I Just Can’t Do It Any Longer
I have heard these words more times than I can count, and it breaks my heart every time. Pastors who have dedicated their lives to church ministry, pastored to a countless number of people and made a great impact on the Kingdom of God decide they have had enough and walk away from the pulpit. This is a tragedy happening all over the country and it is affecting communities everywhere. The worst part is that it is avoidable.
To avoid ministry burnout, pastors need to follow these five steps:
- Decide on your location of ministry
- Discover your leadership approach
- Develop a highly effective team
- Design an engaging ministry culture
- Drive toward personal well-being
Introduction
As I sat in freshman chapel my first week in Bible college, our faculty advisor shared with us young and eager aspiring pastors the statistics on how many of us would not make it to full-time sustainable ministry. As I sat there, I became disheartened. It wasn’t because I was afraid of being one of the many that would not make it, but because I looked around the room and realized the dreams of many of my classmates would not come true.
It was at that moment that God spoke to me and told me he was going to use me to help the dreams of pastors come true. He wanted to use me to help pastors live long, sustainable, healthy ministry lives. I don’t suspect it was because I was special, or that I had some gift the others in the room didn’t. In fact, I have always been surrounded by stronger, more talented, and highly gifted pastors.
No, I believe God placed this special calling on my life because as I sat in the chapel that morning, my heart was broken for my brothers and sisters who carried a call on their lives to serve God’s people as pastors, and that dream would be taken from them.
Overview
Ministry burnout is robbing pastors of seeing their calling come to fulfillment, and it is also crippling churches and communities across the country. That only accounts for the pastors who actually reach burnout status and walk away from the ministry. What about those who remain in ministry coasting through the years without the fire to serve and a passion to reach the lost and serve the hurting?
The statistics on the exact number of pastors leaving the ministry due to burnout can be found all over the internet. A quick Google search will turn out a wide variety of statistics. What seems to be the universal consensus, even if we can’t agree on the exact numbers, is that ministry burnout is happening and it is happening at an increasing rate.
What this means, on a personal level, is that there are too many people serving in ministry who are not enjoying the calling they have received from God. It means their emotional, spiritual, and even physical health is suffering. It means their families are suffering along with any personal relationships they may still have. I could go on and on about the negative impacts of ministry burnout, but it has to all be for something, right?
Well, the popular thought and the reason pastors so readily run headlong into burnout is because they believe that it is for the growth of the church and the advancement of God’s Kingdom. Practically, pastors believe that all the time they are giving and all the things they are sacrificing is all worth it because people are coming into deeper relationships with Jesus, securing their eternal home, and becoming disciples that follow after him.
Unfortunately, this just isn’t the case. In 2015, Barna conducted research on discipleship in the church. They found that even though 92% of churchgoers believe that their church is doing a good job of discipleship, only 1% of church leaders would agree and 60% would say churches are “not doing too well” at discipleship.
When Christian adults were asked about their church involvement, only 20% said they were involved in some sort of discipleship experience (including a wide range of activities such as attending Sunday school or fellowship group, meeting with a spiritual mentor, studying the Bible with a group, or reading and discussing a Christian book with a group).
In a study from 2007-2019, the Pew Research Center discovered that the percentage of Americans who identified as Christians has gone from 78%-65%. In that same window, the number of those who identify themselves as ‘Nones’ has risen from 16%-26%.
The data would suggest that all the activity and time spent ‘doing ministry’ is not yielding the results that we as pastors think they are and want them to. For some pastors, this is the conclusion they are coming to. They are working upwards of 50 hours a week and people are less discipled, less effective in reaching their friends and neighbors and coming to services less. This is why when the anxiety is overwhelming, the depression has set in, and the dread to go to the office one more time takes over, pastors are walking away from the pulpit for a secular job that gives them their lives back.
I don’t believe it should be this way. The mission of the local church is vital and necessary and it is what God has called us to. This is not evidence that ministry is unnecessary, or that the local church has become irrelevant, but it is evidence that we as pastors are approaching ministry wrong.
When the Lord calls pastors into lives of vocational ministry, I don’t believe he called us into lives of misery. He called us to lives of sacrifice, selflessness, and fulfillment. I believe God has designed a dream life for each and every pastor out there where their church is growing and healthy, where their communities are being impacted, and where they live fulfilled lives full of joy and satisfaction.
