I have the incredible opportunity over my years in ministry to interact with pastor and a few key leaders. Within the past three years, I've asked two questions and taken notes: First, have you ever experienced burnout in your ministry? Second, what would you do to prevent pastoral burnout?
Interestingly, every individual with whom I spoke had experienced some level of burnout. And so they spoke from the voice of experience when they shared with me what they do to prevent burnout. I re-stated their responses into a few suggested keys to preventing personal burnout.
Truth be told your NOT God, Jesus, or Superman. You can't control the actions of others and you can not save individual from poor decision For some pastors, it was another pastor. For others, it was a retired pastor. Some mentioned that key confidants in the church had become their best friends. Pastors need someone they trust to whom they can unload their burdens.
To live a more balanced existence, you have to recognize that not doing everything that comes along is okay. There's no need to overextend yourself. All it takes is realizing that it's all right to say no when necessary and then focus on your highest priorities.
Your a human! An individual made up of four basic areas: physical, social/emotional, mental, and spiritual.
As you renew yourself in each of the four areas, you create growth and change in your life. This keeps you fresh, energized, and feeling full verses depleted. You increase your capacity to produce and handle the challenges around you. Without this renewal, the body becomes weak, the mind mechanical, the emotions raw, the spirit insensitive, and the person selfish. For those who have not ventured down this road - take my word it's NOT a pretty picture.
Feeling good doesn't just happen. Living a life in balance means taking the necessary time to renew yourself. It's all up to you. You can renew yourself through relaxation. Or you can totally burn yourself out by overdoing everything. You can pamper yourself mentally and spiritually. Or you can go through life oblivious to your well-being. You can experience vibrant energy. Or you can procrastinate and miss out on the benefits of good health and exercise. You can revitalize yourself and face a new day in peace and harmony. Or you can wake up in the morning full of apathy because your get-up-and-go has got-up-and-gone. Just remember that every day provides a new opportunity for renewal--a new opportunity to recharge yourself instead of hitting the wall. All it takes is the desire, knowledge, and skill.
- Everyone Has 24 Hours.
We’re all given the same 24 hours in a day. What you do with it, how you spend it, invest it, dribble and let it leak away is up to you. What most people fail to realize about time management is that it’s not about structuring your time, it’s about structuring your values and priorities. When you know what is important to you and why, and how to say “no” to one thing so you can say “yes” to another, then and only then will you discover how easy it really is to manage your time productively, wisely and easily. You can't get everything done today and that's okay as tomorrow will come.
- Be intentional about down time.
Pastors / Leaders need it. Their families need it. Every week. Don't skip on days off. Don't skip vacations. Go on occasional retreats. Don't lose your family by trying to save your church.
- Be intentional about exorcise.
"Exercise is the single best thing you can do for your brain and stress levels in terms of mood, memory, and learning," says Harvard Medical School psychiatrist John Ratey, author of the book, Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain. "Even 10 minutes of activity changes your brain and released tension."
Regular exercise can help protect you from heart disease and stroke, high blood pressure, noninsulin-dependent diabetes, obesity, back pain, osteoporosis, and can improve your mood and help you to better manage stress.
For the greatest overall health benefits, experts recommend that you do 20 to 30 minutes of aerobic activity three or more times a week and some type of muscle strengthening activity and stretching at least twice a week. However, if you are unable to do this level of activity, you can gain substantial health benefits by accumulating 30 minutes or more of moderate-intensity physical activity a day, at least five times a week.
If you have been inactive for a while, you may want to start with less strenuous activities such as walking or swimming at a comfortable pace. Beginning at a slow pace will allow you to become physically fit without straining your body. Once you are in better shape, you can gradually do more strenuous activity.
How Physical Activity Impacts Health
Regular physical activity that is performed on most days of the week reduces the risk of developing or dying from some of the leading causes of illness and death in the United States.
• Reduces the risk of dying prematurely.
• Reduces the risk of dying prematurely from heart disease.
• Reduces the risk of developing diabetes.
• Reduces the risk of developing high blood pressure.
• Helps reduce blood pressure in people who already have high blood pressure.
• Reduces the risk of developing colon cancer.
• Reduces feelings of depression and anxiety.
• Helps control weight.
• Helps build and maintain healthy bones, muscles, and joints.
• Helps older adults become stronger and better able to move about without falling.
• Promotes psychological well-being.
Specific Health Benefits of Exercise
Heart Disease and Stroke. Daily physical activity can help prevent heart disease and stroke by strengthening your heart muscle, lowering your blood pressure, raising your high-density lipoprotein (HDL) levels (good cholesterol) and lowering low-density lipoprotein (LDL) levels (bad cholesterol), improving blood flow, and increasing your heart's working capacity.
High Blood Pressure. Regular physical activity can reduce blood pressure in those with high blood pressure levels. Physical activity also reduces body fatness, which is associated with high blood pressure.
Noninsulin-Dependent Diabetes. By reducing body fatness, physical activity can help to prevent and control this type of diabetes.
Obesity. Physical activity helps to reduce body fat by building or preserving muscle mass and improving the body's ability to use calories. When physical activity is combined with proper nutrition, it can help control weight and prevent obesity, a major risk factor for many diseases.
