230: You Can’t Help Everyone (And It’s Exhausting)

A lot of people in ministry feel like they’re constantly choosing who to disappoint. The church needs something. The team needs something. People want access to you. Your family needs you too. 

And eventually, it starts feeling impossible to hold it all together without losing yourself somewhere in the process. 

In this episode, we’re talking about:

• The pressure to always be available in ministry
• Why constant availability slowly drains us
• What happens when we keep leading without space to recover
• How guilt and responsibility quietly shape our choices
• Reconnecting with Jesus outside constant output

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Transcript

​[00:00:00] Laurie Graham Ertl: Hey friend. Welcome back to the Small Church Ministry podcast, helping small churches build healthier ministries with less pressure, less burnout, and lots more impact. Last week, we talked about ministry burnout, the patterns, the pressure, the yeses, the ways that we slowly drift into emotional exhaustion, physical exhaustion, relational exhaustion, and more without always realizing how we got there.

And today, I wanna move the conversation one step further. Once we start noticing unhealthy patterns, the next question becomes: What does healthier ministry actually [00:01:00] look like? What does it look like to lead in a way that's sustainable? What does it look like to step back before everything completely crashes around us? 

Laurie Graham Ertl: And honestly, I think it's difficult, for a lot of people in ministry, volunteers, ministry leaders, pastors, because we have been trained to keep going. Like, that's one of the things we celebrate. You know, keep that Energizer Bunny running. Keep helping, keep producing, keep showing up, keep pushing through as a way to show our commitment, our dedication, our selflessness.

But somewhere along the way, we started believing that slowing down means losing momentum or letting people down or becoming less faithful or becoming less effective, and I wanna talk today about how that doesn't have to be true. Slowing down, pulling back on programs, building in rest, building in different rhythms does [00:02:00] not have to mean letting people down.

It actually can lead to healthier ministries. Sometimes stepping back doesn't kill momentum. It can actually restore clarity and creativity and connection and emotional capacity. It can actually restore relationships where, there was difficulty. So honestly, by the end of the episode, by the end of today's conversation, I really hope we all walk away with a collective healthier picture of what this kind of ministry can look like, leadership, volunteering, serving, that has more permission for less powering through, less sticking to it.

And intentionally and by way of examining our lives and what's really healthy, we can be more aware of what this track of constant output is actually doing to us. Maybe we'll end [00:03:00] up with some practical ways to start building some intentional space, for everyone. For you, for the people you serve with, your friends, your family, your pastors, before burnout actually forces it on us.

I don't know if you know stories of people crashing and burning in ministry, but I know a lot. And I'm not talking about, ethical or moral failure, which is what we usually think about when people crash and burn in ministry. I'm talking about people leaving with exhaustion, crashing and burning into physical health failures.

Strokes, heart attacks, ending up, like, literally having to stop everything, chronic health issues, emotional breakdowns. Like, w- we need to be healthier as a church culture and stop this, this barrage of saying, "Burning out for Jesus." Burning out for Jesus is not healthy. It's not ethical. It is not what Jesus taught.

It is not [00:04:00] deeply spiritual. It's really damaging. So let's talk about it. Healthy ministry does not usually happen by accident. It never happens by accident. It gets built slowly with healthier rhythms, healthier patterns, and I wanna say a lot better understanding. We cannot grow healthy without understanding what we need and who God created us to be.

Our thinking goes into that. Our patterns go into that. Let's just get healthier in the way that we live. So, okay. I think one of the biggest misunderstandings about burnout is that people think it starts with a collapse, or it's very visible, or this person clearly is getting burnout 'cause they're crabby, they're short-tempered, all those kind of things.

Honestly, it starts much earlier than that, and I think if we can recognize these signs in us, in the people we serve with, in the people we serve, like under if you have kind of a hierarchy type positional thing we can attend [00:05:00] to it better if we know it's happening. So let's talk about some of these things.

When creativity begins to fade, that feeling of freshness, new ideas, when things start becoming same old, same old, that's actually a sign of burnout. When joy starts to fade, when curiosity fades, when we stop asking questions and we start saying, "That'll never happen," or, "That's the way we've always done that," do you know that these can be signs of burnout?

