Why You Feel Like You’re Always Behind in Ministry

Last week, a pastor I coach said something I think every pastor feels but rarely says out loud.

“I always feel like I should be doing more.”

His church is growing. His preaching is strong. He’s leading well. But his soul is tired. He’s struggling to breathe. And even though he knows it’s not healthy, he still can’t shake the feeling that he hasn’t done enough.

Sound familiar?

That’s the machine talking.

It’s the voice inside you that won’t shut off.
The one that whispers on your day off.
The one that says rest is laziness.
That says your church’s growth is never quite enough.
That says if you just tried harder, pushed deeper, led better… then you’d feel peace.

But you never do.
Because peace was never part of the machine’s design.

The ministry machine isn’t made of gears or wires—it’s made of expectations. Metrics. Deadlines. Demands. Unspoken rules and invisible lines you’re not allowed to cross. You built it to serve others. But now it’s consuming you.

And no one sees it because you’re still producing.

You’re showing up.
Preaching.
Smiling.
Keeping everything afloat.

But underneath? You’re exhausted.
And secretly, you’re wondering how much longer you can keep pretending this is normal.

Let me say it plainly: this is not what faithfulness looks like.
You weren’t meant to be devoured by the thing you were called to steward.
You weren’t meant to grind yourself into the ground and call it obedience.

You’re not behind.
You’re just burned out on a definition of success that was never sustainable.

Somewhere along the way, ministry stopped being a calling and started being a competition. We built churches that measure value by volume. By reach. By influence. And then we wondered why pastors don’t feel safe resting.

It’s because the machine never sleeps.
And if you slow down, someone else will pass you.
Or outgrow you.
Or replace you.

So you hustle harder.
Not because you love the work—but because you’re scared of what will happen if you don’t.

That’s not ministry.
That’s survival.

And it’s killing you.

If you’ve ever felt like you’re not allowed to rest…
If you’ve ever felt like you’re letting people down when you care for yourself…
If you’ve ever laid awake on Sunday night wondering if you can keep this up…

You’re not broken.
You’re just waking up.

Because the truth is, you can’t outwork a broken system.

You can’t fix burnout with a better planner.
You can’t solve emotional depletion with sermon prep hacks.
You can’t outrun emptiness by producing more outcomes.

Eventually, something has to change.

Not your heart.
Not your passion.
Not your theology.

Your system.

The way your life is structured.
The expectations you’ve internalized.
The rules you’ve been playing by that no longer reflect the heart of Jesus.

It’s time to step back—not from your people, but from the pressure.
To re-evaluate what you’re building—and what it’s building in you.
To stop pushing for more and start healing what’s been silently breaking.

I know this tension firsthand.
I used to confuse activity with impact.
I believed the more I sacrificed, the more faithful I was being.
Until my body, mind, and spirit told me the truth: You’re not okay. And this won’t stop until you do.

That’s when I stepped away from the machine.
That’s when I started building WholeCare™—not for pastors out there, but for me.
Because I needed it too.

You don’t need to quit your church.
You don’t need to burn it all down.
You just need to stop building your life around a system that punishes rest and rewards burnout.

So here’s where you can start today:

Pick one thing—just one—that you’re going to stop doing this week.

Something that doesn’t actually require you.
Maybe it’s writing the midweek newsletter.
Maybe it’s attending that meeting just to make others comfortable.
Maybe it’s saying yes to something out of guilt.

Write it down.
Tell someone.
And don’t apologize.

This is how healing begins—not with a sabbatical, but with a single act of resistance.
The machine won’t stop on its own. But you can.

Some of you need coaching.
Some need a cohort of pastors who are done pretending.
Some of you are carrying a church system that needs a hard reset—and that’s where consulting comes in.

But all of us need to remember this:
God isn’t impressed by your exhaustion. He’s grieved by it.

You don’t have to do more.
You have to do different. ◼︎ 

Tim Eldred has spent over 35 years in pastoral ministry and coaches pastors and churches who are ready to move beyond merely surviving. He founded The Authentic Pastor to help ministry leaders find freedom from the pressures and systems that wear them down.