Ash, Christopher. Zeal Without Burnout: Seven Keys to a Lifelong Ministry of Sustainable Sacrifice. The Good Book Company, 2016.

As of 2014, it was estimated that burnout, moral failure, or conflict was leading to 1500 pastors a month leaving the ministry. Burnout was already a factor for one-thirds of pastors five years into their ministry, and “almost a half of pastors and their wives say they have experienced depression or burnout to the extent that they needed to take a leave of absence from ministry” (16). Christopher Ash has served as a pastor of a growing church and as a trainer of pastors (back cover). Perhaps most importantly for his authorship of this book, however, Ash has struggled personally with ministry burnout (15-16). In Zeal Without Burnout, Ash talks of the challenge of maintaining a zealous, sacrificial zeal for ministry while maintaining habits and attitudes that protect a pastor from burnout and extend his ministry (20-21).

In this book, Ash proposes that pastors (and all fervently serving believers) are created by God and living with the limited human bodies that God has given us. As such, the pastor must honor his limitations (and God’s lack of limitation) and trust God enough to take time for sleep, Sabbaths, friends, and inward refreshing, while shunning acclaim, recognizing that God will redeem their service, and taking joy in God’s grace rather than their own successes (112-114).

Ash begins his text by introducing burnout and his own experience of it. He notes, for the skeptical, that burnout is not just the moaning of a middle-aged pastor who has lost his love for Christ, but that it comes not for the least zealous but instead for the most (19). Burnout is the real emotional and physical collapse resulting from an unsustainable pace of ministry (18-19). Ash then explains the difference between burnout and sacrifice, noting that all Christian service requires sacrifice, but burnout is a level of unsustainable sacrifice that leaves the pastor unable to continue and hampers others in their ministries as well (24, 27).

The author, in a chapter called “A Neglected Truth: We Are Creatures of Dust,” presents the foundational truth of the text upon which he bases most of his advice: Pastors are not divine nor are their spirits divorced from their bodies and minds, but we are wholistic creations of God with decaying bodies and minds and finite limits (38-41). “That is all we have to offer. God knows that” (41). That truth carries four important implications, which are the first four keys to sustainable ministry with zeal: We need sleep, but God does not. We need Sabbaths, but God does not. We need friends, but God does not. We need food, but God does not (41). Each of the next four chapters explains these implications.

As Ash goes on to explain the pastor’s need for sleep, he notes that God never sleeps and is able to watch over all things. When pastors begin letting their ministries invade their sleeping hours, they display a lack of trust in God’s provision and begin thinking themselves to be as capable and important as God (48-49). He quotes Psalm 127:2, which says, “It is in vain that you rise up early, and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep” (ESV). He notes that even Christ slept, displaying His trust in the Father (49). Ash continues on to the second key, the pastors need for Sabbath rests (57). He notes that while God’s resting on the seventh day of creation creates a pattern for humanity, that God has no need of rest and is in fact constantly sustaining all of creation (57). Affirming again that ministers are not God, the author establishes that God created all men with a natural need for a weekly rest day as a part of His design (58). While it is easy for pastors to gradually “let it slip” and let things begin intruding on his Sabbath, the wise pastor learns to work hard and efficiently the other days of the week in order to preserve a day for rest (58, 60). This (as well as the Pastor’s need for sleep) will require the pastor to learn to balance the needs of the congregation against his own God-given needs, recognizing that it is ultimately God who provides anyway (60-61). While Ash’s writing style is refreshingly concise and practical, he may have improved this chapter with some more instruction on how to spend the Sabbath in areas of worship, prayer, praise, or meditation on Scriptures in addition to the physical rest that is prioritized.

Ash then proceeds to the third key to maintaining zeal without burnout, the Christian minister’s need for friends (65). While God has perfect fellowship with Himself in the Trinity, he created man with social needs when He said, “It is not good for man to be alone” (65-66). When a Christian neglects relationships, he loses the benefits of fellowship, accountability, and enjoyment and positions himself arrogantly as a man, like God, without any needs for others (67). Ash takes an aside here to speak of the Biblical instruction for married couples to intentionally maintain consistent sexual intimacy with one another (70-72). His instruction here is good and helpful for believers, but entirely out of place within the chapter and really within the book as a whole. However, pastoral prerogative allows the occasional rabbit trail within sermons and books.

