This week on the podcast we talk with Dan Reiland about starting smart as a young leader. This episode is intentionally tilted toward YOUNG PASTORS with leadership lessons on beginning well in ministry. Jonny and I share lessons on either end of our conversation with Dan, and Dan himself shares six things that he believes young pastors need to remember to start smart in ministry.
This is a great episode to share with the young pastors or leaders in your life or ministry. This is information to help them start well in their 200church.
Here are the six suggestions from Dan about starting smart:
Kevin Pringle is our guest on today's podcast, Episode 66! Kevin is very candid with us as he talks about his leadership of his current 5-year ministry in Lincoln, NE. Kevin hit the ground running with this church plant, but it is in a very active community with many needs. After his first year, Kevin found himself on the brink of burnout, again. Recognizing those telltale signs of burnout, and not wanting to go to that party again, he took concrete steps to avoid it. He details his journey in this episode.
Today, Kevin has close friends within his church leadership, who support and encourage him, joining him in leading the ministries of the church. Kevin's wife, Beth, is her husband's partner as his Administrative Assistant. Kevin says Beth is the only paid staff that can actually fire him - as per a loophole in the church bylaws! Maybe not, but Beth keeps him honest, and together they lead and love their sons and daughters as together they form - TEAM PRINGLE!
Jonny and I had a blast with Kevin at our denomination's conference. He is a husband, father, pastor, leader, friend, and inspirer/encourager without our denomination! You will be encouraged and inspired as you listen to Kevin share his story of God's goodness in his life. Kevin joins all of you as a real, live, 200church pastor making a big difference in his community for the Kingdom! Have you ever written a blog post, and started with the Title? Yeah, me too. Today. I started with the Title, for the purpose of attracting attention. Did you really think that I had those five secrets?? LOL! Of course I don’t! I do have a couple secrets, but there’s no guarantee… still want to hear them? Read on… In case you still haven’t gotten it – the Title is a joke. It’s a ruse, a fraud, an apparition, a bait 'n switch! There are no five secrets and there are no guarantees. No one could really give them to you. They don’t exist, unless of course you wanted to pay people to come to your church. But again, here are some secrets I could share with you…
Well, those five things may or may not be secrets, but they are thoughts for you as you start this week. You know, we say it all the time, but do you really understand how important and valuable you are to the Kingdom of God, as you pastor your small church? Your 200church? Can you comprehend the import of God calling YOU to serve and love at your church? It's huge! You are very valuable. So go for it! LOVE those people, TRAIN them to serve, RELEASE them to love and give in the name of Jesus. TRUST in Jesus to lead and grow your church to its Kingdom potential, whatever that is. Enjoy the grace, light, joy, and love of Jesus this week. Karl “The Shark” Vaters is with us on Wednesday, as we talk about the topic – Your Church IS Big Enough. We can’t wait to be with you on Wednesday for Episode 58 of the 200churches Podcast! This week on the podcast, we talked with Dave Jacobs who has dedicated his life to coaching pastors, and especially pastors of 200churches. If you haven't listened yet, quit reading this right now and listen. Seriously. Have you listened yet? Good. How awesome was that?! Dave gets right to the heart of the issue and with so much compassion and understanding, tells us what we already know: being a pastor is tough. It's tough emotionally, spiritually, and physically. Because of the difficult nature of the job, it's important that pastors take care of themselves. Not just for their own sake, but also for the sake of their families, congregations, and communities. We pastors need to be healthy. One of the craziest moments on the podcast came when Dave suggested that pastors schedule themselves around 35 hour work weeks. Say what?! His reasoning makes sense though: we already know that as pastors, we'll have at least 5 hours of unscheduled time come up here and there throughout the week. That's the nature of being "on-call" and, for many pastors, that's the part of the job that we enjoy the most.
