The Overwhelmed Servant

By Bob Rausch

Have you found yourself questioning how you got here - living an unfamiliar life that is so different from the one you envisioned years ago? Do you find you lack the enthusiasm that your life's purpose once ignited in you? Most importantly - are you aready to experience joy and fulfilment again?

In his new book, The Overwhelmed Servant, Dr. Bob Rausch provides new adn life-changing strategies. You will find a powerful set of mental and spiritual tools designed exclusively for faith-based people who answered the call to lead and serve others.

• Language: English
• Publisher: CrossLink Publishing
• Release date: Dec 4, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386149392

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The Overwhelmed Servant

AVOIDING THE THREE TRAPS

OF SPIRITUAL BURNOUT

Bob Rausch, PhD

CrossLink Publishing

Copyright © 2018 Bob Rausch

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed Attention: Permissions Coordinator, at the address below.

CrossLink Publishing

1395 Voyager Pkwy, Ste 130

Colorado Springs, CO 80921

www.crosslinkpublishing.com

Ordering Information:

Quantity sales. Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the Special Sales Department at the address above.

The Overwhelmed Servant/Rausch —1st ed.

First edition: 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

All scripture quotations are taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

This book identifies three critical traps that trouble the faith-based servant and specific strategies to avoid falling into them. It is written for those called to serve in Christian ministries or as Christian leaders in organizations, and business. This book is not intended for use as a substitute for the appropriate medical or mental health treatment.

Dr. Rausch addresses a very serious problem for those in ministry—the risk of burnout—and correctly identifies the three most significant traps that face clergy. With insight and a biblical perspective, he offers sound guidance and informed hope for those who find themselves succumbing to the pitfalls of over-zealousness. This is a very valuable resource for pastors.

Archibald D. Hart, PhD, FPPR

Senior Professor of Psychology and Dean Emeritus

Graduate School of Psychology

Fuller Theological Seminary

Pasadena, California

Christian ministries in today’s world face two major enemies: stress and burnout. These two emotional dangers are rampant in ministry and the toll is staggering. Dr. Bob Rausch has authored a groundbreaking book that addresses three critical areas that are ground zero for why Christian servants are being emotionally drained. He then proposes indispensable strategies that get at the heart of overcoming the overwhelming stress of those ministering to others. No matter what your ministry, this book is one you need to read and put into practice immediately.

Dwight Ike Rieghard, PhD

Senior Pastor

Piedmont Church

Atlanta, Georgia

This book is dedicated to those men who have made a lasting difference in my life, who taught me how to live as our Lord lived: Dana Cushman, R. F. Gates, and Billy Crosby

Contents

Foreword

Introduction

Section One—Setting the Stage

Chapter 1: Stress, Traps, and Burnout

Chapter 2: Stress and The Faith-Based Servant

Chapter 3: Behaviors that Lead to the Traps

Section Two-The Need to Prove

Chapter 4: Strategy #1: Persistence without Resistance Is Repetition

Chapter 5: Strategy #2-Good Judgment Comes from Experience and Experience Comes from Bad Judgment

Chapter 6: Strategy #3 - Watch Out for the Voice of the

Predator

Chapter 7: Strategy #4 - You Can’t See a Bright Future through a Cloudy Past

Chapter 8: Strategy #5 - Separate Problems from Conflicts

Section Three - The Need to be Hyper-Responsible

Chapter 9: Strategy #1: Don’t Stress Out Over the Pots and Pans

Chapter 10: Strategy #2: Don’t Let Anyone Live in Your Head Rent-Free

Chapter 11: Strategy #3: Never Park Your Car Next to a Nothing-to-Lose Car

Chapter 12: Strategy #4: Always Have a Walk-Away Point

Chapter 13: Strategy #5: When All Else Fails—Repose—Go with the Flow

Section Four - The Need to Be a People-Pleaser

Chapter 14: Strategy #1: It’s More Important What I Think of You Than What You Think of Me

Chapter 15: Strategy #2: People Do Things For Their Own

Reasons

Chapter 16: Strategy #3: What’s in Your House?

Chapter 17: Strategy #4: I May Not Need Much, but I Do Need Something

Chapter 18: Strategy #5: Give What You Cannot Keep in Order to Gain What You Cannot Lose

About the Author

Endnotes:

Foreword

John Newton once said, The Christian ministry is the worst of all trades, but the best of all professions. When seen and experienced through the eyes and life of a ministerial participant, one can almost feel the profound yet paradoxical reality of Newton’s definition of the Christian ministry!

As a former senior pastor of twenty-three years, there has never been a time that I have not thanked God for the privilege and honor to have been used in the ministry. Without question, had I not served as a shepherd to His people throughout those years, I would not be who I am today (a psychologist/Christian psychotherapist).

There were numerous times throughout my pastoral years that I felt inadequate in meeting the many challenges that confronted me on a daily basis. Am I doing it good enough? Am I properly balancing the ministry and my family? How can I continue financially on the salary that I’m receiving? Who is there to go to when I feel so isolated and lonely? Am I unspiritual if I feel depressed? Where are You, Lord, when I feel emotionally overwhelmed and spiritually depleted? These and other disconcerting questions are not uncommon to the servant of God. They are questions that he or she might feel but dare not speak out loud lest others perceive them as spiritually weak or emotionally unfit for ministerial duty.

