PACE YOURSELF OR BURNOUT – Part 3

Have you ever wished you could duplicate yourself 3-4 times? Your life would be much easier if there were three or four more of you, wouldn’t it? Imagine how much more you could get done? Leading a preteen ministry can be a tough job because there is so much to get done. You have a never ending to-do list that can stress you out and even cause burnout if you’re not careful. If you want to stay in ministry for the long haul, then learning to delegate should be high on your priority list.

TIP #3 – Delegating maximizes your effectiveness & lightens your load.

Delegating means to let go of some responsibility. It means you build a team and involves recruiting, training, releasing, monitoring, and encouraging team members. Dream big and think of all that God has put in your heart for ministry. Now, take a step back and write down the top three things you’re good at. Compare your gifts with the dreams God has placed inside of you. Next, begin to recruit others who might be talented in areas you’re not and think of a game plan to train and empower them along the way. You’ll also need to train up others who are good at what you’re good at. What do you delegate? Here are a few to consider when building a preteen ministry: worship leader, event coordinator, supply coordinator (someone to gather supplies for the weekend services), media team coordinator (someone to oversee those who operate the media at weekend services), midweek leader, and website coordinator (if you have a website). Don’t do it all yourself, share the load.

Delegating maximizes your effectiveness. Spend time trying to do everything yourself and you’ll burnout. Spend time recruiting and training others to lead alongside of you and build an unstoppable team who will make a difference in preteens’ lives with or without you. What is a better use of your time? Spending 25% of your time teaching preteens or spending 10% teaching and 15% equipping two other leaders to teach preteens? Over time, these leaders could become as good as or maybe even better than you at teaching. Do you see how building a team maximizes your effectiveness? Try it.

Delegating also lightens your load. Over time as you begin to form a team you and share the load together. In the beginning, I was the main communicator at our weekend services. I made raising up other large group teachers a priority. Now we have several people who share the large group teaching role. That means weekends are a lot easier. It isn’t all on my shoulders and I have more energy to my leaders at church and my family after church.

Believe it or not, there is a way to duplicate you. How? By building a team around you and delegating major responsibilities to other people. Effectively delegating will maximize your effectiveness and lighten your load. If you’re not already doing it, begin to build a team and delegate now.