Exhaustion, that can happen on so many levels. Emotional resilience begins to fade. Now, I do think this is where we see it with becoming more short-tempered, people becoming irritable, ministry becoming less fun or easy to be around others. When friendships start not being part of ministry teams, I wanna say that oftentimes is a early burnout sign or mid -burnout sign.[00:06:00] 

Connection with Jesus starting to feel functional instead of relational. I see this so much as we talk to people, as we have, our live online events. So many Christians are serving. They wouldn't say they're serving out of obligation. They don't even see it, but that spark of feeling connected with Jesus has turned into working for Jesus, okay?

Most burnout doesn't begin with collapse. It begins with a dullness. Like when I think about that word dull, when something shiny becomes dull, feeling more flat or emotionally disconnected, doing ministry on autopilot, everything or a lot of things starting to feel forced or like we have no choice.

I know as I'm listing these things, I'm like, I have felt all these things. Sometimes I have felt them all at once. Do you feel these things yourself? Now, again, if you're on cloud nine and you are nowhere near burnout and [00:07:00] all these things feel very disconnected from you, please hang with this podcast because I guarantee you there are people in your life who are feeling these things.

So if you don't feel them, like let's raise our empathy quotient for understanding when other people are feeling these things. The last thing they need is for us to say, "Push through." Like, this is a leadership thing for everyone listening. When we are telling people to push through feeling flat, feeling disconnected, doing ministry on autopilot, when we're calling these things out falsely as, "Well, maybe you need to get more connected with Jesus," or, "Maybe you need to serve out of obedience," these are wrong things that don't lead to health.

Okay, burnout recovery does not start with shame or guilt or pushing through it. So if you're tracking with some of this, is there anything with you in ministry now that feels forced? I know most people listening are volunteers. You serve at will, but many of you are [00:08:00] serving in positions that feel endless.

Does anything feel forced? Is there anything that you're doing now that used to bring life to you? Like you remember when you used to be excited about lesson planning or about showing up for VBS or even about shopping for Women's Ministry things or about preparing a sermon, something that used to bring life to you that now feels heavy or flat or just kind of blah, right?

Consider these things. Is there any place where you're starting to operate mostly on autopilot, where it's not intentional, where there's not a lot of creativity or thought or curiosity with it? Because honestly, it is very normal not to notice this happening because we're used to it. It feels normal.

This is how many people around us are serving, and this is what happens when we get into this mode of constant output, where we're serving out a lot. I think [00:09:00] people in ministry, and when I say people in ministry, I'm saying everyone listening to this podcast and far reaching beyond that. People who are serving, who are volunteering, who show up to make coffee, who are greeters, who are folding bulletins, who are running the tech, who, yes, are pastoring and ministry leaders as well.

We get very good at functioning while we're tired or exhausted, when we haven't slept well, when we have compassion fatigue even. Because we know how. We know how to keep showing up. We know how to keep helping. We know how to keep producing. We know how to keep carrying things. We've seen it modeled. We are resilient.

We are functional. We have high skills. We can do it. The scripture pops to mind right now, like everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial. You can do it. You can do it. Eh, not so beneficial. Eventually, that constant output starts [00:10:00] changing us emotionally and spiritually. And please hear this.

I mentioned this in last week's podcast. This isn't just a behavioral change. That constant output starts changing us emotionally and spiritually. It changes who we are inside, not our identity, but it changes the way we function, our patterns, how we think, how we feel. Chronic output, so not just, you know, short-term, chronic output, it actually reduces our emotional capacity.

It reduces how much we have to give. We'll start becoming reactive instead of present. One of my prayers, constant prayers these days, is that I would be present when I'm with people, when I'm choosing an activity. The other night, I went to a birthday party, and it was for, just an amazing guy in the church, and he was turning 40, and, we had had a really long day.

