How Do You Avoid Ministry Burnout?

Summary

Summary prepared by Acts 2:38 Life from the transcript below — the preacher’s words follow in full.

Keep the vision alive

• The question posed (in the host's frame): many people who know you very well have expressed admiration, for your ability to maintain a very busy schedule. You're the general superintendent. And so, with that office, comes lots of appointments, lots of phone calls, lots of leadership responsibilities, administrative responsibilities. And then you don't take the weekends off, generally, and go relax. You're usually traveling somewhere, to preach. So there's lots of travel time involved — not a whole lot of rest and relaxation, on the weekends, typically. How have you personally managed to avoid getting burned out, with all those demands, with that hectic schedule? And what advice do you have to offer, to other leaders, who maybe — they're feeling the effects of the daily grind? How do they avoid getting burned out? The answer, first: you need to keep the vision alive. You need to keep focused on the big picture. What am I trying to accomplish, for the kingdom of God? What is my purpose in life? What is our — my ministry, my calling? You need to be constantly renewed, through prayer, and through godly counsel, and through being exposed to anointed preaching and teaching of others, to help you keep the vision alive.

Balance — the weekly day, vacations, and holidays

• Second, I would say: you need balance. You do need times of physical, emotional, and spiritual rest and relaxation. Now, while I do have a very busy schedule, and sometimes everything gets jumbled up — my schedule's different every week — I try to be very intentional, about taking off one day a week. And if, for some reason, things get piled on top of each other, and I can't take it at the time I want to, or need to, then I'll take two or three days off, at a time. When I was a full-time pastor, Monday was my day off. I didn't go in the office. I didn't do work. Monday evening was family night. But in the day, I did something that I wanted to do. And unless it was a true emergency, I didn't handle any church affairs. I might do some personal reading, and personal study. But I did not try to study for a message, or something like that. And then the evening, as I said, we devoted it to family events, family activities, family devotion. So that was how I did it. Now, as a general superintendent: you're right, I'm preaching every weekend, almost without fail. But often I will take Monday, or Monday and Tuesday, off — or Saturday off. I would try to. And then, not only do you need weekly times: I'm a firm believer in annual family vacation, going over a weekend, at least. And so, throughout the years, my wife and I — when our kids were at home — we would do that. We would take an annual family vacation, of 9 or 10 days. We would also take smaller times — just the two of us, getting away for 2 or 3 days. Or, if we were taking an overseas missions trip, or some kind of special ministry trip, to a different location, we might build in one or two days of rest, or sightseeing. And then holidays were very important, for our family. And they still are. Now our kids are all grown, and married. So we rotate. One year, we try to all get together for Thanksgiving. The next year, we all get together for Christmas. And when I was a pastor, those were busy times, for the church. So it was more difficult, to take extended time. But now, as general superintendent, that becomes some of the best times. I can take a week off, of Thanksgiving; a couple weeks off, at Christmas. And I may do some work, from home. But I have a more relaxed schedule. So I do think it's very important, to build these times in.

Hobbies, exercise — and the mind that solves problems at rest

• In addition to that: so, you need rest, you need relaxation. So you need hobbies, within reason. But you should have things, other than church, that you want to do. So, in my case: I like to read. I like to travel, you know, do some sightseeing. I like to take pictures. I enjoy taking pictures of wild flowers, because what that does is: that forces me to get outside — which, I enjoy the outdoors, walking, recreation — but it also forces me to focus my attention. So I can't be thinking of something else, while I'm intensely focused on finding, identifying a flower, taking a good picture, trying to figure out if I've seen this before, what it is. So you can't — your mind can't be wandering, while it's focused. But yet, it gets me outdoors. It doesn't require a long trip. It doesn't require a lot of money. I can do it for two hours. I can do it for half a day. I can do it by my home. I can do it at a park nearby. And so it's a quick, inexpensive, but yet focused, activity. I've gotten into some bird watching, and taking picture of birds, the same way. In fact, I have a website, of David K. Bernard Photography. I think it's david.jdard.com (as the address is heard), if you want to look at it. But that — so I'm suggesting: you need some kind of hobby, that forces you to get out of your routine, and to think — and not to think about church, or problems, or ministry, or things like that. And you become refreshed.
• I've found — and this is verified psychologically — that a lot of times, when you're wrestling with problems, if you'll be distracted for a couple hours — go read, or go do something, like a hobby, that forces your mind to relax — or even get a good night's sleep: then, after that, your mind is still working creatively, subconsciously. And the next day, you may have some creative thoughts. Where, if you try to focus, and agonize, and be frustrated, on intently getting an answer, you'll just beat your head against a wall. But if you distract yourself, get a good night's sleep, go do something else: you're thinking creatively, and freshly. And you might come up with a solution, the next day. Other hobbies I enjoy: I like to go swimming. That's a big form of exercise. So I get most of my exercise, either swimming, or walking. So, again, I would suggest: you do have — get good exercise.

The whole combination — stewardship, not burnout

• Obviously, your spiritual disciplines: not just to pray, or study for a message, but just for your personal spiritual life. So: daily prayer, reading and study of God's word — all that is helpful, to avoid burnout. So, and then diet: watching what you eat. So, a combination of: rest, relaxation, hobbies, vacation, exercise, diet, personal relationships — your family, friends, doing things together. It doesn't have to be always spiritual things. But just getting together, as a family, or getting together with close friends. A combination of all those gives you a well-rounded, balanced life, and helps you avoid burnout. If you see that you're getting very lethargic, depressed, anxious, want to sleep all the time, frustrated all the time: those are some signs, of approaching burnout. So then you have to redouble your efforts, invest more time, the things I'm talking about.
• After 40 years of ministry, full-time ministry, my wife convinced me that we needed a month sbatical (sabbatical, as heard). So, a couple years ago, we took a whole month off. We probably should have done that before. And we will need to do it again. But there's an example of: we have to structure our lives. We have to build in the time. I don't believe we're bound by the Sabbath laws of the Old Testament. But I believe the principle, of taking off one day a week — and a principle of appropriate physical, emotional, spiritual rest — is vitally important. And I think, with a combination of those things, we can avoid burnout. There's an old feeling, you know: just wear yourself out, for the kingdom of God. Just work all the time. I'm not — not a workaholic. I do work hard, when I work. But I work with a goal, of: I want to get to the end, so I can take time off, and do something I want to do. And so we have to keep that focus. I don't believe that old school thought is completely right. Because God wants us to be a good steward. So, if we work ourselves so much, that we burn out, or we break our physical health, or we die prematurely: well, that's not being a good steward. God doesn't expect that. So yes: serving God, living for God, and ministry, is a sacrifice, at times. Sacrifice of our will; sacrifice of our time, our energy, our priorities, our dreams. But there should be a balance. God does not expect us to harm ourselves. He wants us to have a balance, so that we have a healthy physical life, a healthy spiritual life, healthy emotional life, healthy marriage, healthy family. And all of that is part of being a good steward, and a servant, in the kingdom of God.