When a pastor suggests his hobby is the church, Dr. Jim Philpott said, “that’s not good.”
“Pastors need to have some time that is their own,” said the man, a pastor himself, who has been an area pastoral counselor for the past 30 years. “Many have trouble even taking vacation because they feel like they’ll be letting somebody down.”
Philpott, an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church, will be closing his office at the end of next week and eventually moving with his wife and daughter to Texas, where his son, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren live.
In a counseling career that covered more than 25,000 individual appointments, he saw pastors of various denominations but far more laypersons and couples. The clergy groups he facilitated, though, were a particular joy.
Many of the groups continued through the years, Philpott said, and gave pastors opportunities to talk about their congregations, their families and their personal lives.