That’s when it clicked. I – we – always have a yoke.

We might put one on ourselves. We might accept yokes from the world around us. Or we might take on Christ’s yoke, entrust ourselves to him, and then find true rest.

The Wrong Yokes Wear Us Down

I bring up this personal reflection because I don’t believe its catalyst is unique to me. In fact, I know it is not.

Senior pastors and nonprofit ministry executives are blessed with exciting and holy callings. But those jobs require strength, stamina, and steadfast reliance on the Lord. If leaders start to run on their own strength, become driven for the wrong reasons, or get distracted by pressures all around them, they can quickly become weary.

And they can quickly become lonely.

Loneliness and weariness can come with a cost. When daily trials or sudden storms come, Christian leaders who feel tired and alone may be able to hang on for a time. But every passing day in isolation – real or perceived, self-inflicted or not – will increase the likelihood of burnout, dropout, and even tragic breaches of trust.

The Costs of Leader Failures

At the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA), we’ve seen the huge costs of leader failures. It is not an exaggeration to say they are one of the greatest financial risks to churches and ministries today. While much of the damage is impossible to quantify, tangible consequences often include major unbudgeted expenses, reduced giving, and significant program cuts. In some cases, organizations even close their doors completely.

There is also a cost for the larger kingdom community. Trust is already in swift decline in our society, and we should be alarmed that now less than one out of every three Americans have high confidence in religious leaders. Add to that our own ECFA surveys have found that 94 percent of our members believe leadership failures are having a negative impact on community and giver trust, and we know there is a real crisis before us.

Leader Care is Ministry Care

We at ECFA have become convinced that leader care is ministry care.

We at ECFA have become convinced that leader care is ministry care. We believe this so much that this year we are finalizing a new leader care accreditation standard for any church or ministry that wants to display the ECFA seal – a gold standard for many donors in search of churches and ministries they can trust. Beginning in 2027, boards of ECFA-accredited organizations will need to approve collaboratively developed care plans to support the well-being and integrity of their senior ministry leaders.

Why take this step? Simple. Standards can shape culture.

ECFA’s long-established healthy governance and financial transparency standards are a testimony to this. While many donors expect accountability controls now, our accreditation requirements were at one time revolutionary. Financial statements audited by independent CPAs were virtually unheard of in the nonprofit world decades ago, but that changed in the 1970’s when ECFA began requiring them for accredited organizations. Our standards also dramatically shifted ministry culture by mandating that a majority of an organization’s board members be independent–a biblical check on many Christian leaders in those days who said they were “only accountable to God.”

ECFA standards were needed back then because churches and ministries were facing a crisis of confidence, just as they are today. Governance and financial integrity of course remain key accountability areas. But today’s frontline in desperate need of help is the leader burnout, dropout, and other integrity failures that are shaking trust in congregations and communities across the country.

Proactive Care Invites Flourishing

Remember my struggle with Jesus’ call to take on his yoke? That wrestling came in the context of a conversation I was afforded through the leader care efforts of the ECFA Board of Directors.

Remember my struggle with Jesus’ call to take on his yoke?

I’m blessed to have a small group of board members who meet with me periodically outside of formal board meetings. With kindness and encouragement (and yes, sometimes an appropriate level of challenging me to be my best), they check in with me on how I am doing and invest in my well-being as a leader.

That leader care team is the group that challenged me to grapple with just how much I was placing burdens on myself rather than yielding to the blessed yoke of Jesus.

Church and ministry boards do not need to be – cannot afford to be – on the sidelines in leader care. Leaders are ultimately responsible for their own health and integrity, of course. But church and ministry boards can help in an environment of strong, Christ-centered governance. We can carry each other’s burdens in the spirit of Galatians 6.

The leader care committee is just one way the ECFA board is investing in proactive leader care for me – and by extension for our whole organization. If you want a taste of the culture of care they are helping us to build, I encourage you to check out this episode of ECFA’s Behind the Seal podcast featuring our Senior Vice President Kim Williams.

Leader Care and Trust

I also want to encourage you to join me for a special one-day session on “Leader Care and the Impact on Trust” at this year’s Outcomes Conference hosted by Christian Leadership Alliance. With the ECFA team, I have the privilege of hosting this 6-hour session on Tuesday, April 29, and I can tell you that I am excited about the line-up of board governance, financial accountability, and leader care experts who be with us that day. They will be working with us to help our ministries pursue flourishing now and into the next generation. We want all who participate to come away understanding just how important healthy leaders are to healthy ministries, and we intend to give them and their boards practical places to start when considering leader care strategies.

Even if you can’t make the conference, know that as ECFA enacts our new leader care accreditation standard, we will also be rolling out new resources to help churches and ministries understand and take their own next steps in meeting this challenge. Please find out more by visiting ECFA.org.

Again, we’re not powerless bystanders. We have seen what happens when a leader’s health erodes. But what if they – like me – were truly supported as they learned how to release unhealthy yokes and to seek first the life, rest, and power that only comes from Jesus?

Imagine where Christian leaders could take their ministries and the communities they serve if they were leading from positions of such holistic strength!

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Michael Martin, is President and CEO of ECFA (Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability). In his roles as an executive, attorney, CPA, and communicator, Michael is passionate about helping churches and Christ-centered ministries maintain high standards of integrity. He and his family live in Winchester, Virginia.

 Learn more about Outcomes magazine.