I'm going to let you in on a little secret:

Ministry leaders are not immune to spiritual burnout.

I know I know, *gasp* right?

Intellectually, I'm sure you know that no one is immune to burnout. But in practice I've found that somehow pastoral and ministry leaders seem to think: what I'm experiencing isn't really burnout though, right?

Why Ministry Leaders Avoid the "Burnout" Label

It makes sense that when we're in ministry we don't want to acknowledge that we're burned out because often our ministry role is so much more than just a job, it's part of our identity.

It's not just about a paycheck, but it's a passion and a calling. For many of us, our role in ministry is not just a workplace, it's also our source of community.

It's where we turn for spiritual, emotional, and practical supports. It's where we go when we need a shoulder to cry on. Or to ask someone to watch our kids in a pinch. It's who we call when we need urgent help at 3:00 am.

In other words, for many spiritual leaders, the lines between work life and personal life are so blurred that it becomes difficult to separate one from the other.

So for many folks in spiritual leadership, church staff, and other ministry roles, acknowledging that we're going through burnout feels like a blow to our entire support system, not just a job or a volunteer position.

My Experience of Ministry Burnout

I've been referring to ministry roles as a "we" because once upon a time, I was on church staff.

In the grand scheme of the church I worked for, I had a relatively minor role. I worked 15 hours a week in a non-pastoral position while my primary job was seeing therapy clients in my private practice.

Despite this, I burned out. Pretty hard.

Ministry as more than a job

It took me years to develop insight around this, but in retrospect I can see how my ministry role was more than a job to me. So much more. 

My role in ministry felt like a calling. My employer (aka my church) was also my spiritual family.

So when the signs of burnout started surfacing a couple of years into my role, I didn't allow myself to consider setting the healthy boundaries that I otherwise would in a typical workplace environment. Because this wasn't just my job. This was my family. This was my people. This was a pick-up-the-phone-at-three-AM community.

Instead, I did what most people who burn out in ministry do: I kept going. I chalked up my stress levels to the sacrifices we give to people we care about. Just like I would get up at 3:00 am to help a loved one in urgent need, I'd do the same for my church.

So I kept going. And I burned out harder.

Until I couldn't do it anymore.

When Ministry Burnout Takes Over

When left unchecked, if we keep pushing through despite signs of burnout we may start to experience anxiety, depression, and even catatonia as a way to cope.

Because we're trying to persist through so much stress, our body can't cope through healthy means anymore. Instead, it resorts to less healthy means as a way to keep functioning...at least semi-functioning on paper.

There comes a point in the spiral into burnout when the mind and body quite literally begin to shut down. It's no longer a "mind over matter" situation. We reach such an extreme of overwhelm that our body almost hijacks the system and presses the emergency shut down for us.

It's our body's way of protecting us. If humans were a piece of bread, the burnout shutdown happens when we've become so burnt that we're about to catch on fire. Our body shuts down the toaster so we don't completely burn to a crisp.

You might not notice you're burned out already

Thank goodness our bodies advocate for our needs in this way. But typically when we are this deep into the spiral of burnout, we don't yet realize that this shutting down is for our benefit.

We might have trouble concentrating on our tasks or feeling motivated to get up and go to work. We might feel panicky just at the thought of showing up at our ministry role. We might feel like we can't even see another soul and want to stay curled up on the couch all day.

When people call me for help with spiritual burnout, they are not usually saying "Doc, I need help with burnout." They're saying, "Doc, I love my job so much, but I'm just having so much trouble getting stuff done." Or, "I don't know why, but I'm just not feeling motivated to do anything anymore." Or worse, "I'm worried I'm not equipped for my calling."

And a big one I almost always hear: “I know I’m tired, but my community needs me to help them right now.”

Shoot, those are some heavy hitters. When we start to burn out in ministry, we often feel it in a deep, personal way.

Signs of Ministry Burnout

Research suggests that the earlier we can identify and address burnout, the less time is necessary for recovery and the less extreme of an intervention needed. So if you can catch these signs early, you can sidestep the potential for a complete shut down.

