The Real Reason Pastors Burnout ( PLUS How-To Fix It ) -

17 Mar The Real Reason Pastors Burnout ( PLUS How-To Fix It )

Posted at 10:23h in blog by Ministry Library

There are tons of studies and reports out there about pastor burnout.

Here are few of the stats you can find.

90% work more than 50 hours a week.
80% of pastors say they have insufficient time with their spouse.
50% feel unable to meet the needs of the job.
75% report severe stress causing anguish, worry, bewilderment, anger, depression, fear, and alienation.
33% felt burned out within their first five years of ministry.
90% feel unqualified or poorly prepared for ministry.

Think about a time when you felt burned out. Why were you feeling that way?

Working too much
Not having a sabbath
Little time with family
Feeling the pressure to get everything done
Not enough volunteers
No vacation time

Now, imagine if you had a team of leaders that could share in the responsibility of ministry, would those reasons for burnout go away?

I believe the root cause of pastor burnout is poor Leadership Development.

I can hear the groans already.

Most of you are thinking, “Well having more leaders would be great but I don’t have enough time for a date night, let alone time to develop leaders.”

I totally understand.

Here’s the truth….

You have to make leadership development a priority now! No Matter What!

If you don’t you’ll burnout, your staff will burnout and your volunteers will burnout.

3 steps to finding more time for leadership development.

Step One – Write down all the things you currently do.

Step Two – Put a star next to all the the things that only you can do.

NOT the things you want to do or the things you’re afraid to let go of.

Step Three – Quite doing half of everything else on the list!

I know that sounds impossible.

BUT!!!

This will do a few things for you.

1. It will give you margin in your daily work.

This is key! Once you have that margin you can start to prioritize and leadership development and end the burnout cycle.

2. It will create space for others to step up and lead.

There are tons of leaders in your church. Most churches don’t have a leader issue they have a leadership development issue. By you quitting certain tasks you’ll create a need that will encourage more people to step up and lead.

3. It will also give you opportunities to begin delegating.

As pastors our job is not to do the ministry but to equip others to do the ministry. Delegating effectively is one of the first barriers to church growth. And let’s be honest, you’re not the best at everything, so let others lead where they’re gifted.

Delegation is soooooo important that we created this Free eBook just on delegation.