The Secret Crisis Among Nigerian Pastors (And Why They Can’t Talk About It)
There are many enemies of our faith that Nigerian pastors will confront from the pulpit with boldness and fire. Witches and witchcraft? Absolutely! Infidelity in the church? Count on it. A weak prayer life? Every week! We’ll rebuke lukewarmness, expose marine spirits, declare fire on our enemies, and lead midnight prayers with holy aggression.
But there’s one enemy that slips past our spiritual radar, not because it’s invisible, but because we’ve trained ourselves not to see it. And yet, it’s slowly killing the soul of many good, sincere men of God in the pulpit.
It’s not the devil.
It’s not the economy.
It’s not your church board members.
It’s something more subtle. And more dangerous.
Let me explain.
THE REAL ENEMY IS NOT WHAT YOU THINK
As a ministry that walks closely with pastors across Nigeria, I’ve sat across the table from many ministers who are tired but can’t admit it. Gifted but empty. Publicly celebrated but privately confused. In just about every conversation, they often assume that their biggest enemy is something external.
But here’s the truth:
The real enemy for many pastors is the false success story we are telling ourselves, the one where we look powerful and anointed on the outside but are quietly falling apart on the inside.
Over the past few years, through trainings, soul care conversations, and quiet moments of honesty, one thing has become painfully clear: Something is quietly eating away at the souls of our church leaders. And that “something” often comes dressed as a voice that sounds holy, even helpful. It whispers, “Don’t worry about the emotional weight. Ignore the exhaustion. Just keep pushing. Preach harder. Fast more. Hold it together.” But beneath its spiritual tone is a dangerous lie, one that keeps telling pastors to keep performing, even if it’s slowly breaking them inside.
WHAT PASTORS HAVE BEEN TRAINED TO IGNORE
From the moment many of us stepped into ministry, we inherited an unspoken code: Don’t show weakness. Don’t talk about loneliness. Don’t expose your internal struggle otherwise the church will question your leadership (and even if we could, to who?).
So, we’ve ended up masking our wounds with louder prayers, deeper sermons, replacing genuine connection with applause and bigger church concerts. Through it all, we keep hoping that the next sermon, the next conference, the next "move of God" will fix the ache we’re too holy to name.
But it doesn’t.
It can’t.
Because ministry can’t heal what only honesty can touch.
THE REAL CRISIS NIGERIAN PASTORS ARE FACING
Now, I wish I could tell you it’s just one enemy causing this crisis, but ministry life is rarely that straightforward. It’s not one thing, it’s a whole gang. A collection of quiet enemies that somehow made it into our inner circle, wearing suits and quoting Scripture. They don’t shout, but they drain. And for many of us, they’ve set up shop in our hearts and habits. Let me introduce you to five of the usual suspects.Crisis #1: Stagnation and Lack of Growth in Ministry
Many pastors feel like their ministries have plateaued. Their churches aren’t growing numerically or spiritually. Their sermons are recycled. The fire seems gone, and they feel stuck. Yet they don’t necessarily have the language to call it "burnout" or “emotional baggage.” They might say, “The anointing isn’t flowing like before” or “Things are just dry.”
What most pastors don’t realize is that stagnation is often a symptom of burnout. When you’re running on fumes, it’s only a matter of time before your ministry starts to reflect that depletion. And here’s the irony: pastors who feel stagnant often respond by working even harder. They double down, preach longer, pray louder, organize more programs, all while neglecting the exhaustion at the root. It’s like driving a car on an empty tank and wondering why the engine keeps stalling.
The real tragedy is that in many Nigerian church circles, admitting to this kind of “dryness” feels like admitting spiritual failure. So rather than seeking rest and renewal, pastors just push harder, convinced that more activity will solve the problem. But instead of breaking through, they break down. What they’re experiencing isn’t just a lack of growth, it’s a soul-level burnout that eventually catches up to the ministry itself. And in the absence of true healing, many pastors remain trapped in cycles of striving and frustration.
Crisis #2: Isolation in Leadership
Many pastors are secretly lonely. Not the kind of loneliness that comes from being physically alone, but the kind that grows in crowded rooms where everyone knows your title, but no one truly knows you.
