Avoiding Burnout
Published by Matt Glover July 20th, 2007 in Youth MinistryThis has been on my mind a lot over the last twelve months or so.
As I write this, my senior pastor is away on “stress leave” after struggling to cope with life and ministry to the point where he could not continue. One of my heroes in ministry has suffered a similar fate, and now wants nothing to do with church or ministry desiring nothing more than hide under a rock. The two senior pastors that I previously served under also burnt out.
This is not a good advertisement for ministry. The long hours, low pay, constant criticism and general low regard for what pastors do is bad enough. But to then have so many church leaders crumble under the pressure and risk their own lives and families, well, I can understand why there is a crisis in leadership.
I’m not wanting to get into the debates about whether we should have pastors in the post-modern culture and all that guff just yet. I will in the future - I hope to get back into a blogging rhythm soon and start exploring in a more public way some of the things I’ve been wading through in the last six months or so. But for now, I wonder how we can make our leaders role a bit more enjoyable.
Hebrews 13:17 - Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you.
Reading that, I ask myself what I’ve done to make my leaders work a joy. To my shame, I don’t think there is a whole lot. I’ve been loyal, submitted to his leadership and defended him when I can, but I don’t think I’ve done anything to make his work joyful in any sense of the word. And then I wonder what I could do anyway…this is something that will be higher on my list of priorities.
In our leadership formation programs over the years, self-care is drummed into us. Maintain your friendships out side the church, involve yourself in things out side of your church, block out time for self and family, have a supervisor and peer group, take retreats, use your leave and delegate when you can. All of these I’ve done, but I’m still a bit frightened about what may lie ahead. Travelling around the State supporting other leaders and pastors, I’m fearful for where we might be heading.
I’m not sure if anybody is still reading this blog after it’s inactivity this year, but if you do, make sure you’re praying for your leader and trying to make his/her ministry something that is life-giving. And if you are a leader, please, please please make sure you are looking after yourself.
Enough said.
Yeah, I know several people who have burned out, as well, and many others who got close to the brink. Fortunately, I’m still young and can heed the advice they give me to avoid burning out. I actually blogged about it here.
Hi Matt,
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
I’m just a volunteer and I’ve certainly been feeling the burn. The post linked above by Tim definitely rings true in so many situations that I’ve seen. The concept of making the work of leaders a joy, I think comes through relationship. Relationships with others are always going to be the sources of our greatest joy.
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.
mmmmm a topic which i know well!
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.
Do you think that church congregations take enough responsibility for their pastors when it comes to burnout? I mean - I know a lot of great pastors who have… but the only questions I hear asked are along the lines of “What did they do to end up there?” or “They really needed to self-care better”.
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?
Hi,
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