Burnout in Christian Youth Ministry

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I found an old article that I had written back in 2006 dealing with Burnout that I wanted to repost for you to read.

It is interesting, given my own burnout at the end of 2010, to read what I wrote back then …

It’s an unfortunate thing that burnout is common in Christian Youth Ministry, and YWAM is not immune to it.

Burnout and OverworkUnfortunately burnout can too often be pushed aside as “spiritual warfare”. While this can be the case in some situations, often it is not and it requires a certain level of wisdom, discernment and trust from the leadership to work this through. As we grow as a ministry at YWAM – Reef to Outback I have seen it handled well and in the past I have seen it handled poorly.

When Linda Warren came through she spoke to us a bit about burnout in Youth With A Mission and what they have experiences in YWAM Denver. To help their staff deal with burnout before it happens one of the things that they do in their training is to get all of their staff to read Stephen R. Covey: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. I’ve actually had that book sitting on my bookshelf since I staffed a GENESIS School at YWAM Lausanne back in 2001. I haven’t read it yet, but I hear that it is good…

One thing that they really try to work on with their staff is their time management (which is one thing covered in Stephen Covey’s book). In Denver, and here in Townsville, we see that a some of our staff just don’t know their own limitations and “burn the candle at both ends” by staying up late and then being tired at work during the day.

Something that was not discussed during Linda Warren’s meeting with us was when very high expectations and responsibility are placed on our staff. Depending on how these expectations are communicated to our staff, and how the staff react to it, they can leave them with such a strong sense of responsibility that they simply can’t shut off during their non-work hours. This is where I have seen YWAM fail some of our young leaders in the past.

I’ve been here for almost eight years and know of a few people that have worked themselves into the ground trying to do everything that they could to further the vision here. I was close to burnout myself last year (that was back in 2005) and was actually released by the leadership for a three-month sabbatical. I was unfortunately not able to take the time away because we were in the middle of selling our house, but that’s how bad it got for me.

For my situation God provided another way out, and that was by bringing along Sam Werner to join me in my work in communications. I don’t think that Sam really appreciates how much of a blessing he is to me and to the base in the role that he has taken on. Tamara and I are still planning on a sabbatical for about three-months next year to refresh ourselves, raise some support and visit friends and family, but we won’t be in as desperate a state as we were last year.

Here is a final quote from my notes about how YWAM Denver works with their staff to assist them to achieve what God has placed in their heart to do:

The base needs to give people place / space to pursue what is in their heart and not hold them back. But this needs to be done within the vision of the base. If the vision does not fit in with the base then either the base will need to change or the person should be released to pursue what God has placed on their heart.

Update:

There are a few other articles about there about burnout in Christian ministry that I’ve seen in the last few days, including these ones:

Photo Source: Mark Magnusson

5-Steps to Protect Your Facebook Profile from Photo Spammers

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I recently created a Youth With A Mission interest list on Facebook to help me monitor news in YWAM for the YWAM Podcast that I relaunched a few weeks ago. When I went to check the list tonight to gather some new news for Thursday’s recording of the next podcast (I’m trying to get into a consistent schedule with it) I was welcomed by some rather shocking photos from Facebook spammers …

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Okay, actually these are not the shocking photos. I did not think it wise to put borderline pornographic photos on my web-site, so I found two other examples that illustrate the problem of tagging spam on Facebook.

Both of the above photos include tags of YWAM locations on them, even though they clearly to not actually involve the YWAM location. By tagging the YWAM location in those photos it allows the photos to be seen by the friends and followers of the YWAM location, which spreads the reach of the spammer.

Unfortunately you can not block photo tagging in Facebook!

It used to be that you could prevent others from tagging you on photos in Facebook. With recent changes though in Facebook privacy and security though you can no longer prevent people from tagging you in photos if you are friends with them. There are a few steps though that you can take to protect yourself.

1. Make Sure Notifications Are On for Tags

Facebook Notifications Settings

In the notification section of your profile be sure to turn on notifications for “Anyone” who tags you. This way you can find our right away if you have been tagged and can check the tag to be sure you approve of it. If you don’t approve, then remove the tag.

2. Review All Tags for Posts

Timeline and Tagging Settings

To control what shows up on your own timeline make sure that you have the review feature turned on for tags to posts in your own timeline.

3. Be Careful Who You Friend

I always check who I accept as a friend on Facebook when I get a request before hitting yes. While it may be tempting to friend everyone who asked, especially if you are still using a profile instead of a page for your ministry, but always check, and always be careful who you accept.

