Category Archives: Burnout

Burnout

One Man’s Story

“Midway this life we’re bound upon,
I woke to find myself in a dark wood,
where the right road was wholly lost and gone.”

The Divine Comedy-Canto I- Dante

Dante’s words ring true to me when I remember my experience with burnout. At the time I was the Pastor at the same Baptist church for over twenty years. My wife and I have three sons who were all teens back then. I had several pressures at this time. The church had grown in numbers as had the Christian day school on campus. This led to a major building program to renovate and expand the small 200 year old building we called home.

It was decided to get a loan for the entire project, big bucks. The growth of the ministry was in some measure due to our embrace of the Adult Children of Alcoholics meetings that had started in the church. This brought in many wounded folks looking for healing and I found myself counseling for many hours a week. Our oldest son, we found was addicted to alcohol and drugs. I kept this as a private matter, I realize now it was a mistake, I should have opened up about it to the Body. My wife was devastated by this and her emotional state was a concern as well.

We had moved out of the parsonage on the promise from a member who was a builder that he would build us a new house. The housing market collapsed shortly there after and he went bankrupt and we ended up living in rented homes as the parsonage was rented out to accommodate our situation.

We had moved back into the parsonage that was across the parking lot from the church building. I was walking across the parking lot to the parsonage when the thought came as clear as day, “I can’t do this anymore.”

It was not a passing thought or the result of a bad day. It was a profound realization of an inward condition that was present and not going away. It was frightening. My livelihood, home, social contacts were all tied up in this place and position. I had been doing this since my late twenties, what else could I do? Initially I thought of moving to another church position. I then realized I had no idea of how to do that, later I knew I had neither the energy nor the will to pursue it.

As time went on I withdrew into myself. I would at times curl in a fetal position on my bed for a time. I wrote a lot of poetry back then and pursued writing and producing Christian plays with someone who shared this interest. I found myself avoiding the church and where I had been quick to fellowship after service now I would withdraw immediately after preaching to the house. I didn’t understand what was happening to me.

It was a bittersweet experience. I was getting in touch with a lot of stuff I had stuffed for years of people pleasing. I was coming to a place where I didn’t care anymore and it was very liberating. With this detachment I began to experience the Lord and myself in new ways. I began to pursue the answers to questions it’s not safe to ask in the ministry. And a fearlessness grew up inside of me through it all. It was a transforming experience.

Months later I asked the Lord, “What’s been happening to me?” He said it was burnout and I wrote about eight handwritten pages as to what that meant. The essence of which is: We have a finite amount of what I’ll call psychic energy. We give this out in our active relationships. In reciprocal relationships it comes back to us in equal or greater amounts. In nonreciprocal relationships it just goes out. When the outtake exceeds the intake we’re starting to burnout. At a certain point we’ll begin to realize it like the low gas light in a car. We can then run on an emergency supply for awhile but eventually you run out.

This happened about fourteen years ago. I found the grace of God in a new way. I have pastored a house church, developed and run a Teen Wilderness program for at risk kids. Worked for a radio station and I’ve been the pastor of the church here for over five years. I’m still happily married to my bride and all my sons are healthy and doing well. If this might encourage someone along the way it’s my joy and privilege and Glory to God for His grace.

Burnout

Religion and Weariness

The flesh loves the idea of earning, achieving, qualifying for, winning, paying for - whatever dream we may have. The flesh rarely likes charity. Charity means someone else did it, and you didn’t. It means you have achieved nothing.

An individual may desire to run in the Boston Marathon. So, every morning for six months prior to the race, he crawls out of bed at 5:30 AM and runs five miles before work. We say he is training religiously for the marathon. What does the phrase, “training religiously,” mean? If you look in an older dictionary (50 years or older) one of the usages of the word religion was, “a return to bondage”.

Our marathon runner has placed him/herself into self-imposed bondage in the training routine. Whether rain, snow, hail, blistering sun, high wind or a just plain nice day - he is out there at 5:30 AM every morning as if his eternal life depended on it! When the training is finished, and the race is run, our marathon runner crosses the finish line, throws his arms in the air and shouts triumphantly, “I did it”!

When it comes to the plan of God, religion is hogwash. When our marathon runner decides to join the local church, he brings his achievement mentality with him, and works hard to please God, and earn God’s favor and blessing. He becomes critical of other Christians who are not type “A” personalities like himself. He has trouble understanding God’s plan is a rest in Jesus, where the only words we shout at the finish line are, “God did it”!

