Mad Church Disease

By Anne Jackson

Certain internal factors can make us more at risk for becoming burned-out. Most of these are features we are born with. They reflect how God knit together the fibers of our being. And because they are fairly hard-wired, these characteristics aren”t easily changed, and that is OK. We have to accept the fact that, although these may sometimes seem like limitations, they are the very things that make us unique.

Personality Type 

Most of us are familiar with type A and type B personality descriptors. Look at the table below. Which personality type do you lean toward? (You may have both type A and type B characteristics, but you probably have a clear view of your dominant personality type.)

The general assumption is that type A personalities tend to burn out easier than type B, but it”s not always the case.

Dean was a really casual kind of guy. He was minister with a church in a small community””and he preferred to. His gentle demeanor was a stunning reflection of Christ, and his patience seemed endless. Although he was a great communicator, it wasn”t because he had a charismatic personality. When he spoke, you had to listen. Every word was well-thought-out and inspiring. Because of his creative and easygoing personality, he was always thinking of new ways to reach people for Christ. And he had no problem with relaxing. You could find him early on Saturday mornings fishing in a nearby river with other men from the neighborhood.

It”s pretty obvious Dean was a classic type B. He wasn”t concerned about status. He was laid-back and imaginative. But because of his patience and easygoing personality, he had a very difficult time saying no.

Dean”s burnout began very slowly. A few church members would drop by the parsonage unannounced. He would show them in, serve coffee and dessert, and patiently listen to their problems. What started out with a couple of people stopping by a couple of times a month turned into several members stopping by multiple times a week.

Dean”s strengths of sensitivity and friendliness also became his weaknesses. Because he didn”t know how to set boundaries, his approach began handicapping him. Soon Dean”s bucket became empty. He no longer had the energy to minister to others in the way he knew was necessary. His growing ineffectiveness triggered a depression, and he eventually left the ministry.

Dean took time off. He relaxed. He didn”t continually go a hundred miles an hour. Yet Dean still burned out.

On the flip side, Janelle is a type A. She”s a busy mom and wife who also works part-time in health care. Her husband travels frequently, and her two sons were active in school and church activities.

Janelle didn”t receive a paycheck from her church, but she was there several times a week. She served as the worship service producer, making sure everyone was in the correct place at the correct time. She participated in the creative team planning for all the services. If there was a broken piece between the original brainstorming session and the execution of the service, Janelle was the first to step up and fix it.

Her driven personality was essential for her volunteer role. God gifted her to be organized and strategic, as well as energetic and full of a “Let”s go get “em, tiger!” attitude.

After three years of dutiful, dedicated service, Janelle called the media pastor and quit out of the blue. It was right before the Christmas season””and with her oldest son due to graduate in a few months, the stress of volunteer service on top of family responsibilities was just too much. Soon, Janelle wasn”t seen around the church at all. Even though the media pastor would occasionally call to check in, Janelle faded away. She had burned out.

Like Dean, because Janelle didn”t know how to manage her strength as a type A personality, it eventually became her Achilles” heel and took her out of the game.

 

Our History 

Another internal influence for developing mad church disease is our past, which is as unique as our personality. Our family structures as children, our education, and our spiritual journeys have an effect on how we see our lives today and on how we plan our future. Deeply rooted trauma or habitual choices made over time make us more inclined to act in certain ways. We still make our own decisions, but our past is what makes us distinct.

Take Cindy, for example. Growing up, she always earned good grades in school. Her parents encouraged her to participate in extracurricular activities, so she played sports, participated in the Spanish club, and helped mentor other students.

What Cindy didn”t realize at the time was the power her parents” expectations had over her. As long as she stayed on the honor roll and kept her social calendar full, they were happy. However, once her grades dropped, they expressed their disappointment. She decided to limit some of her activities to focus on her studies, but her parents became frustrated that she wasn”t performing at a level acceptable to them.

Fast-forward 15 years. Cindy now works as the volunteer women”s director in her church. She also serves in the children”s ministry and occasionally sings in the choir. Her parents no longer have an active influence on her decision making, but their impact still rings loud and clear.