Scott and I had a [00:11:00] really long, hard day. Like, we were doing some physical labor stuff around the house that honestly , was, It was dangerous. It was just, it was physically exhausting , you know? And, we get home, and we're getting ready for this party, and I so wanted to be there. My prayer was that I would be present, and it was so beautiful to be able to just show up and be in this place with these amazing people, even though the day had been long and hard, right?

So when we have all output, that's a very difficult thing to have, to be present. It's easier to be reactive and to be thinking about other things when we're present somewhere else, to not be present in the place where you are. Survival mode starts to feel normal when we are constantly outputting. We literally stay in this place of survival.

I can handle it. I can bear it. I can be it. We even make things [00:12:00] fun when we're in survival mode. I don't know what your survival mode default is, but mine is making it fun. I'm just gonna make it an experience. And then sometimes after getting out of a mode of like a lot of very hard work, that I was like the life of the party, we're gonna do it.

You know, I remember doing, outhouse work with kids when we were on, when I was a youth director and we were at a, like a wilderness type camp, and I would be the one, "We can do this. We can do this." And then afterwards, though, like you kinda crash out. Like, you can't stay in survival mode forever. But that survival mode starts to feel normal, and it actually makes us uncomfortable when we have less to do, when we're not on constant output.

Ministry, when we're in this place of chronic output, ministry becomes management instead of connection. We can do it. We have it scheduled. We have a plan. But the people we are with are starting to lose us. We're starting to lose them. Constant output in ministry [00:13:00] becomes exhaustion, and that exhaustion slowly reshapes our relationship with people and with God.

We cannot stay in chronic output, even if it feels okay, even if it feels normal. Something is changing in us. Do you see that? A lot of us, and I would say most of us, I honestly would say all of us if you're listening to this podcast, if you've chosen to take time out of your day to listen to the Small Church Ministry podcast, I can almost guarantee that you know how to push through.

But many of us, we don't necessarily know how to recover. We have seen pushing through modeled much more than healthy recovering. It is totally possible to stay functional while you are disconnected from people. Oftentimes there is emotional numbness that might [00:14:00] come and go. If people say, "How are you feeling?"

You're like, "I'm just in doing mode now." I see that a lot at VBS. Volunteered at a VBS a couple years ago, at a church that I wasn't in 'cause ours wasn't doing VBS, and I love VBS. And I volunteered, and the leader, man, she was on high power mode, but you could tell there were no feelings coming through.

She was too, like, she's dealing with this and dealing with this. That's emotional numbness, when you literally can't connect to your own feelings, right? Because we're over-functioning. Over-functioning or this chronic output, it causes us to lose creativity. We're gonna talk about what happens when you can take a break, when you can recover, when you learn new habits.

One of the things that comes back is your creativity. It's so beautiful. Chronic output leads us to becoming more short-tempered. Have you seen that in yourself ever? Maybe now, maybe in a past season of life, where you're, like, literally reacting to people and you're like, "This is not me. I'm so much nicer than this [00:15:00] normally," right?

Or feeling internally absent, like, "I just don't feel like I'm connected like I used to be," right? This really is one reason that stepping back or taking a break or saying no or changing your responsibility feels so uncomfortable. For those of us who are connected in ministry, in positions where we've been serving for decades, we have, like, conditioned ourselves that this is normal, and our worth is tied to it.

Now please hear me. Decades ago when people talked about your worth being tied to your work or your identity being tied to what you would do, I would've pushed back and said, "No, that is so not me." Like, my identity is not tied to what I do or my functioning because I saw that as being a certain way or a certain type of person, and honestly, I think this is more common than we realize.

It was with me. I started [00:16:00] noticing, "Oh, yeah," because if this is taken away, what do I have left? I'm thinking of a friend of mine right now. We were in an event not too awful long ago, and she was completely over-functioning, and she even caught herself at one point. Like, "Oh, my gosh, why am I over-functioning so much?"

It's because we're so used to it. It's almost conditioned. Over-functioning meaning we're handling all the problems, we're looking at all the things, we're on high alert, we're helping everyone with. We're the rescuer, fixing everything, right? Making sure everyone has what they need 'cause, again, we're not called to be all things to all people.

