You're doing work that matters, changing lives, preaching the gospel. Your satisfaction with your accomplishments feels real. But when you rate your personal enjoyment of life, what number comes to mind?

Arthur Brooks, a social scientist and Harvard professor, sees the same pattern repeatedly when he works with religious leaders: pastors score high on satisfaction and meaning, but enjoyment often lands at a 3 out of 10. In a recent episode of the Stetzer ChurchLeaders podcast, Brooks identifies the problem: "A lot of Christians feel really guilty when they're feeling some sort of pleasure, as if that pleasure is a temptation. It is, if you don't turn it into enjoyment."

Here's his distinction: "Pleasure plus people plus memory equals enjoyment, and enjoyment is one of God's gifts." The issue isn't pleasure itself—it's isolation. "A lot of clergy spend a lot of time alone," he observes. "And that leads them to be tempted by pleasure, not by enjoyment, and the result is they try to cut it out of their lives, which means they cut out enjoyment, and they get unhappier."

The solution? "When you're alone with something pleasurable that can become addictive—and nearly everything can—you're probably doing it wrong. But when pleasure happens with people, with memory, with intention, it becomes enjoyment. It becomes a gift. That's the difference between burnout and sustaining joy in ministry."

Listen to the full conversation with Arthur Brooks on the Stetzer ChurchLeaders Podcast: Spotify | Apple Podcasts

Three things to try this week:

Your People Want Accountability. Can They Find It At Your Church? | Lifeway Research

Good news: seventy-seven percent of your congregation says they've developed significant relationships at church. Sixty-eight percent say they have friends who hold them accountable. The tension is what Arthur Brooks would recognize immediately. Your people are craving exactly what they should be craving—real discipleship, mutual accountability, life-on-life investment. But here's Brooks' insight applied directly: many of your leaders are isolated. They have deal-friends who help them accomplish ministry tasks, not real friends who ask how they're actually doing. When you're isolated, you can't create space for others to be un-isolated. The relational culture your congregation is hungry for starts with you being willing to be known, to admit struggle, to let someone else speak truth into your life.

This week's action step: Who is one person you could be radically honest with this week? Not about church strategy. About your actual struggle. About where you're lonely. That vulnerability is what gives your congregation permission to stop performing and start healing together.

Gen Z and Your Church: Why Younger Adults Are Turning to AI for Spiritual Guidance | Barna Research

Among Gen Z, 39 percent would trust AI's spiritual guidance as much as a pastor's. For Millennials, it's nearly half. Why are your youngest adults outsourcing spiritual direction to a machine? The answer isn't that chatbots are good at spiritual formation. Something relational is missing. When Arthur Brooks talks about pleasure without people becoming temptation instead of enjoyment, he describes churches where real accountability is rare. Your younger members are looking for someone to help them think through faith. They're not finding it in the pews. The concern is that your youngest members are signaling a relational crisis you haven't named yet.

This week's action step: Ask your team: where in our church are younger adults actually experiencing real spiritual friendship? Not small group attendance, not program participation. Where are two people having honest conversations about their faith? Start there. Build there. Make that the culture you're known for, and people will stop looking elsewhere.

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