It is very easy to lose our identity in our work. Our personal identity comes from our projects. We learn early in life to say things like, “I am a basketball player” or “I am a pianist.” As we proceed from being a “student” to being a “minister” we slowly identify more with our work and ministry.

As you lead a ministry you can very easily find your identity as the pastor of the church and the church reflects highly on who you are. This creates a problem scenario. When things are going well, we feel happy and satisfied as if we are doing the work and not God. When things are not going as we plan, we feel upset, dejected and abandoned. When Sunday attendance is up, we feel great and preach with great energy. When attendance or finances are down, we struggle emotionally.

We must learn that we are a child of God and find our identity in who we are in Christ not in our service. We are a child of God who serves in a particular ministry. We are who we are because of the grace of God and what we do is our ministry assignment that should be based on our spiritual giftedness. Our assignment might change but our identity does not. We are children of God who serve the church of God.

To help in this area I recommend a thorough study of your spiritual position as a son of God. The book of Ephesians, Philippians or Romans 8 can be a great encouragement for you.

Sometimes we think the busier we are, the more effective we are. This is not accurate at all. There is a gentle balance that must be maintained. We can be lazy and not work enough but there comes a crossover point when we are spending too many hours working and not valuing the rest that this patterned in Scripture. The concept of rest in the Bible encompasses spiritual rest, physical rest, ceremonial rest. It reflects on God´s place in our lives. Are we living as if we are dependent on God or dependent on our works? Our view of rest often reveals our practical theology in this area.

God made rest an important principle for mankind. There is a theology behind rest as it demonstrates our willingness to trust God. It is built into all of life’s experiences. All animals sleep and rest. Humans must rest physically, and God instilled this into our life to demonstrate a key difference between us and our sovereign Lord. He never gets tired, exhausted or worn out. We certainly do.

If you occupy too much of your time and do not make time to physically rest, you will suffer. Your body will begin to show signs of tiredness. Your mental capacity will diminish. Your relationships will become strained. You will be impacted emotionally. Your spiritual vitality will slip away. If you do not give rest its proper place you will suffer the consequences of this bad decision.

I encourage you to do a Biblical study on the concept of rest. Preach on it, teach on it and be an example to those God has given to you. It is a vast subject that our families, churches and counselees need to know about and experience. I have included a chart of the word “rest” in the Bible. It includes well over 200 verses on the subject of rest. It is expansive and found throughout the whole Bible.

John Piper wrote, “Sleep is a daily reminder from God that we are not God. ‘He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep’ (Psalm 121:4). But Israel will. For we are not God. Once a day God sends us to bed like patients with a sickness. The sickness is a chronic tendency to think we are in control and that our work is indispensable. To cure us of this disease God turns us into helpless sacks of sand once a day. How humiliating to the self-made corporate executive that he has to give up all control and become as limp as a suckling infant every day.

Sleep is a parable that God is God and we are mere men. God handles the world quite nicely while a hemisphere sleeps. Sleep is like a broken record that comes around with the same message every day: Man is not sovereign. Man is not sovereign. Man is not sovereign. Don’t let the lesson be lost on you. God wants to be trusted as the great worker who never tires and never sleeps. He is not nearly so impressed with our late nights and early mornings as he is with the peaceful trust that casts all anxieties on him and sleeps.”

(https://deeperchristianquotes.com/sleep-rest-john-piper)

I also encourage you to schedule your work and your rest. When someone comes for counseling and show signs of tiredness and burnout, I ask them “do you know when your schedule is full?”. They usually answer the question with a chuckle and downward look as if I had asked them something impossible to measure and control.

The reality is, you need to know how many hours you are working and resting. If you do not know, you will underwork or overwork. You will also tend to procrastinate the hard, important and nonurgent tasks. Too often people are busy but not focusing on the right activities. This leads to vital responsibilities not being given proper priority until they become urgent and then all effort is spent on fulfilling the task too fast and with a lack of energy. Mistakes happen, sermons are poorly studied, and we feel horrible about the delivery. Because we are too tired to handle the criticism, we feel defeated.

