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

by Christopher Ash

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.