In the western world we are born into a very performance based society. We have stats for every activity from school grades to stock rises and falls. Our sports heros live in a fish bowl of performance stats. We know exactly how many pitches they have thrown by the 7th inning. We know the success percentage of power plays our favorite hockey team has had in this year’s run for the Stanley Cup. We make heros and legends of those who perform the best regardless of their methods, ethics, or motives. All of this influence impacts us and we bring the baggage along with us to church and allow it to impact our relationship with Jesus.

When I was first called by the Lord, I read an article expounding Acts 2:38. I was thrilled. I was overjoyed with the meaning and power in those few lines. The direction they gave me immediately started changing my life and giving me a joy I had never experienced before.

In my excitement I ended up attending a church that was very legalistic, although I did not understand anything about legalism at the time. The church was a tight community that made me feel a part of the family, and taught me hundreds of things I needed to do and not do to please God. In my naivety I appreciated this, but, with the passage of time the joy and excitement of Jesus and the Holy Spirit faded away. As the internal culture of the church became more of a molding influence on me than the covenant love of God, I became far more engrossed with doing things right - not in bringing glory to God. Jesus had offered me freedom, peace, joy, rest, and an easy yoke. Somehow, I missed it, and picked up the package of striving, working, struggling to please God with my own strength and became very self-focused to make sure I was living right. It all sounded good, but the fruits were exhaustion, continuous disappointment, judgement toward others and eventually toward God Himself, and an overwhelming disillusionment with what I thought was Christianity.

I’m not alone. You may have experienced a number of years that are almost identical to mine. Listen to this statement and ponder it in your heart for a season. I am convinced there are many children of God who will never experience the joy Jesus promises until they stop trying to please God! For some who are still striving to earn what Jesus gives us, this statement may sound like heresy. For those who do understand the least understood truth in the Bible - the New Covenant - you know exactly what I mean. The blood covenant story of David and Jonathan explains much of the nature of the New Covenant (see our article).

If you are weary, frustrated and disillusioned from trying so hard to please God, or live a good life, or keep people in the church happy - we need to pray for you. To deeply understand the blood covenant agreement, and to have a new revelation of Jesus and the unaltered Gospel like the disciples on the road to Emmaus were given - would help you immensely. Please see our articles about the True Gospel, and the Blood Covenant.

Burnout

Falling Into the Lake

What is spiritual burnout? One of the simplest definitions I have heard is, “spiritual and emotional exhaustion, with little or no desire to keep trying.” That is not a comprehensive explanation by any means, but it hints at the feelings and weariness that are part of the package.

Spiritual burnout can also be defined as growing disillusionment with the belief system, usually because we are believing in an altered version. Our expectations never come to pass, and as the years roll by we become increasingly disillusioned. In a future article we will discuss further this idea and the Gospel.

A third perspective is to realize the individual has been trying, and even striving, to live the victorious life by their own power instead of God’s power. It doesn’t work and disillusionment, frustration and fatigue take over. So you are spiritually burned-out when you are depleted of all spiritual strength, exhausted in your attempts to please God and church.

Here is an over-simplified analogy. When you first come out of Bible College or Seminary you are usually young, energetic and very idealistic. At first glance the church and the Bible seem side by side like a boat next to a dock. The young leader steps into the boat with one foot. It doesn’t take long to notice the boat and the dock are not one unit - at least not yet! As the boat moves away from the dock, the ministry leader finds him/herself stretched and action needs to be taken. Ideally, with the strength of God and not his own strength, he can bring the boat back closer to the dock. This probably does happen in many cases, but often the leader tries to hold the boat near the dock by his own strength, and with time becomes bewildered, tired and even angry at the boat. Some make a decision to jump back to the dock even if it means no more pay check from the boat. Others step completely into the boat for survival reasons with the sincere hope they can still help the boat. Others wait too long to make a decision and when they reach burnout they cannot jump one way or the other. At some point they are totally exhausted and fall into the lake. If rescue doesn’t come quickly, the fallen one may simply drown in a lake of bitter disillusionment.

This crazy concept of striving to please God has fried so many leaders and followers alike. It is nothing less than a curse, and robs us of the rest we have in Jesus. Please see our article, Religion and Weariness.

