250 pastors exit the ministry every month.

This means by the end of this year, 3000 more pastors will leave their ministries behind and, if this trend continues, by 2031 the church will have lost 30,000 men and women who at one time had dedicated lives to the local church.

Kicking at the Darkness wants to help stop the bleeding! 

The men and women who enter into vocational ministry do so because they have a profound sense of calling. Ministry has always been stressful but ministry plus everything else right now is a recipe for pastoral burnout and ministerial malaise. Pastors are worn out and are tired because they have been caring for, serving, and leading people who are worn out and tired.

• Financial constraints, limited participation, and questions about the future of the church weigh heavy on the hearts and minds of those working within our churches. 
• Pastors feel the weight of responsibility for the spiritual care and feeding of other people. Unlike any other profession, the boundaries between professional care and personal relationship can make it seem as though a Pastor is always in a state of caring for others around them. As a result, many ministers continually put off taking time for their own spiritual care and feeding. Many feel guilty missing a Sunday or ministry event so they put off rest and renewal for a season when it won’t seem as busy. Unfortunately, that season never arrives.
• Less than half of pastors surveyed said that they have someone in their church leadership who regularly prays with them and over them concerning their own personal and professional concerns. Coupled with this is that many pastors believe they cannot ask for help from their leadership or boards because of unrealistic expectations and unreasonable responses in the past. (The State of Pastors, Barna, 2017)

Beyond the typical stories of moral breakdowns, relational blow-ups, and pastoral burnout, pastor’s families and their churches are also finding themselves dealing with something even more tragic: Suicide. Pastors are not immune to  psychological, emotional, and spiritual struggles. The fallout of such a permanent and devastating event will be long lasting for everyone involved from the family left behind, to devastated church staff, to leadership and governing boards scrambling to respond, to even the average church member in the pews wracked with guilt and wrestling with questions. 

Who will minister to those who minister? Who will care for those who care?

Kicking at the Darkness is ministry care for those who minister. 

Pastors need someone that they can talk to about their personal and professional lives. They need a safe person outside their regular church settings who will listen objectively, encourage diligently, and direct spiritually.

Our ministry is dedicated to church leaders and teams who have a desire to be faithful and fruitful but may be finding the demands of ministry – the long hours, working with difficult people, & working inside dysfunctional systems – have lead them into seasons of frustration and fatigue. These men and women want to experience growth in their personal lives and professional responsibilities but they just need a little HOPE, CLARITY, and STRENGTH.

Kicking at the Darkness helps leaders and teams find HOPE so that they may gain confidence in themselves and in one another.

Kicking at the Darkness helps leaders and teams get CLARITY around their goals so that they can move forward with focus and unity.

Kicking at the Darkness helps leaders and teams build STRENGTH in the most important areas of their lives so that they may experience new levels of growth and health.

How Kicking at the Darkness provides ministry care to those who minister? 

We offer support for both individual ministers and ministry teams. We believe every minister and every team needs HOPE, CLARIFY, and STRENGTH. How do we do it?

1 on 1 Spiritual Care

1 on 1 Spiritual Care is a bi-monthly check-in call for individual pastors to freely talk, work through their current challenges, and receive HOPE, CLARITY, and STRENGTH to continue ministry heart, soul, mind, and body. Pastors will have 2 dedicated calls during each month plus the ability to connect if questions or needs arise between sessions.

All Staff Spiritual Care

All Staff Spiritual Care allows for church organizations to provide their entire staff with access to Spiritual Care as needed throughout the month. Each staff member will be contacted and connected with at the beginning of each month for an initial Spiritual Care session. Phone, text message, video chat, and email access will be provided for each staff member so that everyone on staff can receive HOPE, CLARITY, and STRENGTH all month long as needed.

Family Care

Ministry is a family affair and each member of a pastor’s family faces the same joy, hurts, fears, and frustrations as the one who is on the church staff. Family Care will provide a pastor and their spouse a place to share their hopes and concerns, cares and joys with a seasoned ministry couple who will listen, pray with them & for them, and guide them through their current season in ministry. Every pastor and their family could use some HOPE, CLARITY, and STRENGTH. 

Sabbath Care

Everyone needs a Sabbath. Sunday comes every single week and if a pastor isn’t able to take a Sunday away to rest and be restored… it’s not be a true vacation. The Sabbath Care package offers an in-person 2 day coaching and strategy session to help you create a Spiritual Growth Plan for the next season. After these 2 days, you can go on vacation while your Ministry Coach preaches or serves in your area of ministry the following Sunday giving you the opportunity to feel confident that ministry will be covered while you are away.

What Kicking at the Darkness can do for you?

Pastor,

You are a good pastor. When was the last time someone told you that? Ministry is one of the toughest jobs on the planet. You are on call all day, every day. Conflict isn’t a bug, it’s a feature of pastoring people. The men and woman in your church are broken and hurting… just like you. Let us help you by giving you the opportunity to share what is on your mind, what’s happening in your heart, what your soul needs, and how ministry is affecting your life personally and professionally. Kicking at the Darkness is a safe place to talk, receive encouragement, and prayer. What is the greatest challenge you are currently facing? Let’s talk.

Church Leadership,

Your church staff are rock stars. They come early and stay late. They get up for morning Bible study even though they were out late making another visit. When people come to talk with them they bring their own hurts, habits, and hang-ups with them. That means your ministry staff receive more discouragement than encouragement most days. They are afraid of messing up publicly. They are acutely aware of their own shortcomings and are worried others will be all too quick to point them out. Criticism stings and the pain lingers. Despite all this… your pastors LOVE your church. They show concern for, sacrifice all they can, and serve with everything that they are. The cost of ministry failure is extremely high. The damage done to pastors and their families, relationships within the church, and, ultimately the witness of the church is at stake. Of course the actual financial costs associated with the pre-mature exit of a minister or the dismissal that results from moral failure are real and costly they pale in comparison to the emotional and spiritual costs wrought upon pastors, their families, and churches who failed to identify struggles, address pain, and provide space and resources for proper healing and health. I know you love the men and women you shepherd and I want to encourage you to do whatever you can to provide for their personal and professional health. As you show your faithfulness to those you employ, everyone will be blessed by the fruit that occurs when ministers grow in their calling.

If you could do something, anything to help prevent anyone on your church staff from breaking down, blowing up, or burning out what would would you be willing to pay? What lengths would you go to ensure that the ministers you know and love are cared for, properly fed, and protected from further damage? 

For churches to be healthy, they must be led by healthy pastors. It is the goal of Kicking at the Darkness to come alongside pastors, their families, and churches to work together and fight for the emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual lives of those who are dedicated to sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the local church. We invite you to invest in the Kingdom of God by investing in the health and well-being of pastors.