Abby - All right, we continue. We just talked about the importance of kind of  your own personal spiritual formation, but we're going to take this a step further.  You need to guard your soul and realize the reality of both burnout and what  might be going on in your own personal life.  

Henry - So burnout is common in chaplaincy due to emotional demands. It  starts quietly and hides behind good work, symptoms, apathy, cynicism, fatigue,  hollow prayer, mechanical ministry. So it's important for chaplains, whether  they're Christmas chaplains or any chaplains, to really develop that self  awareness is crucial for managing ministry longevity, Early Detection  Intervention prevents long  

Abby - term spiritual Yeah, I think again, opportunity, if you already are serving  in some capacity of ministry, to just take it, maybe pause this video for a moment and just look at yourself right now. Are you been in a lot of emotionally difficult  situations, and you just feel apathy, you just feel hollow, you just feel so, so tired. If you're having those things, there is probably, again, some more boundaries  and things that need to be inputted so that you don't run into the reality of a  burnout, that it can be very painful.  

Henry - Many of the courses. We have a course in self care at Christian  Leaders Institute, we have other courses that talk about boundaries, because,  you know, sustainable ministry is a long it's a long race. It's not a quick spurt.  And when things are busy, like at Christmas time, this is an hour, and there's  something else that often happens is that when you meet people who share  their emotional journeys, it triggers your own emotional  

Abby - Yeah, you know you're you might have very intense things that you  struggled with, or very hard experiences you've gone through or currently going  through, and it's exactly what you said. You know, somebody might be sharing  what's going on with them, and you might just be totally feeling something inside yourself that's so painful and difficult. And so back to you again. What we were  saying, that ministry without the margin. If you don't have that appropriate  boundary, ministry will lose its joy and authenticity. You have to input that space  between your limits and your loads. And again, as we were talking about in the  last one, Jesus really modeled this ministry where he had rest and his  connection with the Father, and put in those important boundaries.  

Henry - You know, one thing is really fascinating. I want to talk about the  boundary of a candlelight service, as opposed to just relational ministry. Okay,  so let's say you are someone who everyone talks to, and it's true, and you're in.  Why? Because they see your minister. And in your life, you have so many 

relationships, and it's almost like your kids have to take a number to talk with  you, or there's so many people are talking to you that you know they're texting  you all the time and all that. Now, if you have some boundaries, you can minister to people where, okay, we're going to meet to have a candlelight service. Now,  why? Because that one candlelight service, you can help people, people, and it  doesn't have to be like all night, right?  

Abby - With this person, then you're to go to this person. I was then you to go to this person. You know, it's an opportunity to invite these people that might be  seeking, you know, emotional comfort from you, spiritual comfort from you, and  say, Hey, I just want to invite you to this. You know, this is  

Henry - something that have a sharing candlelight moment. What is that?  Where it all share something that at Christmas time we're sad about, and where  we have a prayer, we're gonna light a candle. Now that just took six possible  meetings that the margins left your life because you're too busy, because I don't  find that you Chaplain types, everybody knows you. Everybody wants to be  around you. So if you programmatize it just a little bit, keeping relationships at  the center, this forms a boundary that can create a sustainable presence for you and  

Abby - your community. And these boundaries are going to preserve your  compassion and prevent that emotional just depletion. Yeah, because, again,  one of the biggest impacts of what champlaincy brings is bringing that presence  of compassion. And if your well is so dry that you can't bring that, you're going to be much more ineffective as a chaplain.  

Henry - Burnout is spiritual and not just physical. Disconnection from joy of  Scripture, the spirit, the identity, feels burnout. So in other words, that last  presentation about that spiritual connection. Connects to an emotional burnout  as well exhaustion twist self worth and the performance based identity. Once  that performance  

Abby - easy to go there where I gotta do this, for this, for I gotta be this. I gotta  do this. I gotta it's like, I  

Henry - mean, you're somebody  

Abby - that has a lot of friends and I mean, you get this, don't  

Abby - you, I definitely have a tendency to over commit myself, and that is  something that, especially as I'm now moving into roles at Christian leaders, and

I'm a mother of two sons, and my marriage and all these things, I think it's so  important to put in that intentionality of like, okay, we, you know, I think this  summer, we had it, because we had two days a week where we're at a league.  We have a committed thing we do with friends, and then on the weekend, both  days, we're doing some with family. So that left one day a week that we weren't  doing something. And it's like you just, you can get very overwhelmed, and that  can really drain you from being able to have the impact that's possible. So  again, I just encourage each of you to assess, are you over committing  yourselves? Are you doing that and creating some more time and space to just  as as it says here, really get that identity formation apart from your role  performance as a chaplain,  

