With all of the news of mega church pastors leaving, taking sabbaticals and burning out, I thought it fitting to discuss helpful ways that The Salvationist can combat burnout as well. Burnout is real, it is not something imagined or evidence of a weaker person simply giving up. We all face exhaustion from time to time, and we also face critical, stressful situations that leave us looking for the exit sign…trust me, I’ve been there on numerous occasions.
But as an Officer and Salvationist, we have a mission to serve, but what if along the way we face difficulties, discouragements, and suffer depression and loss of passion? What then? I can assure you this is nothing new, and many have been to this point…many have also walked away because of it. 
I will also boldly say that The Salvation Army must recognize some of the lasting structural inconsistencies. The quasi military approach that once thrived is not as appealing as it once was to a very individualistic thriving culture. Sometimes old models of leadership need to be challenged in order for real change to take place and so that we can once again get back to mission instead of policy. So, right off the bat, understand the Titanic turning of a large, global organization (movement) is daunting and sometimes frustrating to face.
Harvard Business Review had an article that identified six virtues of a dream company, which was compiled by hundreds of business executives. For our purposes, imagine this “dream company” to be The Salvation Army…see if these virtues match:
1. You can be yourself
2. You’re told what’s really going on.
3. Your strengths are magnified.
4. The company stands for something meaningful.
5. Your daily work is rewarding.
6. Stupid rules don’t exist.
(Source: HBR Article Link)
Apart from the organizational issues, what can individual salvationists do to combat burnout while serving within its ranks (soldier, officer, employee ect.)? Here are just five ways to combat burnout in our Army. Take them for what they are, a primer that allows us to face real life issues happening all around us. This is just a “starter list”…there is much more that can be said within this topic.
5 Ways To Prevent Salvation Army Burnout:
1. Have an Identity apart from the Army
Sometimes this goes against conformity doesn’t it? We are told to dress alike, be of one army, one mind, yet we are also people who need to know who we are as God’s children who are called by Him. We must find out who we are apart from the uniform, apart from the mission. Sometimes this requires us to take a step back and reevaluate who we are and why we do the things we do. Self identity is vital to combating burnout because without knowing who we are we can become washed away by the powerful tides of stress that are rampant in any organization. When you go home, when you spend recreational time away – be yourself!
2. Find Hobbies To Enjoy 
Not everything is about mission sometimes (gasp!), in order to combat burnout is a fast paced thriving movement such as the Army, we must be able to relax from time to time. Some are excellent wood workers and carpenters and they relax by doing what they love. If you paint – then paint. If you enjoy geocaching, then get out and do that! Find things to enjoy, to look forward to on your next unscheduled day. Plan for these hobbies. Be intentional in taking the time to enjoy them. This will enable you to disconnect from the everyday stress of “work”.
3. Leave Your Work At The Office!! 
Seriously, we have a lot of work-a-holics in our Army. That’s not all bad. Hard work is wonderful! But when it jeopardizes your families, when they don’t know who you are anymore because you constantly work, there is something wrong with that! I would even go out on a limb and tell you overworking yourself is a sin. STOP IT! When you can, leave the work at the office. This will not always happen, I know that, but when you can leave it! Combating burnout requires us to take drastic steps, and for some of us, leaving unfinished work at the office is very, very drastic!
4. Switch Things Up! 
We all get stuck in ruts sometimes. So change up your schedule. Go for a walk, spend more time talking to people instead of staring at your computer screen. Flip your schedule so that some of your work gets done at the end of the day. Do something different so that the ruts are broken, and in so doing, you might experience a little bit of perspective within your day. When you do this, take time to breathe. I own an apple watch and I laughed at first at the new update on it. It’s a new app called “Breathe”…what it does is remind me to take a full minute and focus on my breathing. It was dumb at first, but then I started doing it, I switched up my schedule in the process…but now I look forward to that moment where I just breathe and relax. Combating burnout in your life takes an effort to switch some things up. So don’t just talk about it…do it!!
