PACE YOURSELF OR BURNOUT – Part 1

In High School, I learned that it is better to pace myself at a steady speed when running competitively rather than burning all my energy in the beginning of the race. It feels good giving it my all in the beginning, but I am sure to run out of steam somewhere along the way if I don’t pace myself. It is the same when building and maintaining an effective preteen ministry. Pace yourself or burnout. I’ve discovered that being in ministry is fast paced and never ending. It is your job to recruit, train, deploy, and nurture a group of volunteers to serve kids. You also teach preteens, plan events, attend staff meetings, edit curriculum, and meet with parents. And if you run too fast for too long, your passion will lessen and you’ll eventually crash and burn. So, how do you have staying power in ministry? The following are a few tips to help you keep a healthy pace of ministry life. I originally thought I could get all these down on one lesson entry, but have now realized it is too deep and long to do so. Therefore, for the next few LESSONS LEARNED you will be given several tips on how to pace yourself in ministry.

TIP #1 – Concentrate on doing only a few programs with excellence.

When first starting in ministry, I launched so many programs and was at church just about every night of the week. When I got married, my wife was dragged into the warp speed of doing ministry. After having three kids rather quickly, I had to take an honest look at what was best for my family. So, I ran only a few programs and cut out the rest. It meant not hosting as many events and cutting out a Friday night gathering called Club Edge. But I soon realized it was not only what was best for my family, but what was best for my ministry too.

Serving too much at church isn’t good for you or your family (even if you’re single). Guess what? There is more to life than just church! Did I really say that? Yes I did! God created you to live life to the fullest. He wants you to put Him first, not church or ministry. He may have placed dreams, passions, and interests inside of you (outside of ministry) that he wants you to pursue. It could be to pursue a hobby, get continued education, or something else. It isn’t selfish to pursue those things. But if you don’t have time because of too much church, then that is a problem. Also, serving at church too much can get in the way of your relationship with God and other people. Leading a successful ministry can isolate you from meaningful relationships with other Christians. It can also prevent you from enjoying your friendship with God. Are you so busy that you don’t have time for God or other relationships? Juggling too many projects at once? If so, you need to make a change. Serving at church too much can also get in the way of family life. Going to your kids’ soccer games, spending quality time at home together, and being mentally present with your family are all important. An out of balanced ministry or church life can get in the way of all that. You already have a disadvantage if your church has weekend services on both Saturday and Sunday. The weekend is precious time your family members have off and you have to work. So, keep that in mind when planning other events and programs. Doing less is more.

Serving too much at church isn’t good for your ministry. You can’t do a lot of things really well. You’ll spread yourself too thin and get sloppy somewhere. Little things will fall through the cracks and over time your effectiveness will minimize. But focusing on only a few, you maximize your effectiveness to preteens. Think of the light given off from the sun. It is kind of all over the place and spread really thin over the face of the earth. Imagine if you could focus all that energy into one laser light beam. It would be real powerful, wouldn’t it? Concentrating your efforts on only a few programs could have the same effect. Even if you had to cut down to only weekend services, what would it look like if that one hour was the best hour of your preteens entire week? How could that change lives? Would it take everything you and your team have? It probably would. You might not have to be that extreme, but it would be helpful to slim down a little. Ask yourself what programs are mediocre. Instead of trying to make them better, stop doing them. Pour yourself into the ones that are reaching preteens and changing lives. Ask yourself how you can make them better and do them with excellence.

It isn’t how well you start out in a race that counts, but how well you finish. Learn to pace yourself and not let busyness and an overbooked calendar burn you out. Learn to concentrate on only a few programs keeping your life in balance and your ministry healthy.