In an article by Charles Stone, What is your reflexive response to ministry tension?, Leadership Catalyst 2010. When reading this article I found that his use of animal analogies helped me understand some of the pitfalls that pastors tend to fall in to.
The analogies: The sloth the animal that is detached and passive usually unaware. There were 13 percent of pastors who were in this category when dealing with ministry tensions. The skunk leaves the mess to others, 18 percent of pastors responded this way. 37 to 50 percent of pastors responded as a turtle, when the pastor retreats into their spiritual shell when facing the tensions. As a hawk the pastors tend not to look into the mirror and see how they contribute to the problem but always look out the window to see others as the problem. When the pastor is like a lion he/she is self-confident and likes to roar and get their own way. In some ways this pastor does look at himself/herself and determines whether or not they are contributing to the problem.
This article points out that pastors need to be able to understand how they deal with disappointment and frustration by their congregation. We need to understand our strengths and weaknesses and always address them in relationship with Christ. Pastors need to know how they respond and make an attempt to change that in them with the help of Christ or knowing their weakness and working through issues instead of denying them and hiding from them to confront the issue with care and prayer but confronting the issue.
