mgpcpastor's blog

The black dog’s barely raised a Monday ‘woof’ for well over six months now, which is sort of a record.
J.D. Greear posted three insightful and constructive posts about avoiding burnout last week.
Greear credits Brad Hambrick, counseling pastor at their church with this material.
Burnout issues are related to the black dog.
Not managing these areas is sort of like one of those stories where the people are walking through the forest after dark and become aware of those menacing pairs of shining eyes glaring beneath the underbrush.
You’re on dangerous ground.
Read and learn from these excellent posts.
Part One: Portrait of a Burnout identifies seven stages of the descent into burnout.
Sample:

Stage Two: Unfocused or Unrealistic Expectations
“Caring” is a fire that burns, and burning requires fuel. The problem was that the better Pastor Jeff did at anything, the more “great opportunities” came his way. Pastor Jeff cared, so he tried to honor every “open door” God brought into his life. Soon there were more care-fires than there was Pastor Jeff to burn, and he started to be consistently tired–physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

Part Two: What Causes Burnout? deals with the practical issue of identifying the good that must remain undone and the good which we must perform.
Sample:

Burnout is never caused by a single area of life. One area of life can’t get out of order without overt neglect in other areas. No, burnout is a result of how we have managed our life as a whole.
Burnout is simply the result of living beyond our means with the time God has provided. It is common to say that someone is “living beyond their means” financially, meaning they owe more than they earn. Here we use the phrase to help us refer to time management.
The first step for those moving towards burnout is to rest in the fact that everything fits in a 168-hour week. If there are 200 hours worth of excellent things for you to accomplish in a week, at least 32 hours of your agenda is outside the will of God. If God wants it done, He will do it through someone else.

Part Three: How Can I Prevent Burnout? provides thirteen practical guidelines toward healthy living which should serve to mitigate against burnout.
Sample:

Steward your finite body. Eat healthy, exercise, and sleep. We have a responsibility before God to care for our body so that we are in the best position to face life’s struggles. Whenever possible, we want to avoid situations where our spirit is willing but our flesh is weak (Matthew 16:41).
Live within your 168-hour week. This concept helps us remember that when we say “yes” to a new thing, we must say “no” to something we are currently doing.
Practice Stillness. Have some time each day when you are still—not doing a task, watching a television, or listening to music. Use this as a tangible reminder that you can stop moving and the world won’t.
Learn how to manage stress and conflict. Two of the leading predictors of burnout are stress and conflict. If these are areas that you feel ill-prepared to face, then study in these areas during your personal reading time.

These three posts constitute a very brief introduction to a substantial area of concern.
I find the observation that burnout almost never arises from one area of the individual’s life very helpful. After the fact when someone burns out or breaks down you’ll usually find in addition to ‘work problems’ there have been issues at home and among family and friends as well.
If someone’s under stress in one area I’m concerned. If I happen to know there’s stress everywhere in their lives then I’m worried.
And the issue is not always trying to make those situations go away. After all, that’s what a burnout is.
It’s about developing better personal skills arising from your relationship with God which enable you to deal with your environment and circumstances in a more positive and healthy way.
Pastoral life has a very high proportionate level of burnout, and the impacts of a ministry failing can have substantial ongoing impacts on the lives many others, so it needs attention particularly among the leadership of local churches as they care for one another and among pastors in wider collegial friendships.