Loneliness in Ministry

By Doug Franklin September 8, 2009

I am here in Bolivia with the LeaderTreks Latin American staff. We started this morning with staff drawing pictures of the past few months of their lives. The pictures give each of us an understanding for what the others have gone through while we have been apart. Each person has shared their picture and their story. Most often I am hearing stories of loneliness. I wonder how many people in ministry feel totally alone. Many of the staff here are also telling stories of God’s faithfulness in the mist of loneliness. God knows we are lonely, he knew Adam was lonely so he created Eve.

As leaders, we have to realize that many of the people we are doing ministry with are lonely. We have to make sure we have given our team members a chance to communicate this to the whole team. We also need to create support systems for our people. The reason is that lonely people don’t do great ministry. They look to the people they are ministering too to meet their needs for relationships. This is very unhealthy and creates dangerous situations for our ministries.  Be proactive and reach out to your team members, it’s never fun talking about loneliness, buts its important.