For many, friendships have been replaced with ministry acquaintances, people who smile, nod, and call you “Man of God” or “Daddy,” but with whom you cannot be fully honest. Nigerian church culture, for all its vibrancy, often idolizes strength in spiritual leaders. We celebrate the image of the always-anointed, always-bold, always-powerful man of God. And in doing so, we unintentionally create a climate where vulnerability feels like betrayal, where admitting weakness looks like spiritual failure.
So, pastors retreat behind the pulpit, guarded and alone, fearing that if they ever remove the mask, they’ll lose the respect, influence, or acceptance they’ve worked so hard to maintain. And yet, it’s in that isolation that the cracks begin to deepen.
Crisis #3: Hidden Sin and Shame
Many pastors are secretly battling addictions, moral compromises, lingering guilt, or what we like to call “small struggles”, the sins we’ve learned to manage in secret. But the truth is, these things don’t stay hidden for long. They follow us. They climb into the pulpit with us. They sit beside us during personal counseling sessions. They whisper accusations in our moments of quiet and cloak our words with a guilt we can't shake.
We preach grace to others yet feel disqualified to receive it ourselves. Shame becomes a shadow that stalks us, familiar, heavy, unrelenting. And yet, because we carry the weight of spiritual leadership, we don’t feel we have the permission to confess. The pressure to appear perfect silences our cries for help. We long for freedom, the same freedom we see our church members walking into under our ministry. But for us, there’s no safe space. No trusted voice to say, “Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed” (James 5:16). And so, we suffer in silence, hoping that performance will cover what only grace can heal.
Crisis #4: The Pressure to Perform
Many pastors feel an unrelenting pressure to be “superhuman”, to lead with wisdom, counsel with compassion, produce church growth, meet every need, and never show weakness. Beneath this performance-driven culture is a subtle but dangerous belief: that God’s pleasure is tied to our performance. We convince ourselves that the more we do, the more we are loved, by people, and even by God.
This kind of thinking leads to performance fatigue: a soul-level exhaustion where we’re constantly “on,” afraid to rest because rest feels like laziness, or worse, disobedience. In this grind, we sacrifice our health, emotional well-being, and often even our families in the name of ministry. But Scripture is clear: “If anyone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church?” (1 Timothy 3:5).
Our first ministry is not the church, it’s our home. Yet many pastors quietly neglect their spouse and children while giving their best to the pulpit and platform. We forget that being a being a pastor is not our identity, it’s our calling. You are first a son, a daughter, a human being deeply loved by God apart from your work. If we don’t reclaim that identity, ministry will consume us, and we’ll begin to believe the lie that we are only as valuable as our last sermon, last program, or last attendance report. Learning to separate who we are from what we do could make all the difference, not just in our well-being, but in the spiritual legacy we leave behind.
Crisis #5: Lack of Deep, Inner Renewal
When we first stepped into ministry, there was joy. A raw, burning awe of God that made us believe anything was possible, that the future would only get brighter. We were wide-eyed, hungry for His presence, eager to spend time in the Word just to know Him more. But somewhere along the line, whether through emotional wounds in ministry, relentless busyness, or the quiet erosion of routine, something shifted. The wonder faded.
Now, many of us open our Bibles not to feed our souls, but to prepare the next sermon. Our prayers have become strategies, tools for getting results, breaking yokes, or binding the latest church enemy. We fast not to grow in intimacy with the Father, but to break through a ministry barrier or fight off an unseen sabotage. And slowly, almost without realizing it, the deep wells we once drank from have run dry. We’re still active in ministry, still speaking fire, but our hearts feel distant. Dry. Empty.
And yet, this is the most dangerous kind of emptiness, the one hidden behind the noise of spiritual activity. What we need isn’t another conference or campaign. What we need is renewal, a return to the secret place, not to get something from God, but simply to be with Him again. Because it is only from that place of deep inner life that true, sustainable ministry can flow.
