The Ministry Tableಮಾದರಿ

The Happy Ministry Leader

A recent Hartford Institute study found that 40% of clergy have considered leaving their church, and more than 50% have thought about leaving ministry altogether. Teetering between survival and burnout, many haven’t just lost the joy of ministry—they’ve lost the ministry of joy. One thing leads to another: a crisis in a member’s life, a financial setback, or the weight of an empty heart staring at blank sermon notes. The spark fades, the laugh disappears, and the once-happy soul drifts into the shoulder of joyless duty.

Somewhere along the way, the church has ceded joy to the world—as if possessions, prestige, and power own the good life. Many leaders today lack not only a theology of happiness but also experience in living Jesus’ joy.

In our bookReal Happy: Jesus’ Surprising Path to Genuine Joy, we recover Jesus’ forgotten theology of happiness—a happiness Matthew bookends, beginning on the mount of Beatitudes and ending on the mount of the Great Commission. It was a message Jesus lived, and His leaders embodied.

Before Jesus ever preached or performed a miracle, He stood in the Jordan and heard the Father say, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

No résumé. No miracles. No conversions. Just a beloved Son and a joyful Father. That joy carried Him through the wilderness, steadied Him against Satan, and then burst onto the Galilean scene—not with a prophetic woe but with a Son’s blessing: “The Kingdom of Heaven I experienced in Jordan’s waters is for you too!”

His first sign turned water into glorious wine—bringing the party back to life and declaring that God cares about our merriment. Then came His first sermon: an eight-fold masterclass in joy— Happy are the poor in spirit... Happy are those who mourn... Happy are the meek...

We’ve under-translated makarios as “blessed,” afraid “happy” sounds too soft. But Jesus wasn’t offering platitudes—He was lavishing God’s happiness on struggling souls.

We were never meant to grind through ministry on empty. We were meant to live from joy—first received, then given.

If you’ve lost joy, don’t fake it. Receive it. Let the Father say again what He said at the Jordan: “You are in My beloved, and in Him you bring Me great joy.”

Maybe that’s your only job today: to hear it, believe it, and carry heaven’s happiness into a world disillusioned by lesser and counterfeit joys.

Pastor Mike Hayes and Dr. Jeff Garner
Co-Authors of Real Happy: Jesus' Surprising Path to Genuine Joy
Real Happy Website
Real Happy Book