How Pastors Can Avoid Burnout and Build a Healthy Inner Life

Soul Care for Pastors: Avoiding Burnout, Finding Safe Confession, and Staying Healthy in Ministry Todd Lane and Tom Lane introduce the Amazing Leaders Podcast and interview longtime pastor and coach Carl Tote of Trinity Church in Lubbock, who took leadership after a traumatic season including a split and earlier losses. They discuss pastors’ mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical health, emphasizing “soul care” over “soul cure,” and that feelings are information rather than facts. Carl stresses addressing roots, not just symptoms, and removing stigma around counseling, therapy, and coaching. They highlight the need for an “executive board” of trusted, mature, confidential mentors outside one’s immediate church, since leaders often lack safe places to confess and gain healing. The conversation covers burnout warning signs, relationship over ritual in spiritual disciplines, accountability, and practical rhythms—exercise, scheduling priorities, marriage time, and health checkups—to sustain long-term ministry.