When you schedule your work and rest, you can be confident that your time is being spent in the right areas. You will be forced to make decisions because you cannot do everything that pops into your head. You must prioritize and finish tasks in the allotted times. You will also feel better when you rest, knowing that the important activities are accomplished. Those around you will also know how to plan their lives and be able to take advantage of down times for fun and connection.

Burnout rarely happens quickly. Like a rubber band that stretches and stretches, eventually it snaps. You can notice burnout progressing through your life and intensifying. You ignore these symptoms to your own peril. Ignore them long enough and your body will fully shut down and you are forced to stop. Here is a list of some symptoms I have observed in my own life and in the lives of others around me.

• We experience tiredness that does not go away after a day off.

• We feel physical pain such as hurting joints, heart attack, strokes, stomach ulcers and headaches.

• There is a loss of joy in things that we usually enjoy (like preaching and teaching).

• We desire an escape.

• We are emotionally on edge (easily angered or discouraged).

• People tell us we are overdoing it.

• People leave ministries.

• It is easier to give into temptation.

• We have a loss of creativity.

• Relationships break down.

I have often counseled ministry wives and grown children in this area because their father, the pastor, could not stop. They suffer the physical and emotional absence of their leader. Instead, they just plod along but eventually this takes a toll on them personally and relationally.

It can also be seen in multi-staff ministries. The leader does not set clear boundaries and expectations and all those around them suffer. You might not see burnout in your life, but you might see it in others around you. Use this observation to help you evaluate your influence on others. Take time to ask how people are doing and look for the symptoms in their lives.

We need to engage with other ministry professionals. We should continue to look for signs of burnout in their lives and seek to prevent it if possible. This might lead to some awkward conversations, but it might save their ministry and marriage.

If you are in a multi-staff ministry, you might be able to assist another ministry close by. Imagine one church has a youth pastor and another church close by does not. Could your church offer your youth pastor to help the other church? Could you help a church that needs musicians? How about financially helping a neighboring ministry? As you build relationships with others, look for ways to help them avoid burnout.

Ministry is difficult. Take time to examine Paul’s first missionary journey and you will notice how tough it can be. There are several areas that will accelerate burnout. Financial stress, physical illness, interpersonal conflict and outright persecution will all cause the symptoms of burnout to show. Be aware of this and slow down. Cancel meetings and new projects until you return to normal.

Life is full of unexpected events. You never know what is coming in a week or a day. You can plan and schedule and still be caught off guard. It is very important to have margin in every area of life. You need it financially and you need it physically. You have to gauge your activities so that you have the energy and resources for those times in life when you need extra. Your children will get sick. There will be a marriage in crisis that needs extra attention. Church activities ebb and flow so that sometimes things are basic and there are times when a church calendar is extra full. It is very unwise to always operate at full capacity.

Do you have margin built into your schedule? Do you have a margin for physical rest? Have you arranged your schedule to be flexible with your children? Are you financially spending less than you make? Answering these questions helps you build the space you need to function regularly and have the resources to give when emergencies hit.

If you find that you identify with this blog and are showing signs of burnout, please get help. Meet with your leaders, wife, children or other ministry partners and figure out how to avoid any further damage. Do not suffer alone, the heart is way too deceitful and Satan will do whatever it takes to keep the pressure coming. You must make changes. Seeking help from others will give you the support and wisdom you need to correct what is wrong. There are a lot of resources available to help in this area. A great place to start is the book Down but Not Out by Wayne Mack.

Feel free to reach out to me personally and I will help you find help (klowe689@gmail.com).

When we climbed our mountain in Spain, we should have stopped halfway through, returned, prepped better and then proceeded another day. We would have still accomplished our goal, and it would have been much more enjoyable. Burnout is not a necessary evil for those in the ministry. We all go beyond our limits from time to time. The key is to recognize when it is happening and make the necessary changes to keep it from progressing.

The Rest Graph is a collection of verses on “Rest” in the Bible. There are hundreds of verses that deal with different aspects of the subject.