This is the Dream Life in Ministry. This is a life that is free from the anxiety and depression so many pastors live with. A life filled with laughs, joy, moves of God, and great victories and triumphs. This is a life where pastors get vacations, time for hobbies, time to watch kids grow up, and enjoy spouses. In this life, pastors get to see their ministries grow and be effective without sacrificing their families or their personal well-being.
Now, I learned from a wise pastor a long time ago, success is found quicker when we run towards something rather than away from something. When running away we get tired, worn down, and our motivation of fear, discomfort, or uncertainty eventually wears out and we give in. But, if we are running towards something that is exciting, fulfilling, and promising us a better life, we will have a deeper motivation to keep us going even when the road is difficult.
If this is the kind of life you are looking for in ministry, then you only have to follow the simple steps below. I say simple, because they are, but don’t mistake that for being easy. The five steps below will take work, intentionality, and effort, but they will pay dividends to you for the rest of your years in ministry.
So, if you want to live your Dream Life in Ministry and avoid ministry burnout, then you need to follow these 5 simple steps.
Decide on Your Location
Where you choose to serve as a pastor can make a huge difference on whether or not you will fall into ministry burnout.
Let me first address staff pastors. If you are in a pastoral role other than the Lead, then you must understand you are not the captain of the ship. If you are starting out in ministry, then you take the opportunities that come to you, learn as much as you can while you serve, and then when you reach a point where your experience allows you to have options, then seek out positions and locations that suit you better. I see too many young pastors looking for the ‘perfect’ opportunity who sit on the sidelines so long that they end up never even entering into the ministry. When you first start out, you may not get to decide on your location, but learn to serve, even if it is in the worst situation until you have the freedom to decide.
At the same time, I have seen a large number of staff pastors who have deep levels of experience and would be an incredible asset on any ministry team, but they remain serving under Lead Pastors who do not take good care of them. If you want to avoid burnout and begin living your dream life in ministry, you need to serve under a Lead Pastor who is going to build a culture that allows it. Otherwise, you will be in a frustrating cycle where your circumstances keep you from getting where you are wanting to be.
For Lead Pastors, you are the captain of the ship and you have the most freedom to create an environment that fights against burnout. However, what may stand in your way is your board, congregation, or dominant family groups that create unrealistic expectations for you. If this is the case, then unless you have a strong calling to remain in that location, it may be time for you to decide on finding a new location where living a ministry life that avoids burnout is possible. I want to caution you if God calls you to continue to serve in a difficult situation, continue to do so, and pray God gives you the grace and fulfillment necessary. However, if you do not have that strong calling, move on to a different church where they will appreciate what you have to offer and you will be able to live the dream life in ministry God has designed for you.
Discover Your Leadership Approach
For the past three decades, leadership in ministry has become an area of great interest. When I first started in ministry, I was introduced to John Maxwell and his 21 Laws, and from that point on I was a student of leadership in ministry. After 20+ years of ministry and 2 degrees in leadership, I believe this is central to avoiding burnout. But, we have to go beyond simply understanding leadership as a discipline.
We are inundated with mountains of leadership axioms, laws, lists, practices, and strategies, but how do we know which ones work?
The right question, and where we need to shift our focus, is which ones work for you?
God has given you a unique design, a unique calling, and a unique dream life. There is too much leadership material out there for you to put it all into practice, and not all of it is actually helpful. What is helpful though, is to understand how God has designed you, what gifts and tendencies he has built into you, and then find the leadership approach that enhances those unique qualities.
Too often we try to lead like another pastor or leader we know or watch from afar, but we are nothing like. This causes us to ineffective and adds to our frustration as pastors. Some have even gone so far as to declare leadership has no place in ministry because they can’t seem to get it to work for them.
In order to live a life of ministry that avoids burnout, we need to understand ourselves, unlock the unique leadership approach God has placed in us, and begin to operate out of that. When we begin to operate from our discovered leadership approach in the right location, we are well on our way to avoiding burnout and living the dream life God has created for us.
Develop a Highly Effective Team
You show me someone who has done great things in history, and I will show you the team behind them that made it possible.
Particularly in Western culture, we have this idea that an individual can do something great, and that may be the case on very rare occasions. But, when we think of great men and women over the course of history, whatever they accomplished was made possible because of the other nameless people that surrounded them.
