by: Jim Schlottman
9/1/2003

“I’m just not feeling well,” said a pastor calling for information about Quiet Waters Ministries. In response to an inquiring question, he verbally listed enough work to fill a month and make anyone tired. When I said as much, he said, “Oh, and that was just yesterday!” This pastor was burned out and didn’t even know it. He thought he was just doing his job.

Another pastor told me he’d been working so hard to prove himself to church members that he had little emotional energy left for his wife and children.

These calls for help to Quiet Waters Ministries are just a sampling of what I hear. They tell the story that burnout is real, and it’s happening to far too many pastors.

In The Message, Eugene Peterson states Romans 12:11 this way. “Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy Christian; be inventive in hospitality.”

You who are suffering burnout will say, “That’s easy for him to say.” But remember Eugene Peterson didn’t say that; Paul did. And Paul had ample opportunity to burn out.

This passage is really talking about prevention. It lists eight preventive activities that will keep you from burning out: four be’s and four do’s.

(1) be fueled

(2) be aflame

(3) be alert

(4) be expectant

(5) don’t quit

(6) pray

(7) help the needy

(8) practice hospitality inventively

I’ve had several conversations with pastors who find it difficult to keep their spiritual lives strong. Studying for a sermon is not the same as meditating on the Word. And public prayer during a church service is not the same as talking to God in your closet. One pastor told me he would like to just sit in his study looking out the window and listening to God. But he’s afraid to do that because if someone were to come in, they‘d think he was just goofing off.

How do you keep (1) fueled and (2) aflame? Do you take time to goof off with the Lord?

A story is told of how Mother Theresa responded to a news reporter’s question as to what she said to God in her prayer time. Her answer was, “I say nothing.” In the follow-up question, the reporter asked, “what does God say to you?” to which Mother Theresa responded, “nothing.” And then to the dismayed reporter she said, “If you don’t understand it, I can’t explain it to you.” Mother Theresa was fully fueled and very much aflame for the Lord.

Henry T. Blackaby, in Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing His Will, says that we are to look where the Lord is working and go there. That is probably the best advice you can get on how to (3) be an alert servant of the Master, cheerfully (4) expectant.

That covers the four be’s; now to the do’s.

I can’t add to the command to (5) not quit. You’ve been called and you need to reaffirm that call, even in the worst of times.

You could preach a better sermon than I about (6) prayer, so I won’t go there. All I’ll say is that praying is the most important of the eight preventive activities you can undertake. I’ll just make this point from Matthew