Author’s note: This is my second article dealing with pastoral burnout. Recent Barna research revealed that 33% of ministers had given serious thought to quitting. My own research for a graduate studies project showed 63% of those surveyed had given or were giving serious thought to quitting the ministry. In the first article, I wrote about some top challenges ministers face and how key regular rhythms of renewal can create resiliency. In this article, I dig deeper to some fundamental issues we must gain clarity on to thrive long term.
I thought I was being a good minister, but my motives for keeping peace and handling internal church conflict were not as noble as I would have liked to believe. It had been a long season of starting a new multisite campus (our church’s first) and then moving that campus community into a remodeled church building where we had done 80% of the work with volunteers. I was tired but I didn’t realize how tired I was. Then internal conflict began surfacing, and I didn’t know how to address it. I was approaching burnout but had no language for what I was experiencing.
I’ll spare you the details of the conflict that led to the end of my time in that ministry, but it began with passionate people caring deeply for how we did ministry. It ended, however, in a power struggle. So, I left. I didn’t get fired or wake up one day and just quit (although that was very much on my mind in that season). I left to start a new church in a new state. Bad idea! It was only after we landed in our new state that I realized how burned out I was. There were a lot of contributing factors to my burnout, and the conflict was only one part of it.
“There were a lot of contributing factors to my burnout, and the conflict was only one part of it.”
Recently, in researching a project on pastoral burnout, three core issues kept surfacing in survey results and conversations, and I couldn’t help but relate. In a previous article, I mentioned three challenges ministers face (expectations, emotional toll, and busyness) that can make it hard to thrive long term. These are really the tip of the iceberg when it comes to burnout as they are the most visible. Below the surface though are larger issues that must be addressed for healthy, long-term ministry. These issues are identity, calling, and relating to God.
Identity
How does a senior/children’s/executive/youth/etc. minister view himself? Who is she at her core? Insecurity or misunderstanding about identity will create a shaky foundation when facing the pressures of ministry. Sometimes without noticing, a minister can begin to view their identity through the lens of skill, competence, and results. Often, preaching, Sunday morning attendance, and praise become the framework for their identity. Personal identity and professional tasks become enmeshed.
“The gospel clearly teaches us that our good works are a result of God’s workmanship in us and are our response to his grace. But our fearful hearts and our performance-oriented culture, which increasingly views Christian practices as irrelevant, tell us the opposite: we are what we do.”[1]
And unfortunately, a congregation can unwittingly reinforce this.
When I stepped away from full-time ministry, I experienced an identity crisis. I suddenly did not know who I was apart from preaching and having people depending on me as their minister. I see now that I had allowed a faulty view of my identity to grow which eventually led to burnout.
“I suddenly did not know who I was apart from preaching and having people depending on me as their minister.”
Writer and teacher Parker Palmer speaks to this. We take the inner journey with our identity when we encounter “the knowledge that identity does not depend on the role we play or the power it gives us over others. It depends only on the simple fact that we are children of God, valued in and for ourselves.”[2] An identity built on Christ will always lead to a valuable contribution to others. But the reverse is not true. Focusing on how we are contributing will not lead to a solid identity in Christ. The first is life-giving. The second is life-draining.
Calling
A second under-the-surface issue is how a minister views their calling. Many of the ministers I interviewed in my research project expressed the incredible stabilizing force of their calling. One minister who has over thirty years of ministry experience as a missionary and pastor said that the top thing that has built resilience into his ministry is his calling. He spoke with tears in his eyes about when he felt like quitting, it was his calling that kept him from quitting.
There were many respondents who mentioned though that they felt conflicted between their calling and their current ministry. They were sticking it out in an unhealthy environment because they did not know what they would do outside of full-time ministry. They still felt called to ministry but were feeling the effects of burnout and did not know how to address it while staying faithful to their calling.
In the midst of my conflict, I lost a sense of my calling. For me, ministry became about keeping everyone happy, maintaining peace, getting the church community moved, and putting on the service each week. I lost sight of being called to make disciples, preach the Word, and lead people to experience true life in Christ. It was only after time away from ministry that God was able to clear away the clutter to clarify my calling once again.
