Darrin Patrick’s Death, His Love for Pastors, and How We Need One Another

Darrin’s death is not the last word on his life. His love for pastors—and his concern for their mental health and thriving—can be part of our response today.

Darrin Patrick has died.

Darrin is probably best known for planting The Journey Church in St. Louis in 2002, eventually growing to six locations. He was a husband, father, speaker, and author.

Darrin and his spiritual mentor Greg Surratt led the Pastor's Collective podcast and he was serving as a teaching pastor at Seacoast Church.

But, most importantly, Darrin was married to Amie and they have four children.

Darrin’s Journey and Focus

Darrin was very open about his journey—and specifically asked me to help share his story a little over a year ago. His story of leaving the Journey is painful and messy, but he wanted people to know about it.

He wanted people to learn from his pain.

Darrin died from a “self-inflicted gunshot wound.” I know that has caused some people to want more details—to use language that is more precise and to provide added details. And, as you can tell from the statement, the situation is confusing. Seacoast Church shared, ““Darrin was target shooting with a friend at the time of his death. An official cause of death has not been released but it appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. No foul play is suspected.”

Thus, it is important to let families communicate the way they are comfortable. Families grieve in complex ways—and right now, they owe nothing to the rest of us. We just owe them our prayers.

The family is grieving and I am respecting their grief and their communication choices.

And, from there, I am going to take Darrin’s admonition from a year ago and fast forward it until now—hoping that even this moment might be a catalyst for pastors to get help that Darrin always wanted them to get.

Darrin and I talked recently and his last ...