We're really not. All right. I think also sometimes we accidentally picture that healthy ministry is constant availability, always helping, always answering, always producing, always needed. When you look at Jesus, that is not what Jesus modeled. Jesus withdrew [00:17:00] regularly, and not just the times that are listed in the Bible.

Like, the Bible is a snapshot of His life. A snapshot. The healings we see in the Bible are not the only times He healed. The praying that He prayed in the Bible that are listed in the New Testament, that's not the only time He prayed. The withdrawing, please hear that, the resting, that is not the only time He rested or withdrew.

We're seeing patterns. We're seeing the habits of Jesus. Jesus disappointed crowds often. That's what He modeled. Jesus moved intentionally and He moved slowly. That is what He modeled. Jesus was not driven by panic. He also was not under compulsion, like feeling compelled by the needs around Him. That is what He modeled.

He walked [00:18:00] by needs that He did not meet. That is what He modeled. Are we supposed to be reflecting Jesus? Because what many of us have seen as healthy ministry, which is often -boundaryless, often over-serving, often being constantly available, being the person who we can count on at any time, that is not what Jesus modeled.

Withdrawal is not failure. Intentional space is not failure. Rest is wisdom, and I also will say rest is work. Staying connected to the Father, how do we do that when our wheels are spinning so fast? We do not have to fall apart before we're [00:19:00] allowed to step back. Like, what would intentional space look like before crisis for you, for your friends, for your pastor, for your ministry leaders, for your team if you have a team?

What would intentional space, rest, healthy rhythms look like before anyone was stressed out or burnt out? Just kinda consider that. Consider this for yourself. Where are you waiting until exhaustion forces you to stop? Like, where do you kinda feel this creeping in? And you're gonna push through until exhaustion asks you to stop?

Honestly, I don't think many of us just need rest. We're gonna talk a little bit in just a second about sabbaticals and rests and things like that, and why we're actually talking deeper than that. Because that has become a rhythm in [00:20:00] some ways that sometimes isn't, just isn't enough. Sometimes it's actually unhealthy.

But I think we need to relearn how to reconnect with God outside of constant ministry output. Like, if that's our main place of connecting with God, I think we need to relearn some reconnecting. Because here's the thing, a lot of burned-out people technically do stop sometimes. They take the day off. They take a vacation.

They step away briefly. Even people who have regular rhythms of Sabbath, who protect their Saturday or Sunday or Monday, like religiously, I know people like that who are still in a cycle of burnout. It is not enough. Because that has become their unhealthy rhythm, I'm gonna work till I drop, and then I'm gonna recover.

I'm gonna work till I drop, then I'm gonna recover. Stopping temporarily [00:21:00] is not always recovery. Those emotional patterns underneath, pressing into that, relearning some things there, that's often what's needed. How many times do we take a break and guilt follows rest, or we feel guilty while we're resting?

I know people who keep a Sabbath day religiously, and I don't mean religiously as a bad way. I mean, like, strictly. Like, they are all in. They are disciplined about it. They're not gonna let that Sabbath go. I know people who do that who still feel guilty while they're resting. Many of us do. It's normal.

It's normal because this is how we've been living for so long, but it doesn't have to be normal. So I would say that burnout in today's ministry culture is very normal, it's very typical, it's very expected, and it doesn't have to be. I believe we could serve for decades on end and never have burnout, because I've seen [00:22:00] it, because currently I'm getting closer to that.

I was gonna say I've experienced it, and I have, but I also know I'm not there yet, right? But I've seen it. I've seen it in people who've served a long time, who've learned some really healthy rhythms.

Oftentimes our nervous systems are so used to being activated that we take a break and we return right back to an unhealthy rhythm. We take a break, and then we go back into this unhealthy, over chronic, I don't know, just chronic being aware and available constantly. Because rest isn't just the absence of work.

