Welcome to the John Mark Comer Teaching's Podcast by Practicing the Way.

This teaching was first given at Bridgetown Church in Portland, Oregon as a part of the Sabbath practice.

Last August, I got a call from my buddy Darren, who is the lead pastor of a church in Long Beach and one of a few friends that I kind of do life with and we regularly call each other to catch up

and pray and share stuff and he was really in turmoil that day he just got a call

that a good friend of his another lead pastor in the LA area had just taken his own life via suicide.

Andrew Stockholm, if you know this story, he was 30 years old, wife, three little boys,

charismatic, a lot of gifting in his life,

pastor of a large and still growing church,

definitely a workaholic.

And something about it just took an emotional and even spiritual toll on his soul. The

stereotype of a pastor is that you know we just sit around drink coffee, chat with

people and study the Bible, you know?

And that's all I do, but most people have some other things on the docket.

The reality is very different, especially in a mega church like Andrew was in,

where you're expected not just to be a teacher

and spiritual director but a CEO executive director of a nonprofit management guru strategic

expert and you know therapist community organizer all of the above it's just a lot of

pressure. Andrew began to have panic attacks a few years ago anxiety depression

by last spring he ended up in the hospital after one particularly bad panic attack and from there

on a four month sabbatical kind of a turning point in his story.

His first week back from sabbatical in August he began actually a series on mental illness from the life of

Elijah. If you know Elijah story, there's a point where Elijah full on says,

...