Most pastors know what you're talking about when you say -- Blue Monday . They've had them. Maybe often. Blue Monday is more than a Monday morning hangover. Its closer to a feeling of failure -- wanting to give up and walk away. Usually by the middle of the week the gloom lifts and you are back to your old self. But not always. The pastors I talk with can often name what triggered their Blue Monday. If these stories sound true it is because they are:

- After several years of prayerful planning you bring to the church your relocation plan with unanimous support of the board. It does not pass.

- You persuaded your mentor to come as a guest speaker for a Saturday night marriage seminar. A few older ladies showed up, all widows. You discovered Sunday morning that your younger couples had gone as a group to a hockey game.

-You preach a powerful sermon yesterday on the Lord's will and sensed God's anointing. The biggest response you got was from the member correcting your pronouncing of Phrygia.

- Yesterday you had your farewell Sunday after pastoring the same church for 30 years leading it to more than 900 from zero. They gave you a clock.

- You become gradually convinced that what your people really want are general sermons that encourage and entertain, not specific sermons that convict and challenge. You are tempted to give them what they want.

- Your Treasurer tells you that they can no longer afford to pay your family's insurance because they need to build up the church's Rainy Day Fund.

- You preached your heart out yesterday after an almost-sleepless night burdened with your congregation's spiritual poverty. Your people sat like gravestones during the service, and those who needed the message most nodded off to sleep several times.

- After leading a dozen people over a month to put on yesterday's big attenda