Henry - one of the things that we do, too in our family is limit some of the  gathering times. It starts at this time and ends at this time, so that then people  are family members. So what we do is we get try to gather on Sunday,  everybody shows up between 12-12:30, somewhere around there, and then we  seek to be done by 2:30 quarter to 3. We have our time in prayer, we eat, we  have family time. But the key thing is, is that okay? That means at 3 on each  family gets to have time  

Abby - of rest and go home and No, and it's true, even though we have the  church and family party on Sunday, we still have normal the rest of our Sunday  is is available to rest  

Henry - the margin, right? So they were ready to go. And lot of times, what  happens for people who are called into ministry? We forget that. Okay? It starts  at this time, ends at this time, right? This, you know, be  

Abby - very intentional. Put those boundaries in and, you know, it can be hard  to stick to them. You know, I have a couple of friendships that I will be like, Yeah, I'm wanting to have an earlier night. And then they just kind of linger, and you're  just like, it's hard to be then you feel like and you don't want to present that  you're not having fun, because that's not what's going on, but you need to also  be having rest and taking care of yourself. And so it's, it's hard, chaplains, it's  hard. And again, as people that have, as you said, the chaplain place those  compassionate, beautiful hearts. This is really, really hard, but it is so crucial.  

Henry - It sure is soul care, stewardship. Soul care is stewardship. Caring for  your soul is biblical and wise. Even Jesus withdrew rested and said, No. Soul  care is dependence on God, not selfishness. Yeah. 

Abby - Sustainable ministry requires those rhythms of replenishment.  Stewardship of the soul safeguards your integrity, your witness again, your  effectiveness.  

Henry - So what is the soul we know in the Bible? The soul is your spiritual in  your physical existence. Soul is that person that so when you die, for instance,  your spirit is with the Lord. Your body is in the grave waiting the resurrection. But notice that that that that spiritual and physical, that's what we're talking about.  Last presentation, we talked about the spiritual being replenished, but the body  to your human existence, you have almost so much emotional bandwidth Abby  you need to take care of yourself. You know, don't be skipping meals because  you need to run to the next thing you know, eat well when you can spiritual,  physical, all of those things have that margin that helps you become effective.  

Abby - Absolutely So the five anchors of resilience, boundaries of biblical they  protect your calling. Solitude is sacred, and silence restores spiritual friendships, and that accountability and support is so good. Again. As a chaplain, make sure  you have people that are feeding into your life too and encouraging your life.  Again, it can be easy to be I'm the encourager all the time. I'm the encourager  all the time. You need people to still feed in support and bring you accountability, scripture for you first again, that personal nourishment and asking for help  before collapse. So share burdens again, find that team of people. This is again, why we encourage, you know, raising up a team of chaplains, because there  may be moments where you need to take a step back for a week or so and and  you know, have others who. Share those burdens with you,  

Henry - the insights relation with spiritual support, increase ministry resilience.  Don't be a lone ranger. Consistent application of these anchors prevent burnout  cycles. And you know, I've seen this over my life in leadership, how people  they're enthusiastic. They love ministry. But here's what I've noticed, and this is  why we have this important emphasis. If someone is all in the ministry and they  burn out terribly, or they lose the margin, what happens? They withdraw now  from Ministry they quit, and getting someone to restart after they've been burned out and have bad taste in their mouth into  

Abby - ministry, very difficult. So even as like again, some of you may be taking  this class because you're starting out, and this is why we put such an emphasis  on this. We we don't want that to happen to you if you're new into ministry. We  want to see this succeed for you and for you to put in these healthy boundaries  so that you are able to stay energized and excited in your calling, because it  does matter so much what God is calling you to do and the impact you can  make in your community, 

Henry - the final reflection guard your soul to sustain your ministry.  

Abby - Yeah, rest, withdraw, reset, receive. The healthiest Chaplain is going to  be anchored in Christ, not in busyness or fulfilling of duties, and all of that  

Henry - ministry fruitfulness flows from spiritual health, not the other way  around, right?  

Abby - Right? Ministry fruitfulness does not give you spiritual health. If your  health is already low and lacking, there  

Henry - Guarded souls carry lasting light into dark places. So, you know, a lot of times you probably think to yourself, maybe been thinking, this is about  Christmas chaplaincy, and now you're talking about me, yes, because  everything comes out of the fullness of a relationship that's alive and real with  our Lord Jesus Christ, including Christmas or seasonal chaplaincy.



கடைசியாக மாற்றப்பட்டது: வெள்ளி, 2 ஜனவரி 2026, 9:21 AM