Rest isn’t a distraction from ministry—it can be part of what keeps us healthy enough to keep serving well. A recent family getaway reminded me why pastors need intentional time to stop, reconnect, and let God refill what ministry so often pours out.

Ministry, like many professions, has a tendency to have seasons that run straight into each other. The days get long, one thing leads immediately into another, and sometimes it feels like nothing ever really ends.

I’ll be honest: burnout is real.

In my mind, my ministry calendar runs from August to August. We structure our Student Ministry around the school year, so August feels like the beginning of a new year and the end of July feels like the finish line. The problem is that there really isn’t much of a finish line.

We kick off the new ministry year and get back into weekly programming. Then basketball season begins for me. About the time that rhythm settles in, we hit Monster Month, one of our biggest outreach seasons. Then basketball shifts from junior high to high school. Then Christmas. When the calendar flips to January, we begin looking ahead to summer programming. We start planning our high school conference and the junior high retreat we host.

Basketball season ends, Easter arrives, students move up to their next grade, Spring Monster Month happens, weekly programming finishes, VBS begins, summer basketball arrives, we attend our high school conference, and then we host our junior high retreat.

And suddenly, we’re back in August.

I don’t share all of that because I want sympathy or some medal for being busy. I share it because I have learned how easily life can become one thing after another.

You can slip into autopilot.

You can begin missing important moments along the way.

You can even begin losing some of your passion for ministry if you’re not careful. Eventually, you simply wear out. And somewhere in the middle of all of this is something even more important than another event on the calendar:

Your family.

God cares deeply about our families, and we cannot allow our families to become casualties of ministry.

Building a strong ministry? Absolutely important.

Building it at the expense of your family? That’s not the goal.

The Summer I Realized I Needed to Stop

I remember my first year at my current ministry. It was my first time serving in student ministry, and I hit the ground running in August. I entered right at the “beginning” of our ministry calendar without much preparation, and off we went. We made changes. We looked toward the future. We launched our junior high retreat with a much shorter planning window than we use now.

I ran the entire gauntlet of that ministry year and eventually made it to our high school summer conference. Then I remember the week we came home.

We hadn’t planned any kind of real vacation or getaway that summer. The Monday after returning from the conference, I got sick with some kind of summer flu. I remember feeling completely worn out and miserable. My wife looked at me and told me she thought part of the problem was the schedule I had been keeping.

That stopped me in my tracks.

She pointed out that I hadn’t really stopped. I hadn’t taken time to rest. So at the last minute, we decided to drive about three hours away and visit my grandparents for a few days.

We got away. We rested. I recovered. And at the end of that summer, as we prepared to begin another ministry year, my wife and I made a decision:

We were going to intentionally build times of rest into our year. Not just hope that rest happened. Plan for it.

We Started Scheduling Rest

Over the last few years, those breaks have become rhythms in our family.

Every January after the Christmas season, my wife and I normally take a couple of days away together. We’ve moved our main family vacation to spring break. Then, after we return from our high school conference and before our junior high retreat, we try to take another quick getaway.

These have become needed and valued periods of rest for us.

This past weekend, my family and I went camping with my in-laws. It was our first time doing this particular trip, and it sounds like it may become a yearly tradition. While we were away, I found myself thinking again about how important rest has become for us.

Life moves so quickly.

You get caught up in the day-to-day responsibilities and suddenly realize that what felt like a few weeks was actually a few months. That’s when autopilot can start creeping in. That’s when exhaustion can begin building. And sometimes you don’t realize how tired you are until you finally stop.

We Need to Be Filled Before We Can Overflow

Our family getaway reminded me that rest isn’t something separate from healthy ministry. It’s part of it. We see a rhythm of rest established from the very beginning of Scripture. We read about Sabbath. Again and again, we are reminded that human beings were not designed to endlessly work without stopping.

In ministry, we spend a lot of time thinking about pouring into other people. But I have come to believe that healthy ministry needs to come from overflow. If we constantly pour out without ever allowing ourselves to be filled, eventually there won’t be anything left.

The most important part of being filled is our personal relationship with Jesus.

Being in His Word. Praying. Studying Scripture when we aren’t preparing a sermon. Spending time with God that has nothing to do with what we’re going to teach someone else.

There is a difference between studying Scripture because I need to preach Sunday and opening Scripture because I need Jesus.

But I also believe rest is part of being healthy enough to overflow into others.

We need breaks. We need opportunities to step away. We need time to make memories with our families. Rest isn’t the enemy of productive ministry. Sometimes rest is exactly what allows us to continue doing ministry well.

Rest Doesn’t Have to Be Extravagant

When I talk about getting away, I don’t mean you need to fly somewhere across the country or spend thousands of dollars on a vacation. One of the getaways my wife and I take is basically a staycation. Our kids spend a couple of days with their grandparents, and we stay at a hotel in our own town.

That’s it.

We rest. We spend time together. We do some things that are harder to do with three little ones running around. We reconnect. We step away from our normal routine. Rest doesn’t have to be extravagant to be valuable.

Set Some Rules for Your Rest

This might sound strange, but I think it helps to have some rules when you get away. I understand that ministry, like many jobs, sometimes interrupts vacation. I’m the son of a pastor. I remember family trips changing because someone passed away or another emergency happened.

There may be times when something truly urgent requires your attention. But one rule we have for our getaways is:

No general work.

I’m not pulling out my computer to get ahead. I’m not doing busy work just because I suddenly have a few free hours. I’m not checking things off my ministry to-do list. That defeats the purpose.

Something I am still working on is learning that if an email or text can wait until I get back, it can wait until I get back. I might put something on my to-do list so I don’t forget it. But I don’t have to respond immediately. I’m still learning this one. But boundaries help protect the rest you intentionally created.

Reconnect With the Father

I also think getting away gives us unique opportunities to slow down and connect with God. During our camping trip this weekend, we were able to ride some trails around the campground. There were moments when I would stop and simply look at creation around me.

God is amazing.

Being outdoors has always been one of the places where I feel particularly aware of Him. Watching the sunset while I grilled dinner. Riding through the trails. Stopping for a few moments to pray. There was nowhere I needed to rush off to. There wasn’t another item on the schedule. I could just stop.

Sometimes slowing our lives down helps us notice things we were moving too quickly to see.

Your Family Needs You Too

Probably my favorite part of getting away is simply being with my family. Over the last few years, I have become more aware of how much my family sacrifices because of the things I do.

There are late nights at youth group. Rehearsals. Coaching. Events. Trips.

There are plenty of days when my wife is taking care of three young kids by herself because I’m doing ministry. Our family supports what God has called me to do. But that means I also need to make sure they don’t always receive whatever time and energy I happen to have left over.

These getaways help reset my focus. Make memories. Spend time together. Laugh together. Do something fun. Or sometimes just be together. Those moments matter too.

Sometimes Stopping Helps You Move Forward

Friends, don’t fall into the trap of believing you have to keep going and going and going. Ministry is exciting. If God has called you into ministry, there is incredible joy in getting to serve Him and serve people. But don’t allow that passion to slowly disappear because you convince yourself that you’re never allowed to stop.

Stop. Rest. Reconnect. Recharge.

I think sometimes we’re afraid we’ll lose momentum if we take a break. What I have found is often the opposite. Sometimes those breaks reignite the fire. I come back excited. Rested. Ready to see our students again. Ready for the next season. Ready to keep going.

Rest isn’t quitting ministry. Sometimes rest is one of the things that helps us remain healthy enough to keep doing it for the long haul.

How do you find rest in the busyness of ministry? Are there rhythms or boundaries that have helped you and your family? I’d love to hear about them in the comments.