Burnout

The Quitter - Robert Service

The following is a poem by Robert Service written during his days in the Yukon, when he wrote many of his famous Yukon ballads. When you are feeling very low there are a number of thoughts you can relate with, especially the final sentence.

When you’re lost in the Wild, and scared as a child,
And death looks you bang in the eye,
And you’re sore as a boil, it’s according to Hoyle
To cock your revolver and . . . die.
But the Code of a Man says: “Fight all you can,”
And self-dissolution is barred.
In hunger and woe, oh, it’s easy to blow . . .
It’s the hell-served-for-breakfast that’s hard.

“You’re sick of the game!” Well, now, that’s a shame.
You’re young and you’re brave and you’re bright.
You’ve had a raw deal!” I know - but don’t squeal,
Buck up, do you’re darndest, and fight.
It’s the plugging away that will win the day,
So don’t be a piker, old pard!
Just draw on your grit; it’s so easy to quit:
It’s the keeping-your-chin-up that’s hard.

It’s easy to cry that you’re beaten - and die;
It’s easy to crawfish and crawl;
But to fight and to fight when hope’s out of sight -
Why, that’s the best game of them all!
And though you come out of each gruelling bout,
All broken and beaten and scarred,
Just have one more try - it’s dead easy to die,
It’s the keeping-on-living that’s hard.

Thanks to Jesus we have a great hope, and even though the keeping-on-living can be very difficult on some days, we look to a better hope and a bright future in the Kingdom. Play the best game of them all - walking in intimacy with Jesus!

Burnout

Meaningful Encounter with God in 2003

Steve Packer, Speech at Linn County Association of Evangelicals Luncheon, former pastor

Jeremiah 18:18 says, “Come let us devise plans against Jeremiah . . . let us attack him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.”

I walked this same path with Jeremiah five and a half years ago and have been taking baby steps toward complete healing ever since that time. I had come to expect (even anticipate) the rejection of antagonists within the local church. However, I did not anticipate the confusion they successfully created among other believers and the devastating escalation of the rejection which followed from friends, peers, and denominational officials. I soon lost my job, our family lost its support group and local church, we eventually lost our home, most of our friends, and any future career in that denomination.

Chuck Swindoll described our situation (and Jeremiah’s situation) like this, “Swamped with disillusionment and drowning in despair . . . surrounded by sarcastic whisperings . . . by once trusted friends . . . feeling like a limp rag doll in the mouth of a Doberman.” That is exactly how I felt at the time.

But, in God’s sovereign plan, I needed to be thrown into that pit to discover that when every thing is taken away . . . God alone is enough. God gave me the promise of Psalm 71:20-21 during these first days in the pit, “Though You have made me see troubles, many and bitter, You will restore my life again; from the depths of the earth You will again bring me up. You will increase my honor and comfort me once again.”

God also gave me Matthew 5:3 (Message paraphrase) “You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and His rule.”

And Matthew 6:34, “Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.”

And Matthew 10:22-23, “There is great irony here: proclaiming so much love, experiencing so much hate! But don’t quit, don’t cave in. It is all well worth it in the end. It is not success you are after in such times but survival. Be survivors! Before you run out of options, the Son of Man will have arrived.”

Sir Winston Churchill said, “Success is moving from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.” My family and I had lost our enthusiasm; our passion had been squeezed out of us. The best we could hope for was to survive.

My family and I were determined to be survivors. I worked secular jobs so that my children could remain in their same high schools and graduate. I was not bitter or angry; those lessons had already been learned well previously. But I was extremely hurt and disillusioned with my calling to pastoral ministry. Very few expressed any confidence in my calling and my desire toward holiness with God. All I have wanted to accomplish since my conversion is to grow closer to God each day and to be the best pastor, servant/leader that I could be. How in the world can someone with that ambition land in such a deep pit of despair?

However, the Son of Man did show up. He showed up at the Tuesday noon Prayer Alliance where I was surrounded by other pastors who encouraged me and believed in me. Out of that group, one pastor in particular, Ron Connerly, dug through all the garbage and took the risk of hiring me to work on his pastoral staff. God was beginning to renew that passion within but the healing was not yet complete.

Just a few weeks ago, God took me back to Jeremiah, this time Jeremiah 20:9 where Jeremiah, who is in despair from the persecution of others, says, “I will not make mention of Him (meaning God), nor speak any more in His name. But His Word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, and I could not!”

