Officially, the book releases in just a couple of weeks (it may actually start shipping sooner from online retailers!) and even though this process has been a couple years in the making, the conversation and interest around it has continued to grow.
Why?
Because we, as church leaders, are burning out…and it’s not stopping.
We’re also realizing this…and we’re desperate to do something about it!
We’ve got to fight!? IT HAS TO STOP!!
Yesterday, several bloggers have generously offered their online real estate to help champion the message of Mad Church Disease. Most of them asked me a unique question about burnout, the book, and the journey writing it. Please take a little time to click over to their blogs to read their questions, my answers, and drop them a note of thanks for helping spread the word.
Here are the blogs from the big blitz yesterday.? I’ve posted their questions…you have to visit their sites for the answers.
Jesse @ Catalyst Catablog asks:
Is there something about our current way of doing church that?s causing so much burn out? What key changes can churches make to reduce the rate of burn out in their staff?
Mike Foster asks:
?When people read MCD, what will be the hardest thing they will have to face in this book? Or what hard decisions do you think people will have to make??
Church Marketing Sucks asks:
Church marketing seems to pair two fields that have a problem with burnout–ministry and communications. What can churches do to ensure that they still have effective marketing and communications but aren’t burning out their people?
Boomama asks:
Let?s say someone works as an assistant to a senior pastor / executive pastor / high-up-person-on-the-church-leadership-flowchart. And let?s say that someone who works as an assistant notices that his or her boss is stressed, anxious, tired – basically on the verge of burnout. Do you think there are any specific things that assistant could do for his or her supervisor to lighten the load? Or should the assistant just stay out of it? I ask this because a friend and I had this very conversation a few weeks ago – and I?m not sure we came to any real conclusions.
Pete Wilson, my pastor & boss did his interview via video:
Innovative Ministry Leader asks:
What is the most important concept you have learned from writing Mad Church Disease? Are their any struggles of burnout that you still have to focus on today?
Brad Lomenick does a classic Top Ten list including:
#7 – [Anne] gives us five principles for fighting mad church disease tied to relational health. You?ll have to get the book to know what they are. But one includes sleeping more, which is always a positive.
Tony Morgan asks:
Mad Church Disease presents itself in many areas of health?what were your symptoms like when you burned out and what did you do about them?
Perry Noble asks:
Why did you write this book?
Todd @ Monday Morning Insight shares some thoughts & an excerpt.
Dan Ohlerking (who wins for greatest photo!) asks:
Anne, from the first day I heard of your study on this, I have loved the name you chose for it. I?m curious to know what made you choose the name. What correlation do you see between Mad Church Disease and the more familiar Mad Cow Disease? Both seem to be lethal yet preventable, but are there other parallels you see?
Dino Rizzo asks:
In ministry we sometimes feel like we have to have it all together. Does that contribute to Mad Church Disease, and if so, how can delicate topics be addressed in a wise yet honest way?
Angie Smith shares some amazing insight from someone who isn’t “in ministry leadership” so to speak…
Spence Smith (whose story is in the book) talks about his own experience with health and burnout.
Tim Stevens thought he’d? hate the book.? He asks:
What were some of your thoughts about God or the church that came from watching some of the junk your dad went through as a pastor?
Shawn Wood made me hungry by asking a lot of questions & talking about food, like:
Do you look at Cows differently now?? Can you still eat them?
Jon @ Stuff Christians Like asks a great question:
Your book, Mad Church Disease, is the kind of book that should be handed out with every diploma from seminary. Given the potential and deserved success of it, what plans have you put in place to avoid burning out from the promotion of a book about burnout? What are some ways we can expect you to be living out the great truth of this book as you hit the road, virtual or paved, in support of Mad Church Disease?
Jenni Catron (who’s on staff with me at Cross Point) reviews the book.
Crystal Renaud walked alongside me since day one of my ministry.? She shares her perspective.
Scott Hodge gives some mad church love.
Ragamuffin Soul shares a video he made for MCD a year and a half ago!
Brad Ruggles has the most amazingly designed blog posts.? He reviews MCD here.
So those were the bloggers in the big blitz yesterday!
But, wait!? There’s more!
Like to find new blogs? Here are reviews from other bloggers who were kind enough to post their thoughts.
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I know this may seem like a shameless I-want-to-sell-books promotion, but please believe me when I say it’s not.? One, it’s nearly impossible to rake in the big bucks as a writer and two, I believe in this message SO MUCH I don’t really care if you think I’m shamelessly promoting it.? I WILL shamelessly promote health.? LIFE.? Hope.? Sorry…you can’t shut me up about this stuff.
It’s my desire that as you read these reviews and conversations, you’ll see how God is using many different aspects of this book to help others, and that you will be inspired as well – or that you’ll pass it on to someone who you know who needs it.
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Preorder your copy today. It will ship in just a few days! Somewhere around February 1st! Woohoo!
I seriously can’t say thank you to you guys enough for your support!? It starts with each one of us individually, but together…we can be healthy!
Comments
15 responses to “It HAS to STOP!!!!!”
just fyi, clicking jenni’s link takes me to crystal’s site…
Anne, I’ve been accused of having an agenda at times and I would say that is totally correct. I just believe my agenda is God-given, a place of passion and holy discontent birthed by my experiences and the Spirit of God. So, push your agenda, my friend. It’s a message the world needs to hear.
