The chances are you have never heard of allostatic load. It is
“the wear and tear on the body which accumulates as an individual is exposed to repeated or chronic stress. The term was coined by Bruce McEwen and Eliot Stellar in 1993”.
Why, then, is this relevant to church life?
As we prepare to transition leadership of the church here in Bahrain, first to a broader team for the summer and then to an interim pastor towards the end of the year, I have found myself with more time to pause and reflect on how the last seven years of full-time service (and five part-time before that) have been. One thing that I would urge the church here – and you who attend elsewhere – to be aware of is the allostatic load that pastors and ministers experience.
Working with and leading people can cause stress. People are (all) fallen, fallible, and fickle (cf. Romans 3.23). To be consistently involved in the failures and frustrations of others – in addition to your own – is a significant burden to bear. The longer this goes on the more allostatic load is created.
A little stress in our lives is relatively good, as far as I have read. It shows us that we care about the situations we are in and the people we are with. Stress, strictly speaking, can push us to achievements we never thought possible and can reveal a resilience within us that would never have been seen in the calm and serene waters of a stressless life (cf. the principles of 1 Peter 1.7, Job 23.10, Psalm 66.10, Proverbs 17.3). But, without the appropriate coping mechanisms stress does not produce adaptation and resilience but allostatic load: the body’s physical deterioration caused by repeated exposure to un-dealt-with stress1.
“Increased allostatic load constitutes a significant health hazard. Several studies documented a strong association of allostatic load to the incidence of coronary heart disease, to surrogate markers of cardiovascular health and to hard endpoints, including cause-specific and all-cause mortality.”
So, again, why is this relevant to church life?
As a new pastor prepares to come and continue the work of God in the church here, I hope there is an awareness of the burden placed on its minister. In a transient context where the pastor is the most present person this burden of caring often falls more onto one than many. Jobs and tasks that could be shared are often done solo. Burdens that should be shared are often borne solo. Without any intention from anyone involved the load of stress is, I have found, uniquely high ministering in a transient context. High transience in the group seems to equal a high dependence on its minister to be the principal point of burden-bearing.
Allostatic load is, then, perhaps the most important principle that most churches have never considered or even heard of. Ministry is a team sport and not a solo pursuit. Church leadership and the associated care is often spearheaded by a single person, but should never be undertaken completely alone2. Most church going, Bible believing Christians would agree with this, yet we so often behave as if the bulk of the burden is to be borne solo. The church, and specifically its wider leadership team, must come around the called and installed leader to offer protective factors:
“Protective factors could, at various times of an individual’s life span, be implemented to reduce stress and, in the long run, eliminate the onset of allostatic load. Protective factors include [offering] education, social support, healthy workplaces, a sense of meaning towards life and choices being made, and positive feelings in general”.
Here is a fact that really shouldn’t be true: there are academically proven links between church attendance and having a lower personal allostatic load3 yet at the same time senior leaders across multiple industries live shorter lives4. Simply, going to church reduces your stress and is seen as a protective factor for many. However, those facilitating the protection are simultaneously not able to partake of the protection the community offers.
Where do we go from here then? In short, churches need to make sure that the protection they love is also offered to their leaders. The provision they desire should also be directed to their minister. Bearing one another’s burdens is a thoroughly Scriptural attitude to take (cf. Galatians 6.2 for one example) and one that nobody is able to fulfil alone. The seasons of ministry in which I have been most fruitful in the last ten years have been those wherein, on reflection, I was offered an abundance of the aforementioned protective factors. Simply, when I was abundantly and generously supported I was better able to abundantly and generously support others. As Jesus said in Luke 6:
“Treat others the same way you want them to treat you”.
(v.31)
References / Further Reading
1 –
2 – This was actually my M.Div thesis topic: https://amzn.eu/d/aYGG3kx
3 – https://journalistsresource.org/health/religious-faith-church-stress-longevity/
4 – https://www.denisonforum.org/church-leadership/toxic-stress-load-pastors/
James Travis 