In a previous blog, we learned that the definition of burnout includes exhaustion, cynicism, and inefficacy.  What happens when an individual experiences one or more these components of burnout?  From a general standpoint, individuals with burnout may experience both physical and psychological effects.  Physical effects include headaches, elevated blood pressure, and even cardiovascular disease.  Psychological effects include lack of motivation, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, depression, and poor decision making.  Such physical and psychological effects often lead to turnover, as staying in one’s current role or in their current industry are not options for those experiencing burnout.  Now that we have a general understanding of the consequences of burnout, let’s look at how these consequences of burnout affect pastors.

Being a pastor is viewed as a calling from God.  As pastors serve and work in their God-given calling, can they experience burnout?  The answer is a resounding, ‘yes.’ First, pastors are not exempt from experiencing the physical and psychological effects of burnout mentioned in the previous paragraph.  Pastors may feel additional stress and anxiety when compared to a person working in a non-church-related field, as pastors view their roles as being called to serve God.  Put another way, pastors may feel like quitting would be leaving and disappointing God.  Individuals working outside the pastorate can more easily change companies, jobs, or industries without the added guilt felt by pastors in the same situation.  

Second, pastors are not exempt from leaving their churches and pastoral roles due to the aforementioned consequences of burnout.  Recent articles (Boorstein, 2021; Rainer, 2021; Rohane, 2022) point to pastoral positions being vacant.  In other words, a pastor has left the church and there is no one to take the former pastor’s place.  Articles on the topic of pastor turnover point to burnout being a major cause.  A pastor with the understanding that there is no one take over the role may elect to stay on with the church, thus exasperating the effects of burnout.  While the role of pastors has always been demanding (sermons, calls from congregants, funerals, being on-call, etc.), it was magnified during the pandemic.  During the pandemic pastors experienced stress and burnout due to new demands such as moving to online services, reduced congregant giving, mask mandates, political views, and an uptick in crises experienced by congregants.  The pandemic also exposed pastors to being technology tied to their work. 

Third, prior to the pandemic pastors experienced stress and burnout through being on-call 24/7.  However, face-to-face interactions allowed pastors to serve congregants before and after services, through scheduled office visits, and scheduled phone calls.  Face-to-face interactions were not available as they had been previous to the pandemic, and technology often took the place of face-to-face interactions and scheduled meetings.  In short, technology allowed pastors to serve 24/7 whether they were in their offices or working from their homes.  This led to technology such smart phones blurring the line between home and work, which often negated work-life balance.  As the use of technology became more dominant in the pandemic, pastoral work-life balance further eroded and led pastors to resign their positions.    

As such, pastoral burnout has led to churches without pastors, and ultimately flocks without shepherds.  Pastors need resources and plans to mitigate the consequences of burnout.  Specifically, pastors need to be able to detach from technology without feeling the guilt of missing an email, phone call, or text.  One way to accomplish this is to rotate afterhours-on-call-leadership to handle emergencies.  This has been successful in hospitals.  Another possible solution would be to limit the amount of non-scheduled meetings and conversations via technology.  While such meetings and conversations may be necessary at times, they should not be the norm.  Having a volunteer schedule appointments allows the pastor to address non-emergency needs via scheduled events.  This can reduce the stress related to always being on-call for the congregants.  

References

Boostein, M. (2021, December 24). The first Christmas as a layperson: Burned out by the pandemic, many clergy quit in the past year. Thw Washington Post.

Rainer, T. (2021, December). 10 things trending in the church for 2022. Outreach Magazine.

Rohane, K. (2022, April). Our pulpits are full of emply preachers. Christianity Today.