What we Lose if we Fail to Nurture Health

The stakes in all this are especially high when our work involves deep emotional expenditure and other sacrifices. This is true whether our job is considered religious or secular. All ministry is, at its essence, a pouring out6. Like a law of spiritual physics, if a person regularly pours out more than is poured into them, they will soon run dry. Such a pattern tumbles inevitably toward exhaustion, then burn-out.

The costs of burn-out are immense. For individuals, it is disillusionment, anxiety and frustration, the loss of joy, and inability to care about our work or for others. For organizations, it is high turnover, decreased employee engagement, loss of talent and continuity, and sometimes even worse.

The consequences are equally tragic for those served by a ministry. When an organization is marked by burnout, its staff increasingly find their emotions callous and cold. Those served inevitably begin to sense that their presence brings no joy or delight. Regardless of what is given to them or said, the fear that all humans share seems to be confirmed: they are neither loved nor worth loving. At this point, such an organization cannot rightly be said to be a ministry, whatever its metrics.

Thankfully, this need not happen. When those who serve are fed by strong, steady sources of nourishment, they can continue to pour out. Their outward flow is matched by an equal flow inward. They can persist in service, even amidst very difficult circumstances, growing all the while in creativity, competence and care. They persevere. Even more importantly – much more importantly – they continue to love well as they persevere. Those whom they serve are indeed loved…and they can feel it.

Cultivating this fruit first in and then through the people he or she leads is the leader’s greatest role. This is also the one essential quality of any organization that hopes to produce lasting good. It could be called the Pouring Vessel Principle: If a person is to continue pouring life out for others, equal life must pour into them as well, or they will run dry.