Zeal without Burnout: Seven keys to a lifelong ministry of sustainable sacrifice

by Christopher Ash

Charles Simeon also faced severe opposition in his early ministry at Holy Trinity Church, Cambridge. Apart from the animosity he encountered, the routine challenges of shepherding the congregation were such that his candle was in danger of burning out. His answer was to delegate: he established a “Visiting Society” and appointed a man and a woman church member to be responsible for the pastoral care of homes in their particular district.

Even so, in 1807, after twenty-five years of exhausting ministry, Simeon was close to being burned out. Following a sermon, he would feel “more dead than alive”. After a long period of weakness, and believing that he had run his course at the age of 60, he records how, on a visit to Scotland, as he crossed the border, he found himself being, “almost as perceptibly revived in strength as the woman was after she had touched the hem of our Lord's garment”. He sensed God redirecting his desire and doubling, trebling, quadrupling his strength; and as a result, Simeon renewed his commitment to his pulpit and preached vigorously for seventeen more years, until two months before his death. As much as I would like to use this story to underscore the benefits of visiting my homeland, we are better served by acknowledging how God so often allows his ministers to come to an end of themselves in order that they might begin to be more useful in his service.

There’s always more we can do in ministry, but God is not asking “Can you do more?”. He is asking “Do you love me?” Some of those extras are not always as vital as we think them to be.

Your health and strength, like mine, is a temporary thing. It will not last long. God can take it away at any time, in a small measure or in large measure, suddenly or gradually.

There are, I want to suggest, seven keys to sustainable sacrifice. And we turn first to four implications of this foundational truth of our mortality and our dependency upon God. Four ways in which God keeps us alive in this age, four needs we have that God does not share. We need sleep, but God does not. We need Sabbaths, but God does not. We need friends, but God does not. We need food, but God does not. God has, as someone put it to me, “put the medicines on the table and we need to take them”. So let us consider each in turn.

I had always “known” that God is sovereign, and that the Lord did not need me to fulfill his kingdom purposes. But that was theoretical knowledge. I now try to practice that truth in my decision making. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to serve. It is a privilege to be invited into God’s gospel work in the world. I know that the strength God has given me is something that has its limits and is not mine to take pride in. I know that I am dust.

the rebuke of Psalm 127 is to those whose sleeplessness is caused by “anxious toil”: burning the candle at both ends because we will not trust God for the work.

Sleep seen through this lens is an expression of trust in God. You and I sleep because we do not believe that the project of building the people of God rests upon us; we sleep because we know that God never slumbers or sleeps.

Sleep is a strange and puzzling phenomenon. We know what it is to have deep and restful sleep and to wake refreshed. We know what it is to have too little sleep. We know what it is to have plenty of hours in bed and yet to wake not feeling refreshed. We know something of peaceful sleep and troubled sleep. But we do not really understand what makes the difference between them. Good sleep is a gracious gift of God .

what we must not do is to burn the candle anxiously at both ends of the night because we will not trust God for our work and Christian service. I think to myself: “I can get another hour’s work done just now, or early tomorrow morning, just to squeeze in a little extra and do that bit more in serving Jesus”.

For sure, there are times when an early-morning start may be just what is needed; but let’s not think we can follow that with a late night of working and another early start, so that late nights and early starts become endemic to our pattern of work. That would be a manifestation of a refusal to trust, and a cocky imagining that we are somehow just a little bit superhuman, a...

Some years ago a senior doctor wrote: We doctors in the treatment of nervous diseases, are compelled to provide periods of rest. Some of these periods are, I think, only Sundays in arrears. Sir James C. Brown, The Times, 30th April 1991

But for every desperate trauma there are perhaps fifty or more pastoral needs which can perfectly well wait for a later visit or meeting. Indeed, it is often good to wait, so that our brothers and sisters learn to depend upon God rather than upon a particular Christian. A wise measure of self-preservation and the drawing of boundaries around our time is not the denial of love, but the outworking of wisdom.

One problem I have is that I imagine my friends will feel it is a bit of an imposition if I ring them up or go and see them — that in their heart of hearts they are happier with rather more distant friendships. Perhaps I am not alone in this, and I think it says more about me than about them! But I suspect many of us — especially men — need to try a bit harder at being good friends.

This is a really good observation.