Because of that unscheduled time, Dave encourages all the pastors he coaches to schedule themselves 35 hours in a week. Why? Because being a pastor can really take it out of you! We take "work" home with us, send emails on the go, talk to our spouses about the latest goings on at the church, and generally carry the spiritual burden of the church 24/7. If we're not careful, we can start to work 50, 60, or even 70+ hours a week! That's bad for our health and definitely bad for the health of those around us. This is something that we at 200churches have to work on too, and begin to practice what we preach. Our schedules can get away from us and soon we can't even separate "ministry" time from "free" time. But even in our own weakness, we've found some practices that help: 1. Set a routine and refuse to break it! - Maybe your routine is to head to the office at 7 AM and leave no later than 4. Maybe it's insisting that you won't be out of the house more than two nights a week. Maybe it's that you take every Friday off. We're all different and our schedules and routines will look different. The goal isn't to fit yourself into a pre-made schedule box, but rather to refuse to jump out of the box you've created for yourself. 2. Limit the hours you work every week - Maybe this means you turn off your iPhone when you get home at night. Or maybe it means going in later to work if you know you're going to be there late. Dave talked about the 35 hour week and we think you should take that advice to heart. Quit working so many hours. The ministry will be there when you get back. 3. Ask your spouse/kids what they think your schedule should be - Is this a scary thought? If you're worried about what your spouse or kids might tell you, you're probably already working too hard. Dave listed off the priorities of a pastor like this: 1. God 2. Spouse 3. Kids 4. Ministry. What does your list look like? If you're not sure, ask your family, they'll know. While this list can't be lived literally, the priorities of life should be reflected in that order. Once you've developed a healthy schedule, you can actually start to schedule yourself some health. Take a monthly retreat. Seriously, do it. As small church pastors and leaders, we have a responsibility to take care of ourselves and our relationship with Christ. A better work schedule should lead to a better sleep schedule. A better meal schedule. A better exercise schedule. We're not telling you to become health nuts, but we are encouraging you to at least be healthy leaders. So what did you think of the podcast this week? Were you inspired to call Dave and get some coaching for yourself? Lets us know what you think in the comments. We always love to hear from you!
Today is the second and final segment of Jeff’s conversation with Rob Tarnoviski who is the Lead Pastor at Bethel Fellowship - The Church @ Franklin Mills. We think you will find it transparent and refreshing as they openly discuss the following topics:
As pastors, we have to balance two competing agendas: 1) those on the inside, and 2) those on the outside. The challenge is that the agenda for those on the outside of the Body of Christ will never be brought to the table, unless ministry leaders bring it for them. When they do, they are often opposed by those inside the church, seeking the insiders’ agendas. Rob talks about how he has created a culture in his church that thinks about the outsiders. This is a balancing act we have to maneuver all the time as pastors. We must feed the sheep, and we must leave the ninety-nine to find the lost sheep. We have to serve the body of Christ, while at the same time reach out to those who are far from Christ. In the last half of the 20th century, so many churches created climates where Christians were encouraged to separate themselves from unbelievers and segregate themselves into Christian schools, Christian social clubs, and Christian communities. Even mega churches created a one stop shop for all of the needs of a Christian family. They increasingly removed the need for the church to associate with the world. Next week we are going to hear the conversation that Jeff and Jonny have with Jim Powell, pastor of Richwoods Christian Church in Peoria, IL. He is the author of the book, Dirt Matters - The Foundation For a Healthy, Vibrant, And Effective Congregation and the founder of the 95Network. We will talk about how the culture of the church matters! His book compares the culture of a church, to the soil that plants grow in – and he surmises that dirt matters. The composition of soil is foundational to how well things grow. In the same way, the culture of a church is foundational to how a church grows. In today’s and last week’s podcast, Pastor Rob essentially talks about the culture of Bethel Fellowship. It is a solidly outsiders oriented culture. They think intentionally about those who aren't there… YET! Bethel has had staff members who have stayed on for many years, and the stability of the church is to their credit!
How about you and your church?
We wonder what kind of culture your church has? What kind of church culture are you trying to create? If you listed the things that bother you most about your ministry, you would see how the culture of your church is causing those very challenges. As you listen to today’s and next week’s podcasts, consider your church culture, and think about how you might begin to shape it intentionally into a culture and environment that will accomplish the very things which comprise the vision of your church. Finally, if you know of other 200church pastors who could be encouraged by the 200churches Podcast, pass along the website to them: www.200churches.com. If you want to share a topic you would like us to spend a week on in the near future, use the speakpipe pop-out on the homepage and send us a voice message, or email either of us at jeff@200churches.com or jonny@200churches.com. YOU are so important to the people who are your church. These are the ones God has called you to care for, feed, love, and protect. Do it with diligence and love. It’s amazing that in our connected culture, it might be easier than ever to be isolated as a pastor. I knew a pastor who felt that all his ministry time could be spent in his office. He rarely ventured out of the church facility to visit with church members, let alone community people. His vision dried up. He began spending more time in planning, preparation, study, administrative tasks, and ministry stuff, not realizing that the central focus of true ministry is people. And people necessitate relationships. In this week’s podcast we talk about what drives us to do what we do with 200churches, the podcast and the blog site. We talk about the nitty gritty of ministry, and in the conversation, we touch on isolation in ministry. I wonder if you are reading this, and realizing that you have become somewhat isolated as a pastor.
Here are five ways to tell if you are isolated in ministry.
