Feeling burnt out? As a pastor, I've learned the hard way – you can't do it all.
I’ve tried. As a full-time pastor for over 20 years, I’ve also worked doing all of these:
Marketing , Social Media , Human Resources, Plumbing, Technical Support, Financial Planning, Graphic Design, Videography, Office Administration, Project Management, Wedding Coordinator, Cleaning, Landscaping, Fundraising, Event Planning, Property Management, Catering, Rental Properties, and Social Work.
If you are a pastor or a church leader then you may have realized that none of these were side jobs, just additional responsibilities that many of us find ourselves doing in today’s church.
The question we face each day: How do we get it all done?
My answer is: You don’t. At least you shouldn’t.
One of the healthiest things I’ve learned over the course of my ministry
is that you can’t do it all and you shouldn’t even try.
But They Won’t Like Me If I Don’t…
There’s something about the kind of people who feel called to lead in churches - they hate to disappoint others and will often run themselves ragged to avoid letting someone down. As a pastor, I see the whole of the church in a way that nobody else does. That usually means I see the hundreds of jobs and tasks it takes to keep the church going, and I especially see the ones that are at risk of not getting done.
The temptation we face when seeing things that need to be done that no one is doing is to rush in, do it ourselves, and save the day so that everybody is happy.
Stop it. Stop it right now.
By doing that you are not making everyone happy. In fact you are hurting people, you are hurting yourself with an unhealthy work load, and you are hurting the church by giving them the illusion that things are running fine and everything can continue as normal without cost. And that works.
Until it doesn’t.
A pastor or church leader who sacrifices their health, well-being, relationships, or sanity to keep the church functioning is going to create a bigger problem down the road for themselves and their church.
It’s OK If the Plates Fall
Have you ever seen a plate spinner? Erich Brenn, who was on the Ed Sullivan show, would do a routine that centered around multiple plates spinning on poles or on a table - keeping all of them spinning at the same time. Eventually he would have so many plates that by the time he’d go through one by one and get them all spinning, the first plates spun would be slowing down and wobbling so much he’d have to run across the stage to spin them again.
Pretty good description of church leadership, eh?
Brenn wouldn’t let plate drops, but I encourage you to do so. If you have more than should be expected of you, and/or if you are doing work as a pastor that should be done by someone else. Then you need to stop spinning some plates. Ideally, someone else in the church will notice that that particular plate is wobbling and run over to give it a spin. If that doesn’t happen, it may come crashing to the ground.
And that’s OK.
Give the Work of the Church to the Church
If a task or job is important to the church than the the church needs to take responsibility for it and see that it gets done.
As pastors and church leaders, we make the mistake of forgetting that the church’s work is the church’s work. Instead we believe and act like the church’s work is our work, and our work alone or primarily. Certainly we have a role to play in seeing that the work of the church gets done, but the ultimate responsibility for the life, work, and ministry of the church is the church, not any one person, pastor included.
If a plate is slowing own and starting to wobble, it’s fair to bring it to the attention of the appropriate team, committee, or board responsible for it. If a plate crashes to the floor and breaks, it’s time to have the appropriate body ask why that happened, did it need to keep spinning, and if so, what will *we* put in place to see that it does.
Try this exercise. What are five plates you are spinning that shouldn’t be yours? Determine these plates by asking questions like: Is this a task that only someone with my training, education, or experience can do? Can someone else do this 70% as well as I can? Some possible examples:
Unlock the building on an off-day because someone is using the church
Printing and folding the copies of the bulletin
Updating the website with new events
Scheduling a meeting or taking minutes for a team or committee because the chair doesn’t do it
Finding someone to repair the church dishwasher
Purchasing and preparing the communion elements
Pick Your Plates
Pick at least two of your plates and determine who should be responsible for seeing that they keep spinning. Notice that I didn’t say for you to find someone to spin them. All you have to do is figure out who is responsible for seeing them. Then you can go to the team or committee and say something like:
“I’ve been doing this particular task and I’ve realized that it is taking time away from more important aspects of my job, and I won’t be able to continue doing it. It seems to fall under your area, so I’d appreciate it if at your next meeting if you’d determine the best way for the church to see that this gets done.”
Now the responsibility for spinning the plate is no longer on you alone and hopefully that team will find a new plate spinner. If they don’t, then it sounds like that was a decision that that plate may not need to keep spinning. Let it fall, and then see how it important it was to the church. If it’s important enough, someone will figure out how to keep it spinning.
Obviously, it’s not as simple as this in every scenario, and you have to do this carefully. But if you don’t do it, plates are going to fall and break eventually anyway, except in that case you may not get to choose which ones they are.
Wow, very well said.