Pastors: Leaders of the flock but alone in the crowd

Here is a quote from a good article about pastor loneliness. Pastors: Leaders of the flock but alone in the crowd: "The clergy-parishioner bond is powerful, Odom said, but pastors can’t reciprocate when congregants confess sin or complain about other church members. And that causes a barrier that leads to emotional distance and isolation." It really is difficult for people to understand the inner world of a pastor, ie how we relate to both clergy and non-clergy people, how our pastoral job performance is tied up in our own sense of spirituality, feeling like a pastor all the time even when we're not working, etc. Pastors are whacked. There is only one book that I have ever seen come close to explaining it. If you haven't bought this for your church leadership, I highly recommend it: It Only Hurts on Monday: Why Pastors Quit and What You Can Do about It by Gary McIntosh and Robert Edmondson