Why Do So Many Pastors Burn Out? Another Explanation

I attended a seminar on pastoral burnout several years ago by mistake at Exponential Conference in Orlando. The organizers changed the topic without notice. I don't remember what seminar I expected, but a pastor got up and said that he was asked to speak on burnout. He shared that he recently (as in that week) finally hit a wall in ministry after being warned by a good friend for along time that it was about to happen. He described his life as a pastor and confessed that he had no authority to speak on the topic assigned to him. He asked his friend (also a pastor at his church) to share on that topic.

Everyone seems to be talking about pastoral burnout. There are books, podcasts, seminars, etc. I find it revealing when the pastors with big platforms give interviews where they explain their breakdown after they spent the last 10-20 years telling pastors how to pastor like they do.

Brian Croft and James Carroll share an original insight into burnout in their book Pastoral Perseverance. They argue that a lot of pastors burnout because they substitute their own pastoral priorities for God's priorities. You don't have to be famous to do that.

Croft and Carroll explain what they believe God's priorities are for a pastor and how tending to those tasks helps a pastor thrive. This is very different than the advice to simply be healthy, sleep more, get a hobby, and see a therapist. They say that much of what passes for church leadership is not high on God's priority list. Pastoring is hard enough without adding to (or subtracting from ) what God assigns his shepherds to do. They explain what they believe are 10 priorities from the Bible for God's pastors. They even write on how God uses the right kind of suffering in the lives of pastors for the good of his sheep.

I found the book to be very original and very helpful. I didn't expect it to be so filled with grace, hope, and kindness. There is a stream of reformed pastoring that is severe, and I thought they belong to that. You and I might not agree completely with their list but it is an insight worth thinking about. Are my priorities the same as God's priorities? Am I tired because I work hard at God's priorities? Or am I worn out on my priorities?

The burned out pastor I described at the beginning was tanned and fit. His church was outwardly successful. When he described what pastoring was like for him, his life sounded nothing like New Testament pastoring though. We should have a healthy fear of outward success while we die on the inside. How terrible would be to succeed at "ministry" but fail at shepherding!

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