If at least three of the above five situations apply to you – YOU are becoming isolated. That’s a bad place to be. You need to talk with someone this week about it. Find someone you trust, someone you can confide in. If you have no one, contact me or Jonny – me, if you’re an older pastor, or Jonny if you’re hip and “with it”! Our email addresses are on the contact page of 200churches.com. We’ll touch on this in the podcast on Wednesday, then on Friday, we’ll share some ideas to climb out of that isolation. God wants us to connect with the body of Christ, and with the world he so loves. He wants us to do ministry in community. He wants you to get your life back too! What are some other clues that a pastor might be isolated in ministry? This week we have been talking about finding balance between our personal lives, family lives, and ministry lives. In the future on 200churches.com, we are going to try to spend one week on one theme. We publish a blog post on Mondays and Fridays, and our 200churches Podcast on Wednesdays, and we thinking spending the whole week on the same theme will be helpful and encouraging to you.
So for this week here are our final four thoughts on balance:
In this week’s podcast, we want to give you four more thoughts on balancing your personal life, ministry opportunities, and family time. This builds on our previous blog post this week, where we shared our first four thoughts on this subject, which were:
Now, here are four more life balance thoughts:
We hope you enjoy this podcast and are encouraged and inspired by it! This week’s podcast will focus on balancing our personal and family lives with ministry. This post gets us thinking in that direction! You've probably noticed by now, if you are a 200church pastor, that ministry is not like a production machine that you tend from 8:00am to 4:30pm each day, with a half hour lunch and two twenty minute breaks. There is not a quota that when met, allows you extra time to relax, or when exceeded, brings large commissions. Ministry really is more like the song that never ends, it just goes on and on, my friends! If we are not careful, we can sing ourselves hoarse, and serve ourselves into exhaustion. If this happens, we have nothing to give our family, our friends, ourselves, or for that matter, our God.
It is interesting how younger church leaders seem to thrive on ministry. They are energized by phone calls, visits, counseling sessions, meetings, messages, lessons, and the study needed to prepare them. They crave growth, new attenders, new programs, increased budgets, and the affirmation of others. Since there is always another Sunday to prepare for, another new person to visit, the next ministry season to plan out, more phone calls to make, emails to send, and leadership articles to read – our ministry responsibilities and opportunities literally NEVER end! Our spouse and kids often end up with the short end of the stick, because the urgency of the moment trumps the need to spend time with them. Their understanding of the importance of ministry would surely overshadow the consequences of not running when someone calls in their crisis. How do we balance our approach to ministry so that our family does not suffer, or worse, end up resenting the very work to which we give our lives? I have just four thoughts… today. I have a lot more, but I’ll just share four: #1 We have to settle the issue of where the power really comes from. We all know that Jesus said “I will build my church.” This really is important for us remember. Jesus is the Great Shepherd, the Savior, and the King of his Kingdom. We work for him. We are empowered by him through his Spirit. Our tireless efforts and sacrificial service, efforts and service that ignore the needs of our families, are truly not needed at all by God. Let’s settle the issue – this is really God’s church. It’s his deal. #2 The next issue we settle is that while ministry never ends, each day does, after only 24 hours. Imagine if, after you allocate 8 hours for sleep each day,(stop laughing!) you decided that the lid on your ministry commitment would end at 9 hours, so that you had at least 7 hours for yourself and your family. Since each day is finite, our contribution to ministry must be finite too. Our spouse and our kids would love a few of those hours. And we need an hour or two to ourselves, for rest, recreation, and renewal. #3 Ministry will never end, but your children’s years in your home will. I’ve messed up in many areas of my life over the years, but one area I managed well was time with my kids when they were at home. I have four children. Two are gone, two are still home. When I was a teenager, pastors were taught that they should reserve one night a week for “family night.” Because the culture back then was to be out doing ministry every night! To spend one night a week at home with family was considered honorable. Some of those pastors lost their family, their health, their ministry, and their minds. Since most children have about 18 years at home, determine to make the most of that time. Andy Stanley says to “cheat the church” if you have to, to make sure your time with your kids is at a premium. They only have two parents, and if the church steals one, they will resent it! #4 Pastors must set an example for their church, in the area of personal leadership and life management. How good for our people to learn to prioritize things like Sabbath rest, sleep, hard work, family, positive healthy living, personal worship time, etc. if we model these things for them! Our church family needs to hear us say “no, I can’t do that”, “no, I will not be able to make that meeting”, and “no, I am already scheduled to be with my son or daughter on that night.” Our preaching and teaching can take on powerful authority if our lives are congruent with our messages. For the sake of our influence, and our people, we must live out and model what we want to see in them. To be clear, family comes before ministry. It has to, it’s like the oxygen mask. We have to minister to our own families first, then we have the right to minister to others. Yes, the song ends. It ends every day, every week, every month, and every year. God created those time frames. They shout “Limits! Boundaries! Finish lines!” Let’s not sing ourselves hoarse. Let’s finish with the fourth verse, then punch out, and go home. God will stay and watch the store. |
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