Growing up, Cindy lived in a constant state of fear. She was afraid if her perfect balance of school and extracurricular activities unraveled, her parents would be right there to let her know. And now that she”s active in her church, the same fear of disappointment controls her emotions and behaviors around the clock.

Instead of trying to appease her parents, she tries to appease her ministry leader. She often takes work home with her, staying connected to her phone and e-mail at all times. If something comes up, she doesn”t want to let the ball drop. She”s afraid if she unplugs for even a moment, she”ll be letting her team down.

Maybe you didn”t receive much affirmation growing up, so you run yourself ragged trying to please others and fill that gaping hole you carry around. Or maybe one of your parents left, which put you in a position of having to be responsible at a young age””and now you can”t let it go as an adult. So you”re taking responsibility for others to make things work right. Perhaps you were traumatized or abused, and the only way you can numb the pain is to fill your life with busyness.

As much as we may want to, we can never rid ourselves of our past””the good or the bad. And regardless of how normal or how terrible your past may have been, you”ve experienced it all for a reason. The successes, the failures, the joy, and the pain are all beautifully woven together to make you who you are at this moment.

We should look at our past as a gift and not a burden. And as such, we should steward it like any other gift we”ve been given. We need to be grateful, not resentful, for our unique circumstances. Once we accept our God-given past, we can find out what about it makes us extraordinary. How can we channel a propensity toward responsibility””as in Cindy”s case? How can we encourage others who have a past similar to ours?

By taking our focus off the dysfunctions of our past, and changing it to how God can work through us as he uses our life journey””our history, our present, and our future””we are less likely to burn out. Any time we become less and God becomes more, it”s his power being perfected in us.

 

Our Health 

Our physical health impacts our day-to-day living more than we may realize. From our sleep habits to the way we eat and exercise, our health can influence our susceptibility to burn out.

When I lived in Dallas, I got to know a minister named Joe. Just a few weeks after meeting him, while I was doing some communication consulting with his church, Joe seemed to fall off the face of the earth.

I received a short e-mail telling me he would be away from the church for a few months, and directing me to another staff member. I wondered what had happened to Joe. Several months later, he contacted me and told me his leadership team had forced him to take two months off from ministry. He was on the brink of total exhaustion.

The symptoms manifested in several ways””mostly a mixture of physical and spiritual effects. And his physical stress, compounded by a seething anger, had gotten to a point where it nearly killed him.

One easy way you can be taken down fast is by simply not taking care of yourself. The areas in your health you neglect now will eventually catch up to you. In Joe”s case, it took almost an entire decade of ignoring the warning signs. We”re given one shot at taking care of our bodies, and it”s our decision whether we”ll take the information available to us to make wise choices. Or we can ignore it””and burn out.

 

Our Relationship with Christ 

Last, but certainly most important, is the way we walk with Christ””our daily relationship with him. Is every step guided by the Spirit, or are we finding things to do and then asking God to bless our efforts?

The biblical story of David shows the indescribable closeness that comes when we humbly seek God and rely on his power, as well as the tragedy that inevitably strikes when we stray.

From the moment David was anointed to be king of Israel in 1 Samuel 16, it was obvious to those around him that God was with him. When one of Saul”s attendants suggested that they find a harpist to help relieve the distress an evil spirit was causing Saul, another servant suggested David: “I have seen a son of Jesse of Bethlehem who knows how to play the harp. He is a brave man and a warrior. He speaks well and is a fine-looking man. And the Lord is with him“ (1 Samuel 16:18, emphasis mine).

Later, David reappears when Goliath and the Philistines are challenging the Israelites. Even though it didn”t make sense that a young man should take on a nine-foot giant, Saul agrees to let David go, saying, “The Lord be with you” (1 Samuel 17:37).

When all David should have wanted to do was run, he stood his ground against Goliath:

David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty“ (1 Samuel 17:45, emphasis mine).

