Burned out in ministry
A lot of times in all jobs people get burned out and tired of doing what they do. Doctors get tired of being a doctor and lawyers get tired of being a lawyer. Pastors and youth pastors get tired of what they do too. Often, this happens because a person forgets why they started or they have gotten distracted from the main thing they love.
Pastors are not immune to this, we hear the calling from God so we step up to the pulpit and we preach, we spend weeks agonizing over sermons and then we make our visits. We attend all the meetings and listen to all the complaints and try to fix all the problems and finally we end up exhausted at the end of another 100 hour week and wonder why our spouse does not seem to connect with us anymore?
Pastor’s can only do that for so long before we burn out, before we run out of energy and we get so tired we can’t listen to one more complaint.
Then we begin to think: “Why did I sign up for this?”
The answer: I didn’t sign up for that, I signed up to preach the word of God, teach the people about the faith, and lead them in the way of righteousness, it isn’t a 40 hour a week job it is a lifestyle and I signed up because people need to know Jesus loves them enough to die for them.
If we are called to tell others about Jesus and suddenly we are spending more time at meetings then we are sure to get burned out because we have stopped telling others about Jesus.
One of my heroes is the late Mike Yaconelli, he was a pastor to youth directors. When a youth pastor would write to him confessing they are burned out he would call their office and ask him/her what they were doing in that office and why they were not with youth. Then Mike would begin to lightly yell at them for not spending more time with youth.
So then, if you are burned out, worn out, and tired of your job, maybe you need to quit OR MAYBE you need to get back to the reason you are called to that job in the first place because that was the most important reason in the first place, right?
Tags: burned out, pastor, pastoral care, Youth Ministry
