I was really exercised about the last blog I wrote on pastor burnout and suggested there might be a follow-on article. I didn’t know it would take me 9 months to get to it! One of my goals for 2017 is to publish more blog articles. In the meantime, however, I have written a book! Click on Join the Adventure! at the top of this page for more information or go here to order directly from Amazon in paperback or Kindle.

I suggested in the previous article that perhaps one of the contributing factors to burnout is that pastors take on too much. They try to meet everyone’s expectations whether those expectations are biblical or not.

Then I discovered a provocative perspective on physician burnout that may apply to pastors as well.

Dr. Louis M. Profeta is an emergency physician practicing in Indianapolis. He is the author of the critically acclaimed book, The Patient in Room Nine Says He’s God. He wrote a marvelous article published October 22, 2016, on LinkedIn. When I wrote to him and told him it had some ideas I would want to use in a future book about work or in presentations about work, he gave me permission (as long as I attribute to him and send him a signed copy of the book!).

You can read Dr. Profeta’s whole article here.

Dr. Profeta told a conference of physicians and other medical providers that while what they did was important, rewarding, self-fulfilling, and made a vital contribution to society, in the end, “It’s just a job.” While that sounds demeaning of the medical profession, what he really did was elevate all professions. That’s the part I will use when I teach on work. He opens with this story:

“What do you do for a living,” the young man asked me.

“Pal, I can live a lifetime without medicine. I can only live a week without food.”

But my subject today is pastor burnout, and I wonder if this paragraph near the end of Dr. Profeta’s article applies equally to pastors as to medical professionals.

Listen, no matter how we like to hold up ourselves as the pillars of compassion, the keepers of the public well-being, we are just one profession out of countless others that keep our world moving. We are no more heroes than the social worker visiting homes in the projects, the farmer up at 4 to feed the cattle, the ironworker strapped to a beam on the 50th floor. We are no more a hero than the single mom working overnight as a custodian, trying to feed her kids. We are no more heroic than countless others who work in jobs they perhaps hate in order to care for and support the people they love.

Dr. Profeta says he’s been an ER physician for 25 years and no one in his large group has burned out because they all believe “It’s just a job.” Should pastors have such an attitude?

Some would say no. In my blog Focus with Pacing, published October 1, 2015, I quoted a pastor who said, “Fatigue is the price you pay for trying to change the world.” I believe everyone should be about changing the world, not just pastors. In fact, that’s the theme of my book, Join the Adventure! But burning ourselves out to do it is not biblical. The late well-known Bible teacher Howard (Howie) Hendricks used to talk about how pastors often declare, “I’d rather burn out than rust out!” Howie would respond: “Fine, but either way, you’re out!” Or, “The devil never takes a vacation!” To which Howie would say, “I didn’t know the devil was your role model!”

Pastors might be better served if they had the perspective another pastor friend of mine shared when thinking about “fatigue is the price you pay for trying to change the world.” He said, “We’re just ants in the colony.” I think that’s a paraphrase of, “It’s just a job.”

“Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer.” (Luke 5.16) That is, he kept communion with his Father the main thing rather than his work. When the work in one place was just getting started, Jesus said, “Let’s go to the other villages as well because that’s why I was sent.” (Luke 4.42) He left people unhealed and other needs unmet because he didn’t try to meet them all. In fact, he invested heavily in a relatively small number of people rather than run around trying to do everything.

Here’s the introduction to a long article entitled, “Statistics on Pastors” by Dr. Richard J. Krejcir.

After over 18 years of researching pastoral trends and many of us being a pastor, we have found (this data is backed up by other studies) that pastors are in a dangerous occupation! We are perhaps the single most stressful and frustrating working profession, more than medical doctors, lawyers, politicians or cat groomers (hey they have claws). We found that over 70% of pastors are so stressed out and burned out that they regularly consider leaving the ministry (I only feel that way on Mondays). Thirty-five to forty percent of pastors actually do leave the ministry, most after only five years. On a personal note, out of the 12 senior pastors that I have served under directly, two have passed away, and four have left the ministry totally-that is, not only are they no longer in the pulpit, but they no longer even attend a church. And, I run into ex-pastors on a regular basis at conferences and speaking engagements; makes me wonder “what’s up with that,” as my kids would say.

I’m convinced that a large part of the problem is that the role of today’s pastor, which is, essentially, to run a “church” is not biblical. In the book Imagine Church, Mark Green is quoted to say,

“On the whole the overall mission strategy of the church worldwide is: To recruit the people of God to use some of their leisure-time to join the mission initiatives of church-paid workers.”