I think this is really important. Rest is not just the absence of work. It can also include a lot of rebuilding of our inner world, ourselves, our spirits. Learning healthy rhythms is so important. Reconnecting spiritually, rediscovering [00:23:00] joy. I think this is one of the things we're doing so well in Small Church Ministry, especially in the network and at our conferences and the stories that we are hearing, is people are rediscovering joy again in ministry.

It's so beautiful. Outside of productivity, we can actually be real people. So here's one thing I want you to do this week. I want you to create just one intentional pause on some track that you might be heading toward getting more tired or feeling a little just stressed about or, maybe someplace where exhaustion is, on the path.

Like, you can see it down the road. Now, this might be... Here's just a couple ideas for one intentional pause. It could just be slowing down your mornings. I have done that over the past year. Pretty much changed my life. I used to wake up at 5:00, get out of bed, start working, and that, like, I literally started working as soon [00:24:00] as I got out of bed.

My mornings are so different now, and I love it. I used to, like, actually be kinda proud of how I worked when I got out of bed in the morning, and I just kinda just jumped in. I'm telling you, a slower morning rhythm has been really beautiful for me. So that's one idea for an intentional pause.

Another thing is, taking an hour without solving anyone's problems. Some of us need that. Like, just put a timer on and just what you're doing for an hour is you're not solving any problems. Taking a walk, getting out in nature, finding some silence, intentionally turning off the phone, the TV, not taking calls, creating moments, hours, whatever it would be for you, of silence.

Or how about prayer without productivity attached to it? Not praying about your day, not praying for answers, not praying for, you know, other people and, like, trying to get your prayers to change the heart of God. Like, just praying with no [00:25:00] productivity. Just, in a relational, connective way.

Another thing you can do to create an intentional pause is doing something creative. I love this. Right now I am, just really looking for a creative project. I'm getting ready to do, like, a mosaic top on a little counter on my back porch because I just know that creativity, doing something creative, this could be building, it could be painting, it could be cooking, it could be going to the grocery store and getting, like, beautiful vegetables and creating something.

That is an intentional pause, saying no to something, leaving margin. So I hope some of those ideas, right? This doesn't change everything overnight, but practicing some of these things, creating some pauses like this can create some healthier rhythms. And it's intentional instead of accidental.

Healthier ministry usually isn't about one giant dramatic change. It's not like we go from being [00:26:00] burnt out or being kind of stressed out or being bored in ministry or... Because remember, that boredom, that flatness is often the beginning, that dullness of burnout. We don't get healthy just by making one big change.

It's growth. It's personal growth. It's smaller rhythms that are consistently repeated over time. Now, before you leave thinking, "Oh, yeah," so I said earlier that taking a step back, a lot of times we think taking a step back, saying no, removing ourselves from a ministry position, not doing the thing we promised to do is gonna lose momentum.

It's gonna hurt our ministries. Just talked to somebody in the network today about, like... he's like, "I can say no to little things, but when I actually have to leave, like, a big role, I feel really guilty, like it's gonna leave a hole in the church. I'm gonna disappoint a lot of people," which can be true.

But here's the thing. Stepping back, what I mentioned earlier, the fact that it doesn't always create a loss of momentum, [00:27:00] stepping back can actually create better ministry, and I wanna give you a few ways in my personal life when I stepped back that ministry became more creative, more, team-oriented, more fun, better ideas, more impact.

I'm just gonna give you a couple examples, in a couple different areas of ministry 'cause I've been doing this a long, long time in a lot of different positions, so let me just give you a couple. Currently right now in my life, when I am stressed and pushing through, I have two different friends who will say to me, "Laurie, stop pushing through.

You know what happens. You know you need a day off," or, "You know you need to take the afternoon off." And it is a fight for me to say, "Oh my gosh, I have all this to do, but I'm gonna go for a walk," or, "I'm gonna, you know, do this project in my house," or, "I'm gonna, like, step away from it." I'm gonna tell you almost every single time

Well, I would say every single time, I come back with a different energy. Instead of feeling [00:28:00] like pushing and pressured and stressed, I come back with a new idea, with a fresher thought. Something shifts in me, and that shifts what I'm doing, okay, in ministry. I remember decades ago when I was in Children's Ministry.

