The Road to Recovery
For Veenker, the road to recovery begins with the understanding that idols are rarely unmasked outside of authentic community.
“Pastors need safe, unconditional acceptance and participation in true, transparent Christian community,” he says. “The development of these kinds of internal and external relationships is critical to ending the natural social isolation that comes with Christian ministry.”
Once unmasked, the lies of idols are revealed. Our significance and purpose are not the result of our performance—those religious rituals that often mimic love—but rather in the person, love and work of Jesus. We love, the Bible tells us, because he first loves us.
Rediscovering an identity fused in the person of Christ, freed from performance and a need for “success,” leaders begin to realize some freeing truths:
* Ministry is capable of going on without my presence.
* Transformation often supernaturally occurs without my wisdom.
* Others in the body of Christ often do things better than I.
* I love best, as does everyone else, one person at a time.
When identity shifts from performance, success redefines itself in love and trust. It frees leaders to:
* spend more time in prayer and the Word
* dream again
* laugh again
* have fun again
* stop comparing
* minister to needs, not wants
* develop relationships and hobbies outside of the church
* move from the negative to the positive
* express gratitude frequently
* lower expectations
* delegate
* cultivate dependence on God
* schedule frequent rests, breaks, refreshments and vacations
* recognize the Sabbath as healthy
* take care or oneself as an image bearer of God
* focus on developing gifts
* end draining relationships
* commit to a greater servant spirit
* work on a better balance between mind, body and spirit
* seek professional counseling, if needed
The New Normal
For many of the leaders Lindquist sees—pastors, missionaries and other Christian workers—the road to recovery is long and difficult. Many have broken marriages and ministries, kids with authority issues and a stockpile of physical and mental illness.
“People come to us from all over the world and stay with us sometimes for three or four months,” he says. “They have either just had some spectacular failure or are just on the other side of one. The counseling process tries to help them understand addictions, learn insight and practice new communication skills.”
Recovery, more times than not, involves slowly engaging new perspectives and strategies into what Lindquist calls a new normal. Lindquist recommends:
* taking recovery slow, easing back into ministry
* developing a support system for accountability and monitoring progress
* not expecting to be well soon
* pursuing ongoing education and counseling
“Once you get a little healthier, you push a little more,” Lindquist says. “It’s just like exercising. With burnout, you have to keep asking yourself, ‘How am I not going to burn out again?’”
The Good News
Lindquist says the crisis of burnout or moral dissolution generally leads to one of two destinations. The first is the tortured life of a victim, defined by cruel circumstance, permanently stuck between blame and guilt. The other moves us to the grace of God.
“God has incredible ways of ministering to us,” Lindquist says. “It’s often in our failures that we really see his hand. We may not see it right away, but we see it afterward.” In the many success stories of Link Care, the lessons learned outweigh the considerable pain.
“Statistics show that the bulk of pastors spend very little time on their own spiritual development,” says Lindquist. “I see people after a burnout who are intentional about their relationship with Jesus. One of the biggest themes we hear is that pastors often neglect the relationship with their Savior, and the crisis leads them back into a deeper dependency on God.”
A dependency on God, in turn, leads us back to a correct perspective. Ministry is God’s work and gift at the same time.
It’s the same kind of perspective Peter Marshall, former chaplain of the U.S. Senate, relayed to a friend who asked him what his first heart attack had taught him.
“I learned that the Kingdom of God goes on without Peter Marshall.”
Such hard won humility allowed Marshall, in return, to love others freely in the years remaining to him.
