One Simple Switch to Avoid Ministry Burnout
There are a lot of factors that cause pastors to lose the passion for their calling. Pastors start out fired up and end up burning out. Why?
84% of pastors say they’re on call 24-hours a day.
80% expect conflict in their church.
54% find the role of pastor frequently overwhelming.
COVID is multiplying the effects by a factor of 10 (and maybe 100)
There is one simple switch that can keep pastors on fire for God.
At Your Service
During the first years of being a pastor, I was happy just to be in ministry. God called me to be a pastor. I signed my pastoral letters, "At your service." That seemed like a good idea. After all, hadn’t Robert Greenleaf coined the phrase “servant leadership” as the highest form of leadership? In fact, the term had almost become a cliché. And didn’t all the early apostles introduce themselves as “servants” in the New Testament epistles?
What I discovered was, people make bad taskmasters. Their expectations and demands can literally kill a pastor. In fact, being a servant to people will suck the life out of you.
The problem is not in being a servant, but in whom you are serving.
A Simple Switch Flip
Ministry changed when I flipped the switch from loving God and serving people to serving God and loving people.
God makes a good taskmaster. Jesus says, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Serving God is life-giving. Serving people tears down your self-worth. People may initially compliment you as their pastor, but their expectations increase and they will take as much from you as you allow them to. Serving God builds your self-worth.
Pastors serve God by loving people. And, you love God by loving people. In fact, loving people is obedience. Jesus says, “Abide in me. Obey my commandments.” What is His commandment? “Love one another as I have loved you.”
What are some of the indicators that a pastor might be a servant to people rather than serving God?
1. Bitter Toward God.
When a pastor is a servant to people, the end result can be hating your calling and even hating God. A pastor who serves people will grow resentful to their calling. She or he may feel taken advantage of. And, since God called them to serve, it’s easy to see how pastors can become bitter towards the God of their calling. The next step is abandoning the call and finding another role in life.
2. Doing it all.
Here’s an interesting paradox. The more a pastor serves, the more she or he is set up to fail. The reason pastors fail is because they tend to make, perhaps, the most serious error a leader can make. They attempt to meet all of the expectations of their congregation.
This attempt has two consequences:
A. Leaders run themselves ragged and hurt their own lives and the lives of their family members. People-pleasing becomes a deadly outcome.
B. Leaders send the wrong message to their congregations, and especially to those needy individuals who have a great deal of wounded-ness from the past.
This message is, “Yes, I can do it all. I can heal those wounds. I’m the right person for you.”
But sending this message is a recipe for disaster because leaders invariably are unable to meet all of their congregants’ expectations.
Life, and certainly church life, has this annoying way of serving up problems that don’t lend themselves to easy answers. Even so, people look to those in authority to deliver solutions.
Unfortunately, pastors all too often are more than willing to assume these expectations. Instead of solving the problems, the pastor becomes the one upon whom the congregation can dump all of its ambivalence, anxiety, and anger.
3. Burnout
Serving people will burn you out. Serving God by loving people will fire you up.
How does serving God and loving people free you for healthy ministry?
The number one way is the ability to set boundaries.
People need boundaries.
You don’t need boundaries with God. His expectations are reasonable, easy, and light.
If you are a servant to people, or a people pleaser, you cannot set boundaries. When you switch to loving people you can, and must, set boundaries. Unconditional love is not without boundaries.
Pastors need to set limits on their time with people. You need to say “No” to coffee, or dinners, or being a guest at special events. That approach comes with a price. When you disappoint people, they get mad. They get really mad. And mostly they get mad at you.
Todd Bolsinger, in Canoeing the Mountains, says pastors need to be able to disappoint their own people at a rate they can absorb. It’s how you and the church stay healthy.
The Best Gift
The best gift you can give the people you lead is a healthy, energized, fully surrendered, focused self.
And no one can do that for you. You've got to do that for yourself.
Flip the switch.
How are you doing, pastor? Leave your comment below. Thank you.
Bob Jones is the founder of REVwords.com, an author, blogger, and coach with 39 years of pastoral experience. Bob is also an Advance Coach with the ABNWT Resource Centre. You can connect with Bob here.