Church ministry burn out

In the Catholic Church (and I can only speak for those here in the US) I’ve seen parishes that struggle to get people to help out in various ministries. I’m not positive why, but I’ve always attributed it to the fact that a majority of Catholic just don’t get involved with the Church.

However, at a local Evangelical church that we also attend every other week (see my testimony on “My Journey to Full Truth” page to find out why), there’s a similar problem, but for a slightly different reason. Based on conversations I’ve had with others, however, this is not a problem isolated to this particular church — but seemingly reflective of many Evangelical churches. Now, maybe this happens to people in Catholic parishes who volunteer for things, although I’ve not witnessed it as much as I have at these other churches.

The problem? Overwork.

What happens is that when someone volunteers for something, they get regularly “hit up” to take on other things, to the point that the person can, and does, get burnt out and drops out of volunteering in the ministry.

On a side note, “ministry” is sometimes a trick word that can be used against you to try to compel you to do things you may not be able to do, for any host of reasons. You may feel like you need to say no, but throwing the term “ministry” into it, you might get the feeling that you’re doing something wrong if you say no.

Perhaps this doesn’t sound like a serious enough problem to make noise about in a blog post (although I have heard people rant about less). However, in many of the cases I’ve experienced and heard of, those who are being called upon endlessly have young children that need attention. They are called on time and again to “serve”, taking more and more family time away.

When they do get burnt out, they often don’t return for fear of being overwhelmed again; something which compounds the problem, and leaves things on other unsuspecting “victims” — usually younger families again. All in all, the weight of the church’s outreach and ministry falls on too few.

Pastors and elders in the church need to be especially aware of whether this is happening in their church. If it is, they need to make sure that they have enough people involved to do the kind of work that they want to have done in the church. And, if they don’t, they should strive to get additional new people involved, or re-engage those who have been out for awhile.

For the sake of the church, the volunteers and their families.

[tags]church, volunteer, ministry, burn out, catholic, evangelical[/tags]

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