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
When Burnout Looks Like Revival (But It's Actually Exhaustion)
We explore the dangerous tendency for churches to confuse burnout with revival, and how overwork disguised as faithfulness is damaging the souls of ministry staff. This continuing conversation on burnout examines why ministry teams feel depleted even when church metrics are thriving.
• Churches often celebrate busyness and overloaded schedules, calling them "faithfulness" or "revival" while staff crumble behind the scenes
• Ministry metrics like attendance, baptisms, and program growth can masquerade as true spiritual movement
• Staff secretly praying for a cancelled event signals burnout, not revival
• Warning signs include no margin for family, guilt about taking time off, unhealthy coping mechanisms, and spiritual emptiness
• True revival should energize people, not deplete them
• Leadership must model sustainable rhythms including Sabbath rest, boundaries, and permission to say no
• Your church staff isn't just a workforce—it's your first mission field
If this resonates with you or you have feedback, reach out to podcast@chemistrystaffing.com. Join me again tomorrow on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast.
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Is your church celebrating what it should be confronting? You know, when ministry schedules are overloaded and boundaries are non-existent, we often call it faithfulness or even revival. But behind the scenes, staff are crumbling under the pressure, they're exhausted, they're spiritually dry, they're emotionally detached. We talked about this yesterday on the podcast. We're going to continue to talk about this today. This isn't a sacrifice, it's a setup for collapse. And today we're going to explore some signs for your church, that your church might be confusing burnout with revival, and how it's time to change course before it's too late. If you're a pastor or a church leader trying to do the right thing, this isn't a rebuke, it's a rescue plan. So let's build it today, right here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. Hi there, my name is Todd Rhodes. I'm one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffingcom and we are today continuing our look at burnout. And today we're looking at you can look at it from a couple of different ways.
Speaker 1:Some churches look at being really busy, as just god is at work and we gotta keep up and put it into overdrive, and sometimes we do that at the expense of our souls. So what if your church isn't in revival? It's just in overdrive. But let's be honest if your staff is secretly praying for a snowstorm just to cancel an event, that's not revival, that's burnout, with a Bible verse slapped on top of it. Okay. So let's talk about this whole topic of burnout and revival and how we sometimes justify our busyness. Okay so, sometimes ministry metrics really masquerade as movement. We love tracking baptisms, we love tracking attendance spikes and outreach event, but revival is not measured by hustle, it's marked by Holy Spirit transformation. Okay. So if your team is hitting all the KPIs but hitting rock bottom spiritually, something's off. And here's a truth bomb for you Just because the church is full on Sunday doesn't mean that the staff's soul is full as well. So ask yourself would your staff call this season revival or survival? Okay, harvest isn't an excuse to do harm. Sure, jesus said the harvest is plentiful, but he also said my yoke is easy. We can't forget that second part. So why does your staff feel like they're dragging around a 500 pound ministry weight boulder uphill every single week? Overwork in the name of faithfulness is still overworked, and revival should refresh people and not wreck them.
Speaker 1:We don't use that word revival. Maybe I'm throwing you off with the term that I'm using today, this revival but do you just feel like things are going really well at your church and that God's doing some great things, but you've got gotta run right now because the time is short and you just that's revival. Okay, that's what I'm talking about. When I'm talking about revival, it's that that need to step up and constantly run or else you're going to miss out. You can run for a short period of time. You cannot run forever. It will damage your soul.
Speaker 1:Okay, so let's talk a little bit about what I call the holy disguise of busyness. All right, we've trained our leaders, we've trained ourselves, we've trained our staffs to hide behind the word busy. It's the church's version of humble bragging. Oh man, it's been. It's how you doing. Oh, it's been a crazy season, but God's doing some amazing stuff around here, but behind closed doors, everybody's just numb and you're anxious and you're drained. You can't, you can't run all the time. And we're afraid to admit that we can't run all the time. Because who wants to be the one to kill the vibe or to put a dent in what God is doing? And God is doing some great things in your church. But he also has given you limited time, limited resources and limited energy. He wants you to manage that. Well. Sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is stop pretending that you're okay. Let me repeat that. That's a really powerful statement. Sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do yes, even as a pastor is stop pretending that you're okay, all right.
Speaker 1:So what does burnout actually look like on a church staff? We've talked about that before, but let's name it. What does burnout actually look like? Okay, maybe you've got no margin. You've got no margin for your family. You haven't taken a Sabbath in weeks or months because you're so busy you don't have time to even take a biblical Sabbath.
Speaker 1:Maybe you're feeling guilty we talked about this yesterday, about taking a day off or about taking a vacation. Maybe you're compensating. Maybe you're compensating your busyness and your tiredness with caffeine or sugar or late night scrolling or watching things on the internet or on your phone that you shouldn't be doing. You're compensating Because you're like man I just need a break. I got to take a couple minutes here and do something that's not stressful. That's a big warning sign.
Speaker 1:Maybe you just feel like you're spiritually empty, but you still are being called and you still want to. It's still your heart to lead others, but you're just like man. I want to lead others, but I'm just, I'm dry. That's your staff. That's not revival, that's not God doing great things. God's doing great things, but you can't continue to run into that and use that as an excuse. That's a slow erosion disguised as obedience. Okay, you're saying I'm obedient, and because I'm obedient, I just have to run myself ragged. You don't, and let me tell you this, you're not the only one that feels this way. Tons, hundreds, thousands of church leaders and church staffs feel like they're caught in this hamster wheel of I just got to keep going. I can't take a break. I'm on call all the time. You're not the only one that feels that way, but you do have a choice, okay.
Speaker 1:So here's what you really need to do when things are going really well at your church, when things are running on all cylinders, when things are growing, people are accepting Jesus, people are getting baptized, attendance is up, giving's up, small group attendance is, everything's up and to the right, and you're depleted. What do you need to do when your church is like that? It should not crush people, it should energize people, and it does. It does initially. You're initially energized. I can't believe I get to do this and six months later, you're so tired you're like I can't believe. I have to do this, not get to do this, have to do this.
Speaker 1:It starts with leadership, modeling sustainable rhythms. That means Sabbath, that means clarity, that means boundaries, that means being able to say no and empowering your staff to be able to say no without any guilt whatsoever. And believe me and this is the absolute truth, I wouldn't tell you it if it wasn't your church will not collapse if you cancel one event or if you don't do one extra thing, but it might collapse if your team does. So don't make that mistake of determining that movement is the same thing as momentum or burnout is the same thing for blessing. Okay, here's a takeaway Revival, the great things that god is doing your church should bring rest, not ruin. It should energize you. But you need to build in those margins, and your church staff isn't just a workforce. It's your first mission field. So if you're in charge of a staff and you need to really lead from the top down and make sure that they get their rest and that they're equipped to do this wonderful and exciting work that God is doing in your church, if this hits home for you today, maybe I've said something that's been rattling around in your head for a while and I just was able to put some words to it.
Speaker 1:I would love to hear your comments. You can send me your comments anytime podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. Or you can send me your pushback. Send me your criticism. Anytime podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. Or you can send me your pushback. Send me your criticism. Send me. Todd, you're way off here. I wouldn't say. I'd love to hear that. I would like to hear your comment. If you have some constructive criticism for me, that's always very helpful to me and I hope you'll join me here again tomorrow. Again, you reach out to me anytime podcast atisterstaffingcom and I will be right back here tomorrow on this Healthy Church Staff Podcast. Thanks for joining us.