In The Overwhelmed Servant, Dr. Bob Rausch places his finger on the epicenter of just why those in ministry find themselves in both spiritual and emotional disarray. Dr. Bob, with sharp insight and astonishing clarity, brings to the surface the cause of spiritual burnout within so many of God’s ministerial servants. He refers to them as the three traps of spiritual burnout. His insight offers tremendous help in not only in identifying these traps but also in understanding how to avoid them so those in ministry can live the optimum life that God intended for us to live this side of heaven.

By virtue of His great love for us, God clearly knows what we need today in order to equip and strengthen us for tomorrow. Through praise and perils, Dr. Bob thankfully forged ahead to give us one of the very best guides to avoiding burnout. Whether you’re an overwhelmed servant who is currently struggling with anxiety, disappointment, or depression, or you’d just like to be proactive about preventing future burnout, then get ready to enjoy a book that will give you great hope for a better today and a brighter future.

Fred Antonelli, PhD

Counselor/Author

Introduction

The first home our family lived in was a basement on Patapsco Avenue in Baltimore, Maryland. I must have been around five years old. One morning I woke up with a toothache, and no matter what my mom did, it didn’t stop the pain. One of the neighbors told her there was a dentist around the corner, so she scooped me up, and it was off to the dentist’s office. I don’t recall much about the trip except that I was scared to death. When I got into the dentist’s chair, he decided the tooth needed to go, which added to my anxiety. I believe in those days dentists used nitrous oxide to put people in a dreamy state to pull a tooth. He put this little cuplike thing over my mouth and nose, and I was fast asleep.

In that dentist’s chair, at five years old, I had my first encounter with Jesus. After the dentist put me to sleep, I saw this beautiful picture of Jesus standing at a door, knocking. The whole picture looked like it was sparkling and covered in sequins. That wouldn’t seem so strange or unusual if I had seen such a picture previously. Some might believe I saw that picture in a church and was just recalling it when the dentist put me to sleep. But I had never seen it before in my life, and in my spirit, I knew it was Jesus knocking on the door.

At the time of my dream, my religious background was meager at best. My father was a nonpracticing Catholic who felt it was important that my older sister and I were christened into the Catholic Church, but that was the extent of it. We never went to church. My Southern mother exercised her faith by listening to radio preachers while smoking Salem cigarettes and drinking coffee. We were not a churchgoing family, and I don’t think our family even owned a Bible when I was five years old.

I knew nothing about a Savior, but somehow I knew it was Jesus. That dream gave me incredible peace and made a lifelong imprint on my heart and soul. It was several years later, when I was in Boy Scouts, that I discovered the meaning of the picture. Our Scout troop held meetings in the Brooklyn United Methodist Church. One evening I was walking in the church toward the Scout meeting and saw the exact same picture without the sequins. I asked someone what it meant and was told it was Jesus knocking at the door of a person’s heart, waiting for them to invite Him in. They drew my attention to the fact that there was no door knob on the outside of the door. It only opened from the inside. Remembering my dream, I felt the same peace.

My second encounter with Jesus was when I was nine years old. We lived on Gretna Court in another one of the Baltimore projects. I was lying on the floor all alone, and one of Billy Graham’s crusades was on television. He gave the invitation, and George Beverly Shea began singing:

Just as I am, without one plea,

But that Thy blood was shed for me,

And that Thou bid’st me come to Thee,

O Lamb of God, I come! I come!

I burst into tears and recall crying for a long time. Just like my dream in the dentist’s chair, I had no idea what I was doing, but in my own way, I asked Jesus to help me. At that moment, I knew Jesus had something special for me, and I wanted it.

A lot of years have gone by since my first encounters with Jesus. And a lot of things, good and bad, have happened. My life has been devoted to Jesus Christ and to the privilege of helping people find Christ and grow spiritually, mentally, and emotionally. Whether it was in the counseling room after I received my PhD in Clinical Psychology or consulting as an executive coach, I have gratitude in my heart for the opportunity to serve Jesus and people.

The Overwhelmed Servant began with my search for the answers to personal struggles as a Christian. I realized that thousands of faith-based men and women around the world are struggling with the same behaviors, stresses, and traps. It has been a blessing to counsel and coach them to discover the answers to those struggles. No matter what country you are in or what language you speak, The Overwhelmed Servant has the answers to your struggles as well. My prayer is that you move on from overwhelming stress and burnout to live a life of overcoming as a result of applying the strategies in this book.

Blessings,

Dr. Bob Rausch

Section One—Setting the Stage

Chapter 1

Stress, Traps, and Burnout

Every time I hear of a leader, Christian or secular, who has fallen from their place of influence, it’s heartbreaking. The governor of South Carolina left his office without telling anyone and flew to South America to meet his girlfriend. The secret life of the famous golfer, Tiger Woods, made worldwide news. Pastors Ted Haggard and Jimmy Swaggart were ousted from their churches because of sexual indiscretions. Others have confessed to affairs, pornography, homosexual relationships, or alcohol and drug addictions. Television and movie personalities, men and women in Congress and business, Christian leaders from small congregations to megachurches, the list goes on and on. These are only the high-profile leaders. Can you imagine the thousands of low-profile faith-based servants in obscure congregations and businesses who have fallen into the