I read the article in the New York Times, but I did not see the article explaining the problem of clergy as the result of a "messiah complex." I also do not think I read anything about "ego needs." The study seemed to me to be more objective than that. I found the article interesting and intuitively accurate. The one thing I felt was lacking in the article was a comparison with the national average. For example, I do not think there is much difference between obesity among most Americans and clergy obesity. To me, that question is fascination. Why do Christians and Christian leaders not take more seriously their health?

As a pastor myself, I can say this: we are perhaps the only profession/calling that would receive data like this and blame ourselves! "And is this simply another example of already unhealthy people being attracted to the "helping" professions?" I am sure that some pastors are unhealthy individuals, but at the numbers suggested in this and other studies I find it hard to believe. There is something fundamentally unhealthy in American congregational systems today. This is hard for us who love the church and spend our lives serving her, but we have to begin considering that reality.

For the love of the Lord and His Church...

This is nothing more than the results of the belief the pastor does everything. It is what these pastors are taught in seminaries. It is what churches reward and its a culture created by pastors who cannot or will not and have not been trained to trust their congregants.

This kind of behavior causes them to ignore the gifted people in their midst who for some reason cannot or will not take the midnight call or teach or shepherd because they don't have MDIV behind their names.

These fat, sick and depressed pastors may have no one to blame but themselves because they support the cult of personality around them or embrace the unreasonable expectations of their congregants by not helping them set reasonable expectations.

The sense of duty to God may be more motivated by guilt and performance orientation than it is motivated by love for God and for others. Some of these people ought not be pastors at all and should step away and find something else to do instead of messing up their lives and the lives of others.

God is not bound by our conventions. Putting initials after someone's name does not obligate God to make that person a pastor. And the congregations should be wiser about their selections. They are not obligated either no matter what credentials the young seminary grad has. Nice guy or he-has-such-a-pastor's-heart does not equal pastor.

I think if I was being expected to be Superman, or I elected myself to be Superman because of my super education and then found I was not cutting it or I am just plain burned out, but I have to maintain the image, I would turn to anything to kill the pain; wine, women and food are good pain killers but harsh taskmasters.

Well, unreasonable expectations all around contribute to this. I gotta go. I need to watch my Tivo'd extreme fighting, make myself a Bloody Mary, pray and fantasize about Beth Moore. I hurt.

The changing climate of the church and culture is a pretty challenging climate. Fruit (changed lives) are not nearly as easily accomplished in these days.

For many in the church it is open season on pastors too. Even the use of the words "messiah complex" and speculation that it is as simple as unhealthy people being drawn to helping professions conveys a simplistic knowledge of who pastors are.

IMO the training many pastors are getting is simply inadequate to navigate and lead the church in the current culture. If 1972 rolls around again both the church and its educational institutions are ready to make a difference.

We equate great visionary leadership with size of church rather than leading a people into maturity in Christ that bears fruit in the kingdom of God.

I know personally more pastors than I can count, but very few are as described by the article and URL.

Our calling prohibits us from being human, yet we can be nothing else. If a pastor is fat... he/she is a glutton. If a pastor is down... he/she lacks faith. If a church does not grow... he/she lacks leadership. If people do not give... he/she lacks vision. If his kids sin to much or too big... They were neglected. Too nice a car, house, too many toys... selfish, greedy...

Let's face it... Pastors are people. Nothing more, nothing less. Just people.

My friends are not believers in Christ. They only eat raw and Vegan food. They are health minded and they couldn't listen to my Fat pastor the one time they came to my church. They said they couldn't believe anything he said because he obviously had no control over his drug habit-food.
True, this position is drastic and a bit judgmental in it's own right, but it does say something. What it says is it is just one more thing the pastors of the world have to fix about themselves before people will listen to them. We can always blame the messenger and invalidate the teaching because of whatever our pet problem is at the moment.
If pastors are fatter, sicker, and more depressed, so what. The platonic pure form of a pastor needs to be deconstructed and in it's place we should place the pragmatic pastor eating a large pizza alone in the dark crying. It is hard to be a pastor, you do need to embrace the simple pleasures of life at times.

What do you mean when you say pastors are "those closest to the center of the church"?

Where is this "center of the church", and why are pastors closer than anyone else?

