Burn Out or Rust Out?

I feel compelled to make the following comments. Most of what I say is to both my surprise and chagrin.

It seems that in trying to correct some possible pastoral abuses of the past, seminaries are exposing their students to a recurring theme: don't burn out... be sure to get your day(s) off... marriage first, ministry second." These refrains may all be quite true, but they come with such repetitive force that I fear that the pendulum has swung from those who jeopardized their families in the name of "ministry" to men who think that they have something coming to them because they are "in the ministry." We now have men who are so thoroughly warned of sacrificing their families that they sacrifice nothing!

I say this from my own experience. After my first six months of ministry I was shocked to discover that my biggest danger was not burn out but rusting out. I was lazy! I assumed that I was putting in my forty-plus hours of the ministry, being careful to guard my "time off." But, when I added up my hours I was short of forty. How could this be true of "hardworking Jonathan?"

Fortunately it is not now true of "hardworking Jonathan." His letter was a de facto testimony to his handling of the problem.

But his letter does point to a real, ongoing problem with many in the ministry. No one keeps track of a pastor's time. There are not clocks to punch or time cards to turn in. So if a man is not a self-starter, it is so easy to come in late and go home early. It is also very easy to let prayer and sermon preparation slip, and, generally, to imagine that extraneous interests are "ministry." There is more sloth in the pastoral ministry than we like to admit.

--- Kent and Barbara Hughes, Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome, pp. 41-42