Burnout most typically arises in a context of chronic interpersonal stress on the job. From my experience, it seems to be exacerbated when you feel like you can't easily escape the stresses. For example, feeling like you can't take time off, clock out at a reasonable hour, or shift your ministry role so that you can have some space away from the stresses.

In other words, when we are in an environment of ongoing interpersonal stress that we feel we can't get out of, we feel trapped. The longer we stay trapped in that space, the more likely we are to burn out.

The Three Dimensions of Burnout

According to research on the experience of burnout there are three primary dimensions - or signs - of burnout:

1. Overwhelming exhaustion

This is perhaps the most understood facet of burnout: "I'm too tired to work." For folks who are more severely burned out, they might not even be able to get out of bed.

2. Feelings of cynicism and detachment from the job

Beyond simply feeling exhausted, there is an emotional reaction to the workplace as well. Particularly, cynicism.

Cynicism is the experience that creeps in when bitterness turns into resentment. We start to develop skepticism and mistrust toward the source of our stress and hardship.

If we're burned out and we try to push through and still work, we often cope by feeling detached. We cope with the pain by not really being there mentally anymore.

3. A sense of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment

This is a terrible feeling for anyone. For ministry leaders, it's a double-whammy because we often feel like our work in ministry is also a spiritual calling.

So if we feel like we can't be effective in our work, it's not just about our job, but about our spiritual influence and calling. Our ability to be effective ministry leaders can be so core to our identity that feeling ineffective can be especially painful.

The three of these in combination make up the trifecta of burnout.

Additional Signs of Ministry Burnout

In addition to the three primary components of burnout mentioned above, ProQOL lists these additional signs of burnout:

Physical

• Fatigue

• Headaches

• Poor sleep

• Digestive problems

• Physical complaints

Emotional and Cognitive

• Emotional distress (sadness, depression)

• Anger & irritability

• Self-criticism

• Difficulty concentrating

• Cynicism/negativity

• Doubts/uncertainty

Behavioral

• Excessive use of substances (alcohol, nicotine, drugs)

• Risk-taking

Work-Related

• Avoidance/Dread of certain people

• Withdrawing from colleagues

• Decreased performance at work

• Negative attitude toward work

• Depersonalization (feeling out of your body)

• Absences

• Lack of satisfaction

• Decreased sense of accomplishment

• Feeling unable to help

• Disillusionment

• Reduced job commitment

• Reduced job motivation

• Low career satisfaction

If you'd like to explore whether you might be burned out, you can do a self-test of your level of compassion fatigue (which includes burnout as one of its variables) using the Professional Quality of Life Scale self-test (ProQOL). You can find a link to the ProQOL self-test here.

What to do if You're Burned out in Ministry

Fortunately, research shows that burnout is reversible, but not without intentional changes.

Let me be clear about something:

When you're on a path to burnout, it won't go away without making some significant changes to your current situation. 

However, when you make intentional, targeted changes, you can avoid burning out or reverse it if it's already set in.

Depending on what is at the core of your burnout, the appropriate changes for your specific needs will vary. Generally, implementing self-care activities is a good idea. For most people, additional changes are required in order to completely reverse burnout.

If you'd like more direction regarding changes that can help you cope with ministry burnout, ProQOL has a helpful 5-page handout with specific tools you can implement to reverse or avoid burnout. You can find ProQOL's resource for burnout here.

The importance of taking breaks

I've found that a break from work almost always helps. Whether it's a week to take a vacation, taking a day or two off every week for a season, offloading specific ministry tasks that are stressful, or taking a proper sabbatical, I've never heard of someone regretting taking time off when they’re burned out.

Sometimes being able to name that what we're experiencing is burnout helps us feel we have more permission to advocate for our needs and perhaps take time off as well. If that's you, I hope this article has helped validate your experience and that you feel better equipped to listen to your body's needs.

You are also welcome to explore my ministry burnout counseling services or contact me to see if I might be able to support you as you journey forward.

Photo by 2 Bro’s Media on Unsplash