I entered full time ministry in 1995 after four years of attending a Bible College. I accepted a church that actually had eight members attending. I was getting paid $150 a week with absolutely no benefits other than housing. I had a $26,000 student loan debt, and a wife and three young children to support.

I left the ministry in 1998 after pastoring four churches. I had a student loan debt of $28,000 (it grew because I never could afford to make one payment so I kept deferring it) and credit card debt of $12,000.

I had no benefits, no savings, nothing but my family. We had just finished building a beautiful parsonage that we spent about $5,000 on and only lived in it for six weeks. I had no job and no place to go with no money to get there if I had a place to go.

I was in tears that night after the forced termination meeting meeting. I needed help, a place to go such as this site, Help For Hurting Pastors.

Now, ten years later, after spending countless sleepless nights, running the video over and over in my mind, I have decided to put my experience on the internet. Part of the reason for the delay was I was hoping to turn this defeat into a victory of some sort, so I could give hope to other pastors in my shoes.

The other reason for the delay in writing this was, “Who wants to write a site like this after they have failed?” Failure is embarrassing. Failure is humiliating. Failure means, “I am a loser.” Who would want to read about my failure?

So after waiting for years for the big break, I have decided to develop this help for hurting pastors site to help others who are hurting and to warn newcomers to the field of ministry about the potential dangers of pastoring.

This is not so any one will be dissuading from entering the ministry but will be aware of things that do go on that we have not been trained for.

There are many who believe they have failed. There are many going through the humiliation and embarrassment of being thrown out of their church.

Help For Hurting Pastors is not about moral failures, although I may add a section about it down the road. If that occurred, you know what you did wrong and how you have to make it right. So we will not dwell there.

Not every page on this site is about my ministry story. There are pages with other articles, sermon helps and so on.

Update: 06-22-09 I have removed many pages that talked about what happened to me in ministry. I feel it is time to move beyond this and present things in more of a positive way without altering the truth. The truth can sometimes be hard to accept.