If you are in co-vocational ministry, chances are that you’ve said or thought some variation of these words before: “I just feel so burnt out.” Perhaps a fellow pastor has talked about being burnt out in their ministry. Or maybe you’ve been unfortunate enough to hear someone tell you “It’s better to burn out than rust out!”—as if those are the only two options for clergy.

Most clergy are familiar with the concept of burnout, and many of us have different ideas of what burnout is and what it looks like. Everyone seems to have a different definition of burnout in mind—or no definition at all.

The Tale of Two Pastors

Consider two different pastors’ experiences with something resembling burnout. The first pastor’s experience comes shortly after their first child was born. As a part-time lead pastor, they had just started a new full-time job working five days a week at a sawmill. Those of you with children know how disorienting and tiring having a new baby can be as you adjust to becoming a new parent. The new lack of sleep, the new job, the everyday stresses of leading a church, and the sheer number of hours worked are a perfect recipe for exhaustion.

Ministry is very demanding, but for the most part, the pastor feels it is going okay. The pastor tells themselves, “I am so burnt out, I can’t keep doing this.” At least half of that statement is true—they certainly can’t keep up that kind of pace. Given the circumstances, it makes sense for the pastor to be exhausted. One might describe this pastor as “burnt out,” although as you’ll see, exhaustion is only one aspect of burnout.

Now consider a second pastor’s story.

This pastor also keeps an incredibly busy schedule with two young children at home while going back to school five days a week, working the odd Saturday to make ends meet, leading ministries two evenings a week, and preaching every Sunday for almost 50 Sundays a year. Once school was over, the pastor began working an apprenticeship part-time as a co-vocation while pastoring.

The cumulative effects of such an exhausting schedule begin to wear on the pastor, and on top of that, things don’t seem to be going well at the small, rural church he leads. He no longer has the energy to play games at the kid's ministry he and his wife lead. Writing sermons, an activity he used to love, now feels tedious and laborious and he often procrastinates until late Saturday night. When it comes time to preach the next morning, he feels he can never find the right words, and he dreads visiting with the congregation after the service and often longs to go home as soon as possible. The pastor’s administrative abilities suffer, the sermons don’t seem to pack the same punch, and on top of all that, the pastor is beginning to feel some resentment toward the people in his congregation for the constant pressure and expectations he seems to face.

Although both of these stories share some similarities, the second story paints a fuller picture of what burnout actually looks like. I can tell you from experience—since both stories are actually about me and my experience in co-vocational ministry—that the second experience was significantly different from the first.

The first story occurred about five years into my ministry as a pastor, and the second happened four years after that. It was during that second time that I started giving serious consideration to leaving ministry altogether. I knew I needed to make some serious changes, and I asked my church board for a sabbatical.

Thankfully, they agreed—they even decided to create a sabbatical policy to automatically approve a sabbatical every seven years. My sabbatical was an amazing healing experience and journey, but I would say it took me another six months after I returned before I was back at my full capacity.

What can be learned from these brushes with burnout?

The Signs of Burnout

First, we can learn to recognize all the signs of burnout.

What I now recognize in that second story is what research has taught us about burnout. As I shared before, people often use the term “burnout” quite loosely in an ill-defined way, so it means different things to different people. Often, we use “burnout” interchangeably with the word “exhaustion.” This makes sense because exhaustion is a key aspect of burnout. However, exhaustion is just one of three markers of burnout (Adams et al., 2017; Maslach & Florian, 1988).

The Maslach Burnout Inventory is a scientifically validated questionnaire that researchers use to measure burnout, primarily in people who work in caregiving professions (Maslach & Florian, 1988). Research shows us that the most commonly recognized sign of burnout is emotional exhaustion. The other two are reduced personal accomplishment, and depersonalization (Adams et al., 2017).

As I reflect on my second story about burnout, I notice a distinct difference from the first. My first encounter with burnout was what some might consider the “early stages” of burnout—I was emotionally exhausted, but still relatively effective in my work, and not experiencing depersonalization. The second time, however, I had very little sense of personal accomplishment as a pastor, and it was that third area—depersonalization—that provided the strongest evidence that I was burnt out.

When people in a caring profession, like pastoring, find themselves unable to care anymore, it is the most potent indicator they may be burnt out. I had reached the point where I no longer looked forward to seeing people from church, I was sometimes annoyed or even bitter about my pastoral responsibilities, and I often wanted to be left alone. These can all be serious signs of depersonalization and very strong indicators of burnout. As you can imagine, it was a very unhealthy place to be as a pastor, and a lot of healing and recovery needed to take place. However, the years since that time have also been some of the most fruitful, encouraging, and rewarding seasons of my ministry.

We can bounce back!

My hope is that you will be able to recognize the signs of burnout and be able to make some changes if you notice them occurring. It’s important to understand that emotional exhaustion is an aspect of burnout that may be the first sign of trouble. On top of exhaustion, if you find yourself emotionally exhausted and feel little or no sense of personal accomplishment in your work, consider that your internal “check engine” light flashing you a serious warning.

In addition to those two, if you find yourself feeling very cynical about people, or calloused toward them, or having a hard time feeling empathy for people (depersonalization), think of it like your entire dashboard lighting up with warning lights and engine codes: catastrophic damage could be imminent, and immediate action is necessary!

What to Do About Burnout

The second thing we can learn is what to do when we experience burnout.

I think our tendency as clergy has generally been to prescribe a sabbatical as the cure-all to any signs of burnout—my own story does little to dispel that idea. Feeling exhausted? Sabbatical. Busy season of ministry? Sabbatical. Been a while since you had a sabbatical? Sabbatical. Difficult board meeting? Sabbatical. Just got back from sabbatical? Time to plan for the next sabbatical. That’s not a criticism of all sabbaticals—I couldn’t have survived in ministry without mine. But they are not the perfect panacea for all problems. Having said that, sometimes making a big change like a sabbatical or a resignation are necessary to recover from burnout.

How to Get Ahead of Burnout

The third thing we can learn from these stories is to implement small, incremental changes that counteract burnout earlier on.

I’ve come to believe that big changes like a sabbatical are only effective if they enable new rhythms of rest and priorities when we return.

I changed quite a few things when I returned from my sabbatical:

• I stopped preaching 50 Sundays a year.
• I made it clear to my church that Friday evenings and Saturdays were off-limits for family time and that I would not be available during those times for all but the direst emergencies.
• I started writing my sermons earlier in the week. We booked family vacations every year.
• I shut my phone off when we left. 

When I said, “I can’t go on like this,” I really meant it. My sabbatical laid the groundwork for the small, incremental lifestyle changes that made ministry much more sustainable, more enjoyable, and more fruitful.

Where to Find Help

If you recognize some of yourself in my story or you see those “check engine” lights of emotional exhaustion, lack of satisfaction, and depersonalization popping up in your life, I encourage you to reach out to a peer, a mentor, a coach, or a counsellor to help you walk through the journey. If you are in co-vocational ministry, I invite you to visit briercrestseminary.ca/leadershipcentre/co-vocational to get connected with Co-Vocational Canada and access complimentary counselling, coaching, and resources to help you find rest, restore balance, and bounce back from burnout.