5. Take Your Sabbath Seriously!
Far too few of us really take a Sabbath. Yes, it’s our day off, but we’re still “catching up” on work. If God rested on the seventh day, don’t you think we should too? Or are we essentially saying, “I’m better than God” in our actions? When you plan your Sabbath days – TAKE THEM! Don’t bring work or ministry into your Sabbath! This is the time that you need personally to recharge your “batteries”. You need to plug yourself back into the Power source which is God Himself! Whatever that reconnection looks like to you, don’t take it for granted! Get alone with God, find the time, stop sinning in overwork and do it! If we really want to combat burnout, we must begin to realize just how important that Sabbath is for us. It’s not just another day off, it is a day (or a matter of hours) to recharge and rest.
I know that there are other ways that will help combat burnout, what are some tools that you have used in your ministry? What has helped you? Why not share them here and help all of us as we ponder this together! As always, thanks for reading! Something more for our Army to ponder today!
God Bless you!
Stop The Lies
Be Honest.
Pray.
Are we alert to the ever present need to adapt to our changing communities?
A new passion for souls must be prayed for, not just in our hearts but in every soldier’s heart. This isn’t just an army that preserves a heritage of the yesteryear, this is an army that carves out its destiny in the present and future through faithfulness and reliance on the Holy Spirit! We must recognize this need! We must reorganize, realign, re-imagine and act upon this mission of ours! We are not an army to sit on our backsides and do nothing! No! We MUST be a forward moving army, who has accepted and adapted to this modern spiritual war we are in. We cannot capitulate, grow soft and comfortable – to do so will bring about our fall, and someone else will take our place! I say we still have a war to wage! I say we support our Officers not just in prayer but action. I say we support our Soldiers not just in flowery words on Sunday mornings behind the pulpit but with deep compassion, love, truth and by God’s authority. When we are united as one Army, we are so much more effective than just solitary entities running around in the streets trying to do good.
At the other end of the spectrum is the ignoring and tolerance of sin issues in your corps. Be mindful that we are not the judge of our world, but we do hold a high standard for our fellow brothers and sister in Christ who wear this uniform. This almost seems to be in complete conflict with the first point, but it is not. Galatians 6:1 clearly reminds us as it did in Paul’s day – “Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.”
Officer(s). Yes, they have had training, yes they are leaders, but they cannot lead properly without the core leaders to help them. A shared vision and delegated group will be better equipped to handle opportunities and threats that come to your corps and community. If you don’t currently have core leaders, begin by praying and asking God to reveal potential leaders to you. Prayer is never a last resort, but a constant conversation. Don’t limit your search to just the older members, the younger generations will eventually replace us at some point, so begin to invest in them. Begin to disciple them, and display for them what leadership is all about! Gather one or two influential people with common sense to help you in your corps. Remember, that we are an egalitarian movement – both men and women are equal, so do not limit your leadership search to just men or just women. Without a core group of leaders, the vision and movement will be limited.
and what we do as a corps, that we begin to have no need for the “outside world”. We stop looking out into our community and we become self-reliant and self-focused. In this danger, what happens when our congregation gets old and dies? Will there be youth to raise up and take our place? Will be just be a group of inbred soldiers? I don’t mean to sound crass, but the reality is, we need to stop being afraid of our communities. We need to stop treating the people outside our buildings as “those people” with a sense of superiority. We must squelch the desire to just remain in our buildings and selfishly focus on “us”. What about the great commission? What are we fighting for if we only fight for ourselves and our traditions and self-interests? If we are all-in and inwardly focused, we will slowly die away…and no one will care when we’re gone.
This is probably a rare thing, but perhaps not. Perhaps there are some corps that have so many services to the community that worship and all things “Spiritual” are an after thought, and then you come to Sunday and it just becomes a “thing we do”. We focus all of our energies on the outside, on meeting human needs but we seldom meet those needs “in HIS name” anymore. We might as well be just another social service agency or a humanitarian group, because we will have forgotten our first love and the “body” will be just bits and pieces pulled and stretched so thin that it doesn’t resemble Christ any longer.
vision and goal because “they have been set, and we don’t alter these goals”. Goals should never be so rigid that there is no looking back and re-evaluating what works and what does not work, whether it be in evangelism, discipleship, or corps fellowship growth strategies. Remember what worked 100 years ago, might not necessarily be the best method to use in an ever evolving culture. Not to say we adopt our culture, but we ought to consider what works and what does not work any longer and not be so rigid that we refuse to ever change how we plan and how we enact a strategy in our corps. Rigidity can kill your corps, and stifle any potential growth you might see.