Again Swindoll elaborated on these words from Jeremiah this way, “Directly sent from God is this surge of Hope, this cleansing fire of confidence, this renewed sense of determination swelling up within me this Divine perspective has provided a fresh breeze of hope in the pits.”

My meaningful encounter with God in 2003 is still fresh; the passion has been renewed to advance beyond being a survivor to being a victor! The fire within has been fanned into flame and God’s Holy Spirit has set me free from the hurt of the past and focused my attention upon the only thing that matters in this life . . . a deeper, more intimate walk with God each day.

My focus is no longer on success, no longer on significance, but only upon the chief end of man, which is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. “He walks with me, and He talks with me, and He tells me I am His own, and the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known.” It is possible to know a peace that passes all human under-standing and to know a joy unspeakable and full of God’s glory. However, there is a price to pay for this privilege . . . the pit, the wilderness, solitary confinement, whatever it takes for my will to break, that’s what we must be willing to do.

An unidentified missionary has spoken these words, “If your life is broken . . . when you give the pieces to Jesus they will be used to feed a multitude, but left as a single loaf, it may have only satisfied a little boy.”

Do not fear the blessings of brokenness; allow them to fulfill God’s divine intentions. Jeremiah 17, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is in the Lord . . . you will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit . . . I the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind.”

I conclude my testimony with these healing words from Andrew Murray,
“First, He brought me here. It is by His will that I am in this difficult place, in that I will rest.
“Second, He will keep me here in His love and give me grace in this trial to behave as His child.
“Third, He will make the trial a blessing, teaching me the lessons He intends me to learn and working in me the grace He means to bestow.
“Fourth, in His good time He can bring me out again, how and when, only He knows. So, I’m here by His appointment, in His keeping, under His training, for His time.”

May this be true for us all! Amen!

Burnout

Disillusionment - The Holy Spirit’s Way of Saying, “What are You Doing Here?”

If you are disillusioned, it means you first anchored your life on an illusion. Our loving Father in heaven gave us the gift of disillusionment to stop us in our tracks and make us think. It is the same process we see with Elijah. The prophet had some really great dreams in his mind regarding Mount Carmel. When you stop and hear what Elijah had to say in his cave in the middle of his depression, you can’t help but see the great hope he had for the nation after the shoot-out at Mount Carmel.

Elijah had high hopes of great change. Perhaps a national revival was in his thinking. But, after the shoot-out, to the naked eye everything seemed the same. Then Jezebel issued her death threat and suddenly, the heart of Elijah started its downward spirial of disillusionment all the way to depression. The cave he hides out in represents his depression.

God comes along and asks a question. “Elijah, what are you doing here?” Why ask such a question when you are God? Well, why ask Adam and Eve why they are hiding? It opens the door for human beings to re-think. “Yes, what am I doing here?”

The gift of disillusionment asks us the same question. God is saying, “Stop and re-think. Don’t quit. Don’t give up, just stop and think. What went wrong? What were you anchoring your life or hopes on? Why were you hanging your hat on a promise I never gave you? Why were you expecting great change so suddenly?”

God had to explain to Elijah that much was being accomplished even if it did not meet Elijah’s expectations or dreams. There were 7,000 people who had not bent their knee to Baal. Work was being done for the Kingdom and more was needed, and it was time for Elijah to come out of his male cave of depression and head back to where he had come from - to do more work for the Kingdom.

It is God’s plan, and God’s family, and many things are happening even if you and I don’t see it. We need to move forward in faith and not set up in our hearts promises that God never gave us. Dis-illusionment is a gift. It can be the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives giving us the correction and direction we need. Next time you feel bewildered and disillusioned, just picture God asking you in a kind voice, “What are you doing here?”

Burnout, Tree of Life

Blessings - The Lubricant of American Christianity

As a Canadian living in America I never cease to be amazed how blessing and success oriented American Christianity is. We all understand the roots of America and the focus on freedom. It is a story to inspire free people and wanna-be free people of all nations. It is a story nothing short of the working of God in carrying out His destiny on this earth.

But the focus of success and the American Dream seems so blatant and overwhelming, it has become a part of the American version of the Gospel. For some time now it has appeared to me that Christianity as it is practiced in the western world is simply another, more sophisticated form of selfishness. Just do the right thing - the will of God - and you will be blessed beyond measure. If things are not going well - more money, better job - maybe you are not doing something right.