David had no armor. He had his past. God had given him experience fighting lions and bears as a shepherd. And God had given David the confidence he needed to go out “in the name of the Lord Almighty.” In verse 46, David expresses that he knows””beyond a shadow of a doubt””that God will hand over Goliath to him so that David can finish him off. David clearly says it”s not because of his strength, or even his weapons, that Goliath will fall.

It is simply because of God.

David”s belief that God would deliver on his promises was all he needed. Not for one moment when faced with Goliath and the Philistines did David buckle under the pressure. He never ran from it. The Bible never says he was even afraid; in fact, it suggests just the opposite: “As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him” (1 Samuel 17:48).

David ran quickly toward the battle line.

There are certainly times in our spiritual journeys when we feel that same fresh passion. We feel reckless because we are walking (or running) completely in God”s power.

After David became king of Israel, he received a message from God through the prophet Nathan, reminding him of God”s faithfulness in the past and God”s desire to make a covenant with him for the future.

Throughout David”s reign as king, he goes to war many, many times. He wins battle after battle. He blesses the house of Saul. He rules over Israel. Needless to say, David”s a pretty busy guy. And over the course of time, he slowly begins to stray from God”s perfect plan.

We all know the story in 2 Samuel 11. David sees the beautiful Bathsheba bathing. He wants her. He gets her. They even conceived a child together.

Big oops.

Remember how David earlier had run toward the battle line to defeat Goliath? I”m pretty sure he was running hard and fast the other way now to get out of this mess.

He tells lies. He deceives his men. He devises a plan. He orders Uriah (Bathsheba”s husband) home and gets him drunk so he”ll sleep with his wife. Maybe they could pass the pregnancy off as what happened as a result of that encounter.

But it didn”t work. Uriah was so devoted to his army that he turns down the offer of “special privileges.” He refuses to sleep with Bathsheba while his men are still out fighting.

I can see David pacing the floor wondering how to take care of this situation. The only possible solution he saw was to kill Uriah.

And that”s what happened. David makes a plan and sets Uriah up to die on the battle line. Not only did Uriah die, but other men in his army were killed in the fight.

David continues to cover up his tracks by telling more and more lies. And for the first time in the Bible”s account of David”s life, it no longer says that the Lord was with him.

Instead, 2 Samuel 11:27 tells us, “But the thing David had done displeased the Lord.”

We all make mistakes. And it doesn”t mean that God leaves us. David wasn”t perfect before meeting Bathsheba. But we can learn several things from his story.

We have a choice of what we keep in front of us: We can either keep our eyes focused on what God can accomplish through his power in our lives or choose to focus on what I call “the dangerous distractions.”

When we are walking in step with God and in his power, he places his favor on us. Others notice that God is working in and through us. We, on the other hand, are completely oblivious to the intensity with which God is using us.

However, when we focus on the dangerous distractions, God simply won”t stand for it. He offers his forgiveness, his mercy, and hope, to be sure, but we must confess and fall back on his strength before we move forward on the journey he has laid out for each of us.

 

 

 

Anne Jackson and her husband, Chris, live in Nashville, Tennessee, where she serves on staff at Cross Point Church. Read her blog at www.FlowerDust.net. This article is an excerpt from Mad Church Disease: Overcoming the Burnout Epidemic by Anne Jackson. Copyright ©2009. Used by Permission. For more information go to Zondervan Publishing at www.Zondervan.com.

 

 Overcoming the Burnout Epidemic


 
Does working at your church interfere with your communion with Christ?
That question may have saved author Anne Jackson”s life. She believes it could save yours too.
As the daughter of a minister, Anne saw firsthand the struggles leaders face and the toll they can take on their families. She vowed her life in ministry would be different.
Yet, years later, as a church leader herself, she was hospitalized because stress began wreaking havoc on her body. She had burned out.
Anne developed a Web site that allowed church leaders to share their struggles. Within a few days, she was flooded with more than a thousand responses from people pouring out stories of pain.
Mad Church Disease, born out of that experience, is a lively, informative, and potentially life-saving resource for anyone in ministry””vocational or volunteer””who would like to understand, prevent, or treat the epidemic of burnout in church culture.
Mad Church Disease “” $16.99 at http://www.amazon.com