HOW WE HELP PASTORS HEAL, THRIVE, AND LEAD AGAIN AT THE GATHERING FAITH LEADERSHIP NETWORK
At The Gathering Faith Leadership Network, we’ve walked with enough pastors to see behind the ministry façade. We’ve learned to recognize pastoral stuckness like a seasoned engineer knows when something is wrong with a machine, just by the sound of it. Our years of walking with pastors across Nigeria, from different denominations and backgrounds, have taught us how to see through the charisma and the “I’m fine, by God’s grace” smiles.
That’s why we created our Soul Care courses for pastors, not because you don’t know the Bible, and not because you lack the anointing. We created Soul Care courses because no pastor was ever meant to do this alone. Even the most anointed leaders needed someone to walk with them. Paul had Barnabas. Moses had Jethro. Jesus Himself surrounded Himself with friends. You need brothers, mentor-friends, and companions who can stand with you in your journey. The truth is, we all need people who can encourage us, hold us accountable, and walk with us through the highs and lows of ministry.
We’re not here to compete with your denomination, your bishop, or your church network. We’re here to help you fight a lie, the lie that says you have to handle your struggles alone. The lie that says vulnerability is weakness. The lie that says real pastors don’t need help. We’re here to encourage you with biblical truth and genuine pastoral care. To remind you that you are not alone, and that the struggles you face are not signs of failure, but simply part of the journey. And in its place, we’re building something different:
For the pastor who feels stagnant and isolated, through our Soul Care Training, we help you get unstuck. Not just spiritually, but emotionally and practically. Through biblical teaching and intentional soul work, guided reflection, heart to heart conversation with other pastors in a small cohort, we help you rediscover why you were called, and how to lead again with clarity, freedom, and power.
For the pastor carrying hidden shame, through our Soul Care Training, we create room for restoration. In our Soul Care environment, confession is not weakness, it’s the beginning of healing. You don’t have to carry the weight alone anymore. Here, grace is more than a doctrine, it’s a shared experience that breaks chains and restores joy.
For the pastor crushed under performance pressure, through our Soul Care Training, we help you reclaim your identity. You are not your sermons, your Sunday numbers, or your title. You are a deeply loved son. A fully accepted daughter. Through reflection, prayer, and pastoral guidance, we help you lay down the burden of pretending and pick up the freedom of living whole.
For the pastor who feels spiritually dry, through our Soul Care Training, we don’t give you new techniques, we help you return to the deep well. We help you reconnect with God not as a worker in His vineyard, but as His child. We help you listen again. Feel again. Worship without an agenda. Fast because you’re hungry, not because you’re fighting something. We don’t just restore your leadership; through the power of the Holy Spirit in us and working in you, we help you restore your soul.
If you’ve read this far, chances are something inside you is saying, “That’s me.”
Brothers, God is inviting you to step off the stage and step into healing. Not to leave ministry, but to rediscover the joy of it. To lead the people of God from a full heart again.
READY TO EXPERIENCE SOUL CARE? HERE’S HOW YOU CAN BEGIN:
We’ve created several ways for you to receive the Soul Care you need, whether you’re right here in Jos, somewhere else in Nigeria, or even joining us online. Don’t wait. Your healing and wholeness matter. Here’s how you can get started:
1. Join Our Online Soul Care Course (Available Nationwide)
Our next online Soul Care course is starting in [Dates to be released soon]. If you can’t travel to Jos, this is your chance to experience genuine soul care from wherever you are. [CLICK HERE TO REGISTER - COMING SOON]
2. Attend Our 12-Week Soul Care Semester (Jos, Plateau State)
If you are in Jos or can travel, join us for our 12-week Soul Care semester held twice a year, from March to May and September to October. Sessions take place every Thursday morning from 9 AM to 12:30 PM. It’s a journey worth making. [CLICK HERE TO REGISTER]
3. Bring Our Soul Care Training to Your City or Retreat
If you’re outside Jos or would prefer a private session for your leadership team, we can come to you. Our team of trainers is available to travel to your city and spend a weekend providing our Soul Care training, whether at your facility or during your retreat. To discuss arrangements, call us at [0708 888 7378] to arrange logistical details with our Pastoral Mobilizer, Chris Ahu.
Don’t wait for the breaking point. Choose one of these options and start your journey to wholeness today.
