Every suicide surprises us. However, whenever a well-known pastor or any Christian public figure takes his or her own life, people begin to ask questions. Christians and pastors help people with their lives. Yet there have been recently in the news several well-known Christians who have succumbed to the tragic act of suicide.
The reality is that even pastors struggle emotionally, and spiritually. They struggle sometimes with depression. Becoming a follower of Jesus or becoming a pastor does not necessarily make those things disappear. Being a pastor can be one of the most high-pressure jobs there is. 90% of pastors work 55-75 hours a week and 75% report feeling “highly stressed” on any given week.
If our spiritual leaders are not exempt from suicide, we can see that we must take the possibility of suicide very seriously. In the next several weeks, we will look at facts of suicide to help us become more aware of this danger. We’ll also look at warning signs of suicide and what each one of us can do to help prevent it.
On July 21, at 7:00 p.m. the MWBC will host a suicide prevention training event by Zoom (more information will be coming). The training will be led by Steven Dyess, a former US Army chaplain who was a master trainer for ASIST, Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training. He led these training events across the United States to help combat the alarming rise of suicide of soldiers.
Register in advance for this meeting by clicking on this link: Suicide Prevention Training