One of the ways in which we are made in the image of the Creator is in our creativity. This will express itself variously: for some it will be speaking, for others writing, for one the making of music, for another through art. But however God has made us creative, let us seek to ensure there are outlets for that creativity. Stifled creativity has a deathly, dulling effect on our souls. Freedom to be creative stirs up the wells of creativity in our hearts, that we may thrive in the image of a wonderful Creator.

I ask myself how much of my overwork over the past decade was driven by an honest desire for the glory of God? And how much by a desire that people should think well of me and my ministry?

In an Ecclesiastes world of frustration under the sun, in which stuff just goes wrong, people mess up, in Jesus Christ there is such a thing as lasting fruit. I may not see it, but I know it is there, and so I can say, “It is worth it”. And yet you and I cannot plan this fruit, and we cannot measure it. We cannot even strategize for it. It is the gift of God.

Gospel ministry is ministry in a messed-up world. And there is grace in the disruption, for it humbles me; it shows me afresh my total dependence upon God.

So you and I cannot plan for fruit; neither can we measure it. The stuff we can measure is the unimportant stuff: church budgets, church buildings, pastors’ reputations, numbers, numbers, numbers — even professions of faith. But the really important stuff — changed hearts — cannot be measured. God in his grace sometimes gives us a glimpse, an encouragement, some evidences of grace. But it can’t be measured. You pray for someone and they don’t change. Who knows but they may change years later under someone else’s ministry (I planted, but Apollos watered). Or the fruit may come after you die. I don’t know; you don’t know. But we do know that in the Lord Jesus our labour is not in vain.

I’m also much better at accepting that it’s okay to do what I can in the time that I have, and so I no longer try to prepare things “perfectly” by burning the midnight oil — not that I ever managed to prepare anything perfectly when I did.

The key things that will help us avoid burnout are knowing ourselves and the season of ministry we’re in, letting others know us so we don’t become isolated, choosing our role models carefully, remembering to stop and smell the roses, knowing how to relieve stress (in a non-addictive way), and recognising that we all have different work capacities.

We may enjoy whatever is the equivalent for us of the demons submitting to us in Jesus’ name; or we may enjoy that our names are written in heaven. If joy is to motivate us to gospel work, then joy must be rooted in something outside of the fruits of our work, something that can’t be touched by the vagaries and frustrations of this life under the sun.

When our joy comes from our gifts and our success, we will always be under pressure. For we are only as good as the last sermon, the last youth talk, the last spiritual conversation, the last few months of Christian service, the last success.

Trimming a few hours off my sleep, cutting into a few days off, cutting time for friendships, depriving my wife of intimacy, neglecting personal refreshment — if these “sacrifices” can push my ministry just a step or two above my peers, then I shall be truly joyful. This is the voice of the enemy. And it always leads to disillusion in the end.

The remedy is to glory much in grace. It is a privilege to be used in ministry; but it is a much greater privilege to be recipients of grace. We value gifts so much — gifts in speaking, preaching, persuasion, apologetics and leadership. Those who have them are proud of them; those who do not have them admire them too much. But, says Ryle, Men forget that gifts without grace save no one’s soul, and are the characteristic of Satan himself. Grace, on the contrary, is an everlasting inheritance, and, lowly and despised as its possessor may be, will land him safe in glory. So let us strive to keep grace as the main thing.

Here are some questions that I ask of myself. Am I giving myself enough time for sleep? Am I developing healthy patterns of “winding down” towards sleep? Am I taking care with regular days off? Am I investing in godly friendships? Am I self-aware about how God gives me inward renewal, and taking care to use his means of grace for that renewal? And what about my motivation? How much do I care what people think of me as a Christian? … and do I believe the promises of God, that faithful service of Christ will bear fruit in the end? Am I rejoicing in the free grace of God towards me rather than in any gifts I may have?

Sleeplessness is a key sign. It’s a common symptom of any form of mental distress, and always worth attending to. Low mood, tears, lethargy and exhaustion are other obvious signs that we are getting close to the edge. So too are persistent feelings of nervousness, sometimes escalating into full-blown panic. Less obvious warning signs would be irritability, moodiness and anger. Of course these are things all of us experience from time to time, but when they keep recurring or when they persist for weeks on end, they may be alerting us to the fact that what is expected and what we can manage are starting to clash.

Poor judgement and consequent moral lapses are another way burnout can make itself known. A need for “comfort” or the desire to get a quick “buzz” can lead to overeating, excess alcohol use, pornography or even illicit sex. Under pressure we are capable of making poor decisions and that can damage ourselves and others.