CNLP 806 | I Was Almost Ministry Road Kill: Burn Out 20 Years Later, Part 1
The Carey Nieuwhof Leadership Podcast
Carey Nieuwhof
4.8 • 2.3K Ratings
🗓️ 26 May 2026
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Twenty years ago this month, Carey almost became ministry road kill. After 11 years of 30%+ annual growth, he burned out, hard.
In Part 1 of this solo episode, Carey shares 5 honest insights from two decades of reflection: why dysfunction gets rewarded in the church, how denial accelerates the crash, and why grieving your losses matters.
If your passion is fading, this episode is for you.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Art of Leadership Network. I was 41 years old, and to be completely candid, I was this close to being ministry roadkill. |
| 0:16.0 | Welcome to the Carrie Newhoff Leadership Podcast. I'm so glad you joined us. This is a bit of a different episode. In fact, there's going to be two. It was 20 years ago this month that I burned out |
| 0:28.2 | and I want to talk to you about that. And I want to break down how it happened, how it can happen |
| 0:33.7 | to you. And then in the next episode, I want to talk about getting out of burnout, |
| 0:37.9 | staying out of burnout, and a whole lot more. It's such a big issue. I just talk to leaders all |
| 0:43.3 | the time who are struggling. And if you're really struggling, you've come to the right place. |
| 0:48.4 | I remember the first time I talked about burnout. I spoke to a large crowd in Atlanta. |
| 0:58.3 | And my note was, you know what, if you're under 40, like just take some note, squirrel this away because I thought burnout was a midlife issue. |
| 1:04.0 | It's not. I had a long line of 23-year-olds, 25-year-olds, 27-year-olds. Talk to me after that initial talk on burnout, and they said, no, I'm struggling with this too. So wherever you are in life, whether you're in a good season right now, whether you're hanging on by a thread, or whether you're just kind of numb, I really hope these next couple of episodes are going to help you. And what I want to do is I want to give you, |
| 1:28.1 | the listener, a copy of my new book at your best. I'm going to give away a free copy to 20 listeners. |
| 1:33.9 | So to enter the giveaway, visit my website, carynewhoff.com slash giveaway by June 7th, |
| 1:41.3 | or just click the link in the description of this episode, that will take you there. |
| 1:45.3 | So today, I want to talk to you about something deeply, deeply personal. It's very personal |
| 1:50.2 | to me and my life, but I also want to make it about you and specifically how you're doing, |
| 1:55.8 | because this month marks the 20th anniversary of me heading down the darkest road in leadership |
| 2:00.8 | and life |
| 2:01.3 | I have ever been down. And it was in May 2006 that I burned out. I swore all through my, |
| 2:09.3 | you know, the years leading up to it, I'm not going to burn out. I thought I was above it. And I thought |
| 2:14.7 | it could never happen to somebody as driven as me. And then, as I'll share in a |
| 2:19.3 | moment, it happened almost overnight. So now I get to sit in a seat where it's part of my |
| 2:25.8 | passion to help other leaders ideally avoid what I went through and to help you get through |
| 2:31.3 | it and thrive afterwards. So the good news is, just so you know, |
... |
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