Last year, I heard a pastor preaching from John 21.15 – 17 (“feed my sheep”) say, “My job is to feed the sheep. Your job is to love the sheep, and one way to love the sheep is to volunteer to fill the jobs here on Sunday morning like teaching Sunday school and keeping the nursery.” As Dave Barry would say, I am not making this up.

Some pastors feel that all the ministry is on them, that only they can teach. One pastor told a Navigator-trained friend of mine who wanted to invest in some of the younger men in that church , “If anyone around here is going to teach the men, it’s me.” Most pastors do the lion’s share of visiting the sick, and the members contribute to that challenge by complaining if they’re visited by people in the church, but not the pastor.

When pastors and members lose sight of the fact that it’s the job of the church leaders (which includes a variety of gifted people (apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers) to “equip the people to do God’s work” (Ephesians 4.11, 12), then pastors will continue to burn out.

(Possibly to be continued!)

A friend sent a link to a story from a book called Making Paper Airplanes. There’s a short video of a 6th grade class who studied aerodynamics and was then challenged to make paper airplanes and see which went the farthest. The winner was a kid who employed out-of-the-box thinking. I won’t spoil it for you–it’s a 6-minute video you can see here. It reminded me of two things I saw on TV growing up. Both represented out-of-the-box thinking, one planned by the shows’ producers and one unplanned.

The first was a show-ending challenge on Beat the Clock. A couple, wielding one stick each had to stack up three milk cartons (rectangular solids). One carton was standing up to start. Week after week, no one could stand the other two upright, pick them up and put them on top of each other in the time allotted. Finally, a couple started by knocking over the standing carton. Then they simply lined up the three cartons on the table, then stood them all upright at once. It was the “school solution,” but it was the only thing that worked. For the contestants, it required out-of-the-box thinking.

The other was on another game show, and a lady could receive up to 500 silver dollars in increments of 100 if she could lift the bucket they were in and put it on a higher shelf. The bucket was designed with a vertical handle, and the starting position was higher than a normal table. I’m sure the producers, choosing a woman, figured the most that she could lift was 200 silver dollars. The lady was a single mother and needed the money. She let all 500 silver dollars go into the bucket. When she tried to lift the bucket in the prescribed way she couldn’t. But she needed the money! So she finally realized that by putting her elbow into the bucket before grasping the vertical handle, she could lift the bucket out. The emcee mumbled, “Well done. That’s not what we had in mind!”

So winning by creative, out-of-the-box thinking is the theme.

Where do we need to apply this? Where does the church need to apply this? It seems counter-intuitive to get bigger by thinking smaller, but that’s what needs to happen. For most pastors, it’s way out-of-the-box. Instead they work on streamlining their services, making them the best they can be. Now I’m not against well-done Sunday services. I know some churches who do Sunday very well. But a good Sunday service, even the best Sunday service, won’t get the job done. Jesus had some pretty spectacular services. He fed over 5,000 people at one of them! But we’re here, following Jesus today, because he invested in 12 men only and told them to reproduce what they had experienced. A non-spectacular, and by today’s practices, an out-of-the-box ministry.

Yesterday I quoted a pastor friend of mine who described us as “ants in the colony.” It’s not my job to change the world, but it is my job to play the role God has chosen for me.

Another picture that’s coming into focus with respect to playing our role and pacing comes from The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. I haven’t quite finished it yet, and even though we know the ending, there is still excitement and suspense. Mainly, however, it’s the story of the hard work that goes into putting together an 8-man rowing crew. Each man not only has to pull his own weight (literally!), he has to do it in concert with the coxswain and the other seven rowers.

“Be strong; do the work” from 1 Chronicles 28.10, 20, and Haggai 2.4 certainly applies. It’s my job to be strong (see Ephesians 6.10 and 2 Timothy 2.1) and do the work. For example, invest in others from 2 Timothy 2.2. But Boys in the Boat reminds us of pacing as well. We are to “run with endurance” (Hebrews 12.1). In every race, the crew had to be fast and pace themselves, conserving energy so they could pass the other boats at the end, finishing strong.

I think I’m called to do the same: maintain a life rhythm of work and rest, doing my share, pulling together with others.

PS For another set of lessons from Boys in the Boat, please see this excellent article from Leadership Journal.

