Burnout – It comes Quickly and Quietly

While working in ministry over the last 8 years, in several different churches, I have seen a similiar scenerio play out many times. Putting my notes together, I thought it may be useful for other leaders who are in ministry.

1. You have 5 or 6 people who are always doing 80% of the job.

2. Those 6 stop seeing others pitch in so they decide they are going to take ownership in this because they are always the one in the weeds.

3. Leadership misreads this ownership and feels good about those 6 taking ownership and handling it and forgets that the only reason that these people “own it” is because they are against the ropes.

4. The pack of people who are always there, never really hear the Pastor or Leaders talk about how we are going to get more volunteers or a pitch for more people.

5. This carries on for a few weeks until the person has so much ownership that now when someone else decides to volunteer or leadership places someone new in to volunteer, you hear things like, “Nah, that’s not the way to do that” and/or “Who put this together!” from the original person who now feels there way is the only way to do things.

6. The person that we now finally got to volunteer feels like he or she is not good enough or that the person who is saying these type of things (mind you not really on purpose or to hurt anyone) has an attitude and now the new volunteer is telling themselves in their head, “see, this is why I don’t like to volunteer.”

7. We loose the person who made the jump to try to volunteer because they feel like others have an attitude. (btw – this word spreads quickly like a disease.)

8. The person who “Owns it” lasts a few more weeks before finally something happens that makes them say, “This is ridiculous, I don’t need this, and I just want to go to church”

9. Leadership now gets involved with all areas of setup and says to themselves things like “Welcome to ministry” or “I remember when such and such church started the Pastor told me he did this for the first 6 months, etc. etc.” – all of these statements of course are said to give an excuse for the real issue. Prior poor leadership.

10. Leadership is now preparing every aspect of Sunday morning experience and is unprepared and unmotivated because now everything is getting done 50% just to make “SOMETHING” happen each Sunday.

11. People start wondering, what the heck is going on at that church, a lot of people are talking about this and that etc. Gossip.

12. And just as quick as the good news spreads around your town, now the cloudy, weird word gets around about your church.

13. Leadership now is in continuous battles amongst themselves about what, when and how to make all this work.

14. Leadership decides to make a rash decision and point fingers in areas and now all areas are a little out of control and attitudes and gossip is peaking.

15. Leadership feels like the team was the problem and gets fired up because over the last several weeks they have replaced most of the old team with an entirely new team because the old team “had some problems.”

16. A couple weeks in, leadership starts pressing to get more people involved and slowly starts calling the plays which immediately leads back to step A. because the team was never the problem in the first place.

Filed under: Leadership

Do you want to be FAMOUS?

I worked 8 years in the hospitality industry. Straight out of High School I started working in Resorts and taking care of people’s lives. Then God gave me direction and in listening to His calling I ended up in ministry.

There has been one fundamental thing, one huge glaring difference between ministry and the regular working world. Something very weird to me. Something that I see in almost every church I visit or talk to. Something that at the end of the day, still after 4 years in ministry, makes me shake my head.

“Ministry is the only organization I have every seen where the quarterback also wants to hike the ball.”

In football, there’s a center. If he doesn’t do his job every time the team hits the field, then nothing else happens. NOTHING. Nothing happens. It is fundamentally the most important part of each play. The position is called “Center.” You know why? Because the rest of the entire team is built around him. He is the center. But here’s the problem. Not many people can name a famous center. Go ahead, try to name one. So although this person is the most important part of the play you can’t name any of them.

However, let me ask you this. Can you name any famous quarterbacks? You want to know something funny? That famous quarterback you just named wouldn’t be famous without a good center.

Quarterbacks are important. Very important. They get a lot of attention. They lead the team. They get many interviews. They are asked to show up at speaking engagements. They are sought after. THEY ARE FAMOUS.

The Center, is just that. He is the center. He is the rock that everyone else builds off of. He starts every play. He touches the ball more than anyone on the entire field each game. If he doesn’t do his job NOTHING happens. But he is alone. He gets little to no attention. His focus is on the team. He gets no air-time. HE IS NOT FAMOUS. But he knows in his mind, that he is the core. That he starts every play. And that he is the rock that the entire team is built around.

So which are you in ministry? Do you want to be FAMOUS? Or are you the Center whose focus is on the team? If your answer is both, you will probably lose the game.

Filed under: Leadership

Football Season – GET OFF THE FIELD!

Before I go any further let me say, I do not like football.

In fact I do everything possible not to watch sports. My dad however was a race car driver so many times I get trapped into watching many forms of racing.

But there is however one thing I really like about Football… The Coaches.

Why? Because I think they are amazing men and women. I think they are amazing men and women because without a doubt they have more love for the game then probably anyone else on the sidelines however, they never get to be on the field.  IT’S ALL ABOUT LEADERSHIP.

So many times in ministry you see coaches that are trying to be the quarterback, running back and wide receiver but really we just need to get off the field and be the coach.

Filed under: Leadership