Healthy Leadership and the High Cost of Caring
Learn to rest because the nature of God has much to do with rest. Rest, true God-given rest, does not automatically imply inactivity, but trust and dependency. God has so ordained our bodies that about every sixteen hours, it needs to shut down for awhile. If you live to the normal life expectancy in the United States, you will sleep approximately 25 years of that life. Speaker/author, Steven Covey, tells a story about two men who chopped wood side-by-side all day together. One man stopped every hour and rested, while the other worked straight through the day. When they finished, the man who rested actually chopped more wood. Why—because when he stopped, he also sharpened his axe. Resting allows us to stay sharp. We sharpen our physical axes, our emotional and relational axes, and especially our spiritual axes.
Learn to be silent and learn to be still. What is it about the ministry that often compels us to try and accomplish more than Jesus did? I cannot imagine anyone busier and more in demand than Christ was during His life on the earth. Yet, He clearly understood the value of being alone with the Father. Luke records this for us: “However, the report went around concerning Him all the more; and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by Him of their infirmities. So He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed” (5:15-16). The busier we are, the more we need to strategically withdraw, wait on the Lord, and allow the Holy Spirit to “renew our strength so that we can mount up with wings like eagles, run and not be weary, walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31).
Learn to give your burdens to God each day. We were not designed to be ministry pack mules. We are sheep. The only burden sheep carry is their wool and they lose that twice a year. In Matthew 11, Jesus admonishes us by saying, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and My burden is light” (vs. 28-30). In Colonial Williamsburg (VA), where I have lived, there are a pair of oxen that pull a cart throughout the restored area. Usually, one ox is a wise, seasoned animal and the other, new, young, and untrained, Whenever, they bring a new ox in like this, a special training yoke is often used. The neck hole for the wise seasoned old ox fits his neck almost perfectly, but the yoke for the young ox is much larger. The reason—the young ox is not supposed to feel the burden of the cart, but only learn what it means to walk alongside the other. It is an easier yoke. Jesus told us His yoke is easy. Yet, it remains a yoke which means that we cannot simply go anywhere we choose. However, God does want us to learn to walk alongside Him. If you are constantly feeling the burden of the ministry yoke—and I say this in Christian love—it means that you are in the lead and not the Lord.
Learn to triage your daily and life events. Emergency personnel have been trained to come into a situation, assess the genuine priorities, and begin making decisions regarding the most critical things first. Sometimes it can literally make the difference between life or death. The same is true in the ministry. Spiritual triage—discerning what God is doing in the moment, having the wisdom to know how to respond, and being led by the Holy Spirit—is a critical, stress-reducing leadership skill. Not everything that is important is urgent and not everything that is urgent is important. David cried out to God saying, “Show me Your ways, O Lord; Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; On You I wait all the day” (Psalm 25:4-5).
Learn to resolve those things that can be attended to easily and quickly. I frequently talk with leaders who spend 90% of their time, energy, and resources on the 10% that they may be able to do very little about. Reversing those numbers could help immensely in how we go about our day. Have you ever had a pebble in your shoe? A splinter? An eyelash in your eye? These are not life threatening events, but they can be extremely irritating nonetheless. A simple adjustment (i.e. taking the shoe off and shaking it out) can provide immediate relief. Ask God to show you the things in your life that represent the pebbles, splinters, and eyelashes, that with a little attention, you might experience relief and even freedom—in other words the “little foxes that spoil the vine” (Song of Sol. 2:15). Perhaps it means getting at least one more hour of sleep each night. Or actually taking your day off and relaxing. It could be any number of minor adjustments having significant payoffs. We only have to be off course by a little to miss the mark by a lot.
Learn to manage you time by saying “No,” or your time will control you. Time does not manage us, it tends to take over. We must be active—and at times brutal—in our self-examination and intentional in correction when it comes to this issue. I have learned than cemeteries are full of indispensible people. The fact of the matter is that life usually goes on with or without us. If the Lord was to literally call you home today, would someone still preach the sermon this Sunday? Counsel the parishioner? Finish the committee work? Write the report? Visit the hospital? Perform the wedding? Meet with the deacons or elders? Finalize the budget or the architectural plans for the new sanctuary? The answer is a resounding, “Yes.” Ministry leaders too often move their spouses, families, and their own self-care, out of their schedules when something else comes up and crowds the calendar. We rationalize that we will make it up later and yet, we never seem to have the time.
Category: Fall 2011, Ministry, Pneuma Review
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