Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #528254 in Books
• Published on: 2009-02-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 192 pages

Synopsis
Growing up the daughter of a pastor, Anne Jackson experienced firsthand the conflict, stress, and struggle church leaders often face. She vowed her life in ministry would be different. Yet, years later, as a church leader, she was hospitalized because stress began wreaking havoc on her body. After being released from the hospital, an associate pastor asked her, 'Does working at this church interfere with your communion with Christ?'The question was paramount in turning her life around. Thinking she wasn't alone, Anne developed a website that allowed church leaders to share their struggles. Within a few days, she was flooded with over a thousand responses from people pouring out their stories of burnout. Using anecdotal parallels between Mad Cow Disease and leadership trends in the church, she writes not only to help us realize what church leaders are facing, but also to provide practical and positive treatment plans. "Mad Church Disease" is a lively, informative, and potentially life-saving resource for anyone in ministry - vocational or volunteer - who would like to understand, prevent, or treat the epidemic of burnout in church culture.

Customer Reviews

Humble, readable, practical, doable advice
Anne Jackson has used her experience of burnout in church ministry to help you avoid the experience. She writes with honesty and humility, while asking questions we might wish to avoid, like when she was asked "does working at this church interfere with your communion with christ?".
She describes the similarities between burnout and Mad Cow Disease; goes through some of the symptoms; then looks at principles for recovery physically, emotionally, relationally, and spiritually.
She stresses the importance of not being alone: of having friends to talk to, discuss with and be challenged by - one of the problems with burnout is that we try to do everything ourselves. The fact that a book has now been written should help people not feel so alone as they deal with this issue.
She also talks about the importance of taking time just to be with God rather than feeling we have to do lots for God; of resting.

A Much Needed Book
I've been incredibly blessed with Anne Jackson's book "Mad Church Disease: Overcoming the Burnout Epidemic". Today I commenced going through it slowly for the second time, and making some notes. I may use the book with some of my church team shortly also.

Anne likens burnout in the lives of Christian leaders to Mad Cow Disease, and draws out some interesting parallels. What I love about her is her fresh realistic and honest, yet thoroughly Biblical, handling of burnout, its effects, and how to recover. I have been able to identify so much. This book is unpretensious and down to earth, and rooted in integrity and a love for the Church. There are practical questions for serious consideration at the end of each chapter. I read quite widely across a very broad specturm of genres and styles, but this has been for me one of those rare books that stand out from all the others in how it's helped me personally.

Get a copy and go through it slowly and prayerfully. Even if you don't feel any signs of burnout, it might just help prevent them long-term for you.