June and I both turn 70 in 2016, and we are entering what will most likely be our last decade of ministry. (Although Navigator Jim Downing is still going strong at age 102!) Anyway, I sometimes look back on our early days around The Navigators in the late 1960s, and we thought that by now spiritual multiplication would have “worked” and we’d be “done” by now! What will motivate us to keep going for the next 10 years and beyond? And how will we pace ourselves?

For example, we want to create a life rhythm that rules out overbooking and builds in periods of rest. One pastor told me a while back, “Fatigue is the price you pay for trying to change the world.” That sounded good at the time, but upon reflection, our working ourselves to death is not what God requires to change the world.

With respect to our early belief that the mission should have been accomplished by now, I read recently in Joshua that while a lot of land had been claimed (Joshua 21.43 – 45), there were still more enemies to defeat (Joshua 23.4 – 13). There will always be work. There will always be needs. Another pastor told me in response to these observations from Joshua, “We don’t change the world. Jesus does that. We are just ants in the colony.” I like that.

It’s OK to create a life rhythm with built-in rest periods. We want to finish strong, not burn out before the finish line! So we will pace ourselves while still focusing on the work that God has given all of us to do. I’ll be writing about that over the next days.

I was in the Rocky Mountain National Park Visitor Center looking for the 100th anniversary poster that my wife had seen at a friend’s house. Not seeing it, I asked the check-out clerk, and she responded, “All we have is that picture there,” pointing to a large framed 100th anniversary picture. “Ours are smaller, and they are right on that shelf.” Of course, it was exactly what I was looking for.

I’m just trying to figure out why she said, “All we have is that picture there,” instead of saying, “Yes! We have exactly what you want! It’s a reproduction of that picture there. Isn’t it fabulous?” I experienced the same type of response visiting a church one Sunday. It was a downtown church which shared a two-level parking garage with another organization. When I pulled in, the parking usher said, “All we have is parking on the second level.” Not, “Good morning! Welcome to our church! There’s plenty of parking up on the second level!”

Is it that some folks just have a negative mindset? Or a “nothing is ever enough” mindset? Or, and maybe this is it, a habit of focusing on what we don’t have rather than on what we do have? “Yes, we have the kind of poster you want, but it’s only one style and comes in only one size.” “Yes, we have parking on the second level, but, if you’re like me, you’d rather park on the ground level, and we don’t have any spaces there.”

Or maybe I’m the problem. I have a negative mindset, a “nothing is ever enough” mindset, and the habit of focusing on what we don’t have rather than on what we do have. The Visitor Center had the poster I wanted. Why am I critiquing the verbiage of the person who showed me where it was? The church had parking and a person to direct me to it. What’s the issue?

The disciples were a bit negative in the feeding of the 5,000. “All we have are five loaves of bread and two fish,” they said. (Matthew 14:17, MSG) But Jesus ignored their commentary, “What are they for so many?” (John 6.9, ESV) He didn’t stop to critique the disciples. He just put them to work as ushers (“have them sit down in groups”), food servers, and bus boys (“clean up the fragments”).

Maybe I should focus more on doing what I’m supposed to do and less on critiquing. Or, to put it another way, especially since I’m on sabbatical right now, maybe instead of always “weighing in” on issues, real or perceived, I should practice “weighing out.”

What was the problem with the young man in Mark 10, the one often referred to as “The Rich Young Ruler”, the one who asked, “What good thing must I do?” There’s certainly a lesson on wealth since Jesus asked him to get rid of his stuff, and the point is made that he was wealthy. But there may be something even simpler than that going on, especially if we contrast this event with two others in Mark 10.

First, Jesus tells us we need to be like children: “When Jesus saw what was happening, he was angry with his disciples. He said to them, ‘Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children. I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.'” (Mark 10.14, 15)

Children don’t ask, “What good thing must I do to get dinner tonight?”

Second, we have the story of the blind man who shouted, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” He wasn’t quiet and polite like the young man. And to him, Jesus said simply, “What do you want me to do for you?” (Mark 10.51)

The contrast is in the questions. Am I wanting to do something for Jesus? Or am I allowing Jesus to ask, “What can I do for you?” I don’t think it would have mattered who asked Jesus the question, “What good thing must I do?” It could have been Ghandi. Jesus would have put his finger on something other than wealth that was preventing his receiving from Jesus. Who thought that there was something he could do to help Jesus.

