The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
We're all about helping create a healthy, positive, and spiritually positive environment for church staff members and leadership teams.
The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
Why You Shouldn’t Be Proud Your Staff ‘Doesn’t Take Vacation
Church leaders should recognize that staff who never take vacations are displaying a significant red flag, not dedication, as this mindset breeds burnout, decreased effectiveness, and eventual departure from ministry. Healthy churches thrive when leaders are physically and spiritually refreshed, following Jesus' own example of prioritizing rest during his ministry.
• The "never taking vacation" mindset is a toxic badge of honor that signals deeper issues
• Even Jesus, fully God and fully man, needed breaks during his earthly ministry
• Lack of rest doesn't prove commitment—it reveals unhealthy expectations and poor leadership
• Workaholism has real consequences: decreased effectiveness and emotional exhaustion
• Leaders must model healthy rest by taking their own vacation days
• Publicly celebrate team members who prioritize rest rather than making them feel guilty
• Finding the balance between hard work and proper rest is essential for sustainable ministry
If you're struggling with creating a healthy church staff culture, I'd love to talk with you and hear your story. We specialize in helping churches move toward healthier practices and sustainable ministry. Reach out anytime at podcast@chemistrystaffing.com.
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Are you secretly proud when your staff crowd is about never taking vacation? It might sound impressive, but it's actually a significant red flag signaling deeper issues of workaholism, burnout and even toxic church culture. And today we're going to explore why church leaders should actively discourage a culture of overwork and how it negatively impacts your team, and how you can take some practical steps that will help you prioritize rest and health and sustainable ministries. I'm glad you're here today. My name is Todd Rhodes and you're listening to the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. Hey, Pastor, does your staff brag about never taking vacations? Here's a truth bomb for you today. That's not impressive. Okay, I'm not impressed by that. And actually, if your church pastor tells me that, hey, my staff don't even take their vacations because they're so into ministry, that's actually a massive red flag for me, and today I'm going to uncover why that might be true, Okay, so here's the first thing I want to talk about today the toxic badge of honor.
Speaker 1:You ever heard phrases like vacation? What's that? It sounds like dedication right Wrong, it's a mindset that's breeding ground for burnout, and I hear in far too many churches, studies show that overworked staff lead to decreased effectiveness and emotional exhaustion and eventual departure People that are burned out just don't stay where they are. They have to get out. Okay, so rest isn't optional, it's absolutely essential, Because even if we look to Jesus he himself, if you look at his ministry on earth, you know he's fully God and fully man, but he needed rest. And if the savior of the world needs breaks, so do you and so does your staff. Lack of rest doesn't prove commitment. Let me repeat that. Lack of rest, lack of taking vacations, lack of taking time off, the idea that you're on the clock 24-7, that doesn't prove commitment. It reveals unhealthy expectations and poor leadership. Quite honestly, there are some real-life consequences as well to workaholism, and I speak to this don't think that I'm coming on a high horse, because I tend to have some workaholic tendencies. I tend to. I've had a home office for probably the last 25 years and it's very easy for me to go into my home office and think I'm just going to check an email or something and two hours later come out after sitting at my computer and working for two hours. So this is a tendency that I have too. But I've seen way too many gifted church leaders crash and burn because rest wasn't prioritized, and a pastor who hasn't rested isn't spiritual. They're at risk. Healthy churches thrive when their leaders are physically and spiritually refreshed. Okay, that's incredibly important. As I get you out of here today, I wanted to make this short and kind of sweet today, because it's important.
Speaker 1:The concept is hard to grasp, but it's so easy to grasp. You need to get your rest. You can't go full bore 24-7 on a pastoral schedule wearing that trophy of I'm really invested when your heart and your mind and your body and your soul is absolutely out of whack. So let's be real practical. How can you encourage healthy rest? First of all, if you've got 20 or 30 vacation days in your bank, in your PTO bank, take them, Take a vacation. You need to normalize vacation and days off. Make sure you take and use your vacation days, and this is really going to be hard for some people in some churches because of the culture Publicly celebrate team members who prioritize rest.
Speaker 1:I've seen churches where people feel guilty for taking a vacation. Staff members feel guilty. They feel like if you were really invested in this ministry, how could you take a week or two of vacation, even though we provide it for, how could you take that off? It's almost like you're punished for taking, or you feel you're made to feel badly. Leaders, you need to publicly celebrate and encourage your team members who prioritize rest. You need to encourage them to take their vacation and you need to hold yourself accountable. You need to lead from the top. Leaders must model this first.
Speaker 1:Okay, your takeaway for today? It's really simple Workaholism isn't holy. It's not holy at all. Matter of fact, it's harmful. It's a red flag. You need to build a culture where rest is celebrated, not shamed. You need to build a culture where rest is celebrated, not shamed. Okay, this is really hard, because I'm going off script here a little bit.
Speaker 1:The tendency is, what we need to do is find a balance right. There are church cultures where they are so hard driving that they never rest. Okay, that's one side of the spectrum. There are other churches where congregants really say I don't know what our staff does because there's no initiative, there's no hard work, there's no work ethic on that staff at all. Two totally different extremes. You don't want to be here and you don't want to be here. You want to be in the middle. You want to be healthy, you want to be that person that's taking rest but also taking initiative. That's really important. You need to work hard, but you need to rest hard as well.
Speaker 1:If you're out of whack and you're out of balance, you got to try and get it back in that balance. If there's any way that I can help you to do that. We do this kind of work with churches and staffs, trying to get them from where they are to get to be at to a healthy place. I'd love to talk with you and just hear your story, hear where you're at, hear where your staff is at, hear where the culture of your church is at, Love to be able to walk alongside you. If there's a way that we can do that, We'd love to be a resource and help for you. You can reach out to me anytime. Podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. And if you're tired and you've got some vacation coming it's summer you need to schedule that and get out of here and don't feel guilty about doing it. All right, that's it for today. We are here every day, Monday through Friday, right here on the Healthy Church Step Podcast. Hope you'll join me again right here tomorrow. You.
