The things that swirl around in a preacher's heart about the flock he oversees, at times, can be quite a burden. The very people that he is trying to help mature in their faith can sink to surprising immature depths at times. He may receive a snarky comment at the door as he is greeting his flock for worship. As he is helping to lead his flock in worship or preach to them he may receive glaring scowls of disapproval at everything from the length of his sermon, to the sermon topic, to the song list, to the temperature of the room.
As he prepares for Sunday throughout the week he may be broken-hearted over the life choices he sees his flock make that, at best may be a very poor witness of faith and, at worst may be a self-destructive sin pattern that will eventually lead them to hell.
Not every preacher does, but any preacher worth his salt, truly cares about growing the spiritual maturity levels of the people he serves. His main task is to help the people he serves filter all of life through the lens of Scripture. For some reason, helping people in that process can be very similar to a forced prostrate exam for some.
Many people are very happy to not have anything change in their worldview. Scripture has a way of violently intruding on our particular comforts and wreaking havoc. The preacher recognizes this, but some are more gentle than others at allowing the Scriptures to do their offensive work in the lives of the flock they serve.
I know this is somewhat of a rant, but it is something that I have been thinking about a lot lately. If you are a preacher and you are coasting into retirement and never want to upset the apple cart...do God a big favor and step down so that He can get busy undoing what you have done.
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