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How much time are you spending ‘tending’ your individual ministries?

As we work with churches to help them grow their ministries, we find that many church leaders are investing thousands of hours every year on their individual ministry efforts. They’re recruiting volunteers, they’re scheduling facilities, they’re creating communications about ministry activities and dealing with the dozens of administrative details that come with trying to create an active, engaged community of believers. And they’re often burning themselves out in the process.

Leading a church can feel like one of the loneliest jobs in the world. Given the nature of your work in ministry, it may not feel like there are many people you can rely on for advice or who can understand what your life and work are really like. Before you know it, you’re alone and isolated in your ministry work and wondering if you’ve got what it takes. 

“So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.” —Ephesians 4:11–12 (emphasis added)

As a leader — whether at home, at work, at church, wherever I am — I’ve got one job that’s more important that any other. I need to replace myself.