Why Leaders Are Drying Up (And What We’re Doing About It)

After two decades of church planting and working in various leadership roles within a larger denominational system, I found myself immersed in a sobering reality: leaders—especially pastors—were running on empty.

I had spent years connecting with ministry leaders locally and nationally, in both church and nonprofit spaces. What I noticed across the board was a growing weight. Not just stress. Not just busyness. It was heaviness. A kind of soul fatigue that conferences and books couldn’t touch.

And trust me—I went to a lot of conferences.

I’m old enough to remember the days of the “three-ring binder conference.” You’d show up, get your neatly organized binder, sit through sessions where all the answers were laid out for you, and then head home as the supposed expert who was now equipped to change the world.

But times have changed. These days, content is everywhere. If you want to plant a church, you can tap into Tim Keller’s resources. If you want to grow as a leader, you can sign up for a course at Harvard Business School online. Podcasts, books, YouTube channels—information is more accessible than ever.

And yet… leaders are drying up.

That realization—that sobering disconnect—became the seed that birthed what we now call Cultivate Renewal. Because despite the abundance of content, what pastors and leaders need most isn’t another book, binder, or online class.

They need to be renewed.

One of the analogies I’ve come back to over and over is this: We put so much effort into building the cart. We design ministry programs, polish up our church strategies, invest in creative outreach ideas. But the cart is only as effective as the horse pulling it. And that horse—our soul, our being—is starving.

You can pour all the energy and money in the world into a beautiful, strategic ministry cart. But if the horse isn’t healthy, it doesn’t move.

Cultivate Renewal was born out of the conviction that the leader’s inner life must be nourished first. Before strategy. Before systems. Before we tackle our organizational to-do lists, we must recover our being—our calling, our vision, our passion for God and people.

This isn’t just theory. A few years ago, we partnered with an organization to study church planters and explore why some didn’t make it. We expected to see a lack of training or funding as the culprit. But those weren’t the issues. Most had the same money. Most had the same training. The variable that stood out? Their sense of being—the inner life of the leader—had shriveled up.

And that’s where we come in. At Better Together, we’re not offering flashy quick-fixes. We’re inviting leaders into soul care and deep formation. We're cultivating a space where leaders can stop striving and start listening again—where the Spirit revives what’s been worn thin.

We believe every pastor deserves to flourish—not just function.

So if you’re tired of running on empty, we invite you to slow down, step aside from the noise, and reengage with the One who called you in the first place. Your cart can wait. Let’s feed the horse.

👉 Learn more and take the next step toward pastoral renewal.