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10 Ways to Fight Church Burnout
Kristen Terrette
1. Pray
Whenever you feel a restlessness or disturbance in your spirit, it’s a call to prayer. The Holy Spirit uses these emotions, these nudges, to get our attention and draw us into communication with Him. Jesus provides the perfect example⎯He always went to the Father in prayer. Scripture provides great illustrations of this when Jesus’ heart was sad, and when His flesh was weak.
Luke 22:44 ESV And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
Mark 14:34 ESV And he said to them, "My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch."
Matthew 26:41 ESV Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."
Jesus was strengthened through prayer, then we will be as well.
Go to Him and discuss the struggle you feel concerning your church life. You may be surprised by what He tells you to do. He may ask you to forgive an offender, or ask you to step into a role you weren’t expecting, or even wanting. He may want you to find a different church family. He may reveal some sinful attitudes you’ve been harboring. But you’ll never know His answer if you don’t first seek His direction.
2. Serve Somewhere New
Every church relies on volunteer participation to function and thrive. Volunteers can make or break a ministry. But having the wrong volunteers in the wrong positions is just as detrimental to your church and the fatigue of the volunteer.
If a volunteer position isn’t bringing you joy, God may have a different assignment for you. Don’t discount God moving you to a different position. You may need to stop serving where you are and allow God to lead you to something new.
3. Start Serving
Some regular church attenders never meet anyone. They seem content to sit, listen, sing, and leave without having invested in any friendships. This is a tragedy and not what Jesus intended for His followers. Human relationships nurture and encourage us, so this type of isolation in our walk with God is taxing on our spiritual journey and could cause quite a bit of burnout.
Some of your closest friendships can develop with those you serve alongside. People with a common goal become allies. Whether it’s to bring children to Christ, play an instrument on stage, or greet people in the parking lot, these developing friendships make church more enjoyable. It creates a bond. Give it try.
4. Bring a Friend
A new set of eyes will always see things a pair of tired eyes is missing. Bringing a friend can help you notice things you may be taking for granted when it comes to your church and its activities. A good friend will also tell you truth when they see something unbecoming.
What’s more, Jesus has sent us on a Great Commission⎯go into the world, make disciples, baptizing and teaching them to obey God’s Word.
Matthew 28:19-20 ESV Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
These were his final words to His friends, and they’re the same ones He gives us today. The church is His body doing works for His Kingdom, living out the Great Commission. By inviting a friend, we are doing what we’ve been sent by God to do, and He will surely bless us with peace and joy, instead of burnout and fatigue.
5. Try a New Church
Most ministry leaders aren’t happy about this one. But the truth is that there are many reasons God may move you to a new church. If you are feeling disillusioned by yours, then you need to discern if God is encouraging you to move elsewhere.
God has reasons we may not understand. It could be He’s trying to protect you from something. It’s possible a church has been praying for someone with your skill set, and God is sending you there. Or you could legitimately need a refresh from the place you’ve been on repeat for a while. The church should be unified, so even one disgruntled member could be infectious to the group.
Either way, much prayer is needed to evaluate God’s will. Get still. Pray. Listen. And try a new church if God tells you to.
Are you an acquaintance with God or do you have a relationship with Him? Acquaintances and close relationships look very different. We communicate daily to the people we love and cherish.
Scripture says we should love God with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength.
Mark 12:30 ESV And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'
And guess what? He loves us back even more than we could ever love Him. To love this way means we talk with Him through prayer, study about Him by meditating on His Word, and praise Him by lifting our hands in thanksgiving for being there for us every day.
We’ll eventually burnout wherever we attend if our relationship with Him isn’t thriving. It’s exhausting trying to pretend on a Sunday what you are not living out during the week.
7. Prepare Your Heart Before Service
Hebrews 12:28-29 ESV Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.
So let us be thankful. Then we can worship God in a way that pleases him…A grateful heart praises God all the time. It isn’t bound by life’s circumstances; it’s thankful through them.
If you have gone a week without praying, singing, clapping, dancing, or swaying as you praise God, how do you expect to simply jump right in on a Sunday morning?
8. Repent
We often leave out repentance as part of our walk with God. Sin hardens our hearts towards God.
Ephesians 4:18-19 ESV They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.
When this happens, no amount of church attendance or Sunday skips will reduce your fatigue. We won’t be able to tap into God’s presence and splendor the way He intends. Sin congests and clogs up your heart. It’s hard to receive a word from God until you repent and your heart rinsed clean.
Acts 3:19-21 ESV Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.
Ask God to show you the areas in your life which need repentance. Afterwards, see if your church burnout alleviates as He refreshes you.
9. Don't Fall into The Enemy's Trap
A church service doesn’t necessarily need a full band and a great Praise Team. You don’t even need music at all in order to have a wonderful worship experience. However, if we’re honest we have heard said, and even said ourselves, “the services feel dry”, or “I’m just not getting anything from them”.
Granted, this can be true for your situation, but don’t fall into the enemy’s trap. The evil one wants nothing more than for churchgoers to call its activities bland, dry, boring, and lacking the Holy Spirit’s presence. Remember though that if you’re there and you’re a believer then the Holy Spirit is there, which means it’s often us who have the problem.
Before vocalizing these feelings, we should pray for revival in us and our church. We must stop ourselves from spreading the enemy’s attack to cause disunity. He wants our churches to fail, and we can never contribute to this.
10. Take the Sabbath Seriously
Even God rested on the seventh day of creation, but not because he was tired⎯He wanted to set an example for us. Jesus cared for His followers enough that He told them to get “take a break”.
Mark 6:31-32 ESV And he said to them, "Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while." For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves.
Can you imagine Him saying those words to you?
He is.
His Word is alive and directed to us, His followers, today. Feeling burnout can be a cover for our human bodies and minds simply being tired. Honor the Sabbath. Clear your schedule. Go with Jesus to a quiet place and get some rest.