Having listened to dozens of success preachers, health and wealth gospel preachers, blessings preachers, I stop and I think about some of the heroes of scripture, and ponder what incredible failures they were compared to what the American success preacher says you should be.

I then wonder how much of this mis-direction contributes to burnout in the ministry. I also wonder how much of this mis-thinking contributes to few American ministers admitting they are disillusioned and burning out. We get many emails and phone calls from all over the world every week, but few of them are from American pastors. We hear from wives of American pastors, children of American pastors, friends of American pastors - but few American pastors can bring themselves to say - help! After all, John Wayne would never ask for help, would he?

“Seek first the Kingdom,” my Bible tells me, “and all these things will be given to you as well.” The focus is God, not money, God, not material success, God, not church growth and your photo in Charisma or Christianity Today, God, not a big house, God, not a successful business.

If God makes you the second most powerful man in Egypt - awesome. If God asks you to live out your life as an old man on the isle of Patmos with stale food and poor sleeping conditions, awesome! But let God be your focus, and don’t get sucked into the endless dream of a better life right here and now. A better life of blessings that will disappoint and help contribute to burnout.

If you haven’t read Larry Crabb’s book, “The Pressures Off,” get a copy and read it three times minimum. You will never be the same, but you will have a better direction whether you be rich or poor - you will be closer to God.

Burnout

Living with Loss

By Glenn Hager

After twenty years in pastoral ministry and never being unemployed in my life, I am not a pastor and I don’t even have a job. For me this is the culmination of a ten-year odyssey of trying to redirect a divided, declining church. It eventually turned into a restart situation. We sold our building, relocated, the whole bit, only to have key people leave before the restart was given a chance. I had to close my church. I lost my dream. I felt like I was dying. Come to find out that was only the first blow. The second blow came from a nearby church that was considering putting me on staff or offering a key volunteer position. They strung me along for four months only to come to the conclusion that they didn’t know me and they thought it strange that someone who was a senior pastor for several years would “just want to serve” (which was exactly what I wanted). The third blow was my prolonged unemployment, now approaching one year. I feel empty! I feel devalued, shelved, mistreated, isolated, generally screwed over. It has been hard for me to describe how I feel lately without dipping into a hitherto dormant cache of profane words.

Feeling the Pain

The pain of this loss overshadowed any other pain that I had experienced. I felt ashamed to feel it so powerfully. I wondered what it was saying about me for this thing to be so shattering. God’s call to church work was always just that. I didn’t ask for it. It just came. It burned bright and hot only to be ripped away from me. I didn’t get it. I still don’t get it. Not long ago, I talked to a denominational official, incredibly successful in his work, only to hear in his voice that since he left the pastorate he has felt displaced like a wanderer. Even more recently, I talked with a former pastor who works with a ministry that tries to help wounded pastors such as myself. He said that he had been out of pastoral ministry for eight years and “I’ll never get over it.” (His words.) I thought, “Thanks for the encouragement!”

Getting Over It

Here is a Colombo style question, “Why are we always trying to get over it?” Here is a pretty good knee-jerk reaction, “Because it hurts so bad and in general, stinks.” Think with me a little deeper. Think about other severe losses like the death of someone you deeply loved. Did you get over it? Probably not. Have you learned to live with it? Probably so. Psychologists wrote several years ago about the stages of grief that occurs after a great loss. If I am not mistaken, they are denial, anger, bargaining, and finally, acceptance. It is remarkably, only as I write this that I think that I may have done a little (or a lot) of battle with each of these. Obviously, if you have some of those feelings, you are just being normal. You have experienced a terrible, heart-rending loss. Admit it! Grieve it! Pour you heart out to God and to whomever else you can. It stinks! It hurts! It probably wasn’t fair! Yet, here you are. Now what?

Defining You

Grieve. Talk about it. Then begin to accept God’s presence in your grief. I know, you may be pretty ticked off at God right now. You can tell him that too. If David could whine and complain to God and ask unanswered questions, then I guess we can too. But sooner or later some of your old sermons are going to come back and haunt you. You know the ones about God’s special presence close beside you as you walk through the darkest valley. Sooner or later we have to reckon with what we know is true, even if our circumstances would seem to deny it. He is with you. Your recent experience, failure, sin, victimization, injustice, or combination thereof does not define you and you are not limited by it. Your relationship with him does define you! As you walk through the valley, remember:

The Lord is my shepherd; I have everything I need. He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams. He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name. (Psalm 23:1-3 NLT)

Living the Adventure

Have you spent countless hours wondering why this thing has happened to you? Me too. We all can learn some important lessons at times like this. Yet, a new friend recently reminded me that we need to stop living (and re-living) the past and stop fretting over the future and start living now . . . right now!

