WildOx Blog

I am writing this post in the sunshine I am beside a swimming pool, at the local Calpe Rowing Club (of which I am a member). Yes I am learning to take rest, and not feel bad about it. I am learning that I need to take care of myself if I want to help others.

A word by Bill Johnson changed my life last November. After pastoring Living Waters Tabernacle for nearly three years I went to Bethel Church in Redding, California for a “Leader’s Advance” conference. My spiritual bandwidth was completely depleted, I was facing sure burnout and I was desperate. A simple word by Pastor Bill has changed all that for me. In the middle of the conference, he preached a word that I am sure that God gave him just for me He taught on strengthening yourself in the Lord, and how a leader’s ability to lead others is directly proportional his ability to stand before the Lord and strengthen himself. Just like a tree is designed to drink up gallons of water every day, and that is not considered self-centered, so a leader must first drink himself of the fountain of living waters before he can invite other to come to the waters.

For me this looks like having daily times of soaking prayer I try to soak for at least 1-11/2 hours every day. It looks like reading the bible very slowly and meditatively and pray-reading the word. It looks like watching my diet, and working out. It looks like hanging out with friends and just ‘chilling’. Some at church are now asking to have corporate times of soaking prayer. We are a Deeper Life Soaking Prayer Center and are organizing the logistics for this. As we do not have a church building we need to work the details of this a little.

Burnout among ministry is endemic this post has some sobering statistics:

Pastors

• Fifteen hundred pastors leave the ministry each month due to moral failure, spiritual burnout, or contention in their churches.

• Fifty percent of pastors’ marriages will end in divorce.

• Eighty percent of pastors and eighty-four percent of their spouses feel unqualified and discouraged in their role as pastors.

• Fifty percent of pastors are so discouraged that they would leave the ministry if they could, but have no other way of making a living.

• Eighty percent of seminary and Bible school graduates who enter the ministry will leave the ministry within the first five years.

• Seventy percent of pastors constantly fight depression.

• Almost forty percent polled said they have had an extra-marital affair since beginning their ministry.

• Seventy percent said the only time they spend studying the Word is when they are preparing their sermons.

Pastors’ Wives

• Eighty percent of pastors’ spouses feel their spouse is overworked.

• Eighty percent of pastors’ spouses wish their spouse would choose another profession.

• The majority of pastor’s wives surveyed said that the most destructive event that has occurred in their marriage and family was the day they entered the ministry.

My friend Dalton Jensen has a cool ministry going called On Fire or Burned Out with a focus on restoring leaders going through this, or providing an atmosphere of restoration, and renewal for leaders, ministries etc.

Numbers 17 shows the antiserum for burnout. Lay down in the sanctuary of God’s presence, and rather than seeing yourself burnout, you will see yourself budding with life. Your destiny might well demand that from you right now.