4. Block Them

If the person who has tagged you looks like a “bad actor” then block them. If you do that it will remove the tag and prevent you from tagging you or contacting you again on Facebook.

5. Stop Using a Facebook Profile for your Ministry

If you are still using a Facebook profile for your ministry or YWAM location I would highly recommend moving to a Facebook Page.

There are many reasons why, some of which are outlined here. One of the main reasons you should do it is that running a profile page for an organisation is actually a violation of the Facebook terms of service, and they could remove your profile at will!

So don’t delay, change your ministries Facebook profile to a page ASAP!

How Would Mandatory National Service Affect Missionary Recruitment?

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The main age group of people that join Youth With A Mission is between the ages of 18 to 30. Short term missions (3-12 months) involvement, including YWAM, is often something people do as part of a “Gap Year” either between high school and post-secondary education, or after finishing their post secondary education and before starting their career.

Representative Charles B. Rangel (Dem) from New York of the United States of America has recently proposed a bill that would make national service during that prime age for short term missions required for all Americans. The summary for his bill is below:

Summary for H.R.748 – To require all persons in the United States between the ages of 18 and 25 to perform national service, either as a member of the uniformed services or as civilian service in a Federal, State, or local government program or with a community-based agency or community-based entity, to authorize the induction of persons in the uniformed services during wartime to meet end-strength requirements of the uniformed services, to provide for the registration of women under the Military Selective Service Act, and for other purposes.

Mandatory national service could be either a boon to the recruiting of missionaries, or a large obstacle to it depending on how a “community-based agency or community-based entity” is defined.

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There are many examples of how potentially churches and Christian organisations like YWAM or other missions organisations could be excluded from list of “community-based agency or entity” in America. Some of these include the exclusion of churches from FEMA help after Hurricane Sandy (source) as well as churches being banned from using public facilities like schools for worship services (source).

In the United States there are many organisations that work towards no government involvement or association with “churches”. You can almost certainly guarantee that the following organisations would work towards eliminating all faith based organisations from eligibility to participate in any national service movement:

  • The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
  • The Freedom From Religion Foundation
  • Americans United for Separation of Church and State
  • Secular Coalition for America

If you are involved with the recruitment of missionaries to your organisation have you given any thought to how this would change your strategy?

(original source)

Image by Nebojsa Mladjenovic

Identifying Burnout, Recovering from Burnout and Refocusing on God’s Plan and Priorities

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Burnout - View from the cutting edge

After my last podcast, “Burnout in Ministry and Missions, What Happened to the YWAM Podcast?“, I was asked some follow up questions about my personal experience with burnout.

I would love to hear, how was your process of realizing you were burnt out and how you came out of it. What kind of changes you had to do…

Signs of Burnout:

  • The Accidental MissionaryHopelessness
  • Difficulty concentrating
  • Decision making is hard
  • Irritability
  • Lowered activity levels
  • Aches and pains

The promise of God strengthening us is true, but it happens when we walk in His will.

Philippians 4:13  – I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.

What advice do you have for someone who is wondering if they are suffering from burnout or who is trying to recover from burnout?

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Today’s recording view:

Today's recording view at YWAM Adelaide

Source article for Signs of Burnout and Depression

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Google Hangout On Air about Support Raising

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As we are continually researching new technologies that we can use in the mission I have been experimenting with the new Google Hangout On Air and looking at how we can use it. I’m excited to announce that on Monday February 25 we will be hosting our first Google Hangout On Air with the YWAM community on Google+.

Terry ShermanThe topic for the Hangout will be Support Raising, which is always a valuable topic to address in Youth With A Mission. We will be blessed with having Terry Sherman from YWAM Heidebeek speak to us about the topic, and then take some questions from the viewers.

Since 2002 Terry has been working on developing training about personal support raising for missionaries. She has developed a week long Friendraising Training seminar that she has been able to deliver at various locations around the world. Her dream is to see much more of this training available around the world in YWAM, and we believe that using technology like Google Hangouts On Air will help to multiply it.

If you are interested in watching the training and possibly asking questions you will need a Google Plus account and then request an invite to the event. If you are already part of the YWAM Community on Google+ as of me creating the event then you should have received an invite to join us already.

I look forward to seeing you there, but if you can not make it we plan to make the video and an audio version of it available on the YWAM Conversations web-site and podcast.

You can now watch the video, listen to and download the audio, and access all the resources that Terry talked about on the YWAM Podcast Network site.

You can also watch the video below: