4 American Cultural Issues Contributing to Church Leader Burnout

Jesus, in the way of assigning identity to his people, called his followers “salt” and “light” (Matthew 5:13-16). While there are plenty of applications to be drawn from Jesus’ words, one thing is certain: Jesus intended for his followers to permeate their surrounding culture with his kingdom’s values. 

On the positive side, I do believe that Christians have contributed to the flourishing of humanity in many ways, from sharing the good news itself to the establishment of countless ministries that feed, clothe, connect, and heal people.

On the flip side, however, the church has also been permeated by its surrounding culture. This has been especially true since the fourth century, and in every era of the church’s life, there has been evidence of our compromise of the way of Jesus and our embracing of values that detract from the beauty of our gospel witness.

In our modern era, particularly in America (and perhaps the West as a whole), leaders are burning out at an increasing and alarming rate. There are many factors leading to this trend, but at the forefront are certain cultural issues that have affected the way we do church and church leadership.

There are four issues, in particular, that have invaded our thinking in toxic ways.

Radical Individualism

Christianity, as a religious movement, began in the context of community. Jesus selected, called, and commissioned its original leaders who managed, after some initial bumps and hard knocks, to “turn the world upside down” (borrowing vocabulary from the mob of Jewish leaders referenced in Acts 17:6).

In borrowed synagogues, river-side brush arbor meetings, Temple courts, and private homes across the Middle East and the ancient Mediterranean world, the church grew and walked in unity. The church gathered as one and scattered as one.

As Christianity became the dominant religion in Western Europe, cultural movements shifted the focus from collective, community-based thinking to individualism. From the days of colonialism, westward expansion, and capitalism, we’ve very much become a “me” kind of culture in which we celebrate individual accomplishment, independent thinking, and personal liberty.

That isn’t entirely bad, except that the pendulum may have swung so far that our theological and philosophical currents cut new riverbeds in which the individual is the center. And as we give further into the emphasis on radical individualism, we’re left with a significant problem: disconnection.

Leadership, as a result, is a lonely venture. Even though leadership, by its nature, implies something that cannot be done without other people, leaders still wind up finding themselves isolated and alone.

And one of the leading factors contributing to burnout is loneliness.

Polarization

It’s quite apparent that we are a divided culture. The political “right” and “left” have never felt so far apart. There are plenty of reasons for this. Social media algorithms are purposely feeding us information that bolsters our opinions, leading to ideological echo chambers. The advent of the internet may have democratized access to information, but it has also opened the floodgates for misinformation.

When it comes to the status of the church, we’re living through an incredibly sensitive era. On the one hand, scandals and abuses have rocked us and the exposure of those scandals has repelled people on the fringe and fueled a deconstruction movement, so people are skeptical enough. Add to this a rigid fundamentalism that demands more theological precision and accuracy than what the scriptures were ever intended to provide and pastors and church leaders walking a tightrope.

More than ever, pastors are hit with notes, social media comments, emails, and personal conversations in which someone wants to express how they’ve been offended by the pastor’s deviation from their preferred position on any number of issues.

Too many pastors are finding it impossible to keep the peace on secondary issues, and it’s exhausting.

Consumerism

In our capitalistic society, the economy is fueled by marketing products and services to make people happy. As consumers, we are used to calling the shots, to some degree, when it comes to the products we are sold.

As Skye Jethani says in his book, The Divine Commodity: Discovering a Faith Beyond Consumer Christianity,

Consumerism has created a culture that values style over substance, image over reality, and perception over performance.

In a consumeristic culture, people feel a right to demand a Sunday presentation that caters to their personal, individual needs. They’re less likely to receive a challenge to their view of the world. And like writing a review of a local restaurant, people are far more willing to voice their complaints about a perceived lack of accommodation.

Workaholism / Workism

Add to all of this our obsession with productivity as a society. There isn’t anything wrong with trying to get more things done, but we live in a culture that confuses output with value. We assign value to people based on what they can do and produce rather than on who they are.

Church leaders wind up measuring themselves by this standard as well, which leads to working harder and longer, even to the neglect of self-care and vital relationships.

Burnout is certainly the result of many internal factors like stress and discouragement, but it’s almost always accelerated by physical conditions, particularly exhaustion.

Most pastors sit too much and move very little, eat poorly, and sleep minimally. When this goes on long enough, it usually leads to burnout.

Sometimes awareness is half the battle. It might be impossible to single-handedly change the direction in which culture is flowing, but it is possible to take a personal stand in one’s own life and model a better way for others.

Reversing the trend toward leaders burning out might just begin with fighting back with countercultural values like leaning into community, respecting people’s differences in viewpoints, refusing to bow to consumer culture, and walking in the unforced rhythms of grace.

Photo by Shane on Unsplash.