title: Keeping the wellsprings of ministry clear.
abstract: Examines how unconscious dimensions of the call to ministry, when not recognized, can spoil pastoral work and lead to burnout. Claims that ministry that is more of an attempt to get the parish to love one, responding to anxious pressure to heal parishioners while ignoring one's own wounds, or trying to carve a personal identity out of one's work, may be an indicator of childhood wounds which obscure the sense of call and leaves pastors more vulnerable to depression, a sense of failure, fatigue, and burnout.
authors.affiliation: Pastoral Institute, Inc., 2022 Fifteenth Avenue, Columbus, GA 31901, USA.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Muse
mesh_terms: D002055:Burnout, Professional / Q000523:psychology*; D002835:Christianity / Q000523:psychology; D002977:Clergy / Q000523:psychology*; D004645:Empathy; D006801:Humans; D010327:Pastoral Care; D000078329:Workforce