Keeping pastors on the right 'PATHH' - Non-denominational group helping pastors to deal with pressures of the flesh

Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writer

There is no escaping the symbolism of the acronym for the organisation the Reverend Napoleon Black of the Maverley Gospel Hall in St Andrew spearheads.

The acronym is PATHH - Pastors According To His Heart - and is intended to keep persons of the cloth on the straight and narrow. Or, if they wander, lead them back to it.

"I am all over the place dealing with moral and ethical issues facing pastors," Black told The Sunday Gleaner.

Black launched the initiative four years ago and says there was some resistance to PATHH being established.

"There are some persons who did not think it could happen," he said.

However, "on the whole, it was well received. We have had representation from quite a number of churches," added Black.

Some pastors were eager about the organisation, saying that their families were broken and their children were not following through. Other pastors complained that the expectations of the Church were also a problem.

"In many churches, expectations between pastor and congregation are not usually well laid out," Black observed.

Heavy workload

In addition, there is the heavy pastor's workload - up to 15 sets of activities in a single week.

"Sometimes it is just priority issues and how you delegate as a leader, what sort of team you have around you, and what is the level of accountability you have."

Black pointed out that there may be simple issues such as how a church is physically organised.

"As simple a thing as where you place your office," Black said, pointing out that if it is in a relatively secluded place to the back of the church, it can create privacy issues."

With PATHH, Black said, "We have found that there are a number of sexual issues that pastors face, ranging from the breakdown of the family - the wife wants to walk out because she feels that her husband is giving too much attention to other women at church - to the pastor himself getting someone else pregnant.

"The wives of pastors are going through hell in many, many cases," Black said. "There are those who feel the worst thing is when the family got into full-time ministry. This is the issue: Who is your wife, the Church, or the wife?" asked Black.

PATHH has had to deal with homosexuality issues as well. However, Black claimed that "for the most part, pastors are behaving themselves".

He said there are instances where a church member 'sets up' the pastor for close contact, in the process ensuring that she is the sole communication conduit to him. So while the pastor sees her as helping him, her objective is "getting him for herself".

According to Black: "There are some pastors who have suffered because women have trapped them in that way, whether they know it or do not know it."

So PATHH is as much preventative as it is an intervention. As Black puts it: "You have your hose. If the curtain is on fire, you want to deal with it. It is not the whole house that is on fire, but you want to deal with it."

Sexual vulnerability

The proportion could be in keeping with what Black found in his studies, where he looked at the problem of sexual vulnerability in the clergy.

He found that just over 20 per cent of pastors have been known to have got involved with a member of the congregation, ranging from sexual contact to fondling and inappropriate touching.

Significantly, in its four years, PATHH has not had to intervene in a situation involving a female pastor.

Black argued: "Women do not seem to face the same issues as the men with pastoral integrity."

However, he was quick to state that this does not necessarily mean there aren't female pastors facing sexual issues.

Black indicated that a critical part of PATHH is preparing people for ministry.

"A man may say he has been called, but has he sorted out his stuff? He is going to interact with people with all sorts of issues. We are pushing that pastors themselves must go through some evaluation just to determine if they have dealt with themselves," he said.

"I am not saying everyone must be perfect, but they must be in charge of his or her emotional state. So if a girl comes and says this is what is happening to me, I am not salivating all over her. It is important," Black said.