Pastoral burnout could be defined as the moment or season when a pastor loses the motivation, hope, energy, joy, and focus required to fulfill his work, and these losses center upon the work itself. These aspects of burnout don’t operate in isolation. They connect and overlap. From time to time, we might lose motivation or hope in ministry. On any given day, we can feel exhausted and joyless.
Numerous times a year, for as long as I can remember, I speak with pastors looking for an exit from ministry. The reason isn’t moral failure, or interest in another vocation, or lack of “calling.” The reason, more often than not, is nebulous and hard to describe. When the pastor talks about ministry, he uses words like, “exhausted … discouraged … pointless … distracted … lonely.” No matter how much he sleeps, or drinks coffee, or tries to motivate himself, the tank always feels empty.
Could this be what people call pastoral burnout? If so, how do we discern the signs? Answering that important question is the goal of this article.
Pastoral burnout could be defined as the moment or season when a pastor loses the motivation, hope, energy, joy, and focus required to fulfill his work, and these losses center upon the work itself. These aspects of burnout don’t operate in isolation. They connect and overlap. From time to time, we might lose motivation or hope in ministry. On any given day, we can feel exhausted and joyless. But when all our motivations erode at once, and when their absence persists, I think it’s then that we’ve entered a season of pastoral burnout.
Furthermore, these signs center upon the work of ministry itself. This distinguishes pastoral burnout from other trials: grief after the loss of a child or spouse, intense family troubles, or the experience of depression. A pastor could experience loss of motivation, hope, energy, joy, and focus in ministry for various reasons. But sometimes, ministry itself becomes the trigger point.
Motivation relates to heart affections and desires behind ministry. Paul says, “the love of Christ controls us” (2 Corinthians 5:14). He was willing to suffer beatings and imprisonment “if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24). The promises of God motivated him (2 Corinthians 1:20). The spiritual health of the church for the glory of God motivated him (2 Corinthians 4:15). The splendor of grace motivated him, and motivation is essential to pastoral vitality.
When we lose all sense of motivation, perhaps because we’ve derived it for too long from the wrong things, we may be in a state of pastoral burnout. The wind that used to fill our sails has faded away. The love of Christ has become an empty idea. The promises of God and the edification of the church feel distant. The things that used to push us out of bed in the morning just don’t push us anymore.
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