They say that familiarity breeds contempt. I think it also breeds complacency. I’m not sure which is worse. On one hand, complacency seems less destructive. On the other hand, contempt is more easily recognized and more quickly corrected. But both can rob you of your influence as a leader.

The danger of burnout among pastors is common enough that there are entire books and seminars devoted to the topic. Chances are you know someone personally who has left the ministry because he or she felt overwhelmed and underappreciated. Sometimes, to avoid contempt, we allow ourselves to sink slowly into complacency.

What drives complacency in ministry? What are the guideposts that lead us down that path? Fatigue plays a big role. There are at least 52 Sundays a year, and many pastors feel no freedom to take even one of them off. Another factor is failure, whether it’s missing the mark on a new idea or simply feeling you’re not connecting with your audience.

But sometimes complacency is self-inflicted. It’s easier to do things the way we’ve always done them, and taking a chance at trying something new may be too risky. So, we prize comfort over the difficult work of innovation in ministry. Complacency is often the result of taking the path of least resistance.

When the New Wears Off
When you’re first starting out in ministry, everything is new and fresh. Whether it’s your first wedding, your first staff meeting, your first sermon series, or even your first hospital visit, there’s an excitement about it that feels great.

But over time, the newness wears off — and so does the excitement. Complacency begins to set in as you try to accomplish one task just to get to the next one. The problem is, that one task you see only as a checkbox on your list of things to do may be a major event in someone else’s life.

Are we serving people, or are we a slave to a to-do list?

Think about the first wedding you officiated. Did you have butterflies in your stomach? Did you practice it several times, making rewrites even the morning of the event? Is there a certain appreciation looking back at that happy couple because theirs was the first wedding you presided over? But now, each wedding begins to blur into the next.

What you may have spent days or weeks planning now gets an hour of two of your time. It’s not necessarily that you care less; it’s just that the task is easier for you because the routine is familiar. But that familiarity has the power to plant a seed of complacency.

There’s Always Another First Time for Everything
Think through the myriad tasks you perform every day, week, month or year. Many of these tasks are simple, but some are monumental to the people you serve. If you are complacent, they will easily pick up on it.

Keeping with the idea of that wedding, consider the next couple you marry. It may be the fifth, 50th or 100th ceremony you’ve performed. But it’s probably their first and only wedding. They have the same butterflies and exhilaration that you had when you performed your first. And they’re expecting you to share their excitement even though you’ve done this dozens of times before.

To kick complacency, here’s one thing that can help. Before you perform the next ceremony, lead the next staff meeting, or step into the next hospital room, ask yourself, How would I do it if this were the first time? How can I treat this person as the most important person and their need as the most important thing on my list today? What would I change or do differently if I knew that it would draw someone into a closer relationship with God?

It all comes back to whom we’re serving. Are we serving people, or are we a slave to a to-do list? It’s about being people-centered rather than task-oriented. When we think through our calendar with the attitude that each checkbox represents a person, that each communication has the power to affect someone, and that each meeting or ceremony is important to somebody, we are less likely to remain complacent in our calling.

Stir Up the Gift
When Paul was speaking life into his protégé Timothy, he brought back to memory the young man’s history of faith. That span of time had the potential to make Timothy complacent. Paul’s recommendation was to “fan into flame” his gifting from God (2 Timothy 1:6). I like how the NKJV uses the phrase “stir up the gift,” giving the image of something settled at the bottom that we need to bring up to the surface again.

Over the course of your great ministry to God and His people, you will have times of settling that threaten to lead you into complacency. No one can minister without that risk. If we sense our lives and ministries becoming stagnant, we need to do something about complacency. Stir it up, remembering your history and recapturing that excitement you had at the first.

It’s not about an outward emotion, though. It’s an inner resolve to allow the Holy Spirit to refresh and revive, replacing complacency with compassion.