A church’s health is directly tied to its pastor’s health. If pastors want to see their churches flourish, they need to set themselves up for long-term success and care for their own health.


In this episode, Church Health and Revitalization Strategist Terry Long sits down with Sandy Marks, N.C. Baptist church revitalization and pastoral ministry strategist, and Keelan Cook, director of the Center for Great Commission Studies at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Listen as the three have a conversation about pastoral health and how pastors can take care of themselves to create a lasting ministry.

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Podcast Highlights:

  • “A lot of guys, I think, come in with an idealistic understanding of what pastoral ministry is, and perhaps they think they’re going to pastor a healthy church. Some of them may, but that some is the minority, not the majority.” (11:33)
  • “If we’re not caring for ourselves as that pastor spiritually, if we’re not having that community, if we’re not having our spiritual disciplines, our walk with the Lord is not growing, then what’s going to happen is that unhealthy culture of a church that needs revitalization is going to take its toll on us as pastors.” (13:08)
  • “Step back and realize that there’s something to the way the Scriptures talk about prayer, and there’s something to having the whole thing bathed in that, having your whole ministry founded and established on the kind of relationship, the kind of abiding that we see in the book of John that comes from a rich and fruitful prayer life. It has to be there.” (19:23)

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