Back Pain. By increasing muscle strength and endurance and improving flexibility and posture, regular exercise helps to prevent back pain.
Osteoporosis. Regular weight-bearing exercise promotes bone formation and may prevent many forms of bone loss associated with aging.
Psychological Effects. Regular physical activity can improve your mood and the way you feel about yourself. Researchers also have found that exercise is likely to reduce depression and anxiety and help you to better manage stress.
I'm a totally advocate for exorcise and it's benefits. In saying that, here's a recap:
Exercise and Stress
Regular exercise reduces the amount of stress hormones in the body, resulting in a slower heart rate, relaxed blood vessels, and lower blood pressure. Increased relaxation after exercise shows on your face with reduced muscle tension.
Exercise and Your Mood
Research shows that regular exercise reduces symptoms of moderate depression and enhances psychological fitness. Exercise can even produce changes in certain chemical levels in the body, which can have an effect on the psychological state.
Endorphins are hormones in the brain associated with a happy, positive feeling. A low level of endorphins is associated with depression. During exercise, plasma levels of this substance increase. This may help to ease symptoms of depression. A recent National Health and Nutrition survey found that physically active people were half as likely to be depressed.
Exercise also boosts the neurotransmitter serotonin in the brain. Neurotransmitters are chemicals that send specific messages from one brain cell to another. Though only a small percentage of all serotonin is located in the brain, this neurotransmitter is thought to play a key role in keeping your mood calm.
Exercise and Colds
Regular exercise appears to help jump-start the immune system, thus helping to reduce the number of colds, flu, and other viruses.
Exercise and Brainpower
Exercise boosts blood flow to the brain and helps it receive oxygen and nutrients. The better shape you're in, the faster you fire brain waves that are responsible for quick thinking.
- Be proactive verses reactive.
Be Proactive is about taking responsibility for your life. You can't keep blaming everything on your parents or grandparents. Proactive people recognize that they are "response-able." They don't blame genetics, circumstances, conditions, or conditioning for their behavior. They know they choose their behavior. Reactive people, on the other hand, are often affected by their physical environment. They find external sources to blame for their behavior. If the weather is good, they feel good. If it isn't, it affects their attitude and performance, and they blame the weather. All of these external forces act as stimuli that we respond to. Between the stimulus and the response is your greatest power--you have the freedom to choose your response.
Instead of reacting to or worrying about conditions over which they have little or no control, proactive people focus their time and energy on things they can control.
How can Pastors be proactive?
[ ] Plan your messages out a year and stick to your plan.
First things first, schedule your time off and schedule in trusted guest speakers.
[ ] Plan your messages out a year and stick to your plan.
Next, schedule in people your are investing in (partner messages).
[ ] Plan your messages out a year and stick to your plan.
Next, schedule seasonal messages / special events (Christmas, Easter, Anniversary Services, etc...).
[ ] Plan your messages out a year and stick to your plan.
Next, schedule growth campaign messages (Fall: Sept-Oct, New Years: Mid Jan-Feb, Spring: post Easter-May, etc...).
[ ] Plan your messages out a year and stick to your plan.
Finally, make sure you have a few open weeks for stand along messages (these allow you freedom to speak to community issues, felt needs, etc..).
[ ] Plan your messages out a year and stick to your plan.
Begin with the end in mind. The ability to envision in your mind what you cannot at present see with your eyes. It is based on the principle that all things are created twice. There is a mental (first) creation, and a physical (second) creation. The physical creation follows the mental, just as a building follows a blueprint. If you don't make a conscious effort to visualize who you are and what you want in life, then you empower other people and circumstances to shape you and your life by default. It's about connecting again with your own uniqueness and then defining the personal, moral, and ethical guidelines within which you can most happily express and fulfill yourself. Begin with the End in Mind means to begin each day, task, or project with a clear vision of your desired direction and destination, and then continue by flexing your proactive muscles to make things happen.
Being proactive is about choice. Beginning with the End in Mind is about vision. It happens day in and day out, moment-by-moment. It deals with many of the questions addressed in the field of time management. But that's not all it's about. It's about life management as well--your purpose, values, roles, and priorities. What are "first things?" First things are those things you, personally, find of most worth. If you put first things first, you are organizing and managing time and events according to the personal priorities you established
- Be a team player verses a dictator.
Being a team player or leader isn't about being nice, nor is it a quick-fix technique, it's having a Win-Win mindset. It is a character-based code for human interaction and collaboration.
Most of us learn to base our self-worth on comparisons and competition. We think about succeeding in terms of someone else failing--that is, if I win, you lose; or if you win, I lose. Life becomes a zero-sum game. There is only so much pie to go around, and if you get a big piece, there is less for me; it's not fair, and I'm going to make sure you don't get anymore. We all play the game, but how much fun is it really?
Win-win sees life as a cooperative arena, not a competitive one. Win-win is a frame of mind and heart that constantly seeks mutual benefit in all human interactions. Win-win means agreements or solutions are mutually beneficial and satisfying. We both get to eat the pie, and it tastes pretty darn good!