Ministry is 100% a team sport. Even Jesus, who was the most naturally gifted pastor of all time, had a team of 12 that worked alongside him and made his ministry work. So, why do we as pastors think we can do anything of greatness in our churches and ministries without having an exceptional team around us?
I have heard a lot of pastors say they have a hard time finding good staff pastors for their teams. That is true, there is not a lot of high capacity, dynamic, and multitalented pastors out there just hoping someone will hire them to serve in a church. They are either already on a team and being well taken care of, or they are transitioning incognito because before they needed a new position they already had several opportunities waiting for them.
Instead, as pastors, we have to find good people called into ministry, and we have to develop them into highly effective pastors. We have to do the hard work just like Jesus did. Remember, he took a ragtag group of men who were unqualified and made them world changers. He did the hard work of developing them and empowering them for greatness.
When we put in the hard work of developing an effective team of pastors around us, we have partners to help us carry the load. We don’t feel overwhelmed and anxious all the time because the list of tasks is eternal and our time is already run out. Instead, we share the weight with our other pastors, bouncing ideas off of them, and discovering more efficient and creative ways to accomplish the things we need to.
By developing a highly effective pastoral team, we are able to get back to enjoying the work of ministry, the challenges that come with it, and the victories God is accomplishing through us.
Design an Engaging Ministry Culture
One of the primary stressors for pastors is getting people to come to church. It is really hard to build a church or an effective ministry when no one wants to come. The trap we can fall into is believing that society is antichurch and people just aren’t interested in coming, so we focus on those who are already in our sanctuary pews and wait for more people to walk through the door.
The problem with taking this posture is that it places all the responsibility on external factors, and in a passive way absolves us as pastors of the responsibility of drawing people into our churches. However, we were never called to build churches, we were called to make disciples. And it is time we get our focus in the right place.
When we are focused on building a church, we can get lost in the idea of what we think a church should look like. Even throughout various denominations, we have different ideas of what church should look like. How worship should be done, how prayer should be done, what classes need to be held, etc.
When we are focused on the mission of making disciples, we are able to break it down into 2 primary phases: attracting people who need Jesus and helping them be more like Jesus. When we do that, it narrows our perspective down to only those things that accomplish the mission.
When we are laser-focused on the mission Jesus has given us, then we are able to create a ministry culture that engages people wherever they are rather than where we are. We are able to build ministries, small groups, classes, services, and anything else that is focused on being engaging, memorable, and keeps people coming back for more.
Rather than having to figure out how to coax people into coming to church and increasing the risk of burnout, we will spend our time celebrating people’s faith journeys and dreaming of more ways to help them engage with Jesus and with one another.
Drive Toward Personal Well-Being
The final step is making yourself as the pastor a priority. Now, do not misunderstand this step to mean that you don’t worry about your personal well-being until everything else is in place. That is what most of us are already doing, which is the reason why so many of us are struggling.
Driving toward personal well-being is a shift in perspective. As you are journeying through steps 1-4, you should be taking time to care for yourself. Making a priority to eat right, exercise, invest in personal relationships, pay down debt, and other personal well-being factors. But, most of your time is spent driving towards creating a healthy church culture where people are encountering Jesus and learning how to be the church.
When you are in the right place of ministry, you have identified and are operating out of your leadership approach, you have a solid pastoral team, and engaging church culture, then you can start driving toward personal well-being.
When you have reached step five, most of the ministry of the church is running on autopilot. You have pastoral staff who are well trained, effective and running the ministries of the church. You have volunteers carrying sharing the load and doing the work of the ministry. Most of your time is spent preaching the word, vision casting, investing into your pastors, board, and core leaders, and you have the necessary margin to really invest into you. This is when you can start living your dream life and you are free from the dangers of burnout.
Conclusion
Ministry is hard. Not everyone who answers the call will see it through to completion. But that is the case for anything that is challenging and worth committing a life to. As pastors, we have to accept that ministry is hard and is going to take sacrifice.
However, that doesn’t mean that ministry is misery. It shouldn’t be. The Apostle Paul lived a hard life with lots of difficulties and setbacks, even being beaten and imprisoned. In Romans, Paul says, “We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame.” Despite the challenges and difficulties of ministry, we should still live out the hope of Christ and find fulfillment despite the suffering.
Well, that is what I am calling you to do today. A life filled with hope, fulfillment, and joy despite the rigors of ministry. This is how you stop running away from ministry burnout and start running toward YOUR DREAM LIFE IN MINISTRY!!!
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