The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
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The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
The Ministry That’s Still in You (Even When You’re Tired, Bitter, or Burned Out)
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Hey there, welcome to the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. My name is Todd Rose, one of the co-founders over Chemistchurchstaffing.com, and I'm glad you're here today. Happy Thanksgiving. And I don't know what you're doing today. Hopefully you're with family and you're feeling thankful, but maybe this Thanksgiving, maybe this Thanksgiving is a little bit different. Sure, you're thankful. But you're tired, you're weary, you're honestly probably a little crispy around the edges. And if that's you on this Thanksgiving day, this episode is for you on this day. We're going to talk about burnout and bitterness and what might what might still be alive in you, even if it doesn't feel like it. We are in the middle of our Thanksgiving week series, and today is episode number four on Thursday on Thanksgiving. And we're really trying to take not just the surface level, hey, thanks for everything that's good, all that kind of good stuff. We're trying to take thankfulness and gratitude and look at some of the darker side of things that we flip it upside down and look at Thanksgiving and gratitude in maybe a little bit different way. And we're going to continue to do that today and tomorrow. Hope you'll come back. Today's question that I want to mess with you, that I want to mess with you a little bit today, is what if the discouragement you're feeling, even on this day where you're thankful, and you are thankful, but what if that discouragement that you're feeling is actually proof that you've not given up? What if the burnout that you feel, the tiredness that you feel, isn't a sign that you're done, but a sign that you're deeply cared for, or maybe too deeply, that you've deeply cared, maybe too deeply for too long. And it could be that ache and that tiredness and that whisper of I just don't know if I can do this anymore. Maybe that isn't the end of your ministry, but the beginning of something new that God wants to do in you. A lot of times we glamorize ministry wins. If you're in ministry longer than five minutes, you know this. We glamorize those wins, the big Sundays, the powerful sermons, the overflowing baptistries, but we rarely talk about the slow death of discouragement where you're still showing up, but your soul's starting to check out because burnout is real. We talk about all the time here on the podcast. And the reason I talk about it so much is because it affects so many of us. Burnout is real, bitterness is real. Man, if I had a dime for every bitter church leader that I talk to that's just not just struggling, but bitter. Bitterness is real, burnout is real. And honestly, Thanksgiving can feel fake when you're running on the fumes. But here's a truth that I've come to believe, right? Burnout doesn't mean that your calling is expired. It means that your rhythms and your expectations or your boundaries probably have, though. So let's be clear, you're not disqualified for feeling tired. All right, you're not less spiritual because you want to quit sometimes. All of us want to do that sometimes. Jesus himself had to pull himself away to rest. He wept over the stubbornness of the people that he came to save. He asked for that cup. We talked about this earlier this week. He asked for that cup to be passed from him. And somehow that was all part of what God wanted from him, for his obedience. That ache you feel, that disappointment that you carry, that I thought it would be different by now. Thought that doesn't mean that the flame is gone. It just means that it's buried under some of the ash. And maybe, just maybe, God wants to fan it back into a flame. But here's the twist. Here's the twist. Sometimes gratitude is what stirs the embers again. Let me rephrase that. Let me not rephrase it. Let me say it exactly the way I did, okay? Sometimes gratitude is what stirs those embers again. I've had moments in my life where I just felt like the ministry I had to give was all used up. I mean, I couldn't find a new idea. I couldn't buy a new idea. The ideas were gone, the motivation seemed like it was gone, and honestly, there was no joy. The joy was gone. And you know what? Gratitude didn't come naturally in those seasons. And maybe on this Thanksgiving day, it's not coming naturally for you. Maybe it feels forced, maybe it even feels a little dishonest. But one day I just made myself sit down and write a short list, five things I was thankful for in ministry, nothing big, just a real short list. A person that had grown, a team member that showed up with consistency, a Sunday that didn't completely suck or fall apart, a conversation that mattered, a life that was changed, a reminder of why I started and why I accepted this call to ministry in the first place. And something when I did that started the shift. It didn't fix the exhaustion. It didn't do that at all, but it did open the door to see some of the good things and to start to hope again. And sometimes the way back is found by noticing maybe even a small thing or a few small things that are still working. The things that are still sacred, what's still inside you that's waiting to be revived. And if you're still showing up, even if you're limping, that's sacred. It means you haven't given up. It means that God's not done, and it means that there's still some ministry left in those bones of yours, right? Even if it looks different during this season and during the next season. Gratitude doesn't always rise from excitement and everything going up and to the right and everything just being hunky-dory, right? Sometimes gratitude rises from endurance. So, a couple questions for you to ask yourself on this Thanksgiving day. Reflection questions. Okay. Where do you feel the most worn down in your leadership right now? And then as a follow-up to that, what small flicker of gratitude could you name, even in the middle of you being worn down and actually being exhausted? Write that down. If you're a journaler, write it down. If not, just at least make a mental note of it of thanks to God for one person, one moment, one experience in your ministry, even though everything seems like bleak right now, one thing, one person, one moment, one experience in your ministry that reminds you that you're still here and that God's not done with you yet. I hope this has been helpful for you today, and I hope that you've had a really great Thanksgiving. Enjoy that turkey, take your nap, watch some football, all those good things that you do, spend some time with your family. It's going to be a great day. And we'll be right back here again a day after Thanksgiving on Friday. Hope you'll join me on the Healthy Judge Bad podcast.