Remember the man that Jesus healed who was blind from birth? The disciples wanted to know why he was born blind, just like you want to know why your misfortune has happened to you. Jesus’ answer? “He was born blind so that the power could be seen in him.” (John 9:3b NLT) I used to say, “O.K. that (my misadventures in ministry) is behind me. Now I am ready for the next adventure.” Now I believe that Jesus is saying, “This is the adventure. It has already begun. I want my power to be seen in you!”

Burnout

Fired! or Rescued by God?

When your world and ministry comes crashing down, you can feel very hurt and deeply betrayed. You may be willing to admit you were wrong in a number of ways, but those who pushed you out were also well off base and handled the situation poorly.

This can be the time when you walk away from the church so disillusioned you think you may never return. The masks they all wore when they carried out your termination seemed so obvious. The feigned concern they showed after they had spoken wrong about you behind your back - all of it was so sickening. But then came the clincher. After telling you all the things you did wrong, and listing all the people you have hurt, they look you straight in the eye and say, “We will always love you and pray for you.” Oh, please!

We walk away knowing we made mistakes, but wondering how people we served and sacrificed for could turn on us and wound us so deeply? But, wait, maybe we are looking at this whole situation too closely! Maybe we can’t see the forest for the trees!

Instead of looking at this as the end, perhaps it is a whole new beginning orchestrated by God himself! Sure, why not? Instead of seeing only a group of arguing fighting Christians who are caught in their own prision of bitterness - giving you the axe, perhaps this whole event is God reaching into your life and rescuing you from a lifeless church going nowhere fast. This is very likely if you have been developing, listening to God and growing ever closer to him. Just because you have spent twenty years in a given organization doesn’t mean you are still on the same playing field as the organization.

In my case, God came along and opened my mind and heart into a new dimension from the legalistic denomination I was serving in. Over a two year period God revealed grace, faith, worship, praise and freedom to Kathy and I in a way we never understood before. We fell so deeply in love with Jesus we could not help but walk forward in the direction the spirit led us. When we were attacked, labelled, and eventually fired by our church we certainly felt hurt. But, after a time of thought I realized we had no future with that group, and God was rescuing us for new and different ministry opportunities. Living in Colorado Springs and attending New Life Church is like living on a different planet compared to where we were a few years ago with the previous group.

When this is the case you can feel love and pity for those who attacked you. It was you who no longer fit in. You now are the outsider, and it is the Lord Jesus who is moving you on to new pastures. For better or worse, those sheep with the sharp teeth back in the old church are still there, protecting the way things have always been! God is working with them on a different time schedule than yours. Don’t slide into bitterness toward them, but rather thank Jesus for the life-saving rescue that has opened new doors for your service toward him.

Certainly, if you were terminated for adultery, stealing money or preaching heresy, then you are reaping what you have sown. Your demise is not God rescuing you from a bad church. Maybe you were falsely accused of such things and had to leave the accusers behind. We still want to encourage every one of you and love you all we can at Smoldering Wick Ministry. Your future and ministry are still extremely important, and we want to help and encourage you.

Regardless of how you ended up in your present state, the past is the past. Tomorrow is another day, and you are a child of God looking forward to eternity. Rest, have fun. Love Jesus, shout for joy! Look into the future and ask Jesus what he wants you to do next. God bless everyone of you!

Burnout

Musings On Freedom

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” Paul’s words to the Galatians ring loud in our ears today - or do they? When we look about and notice how many churches and denominations seem to enslave their people with a variety of ideas, programs, requirements and expectations that, at times, seem extra-biblical, I can’t help wonder if many of us are missing the boat on freedom.

Coming into relationship with Christ is supposed to be the greatest liberating experience we have, yet for many, including pastors and ministry leaders, freedom in Christ has become a-burnout-experience. To those who become angry, disillusioned, and cynical, freedom and church are two words that don’t belong in the same sentence. Could our whole approach to church and ministry be far off base?