“In the midst of my conflict, I lost a sense of my calling.”
Often a minister’s calling gets tied to a specific assignment. I see calling as much broader than to a specific time and place. No doubt, God can and has called people to specific times and places, but I see a lot of ministers get wrapped around an axle in their minds when they feel like their calling is only tied to their current ministry.
First, our calling is to Jesus. He calls us to follow Him. Second, He calls us to go and make disciples. Beyond that, God gives us lots of freedom to fulfill different assignments out of our gifting, strengths, and personality. When I keep this perspective on calling, I can hold different assignments loosely yet cling tightly to God’s call, recognizing that I can trust God to “fulfill his purpose for me” (Psalm 138:8, ESV). It also helps me recognize that staying in a ministry does not make me a saint and leaving does not make me a failure.
Relating to God
How a minister relates to God is the third under-the-surface issue. It should go without saying that a minister’s relationship with God is foundational to their calling and identity. However, in the daily demands of ministry it is tempting to place one’s own spiritual life as secondary and begin relating to God in unhealthy ways.
Henri Nouwen, in his classic In the Name of Jesus, recognized that he let his ministry distract him from the most important part of his life. “After twenty-five years of priesthood, I found myself praying poorly, living somewhat isolated from other people, and very much preoccupied with burning issues. Everyone was saying that I was doing really well, but something inside was telling me that my success was putting my own soul in danger.”[3]
For many, this is a lesson that takes time to get internalized. For ministers as people-helpers, their own soul’s relationship with God can get overshadowed by everyone else’s needs. It becomes a question of who or what is getting top priority in a minister’s life. Steve Macchia addresses this directly. “It’s time that we come clean with our true affections, the ones that occupy and preoccupy our hearts and minds on a daily basis.”[4] For me, pleasing people became a priority. For others, it could be performance or applause.
“For ministers as people-helpers, their own soul’s relationship with God can get overshadowed by everyone else’s needs.”
My research found that 73% of the ministers surveyed were satisfied or very satisfied with their walk with God. This was a great finding. However, 63% of those same ministers had given serious thought to quitting. For most of them, how they were relating to God was not increasing contentment or lessening the pressures to quit.
In my period of burnout, I never stopped my “quiet time” with God. However, I can see now that my relationship with God had become task-oriented. I was doing many spiritual things, but I was not being very honest with Him. Of course, He knew the real me, but I was trying to wall off certain parts of my life from Him. A relationship doesn’t work very well when that is the case.
Our relationship with God is a true relationship. God is omniscient and omnipresent, and He chooses to relate to us as Father. Jesus is Lord, Savior, and King and He calls us friends. The Holy Spirit is a mystery and yet invites us to walk with Him.
I don’t regret leaving that ministry. The time away from full-time ministry was very healing. It was unfortunate though that I let myself get to a point of burnout. Had I recognized the signs, perhaps I could have found a way to have taken a step back to gain perspective on my identity, calling, and relationship with God. Health in these three areas is crucial to longevity in ministry and preventing burnout. Addressing these areas though is not about acquiring more skills. It’s about getting below the surface to allow God to shape us after His heart.
“Addressing these areas though is not about acquiring more skills. It’s about getting below the surface to allow God to shape us after His heart.”
Here are some questions to reflect on:
- Identity: How am I growing to view myself more and more as primarily a child of God?
- Calling: How am I growing to see my calling as bigger than my current assignment?
- Relating: How am I growing in my interaction with Jesus as a true relationship?
[1] Bob Burns, Tasha Chapman, and Donald C. Guthrie, Resilient Ministry: What Pastors Told Us About Surviving and Thriving (Downers Grove: IVP Books, 2013), 32.
[2] Parker J. Palmer, Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2000), 83.
[3] Glenn Packiam, The Resilient Pastor: Leading Your Church in a Rapidly Changing World (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2022), 67.
[4] Stephen Macchia, Broken and Whole: A Leader’s Path to Spiritual Transformation (Downers Grove: IVP Books, 2015), 190.
