Family, friends, employees, congregations. Stress. Burnout. Mental health struggles. Life can be a lot these days, and leaders especially are feeling the pinch. More and more pastors and ministry directors are facing leadership trauma, burnout, and its close cousin, toxic burnout.

InterVarsity Press, with its long history of providing help to ministry heads, offers two new books that take the topic of leadership to deeper and more healing levels. Healthy Calling: From Toxic Burnout to Sustainable Work (Jan.) by Arianna Molloy and Healing Leadership Trauma: Finding Emotional Health and Helping Others Flourish (Nov. 2024) by Nicholas Rowe and Sheila Wise Rowe provide much-needed aid to those who struggle.

“It has been a season of burnout and extreme change in our ministry and work settings,” says Cindy Bunch, IVP Divisional Vice President, Editorial and Associate Publisher. “Many people are questioning their vocation and calling, and more of us are dealing openly with mental health issues.”

IVP, Bunch says, has a long history of publishing diverse voices that bring new understandings to popular topics such as leadership. Sheila Wise Rowe and Nicholas Rowe “are authors of color who are writing from their own context for the whole church,” she explains, noting that IVP also has a number of other leadership titles by women and people of color, including Leading Through Storms by Geoffrey Dudley, Sr. (March, 2025); When Work Hurts by Meryl Herr (March, 2025); and Nailing It by Nicole Massie Martin (April, 2025). IVP’s first original publication in 1942 was Discovering the Book of Mark by Jane Hollingsworth, and women’s voices have been published across its imprints since then. Bunch says this is “a natural outcome of the leadership of women at all levels of IVP” and points to the fact that three of five VPs are women, as well as president and publisher Terumi Echols.

Leadership is a key area where diverse voices are welcome, Bunch says. “Each of these books takes up the contemporary challenges of leadership with transparency and hope as we grapple with real issues.”

One of those issues is what Molloy names “calling burnout,” which goes beyond the general burnout that can lead to depression, anxiety, relational conflict, psychological paralysis, and a sense of shame. “When ‘calling burnout’ happens,” she says, “it includes all of those concerning attributes, plus a sense of dissociation from a purpose for living, a kind of spiritual and relational deep shame. This is toxic burnout."

Those with a strong sense of calling are more likely to experience toxic burnout, says Molloy, associate professor of organizational communications at Biola University, “because a calling involves some kind of identification with a caller, and calling burnout involves a disconnect with the caller and surrounding community. People who identify as having a sense of calling and feel burned-out respond with ‘I don’t know who I am anymore.’” She points to prioritizing the virtue of humility as a way to manage the risk of toxic burnout. “Humility means being aware of our strengths and weaknesses but not being distracted by either one,” Molloy says. “It prioritizes a lifestyle of learning, recognizing there’s always more we can learn, and by default this reduces a defensive response. Lastly, humility recognizes our role in the calling dynamic. We are not the caller. We get to know the caller."

It’s also important to know that leadership goes far beyond simply skills, methods, and techniques, say Nicholas Rowe and Sheila Wise Rowe, authors of Healing Leadership Trauma. Their book helps “address the inner life where the traumas and wounds of the past impair the ability to relate to others,” Nicholas Rowe says. “Many emotional challenges arise from the maturity and preparation, or lack thereof, of the new or emerging leader.”

The authors discuss a “poverty of leadership,” a burgeoning lack of mature leaders who know that simply mastering methods isn’t enough. “There is a relationship dimension to leadership that one ignores at one’s peril,” Nicholas Rowe says. “It is easy for leaders to forget that leadership demands consistent attention to one’s inner life to address the places that compromise one’s ability to relate to others well.”

Unhealed trauma, Sheila Wise Rowe says, is detrimental to all concerned. “Past or current struggles of leaders with unhealed trauma may cause them to be overly critical or unfairly ascribe negative motives to others,” she says. “The leader may need excessive validation from or may micromanage their team. Because of the leader’s passive, aggressive, or inconsistent way of leading, they frequently shame, blame, or harm others.”

Yet there is hope and help. Sheila Wise Rowe highlights the book’s biblical principles, psychological insights, spiritual practices, and useful tools that lead to healthy attachment and personal healing and growth. “These include assessments to identify attachment styles and contemplative practices including embodied prayer practices, silence, listening, lament, journaling, meditations on Scripture, movement, rest, and worship,” she says. “Just as necessary is the leader walking in community with safe-enough others who will challenge and encourage them.”

Healing Leadership Trauma and Healthy Calling also expand beyond inner healing to helping ministry leaders work with those in need of help. Molloy sees those who have experienced toxic burnout as the best people to help others pursue a healthy calling. She points to listening well as a vital practice.

“Choose routine, intentional times of slowing down long enough to really listen to how others are talking about their work,” she says. “Take note of increases in cynicism and dark humor. Check in with them. Find out if they are feeling seen and heard. Consider what might be going on under the surface and try not to dismiss it.”

“A healed and healthy leader relates well to those s/he leads, encouraging followers to discern their gifts, strengths, and vocation,” Nicholas Rowe says. “In turn, those they lead begin to flourish as they do what God has purposed for them to do.”

“As leaders unpack their life stories and begin to heal, how they lead and relate to others will transform,” Sheila Wise Rowe says. “They discover God as the one true secure attachment figure who unconditionally loves and values them. Then comes a more profound sense of love, security, and trust in God that transforms their personhood, leadership, and relationships.”