When we look at the scriptures we see Jesus having a very different approach than many ministers and leaders of today. Jesus seems so easy going. He enjoys hanging out and eating dinner with the biggest sinners in town. The only people he gets upset with are the religious people. Those are the hard to get along with people! When a woman caught in adultery is brought to him for judgement, he doesn’t condemn her or even give her a moralizing sermon. He loves her. No pressure. No guilt trips. Everything he says to her is restoring, loving and healing. Everything he says to her is out of the tree of life. Everything the legalists that want her stoned to death say and do is out of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. I can’t help but think so many of us still have much to learn about freedom.

My home country is Canada. My wife’s homeland is America. Our two countries have the same problem. We have lots of illegal immigrants sneaking into our two nations. There are no walls built around Canada or America with machine guns and guards ready to shoot citizens who try to escape. We have no problems with people wanting to escape. Our problems are with so many people trying to sneak in! Do you have that problem in your church? Too many people sneaking in because your church is such an awesome place where people can become all they dream they can be? Is your church so freedom oriented that people are slipping in the basement windows and back doors and passing themselves off as members so they can enjoy the full benefits of living in a church family environment where freedom allows them to reach for the stars? Hello?

Why are so many churches highly controlled environments? Where do we get these ideas and patterns of management and organization? Many ideas and methods stem out of the old way of the written code and flourish because we really don’t understand the fullness of the new covenant. Some of this controlling culture stems out of our worldly egos and desires to have the biggest or best church around.

The age old struggle for power and control is as much alive in some congregations as it is in the political arena. Boards, trustees, deacons, leading members - sometimes arm wrestle for office of power broker, and the pastor or ministry leader becomes a puppet, pretending he/she is in charge. In reality this self-deception on the part of the pastor becomes a contributing factor in future burnout.

In a free environment like Canada or America, the highly creative and innovative individual can become all God blesses upon them. They can grow up to become nation shaping adults that change the way we live, work and play. Ideally, that is the way church should be. Our congregations need to be launching pads that teach and show God’s will for people and then give them the tools and freedom to launch into ministry with God’s blessing upon them - rather than the church board’s control or denial burdening down the individual with a weight that seems too great to carry.

What happens to up-and-coming superstars in countries where the government wants to control everything? The creative and innovative become frustrated, and even though they love their country, they eventually move on and immigrate to free nations where their talents and innovative new ideas can be launched and appreciated. Is this fact any different in our churches? How many congregations have lost their young because the old leadership is over-controlling or unwilling to see a new paradigm? How many very creative para-church ministries have been launched apart from a local church because the local church was too stifling or controlling?

There is a law of leadership that states a leader usually cannot attract any followers who have greater leadership skills or creativity than themselves. Thus, the majority of churches in North America have attendance between 80 and 120 people. Why? As people attend a church they begin to realize the have more on the ball than the local pastor - especially if the local leadership are controllors and manipulators. Especially if the leadership stifles freedom. The church member then makes a decision to stay and fight the system, or move on to another church where the leadership has greater skill then he does. Or, in some cases, the up and coming star may drift off and start their own ministry or church. If he/she stays in the local congregation and pushes for their new ideas and ministries, they may be asked to leave - fired, kicked-out, excommunicated, tossed out the door, sent packing, etc! This has happened millions of times over in churches and businesses in North America.

Allowing the freedom Jesus gave us to flow in all the congregation’s activities accomplishes two wonderful things. It takes huge pressure off the controlling pastor, and it allows everyone in the congregation to live happier and achieve what God has in mind for them. Until freedom reigns in our congregations, burnout in both leaders and members will continue. There is much more to the subject of burnout, but understanding freedom and living in freedom will do much to take the pressures off our lives and give us the chance to experience the joy of the Lord.

It is a good test to look at our ministries and ask “How much have I been a controller and how much of my frustration has come because people were not living up to my expectations? Did I place burdens on others that were too hard to carry? Did I judge more harshly than the Lord Himself? Or even, did I make certain decisions to please the power wielders of the congregation rather than for the good of the church? Am I frustrated because I expect more from myself than I can give? ”

Answer the questions honestly then give the whole package to Jesus and ask Him to forgive the sin of putting the will of man above the will of God. Then relax, have a good laugh at yourself for thinking you were in charge, and have fun watching Him take over in the real administration of the Church, through the life of freedom that has its best expression in serving the Lord. What a beautiful bride the church will be when she can be loving, self-controlled, wise and joyful all out of her own free will and desire, without fear of judgment and rejection, always confident that she is loved!