This is important as June and I enter a sabbatical. It will be less of what we can do for Jesus and more of what he wants to do in us. Our sabbatical advisor, Dr. Mike Oldham, told us, “Remember your theology. You need God. God doesn’t need you.”

Acts 2:1
On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place.

That’s something right there. Those 120 were it. “All the believers.” After three years of work, Jesus was gone, and there were 120 believers. But in about 300 years, those 120 had spread until half the people in the Roman Empire were following Jesus. For an excellent report of how this happened, please see Rodney Stark’s book The Rise of Christianity. Among the things you will see is that in one way or another all the believers were engaged in following Jesus and spreading the message.

Acts 2:3-4
Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.

But the Holy Spirit came “on each of them.” “Everyone present” was filled with the Holy Spirit…

Acts 2:7-8
They were completely amazed. “How can this be?” they exclaimed. “These people are all from Galilee, and yet we hear them speaking in our own native languages!

All are speaking, and all are participating in the miracle.

Acts 2:17-18
‘In the last days,’ God says,
‘I will pour out my Spirit upon all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy.
Your young men will see visions,
and your old men will dream dreams.
In those days I will pour out my Spirit
even on my servants—men and women alike—
and they will prophesy.

How clear can God be? It was prophesied that the Spirit would come upon all people. That sons and daughters would prophesy that young men would see visions and old men will dream dreams. It’s for all. Men and women, old and young, servants, too.

Somehow in our day, we’ve replaced “all” with professional clergy or commissioned missionaries. But for those of us in “Christian work”—I think everyone is in Christian work, but that’s another subject—our job is equipping everyone else. Ephesians 4.11 – 13:

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,…

I’ve always been fascinated with the conversation between God and Abraham in Genesis 18 concerning the impending destruction of Sodom. You remember the story, where Abraham says, “You wouldn’t destroy the city if 50 righteous people were found there, would you?” And he works it from 50 all the way down to 10.

There are a couple of immediate lessons there:

– God is pleased for us to make a case in our prayers. “Won’t the judge of all the earth do right?” Moses does the same in asking God not to destroy the Israelites for the sake of his promises to the patriarchs (see Exodus 32.7 – 14).

– God gave Abraham information about his plans: “Should I hide my plan from Abraham?…I have heard a great outcry from Sodom and Gomorrah…” Abraham uses the information God gave him about the destruction of Sodom not as “nice-to-know” but as fuel for prayer. We could do the same even when we listen to the news. Is it entertainment only or should events in the world inform our prayers?

But there’s another lesson. Abraham prays that the city of Sodom would be spared, but it’s not. However, the Lord sent two angels to get Lot and his family and drag them out of the city. The commentary on that action is in Genesis 19.29, “But God had listened to Abraham’s request and kept Lot safe, removing him from the disaster that engulfed the cities on the plain.”

But Abraham never asked for Lot’s safety. His words had to do with the Lord not destroying Sodom. But the text says, “But God listened to Abraham’s request and kept Lot safe.” So Abraham’s real request was not for Sodom, it was that his nephew Lot would be delivered. God worked past the words to the heart and granted the real request.

That’s a real comfort, isn’t it? That when I pray, God knows what I really want (and what I really need) and works in that direction, regardless of the specific thing I’m asking for.

It’s fun being around people who know that they’re trying to do….

On July 11, my grandson, Taylor, graduated from Marine Boot Camp in San Diego, continuing the military tradition of both his grandfathers. I was there (in uniform!), but his maternal grandfather was not. Stay tuned, and I’ll tell you why.

According to the program they gave us at the graduation parade, Marines “make Marines and win battles.” And making Marines is all about transformation–transformation that begins in Boot Camp and continues throughout a Marine’s career. However long the Marine serves, he will return to civilian life eventually, and The Marines feel that they have made a better country by sending “men and women of strong character back to society.”

And the Marines don’t wait to make that contribution to society. Taylor’s other grandfather, Mac, Viet Nam veteran and retired Army helicopter pilot, waited at home during Boot Camp, suffering from Lou Gehrig’s disease. Mac passed away on July 24, less than two weeks after Taylor’s graduation, having seen his grandson become a Marine. In the Air Force, death of a grandfather might get you a couple days’ leave for the funeral. Taylor, having already returned to California for more training, got 10 days, and he wasn’t even on leave–he reported to a local recruiter. The Marine philosophy is that families need a Marine at a time like this.

I’m proud of my grandson. I’m proud of the Marine Corps. And I sometimes wish churches were as serious about real transformation as the Marines are.