I remember the morning I sat in my car in the church parking lot and couldn’t make myself go inside.
I had a sermon to preach. A congregation who needed me. A calendar full of meetings and counseling appointments and all the things that come with leading a church. And I just… sat there. Staring at the building. Empty in a way that sleep couldn’t fix.
If you’ve been in ministry for any length of time, there’s a good chance you know that feeling. Not necessarily the parking lot moment specifically, but that particular kind of exhaustion that goes all the way down. The kind that makes you wonder if you’re cut out for this. If you ever were.
That season became the catalyst for everything I now do through Your Caring Coach — and it’s also what led me to write the Resilient Spirituality eBook.
The Question Nobody Warned Me About
Here’s what I’ve learned working with pastors and ministry leaders: the crisis almost never comes out of nowhere. It comes from years of giving without receiving. Years of pouring out without being poured into. Years of knowing all the right answers about spiritual health while quietly neglecting your own.
We are remarkably good at ministering from empty.
The question that wrecked me — in the best way — was simple: What does it actually look like to be spiritually healthy, not just spiritually busy?
Attendance isn’t everything. A growing church, isn’t it? Knowing your Bible better than most people in the room isn’t it. None of those things are bad. But none of them are the same as being genuinely, deeply, sustainably whole.
What Resilient Spirituality Actually Looks Like
In the eBook, I walk through what I call the Five Keys to Resilient Spirituality—a framework I developed through my own breakdown and recovery and through years of walking alongside other leaders who were navigating similar terrain.
I’m not going to lay out all five keys here (that’s what the eBook is for), but I’ll give you a taste.
The framework starts with Awareness — and I don’t mean awareness in a vague, feel-good sense. I mean the hard, humble, honest work of actually seeing yourself clearly. Your patterns. Your wounds. The things that drive your behavior that you’ve never stopped long enough to name. Most leaders skip this step entirely, which is why they keep running into the same walls.
From there, the keys build on each other — moving from honest self-understanding toward something that actually produces lasting change. Not just behavior modification. Not just better self-care habits. Real transformation that holds up under pressure.
The goal isn’t a pastor who has it all together. It’s a pastor who is genuinely, humbly, sustainably in the process.
This Is for Leaders Who Are Tired of Faking It
I wrote this resource for the pastor who is doing all the right things and still feels like something is off. For the leader who has read every book on ministry sustainability but hasn’t found something that actually works. For the person who loves God and loves the church and is quietly terrified that they won’t be able to keep going.
I’ve been that person. And I’ve found the other side.
Resilient spirituality isn’t about having no bad days. It’s about having something underneath that holds when the bad days come. Something deeper than your circumstances, your metrics, or your most recent sermon. A life rooted in something that doesn’t shake.
That life is available to you. And the Five Keys are a pathway to it.
Get the eBook
The Resilient Spirituality eBook is available now in the shop. It’s a practical, honest, biblically grounded resource designed specifically for pastors and ministry leaders who are ready to stop surviving and start thriving.
If you’ve been running on fumes, this is for you.
Get the Resilient Spirituality eBook →
And if you want to talk through where you’re at — whether you’re in a full-on crisis or just feeling the early signs of burnout — I’d love to connect. Book a free call here.
Matt Heinricy is a pastoral coach and founder of Your Caring Coach. After more than twenty five years in ministry and through his own season of breakdown and renewal, he now walks alongside pastors who are burned out, isolated, or in crisis. Learn more at yourcaringcoach.com.