A person or organization that approaches conflicts with a win-win attitude possesses three vital character traits:
Integrity: sticking with your true feelings, values, and commitments
Maturity: expressing your ideas and feelings with courage and consideration for the ideas and feelings of others
Abundance Mentality: believing there is plenty for everyoneMany people think in terms of either/or: either you're nice or you're tough.
Win-win requires that you be both. It is a balancing act between courage and consideration. To go for win-win, you not only have to be empathic, but you also have to be confident. You not only have to be considerate and sensitive, you also have to be brave. To do that--to achieve that balance between courage and consideration--is the essence of real maturity and is fundamental to win-win.
- Remember your call.
Ministry can be tough and dirty. It can be frustrating and confusing. But if we remember Who called us and Who sustains us, we are able to persevere. We understand that we are not doing ministry in our own power.
- Pray for your critics.
Criticism in one of the most frequently mentioned causes of burnout. Pastors on the other side of burnout told me that they have learned to pray for their critics almost every day. It has given the pastors a fresh perspective. A few pastors even noted significant change in their critics shortly after they started praying for them.
- Wait a day before responding to critics.
Somewhat related to number two above, some pastors shared that ministry began to take its toll when they engaged their critics negatively in writing, in person, or by phone. Now these pastors wait a full day before responding, and they are amazed at how differently their responses take shape.
- Don't travel alone.
For some pastors, it was another pastor. For others, it was a retired pastor. Some mentioned that key confidants in the church had become their best friends. Pastors need someone they trust to whom they can unload their burdens.
"Two heads are better than one." It is teamwork, open-mindedness, and the adventure of finding new solutions to old problems. But it doesn't just happen on its own. It's a process, and through that process, people bring all their personal experience and expertise to the table. Together, they can produce far better results that they could individually. Discovering things jointly we are much less likely to discover by ourselves. It is the idea that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. One plus one equals three, or six, or sixty--you name it.
When people begin to interact together genuinely, and they're open to each other's influence, they begin to gain new insight. The capability of inventing new approaches is increased exponentially because of differences.
Valuing differences is what really drives team work and collaboration
Do you truly value the mental, emotional, and psychological differences among people?
Or do you wish everyone would just agree with you so you could all get along?
Many people mistake uniformity for unity; sameness for oneness. One word--boring!
Differences should be seen as strengths, not weaknesses. They add zest to life.
- Find a Lighting Rod.
What’s this? Well, a lightning rod is a device to protect a building from lighting. It’s a metal rod that is placed on the highest part of a building. Its purpose is to protect the building from lightning by conducting the lightning to the ground. Therefore, if lightning strikes a building that does not have a lightning rod, lightning will go through the wires and fry all the electronic equipment in the building. However, if a building has a lightning rod, the lightning will seek the lightning rod. By doing so, the rod saves the building from harm.
As for us, a lightning rod is someone who loves Jesus, loves you, in that order. It is someone who is a friend. It is someone whom you have given permission to speak into your life. This is why it is absolutely crucial for each one of us to identify someone whom we give permission to speak in to our lives. It is to help control our tongues and it is a part of our growing up in Christ.
Above all, this person will speak into you life about your marriage, finances, attitude, moods, activities and your actions. Here is what the Bible says about this kind of friend, “A man of too many friends comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother” (Pro. 18:24). Hence, when you find a friend who is a lightning rod in your life, hang on to them.
Again the Bible says we won’t have too many of these. For it says, “too many friends cometh to ruin. But there is a friend that sticks closer than a brother”.So identify this person in your life. And when you need someone to talk to, this person will already be in your life.
I had a friend who was a lightning rod in my life. But he has passed on. He was a wonderful old man who was like a grandfather to me. Whenever I’d get upset, I’d call him. Let me just say, He was a person who would never take sides. Nor would he bear a grudge or shoulder an offense along side with me. Whenever I was upset, he’d say, Wayne come on over, let’s have some soup.
Yes soup! I remember him making some soup as I sat in a chair. Although I was upset, he would calm my spirit down by saying, let’s just have some soup. He was indeed a friend who stuck closer than a brother to me.
Moreover, if you’re married, your spouse may or may not be your lightning rod. As for me, my wife is not a lightning rod to me. She loves me so much that if someone offends me, she’d get upset at that person. So to protect her, I share the victory side. In other words, I work it through, and then I’d share it with her.
- Do not neglect your prayer life.
Pastors told me repeatedly that, as their prayer life waned, their burnout increased. Prayer was first ongoing conversations with God. But it was also a time for spiritual refueling.
- Do not neglect your time in the Word.
We heard similar stories from pastors who began neglecting their time in the Bible. As that time waned, burnout increased. All the pastors noted that time in the Word was time beyond sermon preparation. It was a time of personal devotion and study.
Pastors are burning out every day. Many are leaving the ministry as a result. It is a real and immediate problem with many pastors and many churches.
Pastors and other staff: Do you have stories of burnout and recovery? What lessons can we learn from you?
Laypersons: What can you do to help pastors prevent burnout?
Share your thoughts with me.
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