What I Learned from 10 Years in Ministry
**This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase, I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only promote products I love. Thank you for supporting my blog.
Last week I finished in my role after eleven years in vocational ministry. Hindsight brings clarity, and on reflecting on the years in the rear-vision mirror, I can articulate what I wish I'd known ten years ago when I was keen and green.
If I could sit down with myself in the first year of ministry, this is what I would have said:
Don't worry
Don't whinge
Don't work on your days off
Don't worry
I love this song we sing a song at church that goes:
"I've seen you move, You move the mountains,
And I believe, I'll see you do it again."
It is easy to sing these words passionately and difficult to live in this posture of faith. I see a mountain, and my first inclination is to worry.
Jesus talks about moving mountains a bit, and when He does, it is never in the context of sweat and a shovel; He is always talking about faith.
You don't have enough faith," Jesus told them. "I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it would move. Nothing would be impossible. —Jesus (Matthew 17:20)
Every time there was an obstacle, which was often, my default was to worry. Now that I am ten years down the track, I know that in every instance, God made a way. Through every budget crisis, relational challenge, volunteer shortage and resource deficit, God did something miraculous and got us through. It may not have always been the way we thought or the way we planned. Often, it was much better than what we imagined. God came through and made a way forward in every situation. He is mighty! I needn't have wasted time and emotional energy worrying.
Are you a fellow worrier? Read about seven strategies to help.
Don't whinge
I hate to admit it, but I can be a bit of a complainer. Let's face it; there is always something annoying to whinge about when you look for it.
Over the eleven years, I worked at my church; there was an enormous amount of change. We more than doubled in size, went from one campus to five, and the organisational structure completely changed more than once. It's hard to be in a high-change environment. As the church grew, all the staff were doing things we had never done before and leading ministries bigger than we had experienced. It was tough, and we didn't always get it right. Cue the tiny violin.
The Israelites were world-class whingers. When Moses led them out of slavery in Egypt, the land God had promised them, at every hurdle, they complained. Even after being front-seat witnesses to God's numerous miracles that enabled their rescue, when they were uncomfortable, they just whinged to Moses over and over and over again. And the whinging was not helpful or productive at all. They drove Moses and God, crazy. The way forward was to trust God and obey the leaders. The whinging was unnecessary. God had a plan and was faithful to see it through to completion.
When decisions didn't go my way, when people let me down, or unreasonable demands were made of me, the best action was to have faith in God, trust the leadership, and get on with the job at hand. Of course, this doesn't mean silently following along without engaging in the process of leading change. When things aren't working well, and you can see the way things could be better, engage leadership in conversation. Bring forward suggestions and solutions every day of the week, but don't just point out problems. Whinging festers discontent in the heart of the culture. It is counter-productive for everyone.
Rather than whinging, choose gratitude and contentment. Looking for the good in people and encouraging them, expressing gratitude for the countless blessings we encounter every day and being content with the good things God has given us help us all to work through difficult circumstances together.
Don't work on your days off
This one is hard. Like many other professions, a pastor's work is never done. There is never a day when you get to the end of the to-do list and finish everything off. The list grows faster than the boxes can be ticked off. There are always more people to love, more visitors to call, leaders to support and resources to write. Sundays come at a relentless pace every single week. It took me a long time to make peace with the incomplete to-do list, and I worked too many of my days off.
A sense of self-importance tricked me into believing that I was the only person that should or could do many tasks that could have been delegated to others. There was a false sense of responsibility that trapped me into thinking that I needed to be at every meeting and event. It wasn't until I started to crash and burn and said no to some things I realised the world didn't collapse every time I wasn't personally in the room.
I'm not talking about working hard. I'm all for that. I'm referring to all the extra stuff, above and beyond the days I was employed. Especially in the early years when I was paid to work three days a week, rather than going home to my family on my days off, I just kept working. The job wasn't done, but rather than finding another way, I took care of it myself. What I didn't fully recognise until much later was that every time I said yes to another night out or an extra day in the office, it impacted my marriage, parenting, and physical and mental health.
Finding a healthy rhythm of rest and recreation is so important for everyone, including those of us in ministry. We must be creative because like so many other hard-working Christ-followers, Sunday is not a restful Sabbath day. Sunday is rather the busiest day of the workweek. Looking at the statistics of burnout among pastors is frightening, and reading books like Leading on Empty and Didn't See it Coming made me more aware of the dangers.
I didn't always get this right. I wrote about self-care in this post written after a hospital stay when I suffered a panic attack. I wish I had realised just how important a balance of work and rest would be for me earlier in my ministry career.
While I discovered these truths in a vocational ministry context, I believe they apply to everyone. Worry will always steal the joy and energy out of our days. Whinging will always feed the discontent within us. Working relentlessly will always rob the ones we love most and eventually cost us our health and happiness. Let us trust in God; His goodness and power to provide will make a way through our wilderness. He is truly good!
