Resilient Pastors

Welcome to the Best Practices Adventist Ministry Podcast. I’m Dave Gemmell. 

George Patton once said “I don't measure a man's success by how high he climbs, but how high he bounces when he hits bottom. ” He was of course talking about resilience, a core quality of effective pastors. 

There are only two kinds of pastors. Those who have been knocked down and those who will get knocked down, maybe soon.  Pastors get knocked down by material loss, loss of health, loss of dreams;  but in the tumbles of ministry,  why do some pastors stay down and others get up again?  And why do some pastors grow weaker and others grow stronger? Today three pastors tell their unique journeys of resilience.

Dan Martella is the administrative pastor of the Paradise Seventh-day Adventist church. In this podcast he relives his journey of losing almost everything in the Paradise fire. There's more to Dan's story.  We're putting together a documentary for the next CALLED convention. 

Therezinha Barbalo, Pastor of three churches, one of which is a church plant, and the other a replant. Few pastors have demonstrated more resilience than Pastor Therezinha. Of course that's only one part of her amazing story of resilience. We may do another podcast with her to tell about her church replanting experience as well as some of the unique challenges of serving as a female pastor.  We'll be documenting her story at the next CALLED convention.

Kleyton Feitosa has served as a missionary, conference administrator, mission president, and now serves as the pastor of the Living Word Seventh-day Adventist church. In this podcast he shares his remarkable story of ongoing resilience.  A special thanks to Kimberly Maran for sharing that interview with us. Kimberly is the editor of NAD's Adventist journey. You can read her article and see the full video in the January 2021 edition of Adventist Journey.  

I hope this episode has been as  insightful, and inspiring for you as it was for me.  These stories all remind us that pastors face unique challenges, and Its how we respond that reveal our resilience.  Thanks for joining us for NAD Ministerial's Best Practices Adventist Ministry Podcast. We're available on all your favorite platforms. So please like, share and subscribe, so you'll be notified when new episodes are posted. We're here to help you grow. Keep going. But most of all, keep growing for God's glory.

-Dave Gemmell, Host, Adventist Ministry Podcast