Man, that's a place where you can overwork, right? We were really struggling with Sunday, and, like, we wanted to have, like, a Children's worship time for part of the time, not the whole time, but part of the time. And I remember taking, I said for a week, like, we just couldn't figure it out. It was very stressful.

We were looking at budgets and items and teams and all kinds of stuff. And, I took a week off to not think about it. I was like, "I'm not thinking about it for a week. I just can't." And my pastor encouraged me. And, I ended up with this beautiful, wonderful idea, and we transformed this little chapel area we had, and we hung up this beautiful, colorful parachute fabric from the ceiling.

Like, it looked a little bit like a beautiful tent, and it was so incredibly worshipful, and we found all this really cool fun music that was [00:29:00] free to use on copyright. Like, the whole thing changed overnight, and it happened when I stopped pushing. We stopped having the strategy meetings about it. One other example I will share with you.

Women's ministry was feeling really stressed out. This was a different decade in my life. And, the Women's ministry, I was probably the youngest woman involved in the Women's ministry, and I was in my 30s. But it just was becoming same old, same old. Like, oh my gosh, the same monthly event, the same this, the same Bible studies.

And one summer, we were like, "Yeah, we're gonna stop doing all these things. We're taking a step back." And we ended up just doing, like, a walking club. Like, we would walk at this park. It was no prep, no anything. That led to so much renewal in the Women's ministry. It was amazing. We even ended up starting, like, this small group, like health accountability that was just transformative.

Like, I mean, I just can't even tell you about, food and health and outside and walking and ... But it, all these things happened after [00:30:00] someone, myself, sometimes myself and others, took a big step back and said, "Wait. We're gonna stop thinking about it. We're gonna take a break." And another time, after decades as a pastor's wife and serving really, really hard, really hard, ideas and just so much joy and so much energy and so much transformation in different ministry areas, I just hit the wall for a lot of different reasons.

But, I stepped back from church for six months, and I talk to pastors' wives and pastors and ministry leaders who say, "I could never do that. I would never be allowed to do that." I'm gonna tell you right now, sometimes you hit the wall, and you have to. Like, it's not even an option. Some people end up in the hospital.

I did not. I left by choice. But I basically took a self-imposed sabbatical and ended up, spending a lot of time and energy in counseling, exploring some new themes that I hadn't really looked at in my own life before,, digging deeper into different [00:31:00] relationships. Honestly, I was doing new ways to connect with God spiritually.

It's when I started exploring soul shepherding, which many of you have heard about. I did their weekend, or their week-long retreat institutes. And I wanna say, stepping back for six months, which people now say, "I could never do that. I would never be allowed. Ministry would drop. Everything would fall out," you know, all this kinda stuff, you guys, I did it, and I came back healthier, so much more whole.

The way that I do ministry now, the way I'm involved in people, with people, the way that I'm involved in my church, the way that I relate to God, so much healthier, transformative. These are just a few examples in my personal life when stepping back, whether it's for a day, a weekend, six months, getting into regular habits.

Ministry didn't get worse, y'all. It got better. I didn't get worse. I got better. Were people sometimes disappointed? Probably, but not in [00:32:00] the end. It was only temporary, right? Did ministry stop? No. As I've said before and I'll say again, what's a church without a Women's ministry? It's a church. What's a church without a nursery?

It's a church. There is nothing you could stop in your church that would make your church not a church other than loving people. Loving people and loving Jesus, that's all that's required. I know churches who have taken time off of having sermons. They literally have taken time off of that and just had worship on Sunday mornings.

I know a church that stopped having church on Sunday mornings. They went into a sabbatical type, and they had a service once a month on Saturday only, once a month, for I think it was three months. It was a whole summer. It may have been extended. And do you know what? Their church was stronger after that.

You guys, they stopped church on Sunday mornings. Now, they didn't stop loving Jesus. They didn't stop meeting together. Don't send me a bunch of [00:33:00] emails saying that's heretical about stopping and stopping meeting together. You guys, that wasn't about a Sunday morning service. That was about relationship, worshiping God, teaching, discipleship.

