Burnout is not a new reality. In fact, one Baptist pastor believes it is biblically normal and might even be a necessary spiritual stage of life.
Nathan Joyce, pastor of Heartland Church in Paducah, Kentucky, believes burnout can be a tool God uses to “purify His servant.”
“Enduring is hard,” he said. “Persevering in the faith as well as in the calling to ministry will require God’s gracious gift of resilience through ‘dangers, toils and snares.’”
Joyce’s ministry to pastors was born from his own personal struggles.
“Early in my 40s, I experienced a deep apathy that I now know was the beginning of burnout,” he said. “In my late 40s, the apathy became debilitating anxiety and depression.”
Instead of rolling over, he says the “dark season” led him to “search every resource I could find and to comb the Scriptures to understand the entire journey of faithfulness to calling through both green pastures and dark valleys.”
Back to God
He says the journey led him back to God.
“God’s faithfulness to restore my body and soul to health makes me so grateful for where I am today,” he told Kentucky Today.
Joyce says he’s learned several principles about burnout from his own personal experience and by helping pastors through his ministry called Gospel Therapy.
Among the lessons he learned are:
- Burnout is biblically normal. Every person the Bible highlights over a long enough period of time experiences a dark emotional season.
- Burnout is a necessary spiritual stage.
He believes God uses burnout to teach a pastor about himself, to learn to set boundaries, and to seek help from others.
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EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Brandon Porter and originally published by Kentucky Today.
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