By Bishop A. W. Slater, Ph.D. — The thought has come to my mind about servanthood burnout. I would like to give you some clues as to what you have been dealing with and when you are faithful to the things of God. You must be prepared to watch your surroundings and watch who speaks into your ear. I say this because some people may have an understanding of what you are doing or may have an idea of what you are doing, but they are not willing to stand up with you and do what you are doing. So you must be careful of whom you allow into your inner circle. When you allow someone into your circle that does not have the same spirit as you, it can cause you to hit amiss. What will happen is, there will be certain signs you will find in yourself that should send a warning that you are experiencing SERVANTHOOD BURNOUT:
1. Loss of zeal: You’re not excited like you used to be.
2. Loss of joy: You are not as happy as you used to be or as excited; or even have a sense of warmness in you or about you.
3. Lack of energy: You don’t the energy to get up and go like you used to; you don’t feel like it; it’s always something.
4. Become extremely sensitive: Everything someone says offends you. “Is he/she talking about me?”
5. Quick to anger: You get upset so quickly. You don’t even understand why you are upset, but you get upset.
6. Having a cavalier attitude: Meaning an “Oh well” or “whatever” attitude.
7. Forgetfulness: You forget your assignments; you forget where you’re supposed to be; you forget even your church is going someplace where you’re supposed to be.
8. Always too busy: You’re always finding something that will come into play and sometimes it looks strange, but you’re always finding something else that is pulling you from the things of God.
9. Always making excuses: Always finding something else; always asking someone else to do something; you can’t do this because…
10. No longer reliable: Your leader can no longer depend on you so they use someone else which frustrates you and takes you back to anger.
11. Avoidance: You start avoiding your leadership; you start avoiding the church; you start avoiding the saints of God.
Then ultimately number 12 happens and you end up in:
12. Broken fellowship: This is terrible. This is a place where you do not want to end up. So my suggestion to you today is look in the mirror and determine where you are. Ask God “Lord, am I doing more than I am feeding myself? Ask yourself this, “Am I well enough to serve?”
Excerpt from “The Ultimate Leader, the Servant Leader”
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