Ash’s fourth key and distinction between God and pastor is that, unlike God, pastors need inward renewal (earlier called “food”) (73). He begins by noting God’s provision of the Holy Spirit, which renews our Spirit daily (73-74). “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16, ESV). The author maintains, however, that the pastor – once again not like God – has needs for refreshment that extend to the physical, mental, and emotional as well as the Spirit (74-75). As he explains this, Ash attempts to tie the Spirit’s renewal to other types of renewal such as “times of quiet, enjoyment of beauty, the experience of refreshing exercise, stimulating sport, wonderful music, wholesome reading and conversation…” (75). In one example, he speaks of how creativity is a part of our design in the image of God, and so engaging in creative activity helps us to “thrive in the image of a wonderful Creator” (75). This line of argument is not damaging to the overall argument or to the reader, but it is ultimately unnecessary and distracting to over-spiritualize physical, mental, or emotional forms of refreshment. All forms of refreshment can be easily said to supplement and facilitate one another, without having to be inherently spiritual. Ash also does not much time describing or providing guidance on elements of spiritual renewal such as meditation on Scripture, areas of prayer, or maintaining spiritual disciplines. It is clear, however, that Ash feels his audience to be somewhat mature believers, and he may feel that such instruction would be unnecessary for his audience (109).

After finishing his fourth key to zealous ministry without burnout, Ash begins to transition to a different structure. Before moving on, however, he summarizes his warning to pastors by noting that the pastor’s tendency to eschew rest, Sabbaths, friends, or inward renewal is a form of “ministry machismo,” often praised by others but ultimately damaging to their longevity in ministry and arrogant in rejecting God’s limits (77). For his next three keys, Ash moves from noting God-designed human needs to giving three ministry implications of the pastor’s humanity and God’s divinity. These three keys include a warning, an encouragement, and a delight (85, 95, 103).

Ash’s warning to pastors is to “beware celebrity” (85). In a challenge to God’s role, pastors may seek praise and acknowledgment from the congregation or from other ministers, rather than from God alone (86). He notes John 5:44, which says “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God” (ESV). He suggests, instead, that pastors pray for purified motives, for hearts that seek God’s glory rather than their own (88). The author follows that warning with an encouragement: “It’s worth it” (95). He notes that the destructive effects of sin on people and in pastoral ministry are discouraging, robbing a pastor’s zeal for ministry (96, 98). But just as Jesus found encouragement and zeal in faithfulness to God’s will (John 4:31-34), believers can find encouragement in the knowledge that God is faithful and that, as taught in 1 Corinthians 5:58, “nothing we do in Christ… will be in vain” (97). He encourages pastors that, though it cannot be planned, measured, or strategized for, in Christ there is lasting fruit that the pastor can take joy in (98-100).

Finally, Ash shares a delight: pastors can rejoice in grace, not gifts (103). As an example, he presents Jesus’ admonishment to the disciples who came back from ministry exulting in their power to cast out demons (103). In Luke 10:20 (ESV), Jesus replied to them, “Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” Ash points out that fruit can be slow in coming, and success can be fleeting or even dangerously tempting as a prideful and pressuring goal for ministers (99-100, 104-105). Instead, pastors can “glory much in grace,” taking joy in the gift of Christ Himself for eternity, which cannot fail or be taken away, and without which gifts are an empty facade (106).

Ash concludes his text by noting his assumption that his readers were already zealous and hard-working, and including scriptural admonitions to be so if they were inclined to mistake his intent and pursue ministry with less zeal and sacrifice (109). He also notes that many may already be in despair or in the midst of burnout, and advises them to seek out extensive help and be prepared to make serious and long-lasting changes to their ministry (110). Next, the author prepares a “self-check” that walks through each of the seven keys in question form as an evaluation for the reader of their protections against burnout (112-113). Finally, Ash suggests a resolution for the pastor, committing himself to the realization that his joy is found not in accolades, ministry success, or tasks accomplished – but ultimately and only with Christ in Heaven for eternity (113-114).

Ash’s Zeal Without Burnout is a wonderfully concise and practical book for every pastor, elder, minister, deacon, or otherwise enthusiastic servant of Christ. It is well-supported Scripturally, accessible to the reader, and immediately available for application. There is very little to contest or dispute in his argument or presentation, yet the wisdom found in the book is so seldom consistently applied in pastoral ministry. In his assumptions of the reader and in his concise style, Ash may have left some elements unwritten that should properly be included – such as a fuller discussion of the spiritual aspects and practices of Sabbath or spiritual renewal – but their exclusion does not seem accidental but a conscious choice on the author’s part for maintaining an accessible text. Ultimately – Ash’s point is well-taken: We are creatures of dust, subject to God-given human limits. Let us not try supplant God’s divine provision with our own, but rather embrace our needs of rest, Sabbaths, friends, and refreshing, and seeking only His praise, recognizing His faithfulness to bring fruit, and finding joy in His salvation.