We have over 200 Pastors most of them working in our Churches voluntarily with a Calling from God. Most of our Pastors are untrained hence administrative challenges and serve in very Poor conditions due to Poverty in the Rural areas where most of our churches are. These Pastors walk on Foot to and from church, other have Bicycles and a few Motorbikes. A Pastor full of the Holy Spirit, encouraging himself to do the Work of a Minister but coming home, has nothing to put on the table. Pastors’ families live in very disturbing environment; Pastors Wives persevere all the hardships to serve her Husband and Children. The Poor congregation in the Churches can not sustain the Servant of God. These Pastors suffer and face difficult outlook when they try to Preach messages of Giving, Tithes and Offerings in poor congregations.

PASTORS CHALLENGES
1. JOB-RELATED STRESS

Stress is by far the largest challenge facing pastors today. While many factors contribute to stress, the three primary categories for pastoral stress include:

– Finances: Managing both church and personal finances, including income, debt, savings, and expenses.
– Relationships: Handling conflicts, managing church staff, reporting to the board, counseling and caring for their flock’s spiritual health, as well as taking care of their own spouse and children.
– Time management: Juggling work, family, emergencies, counseling, and personal time.

2. FEELINGS OF LONELINESS & ISOLATION
Leaders often feel alone and isolated, and pastors are no exception. These feelings can be caused by unattainable pastoral assignments, a lack of affirmation from church staff, conflict with church members, or a general lack of friends and peer network for support.

3. POLITICAL & CULTURAL DIVISIONS
One of the largest problems in the church today are political and cultural differences. Pastors often feel forced to choose between picking a side or staying silent, both of which are losing options.

While there is no quick fix to this problem, there are thought-leadership articles on how pastors can deal with political and cultural tensions. For example, The Gospel Coalition published an article entitled Why We Need the Church to Disciple Our Politics by Matthew Hawkins. He proposes that pastors should address political issues from a biblical perspective. “Rather than avoiding politics for the sake of discipleship, might we try applying discipleship to our politics?”

4. DECLINING CHURCH ATTENDANCE
Church attendance is at its lowest level in U.S. history with the average church seeing 60 people attending each week. Many pastors whose churches survived COVID-19 have found that their in-person attendance has not bounced back to pre-pandemic numbers after reopening their doors.

5. INEFFECTIVE DISCIPLESHIP MODELS
Discipleship is crucial to each Christian’s spiritual journey, yet 39% of Christians are not involved in any form of discipleship. Part of the challenge pastors face is that old discipleship models are not as effective with their congregations today. The majority of Christians want their churches to offer more online discipleship resources.

6. DISCONNECTED DIGITAL TOOLS
Today’s technology allows pastors to be more productive and reach more people than ever before—sharing content online, live streaming, group messaging, coordinating small groups and volunteers, as well as managing events.

7. FINANCIAL & ECONOMIC REALITIES
Churches feel the impact of economic downturns. People facing inflation and recession have less to give to their church, so pastors have to make tough choices about cutting salaries, reducing church spending, and pausing ministry programs.

8. BALANCING ONLINE & IN-PERSON WORSHIP
Studies show that online services remain popular even after churches have begun to meet in person again. At the same time, pastors know that it’s not always easy to simultaneously run in-person and online worship services.

9. DISTRACTIONS & DISCOURAGEMENT
Pastors today have more tasks, communication, and job expectations to manage than ever before. This makes distractions and discouragement two of the most significant mental challenges in ministry today.

10. DEVELOPING LEADERS & VOLUNTEERS
Two of the main difficulties pastors face are growing leaders and managing volunteers. While these challenges have been around since the beginning of the Church, pastors know that strong leaders and loyal volunteers are essential to a strong church.

How can you help? Here are several ways:

– Your Prayers are the Basic important support
– Sponsor a Pastor to get Transportation; buy a Bicycle or a Motorbike
– Support a Pastor on monthly Basis to run his/her Church
– Sponsor Bibles programs for Pastors
– Send Christian Books for their reading
– Sponsor Pastors’s Family with Income generating project eg. Dairy Cow, Small Business, Farming etc