A great many people involved in Christian ministry, paid or unpaid, find themselves having to step back from it. They have not lost their love for Christ or their desire to serve him; they are simply exhausted and cannot carry on. Christopher Ash knows that ground from his own experience, and his central distinction is between sacrifice, which is required of us, and burnout, which is not.

The seven keys are unglamorous and physical as much as spiritual: sleep, Sabbath, friendship, inward renewal, and a settled grasp of the difference between the Creator and the creature, which is where Ash locates the root of the problem. Short, warm and widely given to pastors, ministry staff and volunteers who are running on empty.