If you corps does not understand Holiness, and or it is never preached on spoken of, perhaps this might be an indicator of a terminal issue. I am not saying that holiness is the end-all be-all of the corps, but what do you do with Salvation after receiving it? Where does one go after initial sanctification? Does the Holy Spirit still desire to transform us through and through? Does He not want us to be the very reflection of Christ? Yes. There needs to be continual conversation about our surrendered life and how that looks in the real world.
emulating elders we respect, this is becoming more than who we are now. Walking in the footsteps of saints and in so doing, we too become saints within this great army. If your corps does not have this vital element, closely connected to holiness, you could be facing extinction. Recognize this need, and do something!!
to be in the bygone days. We can rest comfortably on financial resources and riches we have been given from various places, and never take another risk again…and if we do this, we. will. die. I cannot stress it enough, in order for God to change our Army, we have to become uncomfortable again. We have to take risks and forget what the rules and regulations say. We have to close dead corps, move to places of need without bureaucratic red tape hamstringing us along the way. We have to get out of our pews and put feet to our professed faith. It’s either put up or shut-up. Seriously, we can talk a good game, but if we can’t back it up, then hung it up and quit already. We don’t need fans in the stands not doing the work. We don’t need complainers and criticizers telling it us it can’t be done – because the risk is too great. If we don’t do something, we might as well put our corps on life-support right now. There is a sad trend that is taking place in our corps around the USA, and our corps are not statistically growing anymore. We are not busting out of our corps buildings anymore. Yes, perhaps it’s across the board in all denominations, but could it be that we are so comfortable now that we have stopped ACTUALLY trying to reach our communities? Could this be an entire systemic issue of spiritual laziness? Forgive me if I offend you today, I can’t help but feel alarmed at how swiftly our corps are dying. And I can’t help but wonder what the next 50 years will hold for this movement? If we do nothing, we will not be here in 50 years…not like we have been, not like we should be…and then perhaps, Lord forbid, God raises up someone else to do what we should have been doing.
in the tall grass and in places I had already mowed, I couldn’t find it anywhere – it was gone, *poof* vanished. I searched for another five minutes only to recognize that in my haste to get the job finished, I had lost a crucial component that held everything together. I had to make a run to the hardware store and purchase a new bolt and nut – only this time I used the appropriate tool (not my fingers) to tighten the bolt into place. Now, it’s not going anywhere!
in assembling my spanking new lawnmower – I thought I had tightened everything down good enough only to discover I had misjudged my strength and the terrain around me. Perhaps in our lives this rings true too. We get ahead of ourselves. We cut corners and take shortcuts because we think we already know it all. We don’t take the time as we should in our Spiritual lives and explore the spiritual disciplines necessary for long-term spiritual growth and success. Instead we settle for the quick fix. We go to a service here or there and we think it’s enough – yet the things that hold our “Christian” lives together isn’t enough, and it’s certainly not strong enough either.
I’ve been pondering long and hard on this topic of politics and what it means to be a Christian during a presidential election year. One thing I will say before starting in on this pondering is that it’s going to get worse – the slander, the malicious attacks, the hateful dialogue and mud-slinging.
There are negatives though to social media.
My very first recollection of Bowie’s work came by way of the movie “The Labyrinth”.
I have listened to Bowie’s last album “Blackstar”.
but for One who has given us all grace. I live for One who holds both life and death in His hands, and in Whom everlasting life can be found. I find that my “Lazarus” in this new life, in the hope of eternal life is completely and utterly found in Christ. This isn’t some sermon I’m writing, or a persuasive speech, this is just how I feel and what I see in my life. I know hope exists. I know peace exists. Everlasting love and life also exist – in Christ.
Where ever you live.
In a world, currently that is consumed with who will win the next Powerball lottery jackpot, we don’t often fathom what we already have to be a true blessing…because we crave more.
Pastor's Ponderings 