The Surprising Truth about Burnout - Part 1

by James Allen

All of us, especially those working in full-time ministry, have probably heard about, witnessed or maybe even experienced first-hand the effects of burnout. Its effects can be devastating, even in some cases including major health problems and suicidal depression.

What may surprise you, however, is who is actually most susceptible to burnout. You would think that those most susceptible would be the ones who have been working in a particular field for a long time and have overextended themselves due to all the demands of their work, right? Actually, the time of greatest risk for burnout in any people-helping occupation is the first five years on the job. The new worker is filled with idealism and high expectations. When reality begins to set in, the first-term missionary begins to burn out (Kotesky).

This certainly rings true from my experience. During my furlough in the U.S. after just four years on the field as a missionary, I was ready to “throw in the towel”.

My first year of missionary service was actually quite ideal. After grad school and a challenging year of missionary training, it felt so good to finally be given an opportunity to put my training into practice as the Director of Member Care for a missionary base in S.E. Asia. I successfully set up a member care department and was even seeing some good fruit in my work.

By the second year, however, things began to unravel. (click here to read more) Though I continued to do the same things I had done the previous year, challenges arose among our community that were beyond my power to control and, in the end, resulted in many staff leaving for reasons that I had hoped good member care would prevent. Dealing with the sense of powerlessness, failure and loss as more than half of the staff left over the next few years was devastating.  Four years after entering the mission field with high hopes and expectations of how I was going to help others, I found myself being the one needing help and on the verge of burnout. How could this be happening?

An Important Lesson Learned
Thankfully, I can say that I learned a lot by going through that experience and seen much good fruit in my life and ministry on the other side of it. Perhaps the most important lesson I learned is the importance of expecting suffering and hardships when you are pursuing the dreams God gives you.

I don’t think any good Christian worker would deny the importance of this truth, but when it comes down to it, my generation, “The Busters generation” (those born between 1965 and 1983) is particularly vulnerable to missing it. My generation has been described as being characterized by an egocentric mindset and low work ethics, emphasizing freedom and autonomy, and having a strong resistance to any form of authority. In the church, personal prosperity and feeling loved by God has been stressed to the detriment of "the fellowship of sharing in Christ's sufferings" (Phi!. 3:10) (Whittle 78).

Many reasons could be cited as contributing to these trends but at the top of that list would be insecurity and low self-esteem caused by a breakdown in family systems and increase in abuse (Whittle 77). Therefore, a search for personal significance can easily become a primary motivation in people’s lives, even in their call to ministry.  If a person has not found his or her significance in Christ, it doesn’t take much to take him or her out in the ministry context.

To conclude, I will leave you with a quote from one of my heroes of the faith, Oswald Chambers, who said, "Watch for the storms of God. The only way God plants His saints is by the whirlwind of his storms. Are you going to prove an empty pod? it will depend on whether or not you are actually living in the light of the vision you have seen. Let God fling you out, and do not go until he does. If you select your own spot, you will prove an empty pod. However, if you allow God to plant you, you will 'bear much fruit' (John 15:8)."

Works Cited

Kotesky, Dr. Ronald. What Missionaries Need to know About Burnout.  Missionary Care: Resources for Missions and Mental Health. MissionaryCare.com and Go International. 2004-20011. Web. 17 March 2015.

Whittle, Deseree. Missionary Attrition: Its Relationship to the Spiritual Dynamics of the Late Twentieth Century. Caribbean Journal of Evangelical Theology 3 (June 1999): 68-83.

Chambers, Oswald. My Utmost for His Highest. 1924 (2001 revision).

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