As pastors we are called upon to lead by example. I have failed miserably in the "be healthy" category. One fellow pastor told me, "When we are over-weight, we tell the whole world that we have no self control." I got my wake-up call 6 weeks ago when I was diagnosed with diabetes. Since then, I have lost 17 pounds and I am walking every day. This is a serious discussion that we MUST have. Thanks for starting it.

Sheerahkahn... My neck is making a comeback!

One reason is expectation/comparison. Go to any church seminar and there is the latest pastor with thousands of people in his church sharing about how to build the successful church. The first question asked is "how many people are in your church?" Even though the number of megachurches is increasing, most pastors serve in smaller congregations, many struggling. Of course that is the pastor's fault because leadership is obviously lacking. Maybe. Maybe not. Still it is hard not to compare when the model for success is the church with thousands.

I think the article lets unhealthy pastors get off too easily. The reasons are obviously complex, and vary among individuals. One statement in the article has been overlooked. Ministers used to be healthy and live longer. Perhaps we need to study why this phenomenon has changed. Realistically, some of them should change jobs because they do not have the calling of God.

John T., I wholeheartedly endorse your friend's perspective on the correlation between a pastor's waist measurements and his credibility. Not to say an overweight pastor cannot be used mightily by God, but to point out that pastors should be examples for their congregations. Sure, everyone has flaws, but why not take responsibility for gluttony and rein in its impulses. Why should everybody be able to gauge their self-control just by looking at the expanding middle? It's enough to fight inner issues. I congratulate you for the efforts to better yourself and your ministry by loosing weight. For more help on this issue, I recommend The Lord's Table, an interactive online course from Setting the Captives Free, that deals with sinful eating habits such as gluttony, anorexia and bulimia, from a Biblical standpoint. And, get some new neckties to go with that shrinking neck! :D

As a pastor I have to ask myself on ocassion: Would I be pleased if my congregation all followed my example? This includes how busy I am and my time with the Lord and with my family. I also try to bear in mind Jesus' words that the weary should come to him for rest for his yoke is easy and his burden light. I am not advocating laziness, but the call to salvation should not be a call to hours more activity on top of an already busy life. I think pastors need to model this by cutting down on busyness. I am learning that programs sometimes have to stop when there is no one else to do them because it is not my job to maintain every program the church has ever begun. As for being overweight - All our business takes place over coffee and potlucks!

There are many expectations that are placed on pastors. My father is a pastor growing up I have seen the way that situations within the church have effected him. Recently a situation within my church arose that effected my fathers health in a negative way.The situation is now taken care of but in the mist of crisis my father came very close to having a heart attack because of the stress of the situation. I think that it is important to keep in mind that the things we do as a church body can effect our pastors just as much as lack of exercise can.

I pastored a large church of over 1,000 attenders almost 30 years and found it very easy. I just let my staff do all the work.

Sometimes Pastor are depressed due to problems in the church, but as a Pastor of the church he should be physically fit, in the service of the LOrd and the leader to everybody.

And if we are to believe news reports, apparently there are more child molesters among pastors than other professions.

There's nothing noble in ignorance. Pastors today, who say they believe the bible, have accepted a mode of ministry not found in the Scripture. In the New Testament, elders worked in concert with each other, not as individual CEOs, each building a personal empire. Several elders ruled an individual church and tended to the needs of the members. Furthermore, their structure was hierarchical, not lateral, so that local elders reported up, through a city-state structure of eldership, all the way to the Council at Jerusalem, and the Council itself was an oligarchy. Men in local churches did not hold themselves responsible to solve all the problems in their churches. Issues of great controversy or great concern were forwarded up the hierarchy, all the way to the Council at Jerusalem, if necessary.

The goal of pastoring in the New Testament was the education of believers so that they could govern themselves within the hierarchy of church authority, appointing local elders, and then the more experienced elders could then plant new churches.

Modern pastors have turned the pastorate into a sole endeavor, independent in many cases, with the pastor acting as some sort of head man of the church, the center of the social structure of the church, the man who appointed to be the poster child of the church.

It's amazing that so many men who claim to believe the Bible have failed across the board to recognize how far they have taken the role of pastor from what the Bible has laid out, turning it into something entirely different from the original design. So of course they bring disaster onto themselves.

In short, they are doing it wrong. And they have a reason to be depressed. They really are failing to lead the flock of God. The amount of corruption we find in the pastorate of America's churches is the outward manifestation of their disobedience in setting up a system that glorifies leadership and numbers and money and prestige. And the stress, despair, and loss of faith are the inside manifestations of their disobedience.