Are you flourishing or burning out? | Rob Parkman

Did you know that we can predict which pastors will flourish and which ones will burn out? Rae Jean Proeschold-Bell has done numerous studies in the field, and she was recently interviewed on The Leader’s WayPodcast.

In the business of life and ministry, I encourage you to consider 4 behaviours she has identified that predict flourishing (the seare very consistent with what I have found in other studies):

… we found that there were four behaviors that flourishing clergy do that clergy with burnout do not do. And some of these are kind of surprising to me. So one of them is they are intentional about their health practices, a physical health practice like walking. It could be a spiritual devotion. It could be something good for their mental health, but they pick one and they determine when they're going to do it and they make a backup plan or two for when it doesn't happen because, you know, pastor's lives are very unpredictable.

The second thing they do is they actually do have some time set aside just for themselves. This might beI'm never going to interrupt family dinner, or it could be, you know, alone time for themselves. It is actually really important to have some time for yourself.

We found in every study, social support is so important. But what we found through those diary data is that flourishing clergy and not clergy with burnout reach out to other people and share their good news. So they elevate and extend some of the positive emotions that they have every day by calling someone up and saying, hey, I saw this good thing. I witnessed this. I was part of this. And that's something we all can do.

The final and fourth thing that they did is they handled criticism differently. We had heard from clergy for years that they might get nine compliments and one criticism, and the criticism could be something small like over the bulletin or something. And they would still perseverate on the criticism. But flourishing clergy, they hear the criticism and then they go back to their mission. Like, what is God calling me to do in this season? Does this criticism relate to that? And if it doesn't, they are able to let it go. And clergy with burnout hold on to that criticism a little bit more. And so we kind of named that focusing on working in alignment withGod as being one of the four behaviors for flourishing clergy.

For the complete podcast transcript, go to https://berkeleydivinity.yale.edu/media/406/download?inline

As always, I am here to support you in your quest to flourish in ministry- so don’t hesitate to reach out for a 1-1 executive coaching session and/or jump into the Leadership Vitalization cohort.

Rob Parkman

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