How do you preach when you are going through a hard time personally?

Preach the text rather than your feelings. Acknowledge your humanity without disclosing specifics. Prepare more carefully, not less. Lean on the lament Psalms, which give honest language for struggle. And tell one trusted person what you are carrying — isolation makes pastoral struggle more dangerous.

Is it appropriate for a pastor to share personal struggles from the pulpit?

There is a difference between honest acknowledgment and oversharing. Saying 'I am preaching this because I need it' is honest and appropriate. Detailing the specifics of a personal crisis is not the pulpit's role. The congregation needs to know you are human, not to carry your specific burdens.

What do you preach when you are struggling with doubt?

Preach the text faithfully, even when you find it hard to feel. The discipline of preaching what the text says, rather than what you feel, keeps you anchored to something outside yourself. The lament Psalms are particularly useful — they give honest language for doubt and darkness that is theologically grounded.

How do you maintain sermon quality when you are burned out?

Prepare more carefully, not less. When you are burned out, careful preparation is what keeps the sermon from becoming about you. Know the text well enough to preach it even when you are not at your best. And address the burnout directly — preaching through it is not the same as dealing with it.

When should a pastor seek professional help?

When the struggle involves depression, a marriage in serious crisis, addiction, suicidal thoughts, or burnout that is not lifting, professional help is necessary. Preaching faithfully through difficulty is possible. But the pastor also needs to get well, and that requires more than preaching.

How to Preach When You Are Struggling: A Guide for Honest Pastors

Every pastor will eventually stand in the pulpit while carrying something heavy. A marriage in crisis. A child who has walked away from faith. A diagnosis that has not been shared publicly. A season of doubt so dark that the words of the sermon feel hollow even as you say them. Financial pressure that keeps you awake at night. Grief that has not lifted.

Nobody tells you in seminary how to preach through that. This guide is an attempt to fill that gap.

70%
of pastors say they have no close friends outside their congregation (Barna Group, 2017)

1 in 3
pastors report significant depression or burnout at some point in their ministry (Lifeway Research, 2022)

Isolation
is the most dangerous factor in pastoral struggle, not the struggle itself

The Temptation to Perform

The first temptation when you are struggling is to perform. To preach as if everything is fine. To project confidence and joy you do not feel. To give the congregation the pastor they expect rather than the pastor you actually are.

This is understandable. You do not want to burden your congregation with your problems. You do not want to appear weak. You do not want to undermine their confidence in your leadership. These are not bad instincts.

But performance has a cost. It is exhausting. It is dishonest. And it communicates something false to your congregation: that faith means having it together, that following Jesus means not struggling, that the Christian life is something other than what it actually is.

The Temptation to Overshare

The opposite temptation is to use the pulpit as a confessional. To share more than is appropriate. To make the congregation carry what they are not equipped to carry. To turn the sermon into a therapy session.

This is also a failure of pastoral care, not because honesty is wrong, but because the pulpit is not the right venue for every kind of honesty. Your congregation needs to trust you. They need to know you are human. They do not need to know everything you are carrying.

The Third Way: Honest Without Oversharing

There is a third way between performance and oversharing. It requires discernment, but it is possible.

Preach the Text, Not Your Feelings

The sermon is not about you. It is about the text and what God is saying through it. When you are struggling, this is actually a gift: the discipline of preaching the text keeps you anchored to something outside yourself. You do not have to manufacture feelings you do not have. You have to be faithful to what the text says.

The text will often say things that are harder to believe when you are struggling. Preach them anyway. Not with false confidence, but with honest faith: “This is what the text says. I am preaching it because I believe it is true, even when I find it hard to feel.”

Some of the most powerful sermons are preached by pastors who are struggling.
Not because struggle makes you a better preacher, but because it strips away the performance and leaves something more honest. Your congregation can tell the difference between a pastor who is reciting truth and a pastor who is clinging to it.

Acknowledge Without Explaining

You can be honest about your humanity without disclosing the specifics of your situation. “I am preaching this passage this week because I need it” is honest. It does not require you to explain why. “This has been a hard season for me, and this text has been an anchor” is honest. It does not require you to detail the hardship.

This kind of honesty is actually more powerful than full disclosure. It invites the congregation into the reality that faith is not easy, without making them responsible for your specific situation.

Lean on the Lament Psalms

The Psalms give you language for preaching through struggle that is both honest and theologically grounded. Psalm 22, 42, 88, 130, these are not passages about having it together. They are passages about crying out to God when you do not feel his presence, when the darkness is real, when the faith is more act of will than feeling.

Preaching through a lament Psalm when you are struggling is not using the text as a vehicle for your own pain. It is letting the text do what it was designed to do: give voice to the full range of human experience before God.

Prepare More Carefully, Not Less

When you are struggling, the temptation is to let sermon preparation slide. You have less energy. Less focus. Less motivation. Resist this. Careful preparation is what keeps the sermon from becoming about you. When you know the text well, you can preach it even when you are not at your best. When you have not prepared, you will fill the gaps with whatever is most present in your mind, which, when you are struggling, is your struggle.

After the Sermon

Tell someone. Not the congregation, a trusted friend, a mentor, another pastor. The isolation of pastoral struggle is one of the most dangerous things about it. You were not designed to carry this alone. Find one person who can hold what you are carrying with you.

If the struggle is significant, depression, a marriage in crisis, addiction, burnout, get professional help. Preaching through it is not the same as dealing with it. The sermon can be faithful even when the pastor is not okay. But the pastor also needs to get okay, and that requires more than preaching.

If you are having thoughts of suicide or self-harm, stop reading this and call someone now.
A trusted friend, a counselor, a crisis line. Your congregation needs you alive more than they need your sermon. Please reach out.

What Your Congregation Needs

Your congregation does not need a pastor who has never struggled. They need a pastor who has struggled and kept preaching. Who has doubted and kept trusting. Who has been in the dark and kept pointing toward the light.

That is not performance. That is witness. And it is one of the most powerful things a pastor can offer.

Tell one person.
If you are struggling right now, tell one person before this week is over. Not your congregation. One trusted person who can hold it with you. That is the first step.