I’m a Youth Pastor in Australia and I am currently in Burn out. Its a topic hard here in my country and in my denomination - Burn out is Taboo - it means you are weak and you have failed.

I definitely do not agree.

I believe its a combination of things - working too hard, working out of your own strength and not in Gods strength, not taking your thoughts captive, events that happen in your life that are out of your control… there are a number of reasons why people burn out. And Burn out is not to be confused with stress.

Would love peoples thoughts on this

Lizzy

I feel the reality is that churches are at least in part responsible, and perhaps don’t often or deeply enough ask the question “What did we do that contributed to our pastor ending up in that place?” or “What can we do to ensure our pastor stays healthy?”

Maybe this lack of good analysis is why some churches seem to be better at burning out pastors than others?

I have been in that place of wanting nothing more than to go hide under a rock, it literally took years to to return to Ministry but has never been the same.

I learned some valuable lessons through what was (and is at times) a painful process.

As a person in ministry i love the feeling of helping someone in need; being the one that helped. The rush that i get from this is great and really gets my endorphins going, the problem is that the feeling does not last and you have to do it over and over. Now on the outside helping people over and over doesn’t sound like a bad thing, and it isn’t, until it starts to take over other aspects of your life. Not all the blame can be leveled at the church we as ministers have to take responsibility for our own desires and needs that are being fulfilled through our ministry.

Churches however, are notorious for placing completely unrealistic expactations on pastors, working Sundays, having one day off per week, working Christmas Day and Easter, no-one to take over when your sick, taking calls 24/7, always having it together at funerals, having your spouse and kids judged at every move, and never having a bad day. Not a good add for ministey but it needs to be spoken about more!

Burn out is becoming an issue that needs to be talked about more as it is stripping the church of some great leaders,it is time for some significant changes to the conditions that many pastors are working under.

If we were as intentional about our relationships with other people (for the purposes of just doing life) as we are about the task-focused stuff in church (however relational that is), then maybe we’d respond sooner.

If not feeling the love of others around us became a cause for concern rather than a hazard of ministry - if feeling disconnected or alone or overburdened became a reason to run towards life-giving deep friendships, rather than a part of the humanness that ‘ministry professionals’ need to be aware of and ‘manage’… if we stopped telling everyone how ministry is supposed to work and actually just started doing it, dwelling on the scriptures and taking what we can from the models (rather than the other way around)…

If Spirit-filled Christian relationships took the place of prescriptive sets of expectations…

If… um…. if….

Actually, I really have no idea what I’m talking about. And I’m the last person who should be giving suggestions about how not to feel burnt out when it comes to ministry. Somewhere though, underneath all of the crap, is a God who doesn’t need any of it to have His will be done. Anything that doesn’t start from that place is probably just a band-aid that seeks to strengthen man, rather than leaving the wounds exposed and seeking God for strength.

If there are any youth leaders out there in particular who can identify with this type of thing, I’d be interested to chat.

I know it’s a bit in the coming, but Anne Jackson is writing a book on church burnout. Mad Church Diesase https://madchurchdisease.com.

Bec