I’ve thought about this alot as a worship pastor because the production end of my job fills me with stressful feelings. I’ve wondered if God is calling me to simplicity. To be SIMPLY creative seems like an oxymoron to me and I don’t know how, but it’s something I’m thinking about alot right now.
Can’t wait to read!
Thanks john, fixed!
I am trying to follow Rob Bell’s advice and not to let my passion become annoying…you don’t want to lose that message by screaming it at everyone. fine line!
Throughout my Christian life, I have been apart of 4 churches, and a member of 3 of those churches. At all of them, I have seen burnout. Executive pastors, worship ministers, childrens ministers, college ministers, youth ministers, administrator. Sometimes at the same time!! It was a little disheartening. I mean, what could I do to help? I am not a seminary trained staff member. I mean they train you at seminary to handle this right? WRONG! I am pretty good friends with a staff member at our church now and we started talking about this topic, after a staff member at one of my old churches left. He said they do not talk much about that at seminary. So I asked him what could help? Something I can do, or the church as a whole can do? He said that to get involved. If more people got involved in the leadership of the church, voluntarily, it might relieve some of the stress from the staff. Is this true?
But I guess the other part of that would be to be able to communicate your needs in such a way that it gets others involved. But anyway, I am glad that you wrote this book. I am looking forward to getting my copy. I am going to pass it around some of the staff at my church and get their opinion on it as well!
Anne…you promote away girl! The word has got to get out. Two years ago I almost walked away from a 35 year investmen in ministry, empty and totally burned out. We can no longer do church as “usual”…it has to become church as “unusual.”
My husband (Sr. Pastor) wants to know when your second Mad Church Disease is coming out. We watched your interview with your Pastor video; you are sooooo humble and amazing! I would request that your Pastor’s Wife give you a huge hug for me because we could reach right through that video and give you a hug b/c you remind us of our daughter who has the same gestures as you do when she tells about something she is so amazing at! (She Directs and teaches actors for Shakespeare Plays.) Humble and precious and so transparent…..you have touched our heart with that video with your Pastor and I’ll be at Barnes & Noble on Feb. 1 buying your book. We’re positively sure Zondervan and we will tell everyone we know in Ministry or even out of ministry to get your book. P.S. Your Pastor looks like he has read it cover to cover! Yea!!!!!!!
woohoo…. this list is sooooooo great!
Anne, I’m super excited about the release of your book! While I have yet to witness burnout at Liquid (thanks in part to the fantastic staff-volunteer structure built in to the organization of the church’s logistical systems), I’ve certainly noticed how close my friends have gotten to burnout. I’ve also seen how it affects people at the previous churches I was active in. I’m itching to see how you address the issue, and I can’t wait to start recommending it to my friends!
Let’s get this straight. God calls people to ministry. People make a PROFFESSION out of it. Thus the seed for burn out is planted.
God gives you the sufficient grace to match your calling. If you are burning out then might you be stepping beyond the boundaries He has set for you? I think so.
How many people have I seen in ministry complain about burn out.
Does that burnout come from ministering within ones calling OR does it come from all the other stuff WE tag on.
I thought for a long time that there was no way that burnout existed, only people who didn’t really GET being called to ministry. I had a super lame attitude and allowed it to puff myself up in a very prideful way. Hearing about these forthcoming stories only burdens my heart for THE church, and for what God is capable of doing in the lives of people who attend, give to, and worship at churches where the leaders are on the verge of going under.
regardless of a profession – as believers – we can burn out if we are not leaning into the spiritual strength and connection with christ (john 15:5). add that to the fact the enemy is ONLY out to beat the crap out of us (john 10:10) and you get burnout.
I agree Anne. From experience I have seen the whole Body of Christ warped into a structure that is far from what Scripture mandates. There is no way a Pastor should be elevated to the level we do in the American Church. It’s very clear that the body is made up of many EQUAL parts. But here, we look at a Pastor as a hired gun or worse as some sort of supernatural celebrity. SO, he is not only the mouth, but the hands, the feet and so on. We have pastors that have INSANE schedules because of this. When it gets to that point what they were actually called to do, teach the body, has become a mere afterthought.
Good stuff. Is it too late to get in on the blog question tour love? I’d like to do some kind of pseudo-interview for http://www.wreckedfortheordinary.com, if you have the time? Let me know.
It’s official. I have mad church disease. I used to work there, so did my entire family. Now we don’t. And I’m not sure if I can believe ANYthing they ever taught me. So depressing.
Seems like most of you talk about pastors and ministers burning out…most of the time they are the ones causing it. Lines like, “this is the ministry..blah,blah,blah”. Pastors need to connect with staff, not just the attendees. Loyalty for the employee is a one way street, I know, I was pushed out when I asked for help for a serious problem, a problem developed out of burnout. No help was given, I was let go to “protect the ministry name”. There was no follow up, nothing…I just dis-appeared, staff was asked not to contact me and all ties were cut off from the pastors. I was a very loyal employee, I followed the leadership, I only took one day off when my first child was born, I was committed to work hard for the ministry. I applaud your book, it is needed. Many current employees of this particular ministry are ready to leave, they are tired, un-appreciated and are being held back creatively and professionally. Pastors need to understand that they can easily cause this problem…if you are a pastor and want to know if you are the cause of burnout, look at your turn over rate, how many people have worked for you more than ten years, how many former employees still go to your church? Have you ever reached out to them?