{"id":31581,"date":"2022-09-10T15:36:02","date_gmt":"2022-09-10T20:36:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/6-signs-your-group-leaders-are-burned-out\/"},"modified":"2022-09-10T15:36:02","modified_gmt":"2022-09-10T20:36:02","slug":"6-signs-your-group-leaders-are-burned-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/6-signs-your-group-leaders-are-burned-out\/","title":{"rendered":"6 Signs Your Group Leaders Are Burned Out"},"content":{"rendered":"
Alexander Dummer photo – Pexels <\/p>\n

By Chris Surratt<\/em><\/p>\n

Several years ago my wife and kids and I made a major move away from extended family to plant a church. I jumped in with both feet.<\/p>\n

But one day I woke up and didn\u2019t want to get out of bed. There was a dark cloud hanging over me.<\/p>\n

I just thought I was tired and needed rest. So I took a couple of days off. After that short time of rest, I felt a little better but the cloud stayed there.<\/p>\n

Shortly thereafter I had a panic attack and depression set in.<\/p>\n

Looking back, I burned out because I wasn\u2019t taking care of myself.<\/p>\n

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A lot of us headed toward that. It doesn\u2019t matter what level leader you are\u2014pastor, church staff, volunteer, or small group leader\u2014it can happen.<\/p>\n

A book I found quite effective in helping me recalibrate and re-prioritize is Emotionally Healthy Spirituality<\/em> from Peter Scazzero.<\/p>\n

He outlined some signs someone in leadership might be on the brink of burnout. And now, I\u2019d like to share a few of those with you.<\/p>\n

1. They use God to run from God. <\/strong><\/h3>\n

We do that in a lot of ways. One way a lot of us tend to do this is we fill up our lives with \u201cChristian activities,\u201d like leading a small group.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s tempting to cover up some things in your life by grabbing every leadership opportunity that comes our way\u2014to think we can get rid of it by engaging in activity.<\/p>\n

Service and leadership opportunities are good things, but we can use those to run from God.<\/p>\n

2. They ignore the emotions of anger, sadness, and fear.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

We tend to cover up those things when we lead a group and bottle them up because you don\u2019t want people to see your weakness.<\/p>\n

One of my favorite movies is the Pixar film Inside Out<\/em>. The end of it shows us why we need all these emotions to be a whole person.<\/p>\n

Not only should we acknowledge those emotions; we need to share them with people we love and people in our small group.<\/p>\n

Sometimes we might not want to share our hearts with the entire small group, but hopefully we have two or three people to share these with.<\/p>\n

And by all means, take them to God before you bring them to people.<\/p>\n

3. They die to the wrong things.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

This is a common one. We die to things that are fun or happy because we think we\u2019re supposed to be advancing the kingdom all the time.<\/p>\n

But we need those times when we\u2019re having fun and just hanging out.<\/p>\n

We feel guilty doing things that fill up our lives and energize us.<\/p>\n

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See also  The Group Most Likely to Still Be Missing From Your Church<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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4. They do<\/em> for<\/em> God instead of be with <\/em>Him.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

This is pretty simple: We can spend a lot of time just doing ministry instead of being with God.<\/p>\n

5. They spiritualize away conflict. <\/strong><\/h3>\n

It\u2019s difficult as a leader to step into conflict. You don\u2019t want to see it among your groups or in your church. So you sweep it underneath the rug until it festers and explodes.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not a big fan of conflict and I\u2019m often tempted to spiritualize it away. But if it\u2019s not dealt with, it comes up in a group and wrecks relationships.<\/p>\n

6. They live without limits. <\/strong><\/h3>\n

A leader will eventually burn out when they take on the burdens of the people in the group.<\/p>\n

Bearing one another\u2019s burdens is a good thing\u2014a biblical thing. We want to pray for the people in our groups and be there for them.<\/p>\n

But we can\u2019t fix everything. We take the weight of our group like we’re the only ones who can do anything about it. This pushes us past our limits.<\/p>\n

What to do about it<\/strong><\/h3>\n

My colleague and \u201cGroup Answers\u201d podcast co-host Brian Daniel offers several suggestions for overcoming and preventing burnout:<\/p>\n