives you context for what might be an option.

2: Emerge Ministries

Dick Hardy 5:27
The other one that I’ve been very familiar with, we both been very familiar with for a number of years is Emerge Ministries. It’s located in Akron, Ohio. It’s an outstanding ministry service for pastors, and they tend to serve pastors in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Kentucky, Michigan, those states that would surround Ohio again, although they’ve had people from all over the country. So a very good ministry and all these have very professional certified clinicians at them.

3: Family Legacy

Jonathan Hardy 6:03
Yeah, very good. Third one is called Family Legacy and that’s familylegacycounseling.com and they are located in Des Moines, Iowa and so it’s a great place if you live anywhere in the Midwest maybe to check them out. And then Dick, number four?

4: Hope Restored

Dick Hardy 6:18
Yeah, the fourth one is Hope Restored from Focus on the Family. They have locations in Michigan, Georgia and Missouri. So their website is hoperestored.focusonthefamily.com. And again, all these are listed in your show notes as places you can explore.

Jonathan Hardy 6:35
Now let me ask you real quick on these. Are these all geared specifically for pastors? Do they specialize in pastors? Or you know if a pastor is thinking okay, well which one am I going to pick, of course, you’re going to go to the website, you’re going to check them out yourself.

Dick Hardy 6:49
Yeah, all four of them have specialties for pastors. Now, I know that some of them and probably all of them, you know, if you’re not a pastor and you’re a lay person in the church, you can still take advantage of these.

Jonathan Hardy 7:04
So it’s for Christians in general.

Dick Hardy 7:06
It’s for Christians in general, but if you’re a pastor, and you’re walking through this, you want to communicate that on the front end, so that they can tailor their console for you specifically, understanding your role as a pastor.

Recap:

Dick Hardy 7:17
So anyway, let’s take a look at these four. They are the Hideaway Experience, the Emerge Ministries, Family Legacy and Hope Restored from Focus on the Family. Those are the four that we would suggest to you. Again, we’re simply making recommendations. We’re not endorsing, and they’re not the only ones out there, but this would be a good start. If you’re in trouble. If you’re seeing cracks develop in some piece of your life. Please, Jonathan and I, we implore you as brothers, your sisters, we want you to get the help you need because the mission that God has for you and the vision he has for your church is too great for you not to pay attention to these personal issues.

Jonathan Hardy 8:01
Yep, absolutely. So be sure to do that. And we will obviously want to help in any way we can. And also make sure to rate and review this podcast. As we wrap up today, we’d love to have you rate and review, if you have not given us a five star review, we’d be honored to have a five star review and, of course, to subscribe on YouTube or whatever podcast platform you are listening to this.

Jonathan Hardy 8:25
And then finally want to make sure if you haven’t yet, make sure to take the Five Day Leadership Challenge where you can invest in yourself. We’re talking about this personal investment for the help that you need. But we also know, from a leadership standpoint, it’s important to invest in ourselves on a regular basis to continue to be the leaders that we need to be as well. And so you can do that by going to leaders.church/challenge. That’s a free, 15 minute per day challenge to help you be a better leader over a five day period. Again, that’s leaders.church/challenge.

Jonathan Hardy 8:55
And then I wanted to read a review that we had from Bob, “this is trusted advice filtered through experienced leaders that have been down the church leadership road before. They know what works and share helpful best practices that save me time and help me be more effective.” Love it. Well, hey, Bob, thank you. Thank you so much for that review. And if you want to write your review, we might be just listing yours in the days to come. We’d love to see it. So anything else, Dick?

Dick Hardy 9:22
Nope. I think we’re good to go.

Jonathan Hardy 9:23
Alright, well, hey, thank you so much for being with us. We look forward to seeing you next time. Until then, be blessed.

Subscribe & Follow:

Other Resources:

Share This Article

Join us daily as we share practical tips and strategies you can use to get better, break barriers, and grow the church.

Podcast

041 – Where Does a Pastor Go for Personal Help

What’s in this Episode?

Show Notes: