Leadership
Four Signs of Pastoral Burnout

The ministry of a pastor can be incredibly rewarding. You’re caring for people in some of the most important moments of their lives. You’re preaching the Good News about Jesus to people who desperately need to hear it.
But if you’ve been in ministry for a long time, you know that along with the incredible highs, there can be deep lows. That’s why burnout is such a critical problem for pastors.
Burnout is nothing new. The Bible tells many stories about leaders experiencing burnout. Elijah’s story in 1 Kings 19 may be the most heart-wrenching. Just one chapter earlier, in 1 Kings 18, we read about a highlight of his ministry—a once-in-a-lifetime miracle—when God sends down fire from heaven to show his power over the false prophet Baal. The entire nation turns back to God afterwards.
In the next chapter, Queen Jezebel gets angry and puts a death threat out on Elijah. He runs and prays for God to kill him.
Elijah was experiencing burnout. In fact, if you look closely at the story, you’ll see four clues from Elijah’s life that show just how burned out he was. You can see the same signs in your own life when you’re experiencing burnout.
1. You depreciate your worth.
Burned out leaders diminish their own impact. If this is you, you’ll start finding yourself saying things like:
- I’m not making an impact.
- No one is really listening to my sermons.
- My leadership isn’t making a difference.
When you’re facing burnout, you play that kind of mental script on repeat.
Elijah did this, too, in 1 Kings 19: “Then Elijah walked for a whole day into the desert. He sat down under a bush and asked to die. ‘I have had enough, LORD,’ he prayed. ‘Let me die. I am no better than my ancestors’” (1 Kings 19:4 NCV).
Comparing yourself to others—as Elijah does in this verse—is one of the clearest, quickest paths toward burnout. As pastors, we may compare ourselves to our predecessors or to the pastor at the bigger church down the street. “I’m not doing enough,” we think. “God must be disappointed in my ministry.”
Your ministry and your calling are unique. You’re not called to do what the pastor down the street is called to do. Instead, be who God has called you to be.
2. You underrate your work.
Notice how Elijah blamed himself for problems that weren’t his fault: “The people of Israel have broken their agreement with you, destroyed your altars, and killed your prophets with swords. I am the only prophet left, and now they are trying to kill me, too” (1 Kings 19:10 NCV).
Elijah was a man of God and a teacher of truth. Just because the people of Israel didn’t listen to him didn’t mean he had failed.
But I’ve been there. I’ve preached sermons with the realization that 80 to 90 percent of the people listening wouldn’t do anything with what I was saying. I bet you’ve been there, too.
I learned a long time ago that it’s not up to me how people respond to what I preach. My job is just to share the message and trust that God will take care of the rest.
The truth is, you can do everything right as a pastor and still have the people you’re shepherding walk away from God. When you start blaming yourself for what’s out of your control, you’re facing burnout.
3. You exaggerate your problems.
When pastors are facing burnout, they magnify their problems and minimize God’s blessings. The weight of unmet expectations, criticisms, and weariness can become so overwhelming that you see your ministry through a distorted lens where your problems look insurmountable.
That’s what happened with Elijah. The mountaintop high of 1 Kings 18 had left him exhausted. He couldn’t think straight. Despite God having just preserved 7,000 faithful followers in Israel, Elijah couldn’t see it. Instead, he told God, “I am the only prophet left, and now they are trying to kill me, too” (1 Kings 19:10 NCV).
Elijah was emotionally exhausted, and he fell victim to the Chicken Little Syndrome—believing the sky was falling.
When you’re experiencing burnout, you don’t make decisions with your brain. You make decisions with your emotions as you exaggerate the severity of your problem.
4. You abdicate your dreams.
One of the most dangerous signs of pastoral burnout is the quiet surrender of vision. You want to give up.
In 1 Kings 19:4, Elijah hits a wall and pleads with God to let him die. He’s completely wiped out—physically, emotionally, and spiritually—and feels like he just can’t keep going. That fearless confidence he had when he stood up to the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel? It’s gone. Now he’s overwhelmed and filled with fear and hopelessness.
You may not openly talk about quitting, but your actions may show quiet resignation.
- You’re ignoring planning for the future. (You think things like, “Who knows if I’ll even be at the church next month?”)
- You’re withdrawing from relationships within the church.
- You’ve lost your enthusiasm for ministry activities you previously loved.
When you abdicate your God-given dreams, burnout gets scary.
If you can see yourself in the four burnout signs above, you’re not alone. Most pastors will find themselves there at some point.
The good news is, there’s hope. Just as Elijah shows us the signs of burnout in a leader’s life, he points us toward a path out, too. In next week’s article, I’ll give you the four actions Elijah took to find that way out.