How Pastors Can Beat Burnout

The difficult work of church renewal can push pastors into burnout. If you feel like you’ve hit a wall, it doesn’t have to be the end of your ministry. It can be the beginning of a new chapter of personal renewal!

• In previous newsletters, we talked about the warning signs of burnout and the causes of burnout. Today, we will end the series by looking at practical ways to start the healing process.

Healing is not as simple as taking a vacation or making small tweaks to your daily routine. It comes from rediscovering your own humanity and tending to all the facets of who you are (spiritual, emotional, physical, social, and mental).

• Jesus himself modeled this well for us. He withdrew from the crowds and found quiet places to pray. He celebrated at weddings. He wept at tombs. And he invites us not only to imitate him but also to come to him to find true rest and to take his yoke upon us.

Below are some key practices to help you get started in the long, grace-filled work of healing from burnout. These ideas come from the Christian Reformed Church in North America’s 2025 Pastors’ Gathering, which featured speaker, clergy coach, author, and burnout expert Sean Nemecek.

Practical steps to take in overcoming burnout

1. Get to know yourself again

• Pastors play a role in ministry — so much so that it is easy to feel like you lose more and more of yourself over time. This depersonalization is depressing and exhausting, so it is important to rediscover who you are beyond just your role at church.
• What are your gifts, strengths, passions, and values? What motivates you and excites you? What do you enjoy for its own sake? Poet David Whyte was right when he said, “The antidote to exhaustion is not necessarily rest… The antidote to exhaustion is wholeheartedness.”

2. Honor Your limits

• One part of ourselves we must rediscover is our human limitations. God did not design the body to work correctly without proper nutrition, exercise, and sleep. Pastors do not get an exemption.
• What boundaries do you need to set to prevent yourself from reaching your limits? How can you help your elders understand those limits and the consequences of ignoring them? How can you put systems in place to ensure you meet the minimum requirements to be healthy?

3. Get Connected

• Human beings are capable of having only a finite number of relationships. Pastors often relentlessly expand the number of connections they maintain in ministry, leaving little energy to develop their own network of close and intimate friendships.
• We all need friends who love us simply for who we are and not for the role we play. These friends reflect God’s grace and love back to us, reminding us that the gospel is for us too. They help us pursue our goals without judging us. Who in your life brings fun, laughter, and energy into your world?

4. Stay Differentiated

• Alongside connection is another great need — differentiation. This is the ability to maintain your own identity, thoughts, and feelings while staying connected to those who may disagree with you.
• Pastors are surrounded by people who disagree with them on important issues every day. Beyond that, our organizations can carry significant anxiety. A well-differentiated leader can recognize the anxiety in others without absorbing it. Can you grow in your ability to let people feel what they feel, stay connected, and stay true to yourself — all at the same time?

5. Give up being perfect

• Many pastors believe they should have all the answers (omniscience), should be there for everyone (omnipresence), be able to fix everything (omnipotence), have no flaws (perfection), and be in total control (sovereignty).
• What these pastors are really saying is, “I can be like God” (the original sin in the Garden of Eden). Trying to play God is the quickest path to burnout. Giving up on that illusion is a crucial first step toward health. Can you observe the Sabbath as a first step in remembering you are not God?

6. Learn to Lament

• Pastors walk others through their grief on a regular basis, but how often do we deal with our own? It’s like we’re carrying around an invisible bag. Instead of feeling sorrow and disappointment, we stuff the raw emotions down into the bag. We try to tamp down these negative feelings, not realizing that it dims all our feelings, leading to depression.
• Lament is how we process grief. Can you set aside time regularly to open up that invisible bag, feel what’s in it, and bring it before God in raw honesty?

The good news is that God uses challenging seasons like these to form leaders who are stronger, better rested, less anxious, and more resilient. The difficult reality, though, is that this process takes time — possibly up to five years.

• Recovery will also take a team! Consider surrounding yourself with helpful professionals who can be a counterbalance to all the one-sided relationships you have in ministry. That team could include a medical doctor, a physical trainer, a mentor or ministry coach, a spiritual director, and a licensed counselor. God will work through the gifts each member of this team to lead you out of hopelessness and into a new chapter of optimism and energy! We’re also here for you, so feel free to reach out for help with all aspects of ministry!