Virtue Had Gone Out
Ministry is all about serving other people. The basic definition of the word itself contradicts a common belief that ministry gives people entitlement or a position in the kingdom of God. Ministry is not about the minister; it is about others, it is about allowing God to use us to meet their needs.
Ministering always involves giving something we have. Whether it be our time, emotional energy, material resources or knowledge, meeting the needs of other people will always cause us to lose something.
When the woman with an issue of blood for twelve years touched the hem of Jesus’ garment, He knew that “virtue had gone out of Him.” To do ministry means we are dealing with spiritual resources that make our soul strong and our faith muscular. Our ministry and our personal spiritual life are tied together.
Because ministry always cost us something, we, as ministers, need to be renewed every single day. Burnout or derailment happens when we don’t replace what we have lost when we serve other people. When we see the symptoms of burnout in our life as a minister, we should consider a spiritual reset, i.e., a fresh start or a new look on our spiritual disciplines.
Spiritual Symptoms
There are many spiritual symptoms or “red flags” that can tell us of an upcoming or ongoing spiritual burnout. The following are some of these symptoms:
1. Lack of Enthusiasm
Curses are waiting for people who don’t serve God with joyfulness or with gladness of heart. A person can serve God and have no joy in his heart. Preachers can speak the truth in hatred. Musicians can play their instruments with sorrow. Cleaners can maintain the neatness of the church building while despising their duties. Such service is not acceptable unto God for He declared, “I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins” (Jeremiah 17:10). He is not primarily after what we are doing for Him, but why and how we do it.
Ministers can start losing their enthusiasm because of spiritual burnout. This usually happens when people do ministry as a routine. It occurs when people work for God and not with God. When Jesus is at the center of what we are doing, passion and excitement overflow. When we work with God, ministry becomes enjoyable.
Do we enjoy what we are doing in the ministry?
A person can be living in the grossest of sin, and the outer gift will still be working correctly.
Gene Edwards, A Tale of Three Kings
2. Imbalance
Having an unbalanced life might also be a sign of burnout or derailment in the ministry. When a minister’s priorities are not in place, and essential things are being neglected because of the hurries and busyness of the ministry, then it is time for a spiritual reset.
“The man of reckless faith,” Jack Coe, was a Pentecostal evangelist and one of the first faith healers with a touring tent ministry in the United States after World War II. Roberts Liardon in his book, God’s Generals, says that Coe died of a disease caused by his eating habits. He had a powerful ministry, but he forgot that his physical body is the only thing that houses his spirit and his ministry on the earth.
John Lake was also a well-known faith healer, missionary, and co-founder of the Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa. Liardon mentions him as an influential evangelist who touched many people’s lives. However, Lake had become so absorbed in ministering to others that he wasn’t aware of what was happening to the health of his wife. Two of Lake’s sons commented while on their deathbeds, “I wish Dad were here to pray for me.” Lake’s ministry crowded his life to the point that he neglected the welfare of his own family.
Imbalance in any aspect of our life is a red flag in the ministry. We should never allow the ministry to cause derailment in our personal life. Ministry should always come next to our relationship with God, ourselves, and our families.
A minister is what he lives, not what he preaches.
John Bevere, Bait of Satan
3. No Observable Results
As a Spirit-filled minister, we know when we are disconnected from the anointing that God wants us to have every time we are used of Him. It is hard to explain how it works, but there is a voice deep within our spirit that tells us if we are not in the place where we ought to be. It is a voice like what Adam and Eve heard in the Garden of Eden saying, “Where art thou?” It didn’t mean that God didn’t know where they were; it means that Adam and Eve were not in the place where God wanted them to be. In the ministry, we know, through the leading of God’s Spirit, when we are not where we need to be.
I know I need a reset when I feel like I cannot connect to the people I am trying to minister to. I don’t believe that it is all about the preacher. Of course, God can move in spite of our slackness. However, I do not want Him to move in spite of my derailment and burnout; I want Him to work because I have been in His presence. I desire to have a spiritual life that blesses other people.
A person can be living in the grossest of sin, and the outer gift will still be working correctly (Gene Edwards). However, sooner or later, the lack of visible results reveals the spiritual condition of a minister. External power will always unveil the inner resources or the lack thereof. When this happens, it tells us that it is time for a spiritual reset.
A Spiritual Reset
While writing this article I was reminded of my grandmother who used to bring me her phone whenever she needed something fixed. My usual solution is to do a system reset. I cannot remember a problem she had that a reset didn’t fix.
When we experience burnout or derailment in the ministry, we need a spiritual reset. We need to go back where it is all rooted, i.e., our personal walk with the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to consider how we are taking care of our spiritual life.
The power of our ministry is affected by our spiritual life. John Bevere observes, “A minister or a Christian is what he lives, not what he preaches.” In the ministry, who we are is more important than what we do. John Ortberg observes, “The main thing you will give your congregation – just like the main thing you will give to God – is the person you become.” God is, indeed, more interested in our transformation than our activities.
In doing the atonement ceremonies, it is observable that the high priest in the Old Testament did not use his peculiar and glorious robes, but only his linen garments, which were common to him with the ordinary priests. Likewise, a minister should always remember that in the presence of God, we are equal to the whole priesthood of God, i.e., everyone who belongs to the Kingdom of God. We all need His presence. We all need to be renewed. If we will remind ourselves of this truth, I believe that burnout and derailment within the ministry can be avoided.
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