Are you trying to figure why you are so burned out, disillusioned with, or thinking of moving on completely from local church ministry? If you are like me, those feelings/thoughts tend to be rooted in and focused far too much upon the tangibles (places, people and things that we wish to change) where they need to be focused much more upon the intangibles found exclusively inside our very souls.

Here are three shifts of soul focus that I am discovering lead to supernaturally-infused renewals of God’s calling for the ministries of myself and many others that I have the privilege to influence:

It is not about the what but the HOW of our ministry.

As a biblical counselor and ministry coach, I regularly get some version of the following phone call from dear pastors who are at their wits’ end: “Brother, my wife has let me know in no uncertain terms that I have to pick between marriage to her or staying in pastoral ministry.” To which I attempt to graciously but firmly reply, “Are those the only two available options?” That probing question tends to be followed, after a pause on the other end of the call, by my, “Could there be a third option of changing how you do ministry.” When our nerve-endings physically, emotionally, and spiritually are frazzled, we tend to create or resign ourselves to false, rigid dichotomies that give us no God-honoring out. In the example of I-have-had-it wife above, she likely is not rejecting the ministry as a whole but how we husbands are doing it/not doing it and the subsequent, negative effects upon her own internal and familial unhealth. Likely if Jesus Himself, with all of His wisdom and grace, were in our place, her pervasive issues with the ministry would largely dissipate!

While the following paragraph may feel tough, I assure you that it only comes from a place of sincere, constructive concern. Tough love that I often need to be on the receiving end as well. Everything is our lives is designed to get the exact results we are getting-including our private, family, and ministry life. Burnout is not to be primarily blamed upon our body, spouse/kids, or even the difficult context, circumstances, or personalities in our local church; it must be largely laid at the feet of our unexamined systems, schedules, priorities, and mindsets as we, bluntly put, mismanage what is likely the center of God’s will. It is not enough to know the “what” of God’s will in His Word. We need to know the “how” of His will which is only possible by and through His Spirit (A great resource on this subject is Chapter 7 in the little book, Calling Out the Called by Scott Page and Shane Pruitt). When we are trending toward burnout or flameout in ministry it the result of getting our marching orders from God and then saying to Him, “I’ll take it from here.” An exercise in futility that will ultimately disappoint everyone you lead and hollow you out of every last reserve of intrinsic energy, emotion, and wisdom you possess. As Thomas Watson directly asserts, “Christ went more willingly to the cross than we do to the throne of grace.” May God help us to be the exception to that tendency.

Ze 4:6 “Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.”

It is not about the what but the WHY of our ministry.

If I where to ask you for the “why” of your ministry today, what would be your succinct answer? Are you willing to admit with me that often our driving purpose/mission is less than what it should be or used to be when we first jumped all in? I recently heard the prolific business author Jon Gordon say, “Burnout is not the result of what you do for a living/calling but forgetting why you started doing it in the first place.”

If we are honest, our motives to stay in the ministry are must more reactionary (finances, reputation, routine) than they are charge-hell-with-a-squirt-gun proactive (reaching the lost, mobilizing disciples, planting churches, glorifying God). Hence why we likely have lost our mojo in not just ministry but every nuanced thought, word, and action in life. Where do you need to lose your pragmatic, self-absorbed view of life and ministry and instead renew the driving purpose of bringing praise and glory to God, no matter how slow or unproductive or frustrating it all feels right now? (Christopher Ash wrote a great book Zeal without Burnout on maintaining our passion without fading in ministry.)

1 Co 10:31 “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”

It is not about the what but the WHO of our ministry.

While we likely got into ministry for some spiritually underdeveloped motivations, the primary purpose was likely “for God” in a tear-evoking moment of sweet surrender and sincere intentions. As the years go by, that motivation, by default, tends to shift to ourselves or others around us…a moving, mind-numbing target at best. Becoming disillusioned with the ministry is largely the result of allowing the places and people who have failed us to cast longer shadows than the shadow of the cross Jesus mercifully and graciously absorbed for us. Yes, people are often the recipients of/partners in/hindrances to our ministry, but our “audience of one” as we do ministry must always be God alone. A good question for reflection: Whose face most predominately comes to mind when you, as a seasoned leader, hear the word “ministry”? Is it Jesus or that difficult person or group of people that hurt you dearly? Is it Jesus or advancing your own profile and platform? Is it Jesus or that influential powerbroker in your circle of churches before you are trying to keep up appearances? I could go on, but you get the point.

In Acts 20:24 as Paul faces his looming martyrdom, he declares, “But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.” Notice that the WHO behind the passionate-to-end ministry of Paul, with more than a few hiccups and pushbacks, is the Lord Jesus who entrusted Paul with his own personal piece of tough and epic gospel ministry. Mac Brunson recently observed, “Pastors I’ve discovered through the years do not handle two things well: 1) Limelight 2) Controversy.” In other words, we church leaders cannot finish with Paul our ministries well when it’s all about us…we are the “who its all about” in ministry whether that be human accolades or attacks directed our way. May God help us to not have, as one author put it, an “EGO: Edging God Out” of this sacred area of our lives!

1 Pe 5:1, 4 “The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.”

According to Ray Johnston, “A pastor’s first and only responsibility is to stay encouraged.” While that may sound selfish or counterintuitive to we who are called “ministers,” nothing could be more biblical or spiritual. Stop trying to simply alter external circumstances or keep adding programatic tweaks. Get back to “encouraging yourself in the Lord” (1 Sa 30:6). (Here is a practical little post from Thom Rainer on how to take control of your own movement from burnout to wellbeing.). Your first responsibility, as a leader at home and in the church, is to lead yourself well. A commitment that requires you to stop blaming the “what’s” and “what if’s” and starting owning fully the HOW, WHY, and WHAT of ministry leadership…which are well within your control.

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