Doesn't have to happen on a Sunday. It's great that it does. I love that it does. But I'm sharing a church that stopped it for a short period of time and actually came back stronger. It's pretty beautiful to see these examples. So don't be scared. Don't be fearful for your church, for you, for your relationships, about stepping back and changing things up, sometimes drastically.

Healthier serving, healthier ministry, healthier leadership, it's a lot quieter than most of us expect. It's a lot quieter than many of us experience. Healthier leadership is less panic, less fear about losing [00:34:00] attendees or about an event not working out or about being short a volunteer. Less fear. Less proving that we exist or less proving that we're a viable option for VBS or whatever that would be.

Healthier leadership is less constant urgency. You know what it's more of? It's more steadiness, and I don't just mean leadership like in title, I mean all of us. Healthier ministry, healthier discipleship, healthier us. It's more steady, it's more honest, it's more connection. It's more being present. It's more deep breaths.

It's more rest, not less rest. It's not just rest on one day a week. It's rhythms of rest and recovery daily. It's waking up in the morning feeling rested.

Healthier service in a church of any size is [00:35:00] sustainable. Creativity and joy matter. They're part of who God created us to be. Emotional health, emotional connectedness, connection to each other and with Jesus, it matters. Long-term ministry, long-term service, long-term impact, long-term being a light in the world requires healthier ministry.

Again, stepping back, it does not have to mean losing momentum. Oftentimes, it is what brings the momentum back. Now, that's if it's done Purposely. Not I quit, not I'm walking away, not I'm sick of this, not I'm starting over, not I'm leaving you people, not I'm blaming you, not you're not stepping up, so I'm quitting.

No. Healthier stepping [00:36:00] back is about restoring clarity. It's wanting more, not less. It's about restoring creativity. It's about restoring emotional capacity. It's about restoring connection with ourselves, with others, and with Jesus. And honestly, this topic is exactly why I am so excited about our coming, upcoming live Online Ministry Burnout Recovery event that is happening on June 6th.

Because one podcast, two podcasts is not gonna change everything, okay? But these conversations need more attention than the quick surface level advice we have received and we have given, taking breaks, taking sabbaticals. These conversations need more attention than that. We need space to talk honestly about emotional exhaustion, about recovery, about ministry rhythms, about sustainable leadership, about emotional health, about [00:37:00] reconnecting with Jesus outside of the constant output.

The event is completely free to attend live. I'm praying we will always be able to offer that. It helps more people find more encouragement and more hope. We know we are all coming in from smaller churches with limited budgets, okay? We get it. That's why we, up to this point, all of our events have been completely free to attend live.

There is also gonna be a really great optional companion resource, for people who want deeper support, practical tools for even more burnout recovery. And maybe this is for you, and maybe this is for others in your church. Maybe it's for your pastor. Maybe it's a gift for someone. I don't know. But I know it's for someone, because within close reach of you right now, there is a percentage of people around you who could use this.

Many, many people are running way too close to burnout, and we're all on our way [00:38:00] there if we're not being intentional about this recovery and support and better rhythm. So more details coming soon. I really hope you'll join us. Okay, so let's wrap up. If you've been exhausted today or in this season, I hope this episode gives you a little permission to breathe, to take some consideration, to think of things a little differently.

No permission to stop caring. I don't think we ever need to stop caring. I'm also not giving you permission to disappear. I don't believe that what-- that's what God wants from us. But I do wanna give everyone permission to remember that you are human, and so are these people around us who are serving constantly output, and not even knowing what to do to live ministry and live life differently.

Healthy ministry was never supposed to require the complete destruction of ourselves in order to sustain it. Stepping back does not mean, does not have to mean losing momentum. Sometimes it is exactly what [00:39:00] restores clarity, creativity, connection, and joy. And maybe, just maybe, healthier service, healthier leadership, healthier volunteering starts smaller than we think.

One intentional pause, one more honest conversation, one healthier rhythm at a time. So thanks for hanging out with me today. Until next week, be a light.