Recently I was asked to speak on ministry survivability at a minister’s collective, and because I’m unavailable, I thought I’d lay down some thoughts here that might be useful. It’s a collection of thoughts and resources mixed with my own experience thus far as a survivor in ministry.
I write this article, now, today, with the full intention of adding to it over the next day or so.
Anyone who’s been in ministry as a pastor or chaplain or missionary for any length of time has faced situations that have called for survival.
There’s a massive range of issues that threaten ministry survivability, from common garden-variety burnout, to mismanaged conflict, to compassion fatigue, to spiritual and other forms of abuse, to a crisis of faith, and truly the list would be endless.
Many of us have been threatened—perhaps all of us—because of conflict that ended previously strong friendships, traumatised us, ended our ministries, or ruined us for a time. Sometimes a combination of all these. If we’re not destroyed by the calamities of ministries that end suddenly by others’ manipulative action, we live to serve another day. What’s required is resilience. It’s good to take some time out, reflect, agonise, and grow. You may find your call is clarified through the furnace of betrayal and rejection, and the profound disappointment and disenchantment that comes as a result.
But, if you asked great Australian ministry mentor, Dr Keith Farmer, by far the commonest threat to ministry survivability would be burnout through endeavouring to meet the impossible demands our ministries and our humanity can place on us. Much of this can ultimately be attributed to attempting to be everything to everyone—all driven by a perfectionism that’s driven deep into us from the traumas of past.
We all bear some trauma, and particularly those who are driven to help and serve others. The help and service we provide to others came usually because we ourselves were helped and served, and our need speaks of something that impacted us, i.e., trauma. The trouble is we don’t face trauma well, because few of us are comfortable with admitting there’s something wrong with us. Of course, trauma is a result of trauma, and it is never our fault.
Much burnout is akin to exhaustion, compassion fatigue and the like. Again, when we dig deeper down, we find that what sent us to the brink was our agreement that we had to do it all—or that we couldn’t say no. I know there was a season in my life when I literally felt that invincible through God’s power working through me—it took me 18 months to flame out. Sometimes we’re in situations where leaders manage poorly and even abusively. This will always threaten our ministry survivability.
A threat that can creep up little by little is the reverse correlation between faith and professionalism. The better we get at preaching and pastoral care, the farther our faith appears to us as authentic, and our connection with God and our devotional lives wane. It takes raw honesty to admit that this has occurred and gentle, encouraging supervision and mentoring always helps.
One thing I’ve consistently found in being pressed beyond my abilities to bear is my call of God has strengthened overall, even as I’ve contemplated giving up ministry a thousand times. God wouldn’t let me. And I’m glad of it, because when I recovered, I always wanted to serve God.
My prayer for you is that you’d be equipped by God to not only survive the conquests to your ministry, but that afterwards you would thrive.
The following are some resources that might help:
Blog Article Resources:
Passing the Baton with Dr Keith Farmer
Do you show signs of undiagnosed burnout?
10 sources of exhaustion you can’t afford not to know about (from the ministry of Ruth Haley Barton)
Warnings for when a pastor’s call becomes their profession
Contending with spiritual weariness
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