A Family Life Interview – Ron Hutchcraft on Church-Leader Burnout – 11/27/23
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Ron Hutchcraft has spent decades as a Christian broadcaster, a ministry leader, a mission worker, and a sought-after speaker at religious conferences.
In October, he was featured at the Family Life Pastor’s Conference, providing inspiration to well over 200 pastors from Pennsylvania and New York. In conjunction with his visit to our listening area, he was interviewed by Family Life News, seeking his recommendations for clergy and for congregations.
In light of today’s difficult trends where 42 percent of congregational pastors are ready to quit, there is much which needs done to strengthen the church and reverse that reality.
In our conversation, Hutchcraft looks at the Big Three challenges identified by that research, offers practical steps to reduce stresses and loneliness, and warns that church fights over politics or social issues are against the Bible’s calling. He points to the impact of Covid shutdowns and mandates and disagreements, and gives a movie-plot parallel. You also will hear reminders that the church’s shepherds also hold responsibility to address their own misguided motivations and unhelpful mission drift.
Ron Hutchcraft leads Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, which works to provide spiritual rescue, bringing hope to unchurched people in the language of the listener. RHM also operates “On Eagles Wings”, an evagelistic and training outreach to Indigenous young people.
His daily radio story, “A Word With You”, airs multiple times each weekday on Family Life broadcasting, plus our online streams.
A parallel Family Life Podcast is also available: Check our pastors’ first-person stories on “The Calling” with Steve Smith. Episodes can be found here.
It might be the blending of families. It might be a change of priorities. Steve, Terese and Tim talk about how to navigate the holidays with new traditions.
Anderson also explores research on how many unmarried couples live together, outside of a marriage commitment. That number has grown exponentially across the past two generations, but (perhaps surprisingly) those percentages are not as high as some Christian might expect, looking at the society around us. You also will hear how cohabitation actually reduces the likelihood that a relationship — or a marriage, if you eventually decide to wed — which succeed long term.