Right at 1000 words but it could help with your Christmas list
But if you missed last week’s post from Jim Sheppard, go read it first.
If you missed the prior issue, look at it now here.
It described an actual phone call with a pastor who said: “The GRIND is wearing me down.”
As I reflected on his case, I identified a few probable causes I had observed in other situations.
A bit of personal history here: When I was 16, I went to work in a local hardware store. It was the greatest job ever! I could go on and on. I stayed all through college because of some generous employers.
One of our services was sharpening lawnmower blades and other saws and implements. We sent most of the work to a specialist, but we could sharpen knives and lawnmower blades in-house on a bench grinder.
A bench grinder is a simple electric motor with various grits of stones and wire brushes attached to spin at high speed around the axis.
One would hold the blade against the stones and move them along the edge to sharpen.
This would throw out thousands of sparks and generate heat, so safety glasses and gloves were used. However, the grinding also sharpened the steel alloy implements, making them much more efficient and useful again.
That is the image for GRIND reimagined that I want in your head as you battle to turn negative grind into positive grind.
(In case you are looking to gift me something for Christmas)
Yes, there is a grind in ministry. There is repetition, slogging through, and plenty of challenges. But how do we make that productive for kingdom work?
First, recall the last issue’s GRIND:
G – Guilt Driven Service
R – Relentless Pace
I – Isolation
N – Neglecting Self Care
D – Depletion of purpose
Now let’s talk to that pastor about reframing the GRIND productively.
G – Growth in Wisdom
Here’s the deal: You have learned a few things. You may not have captured them well in your own head. Write down your learnings from your experiences.
Leaders tend to focus on the GAP more than the GAIN. (Hat tip: Dan Sullivan)
The GAP is the distance between where we are now and where we hope to go. That is the nature of leadership.
But to build your confidence, focus just as much on the gain. “Here are the gains we have made over time.”
Start back to when you started there and recognize the challenges you have overcome and addressed, the lives that have been changed and shaped, and the good staff that have been raised up and perhaps sent out.
You are not a failure.
R – Resilience in Challenges
There will be more challenges ahead. We don’t know all of them yet.
When I work with board and staff teams in the Senior Pastor Smart Succession ™ process, we often identify key strategic decisions that will need to be made in the next chapter of the church’s life. We don’t need to solve them yet, but we know they must be solved.
Identifying what they are and when we should address them is a productive first step.
We know we have a history of addressing challenges and can draw on that resilience to address new ones.
I – Investing in Others
It is hard when people we have invested in depart from us. We need to reframe that to being sent for a purpose to serve elsewhere.
But great leaders must continually develop new leaders, disciple new believers, and foster a leadership community that will support and encourage one another after we are gone.
In my experience, one can train new leaders if they invest their time into that process. Experienced leaders cannot be ignored; they must be told, “I need to invest my time in encouraging some of the new leaders to carry forward our mission.”
I know pastors who select a new small group of 3-5 leaders every year to mentor personally for a year. Those leaders grow and move on to other mentors after that year.
This keeps the experienced, mature leader always in touch with a crop of potential new thinkers and leaders within their congregation.
Keep reading after this ad…..
This is another great client I get to serve with Senior Pastor Smart Succession process. Perhaps you can help them find their next great leader.
Soma Church - Midtown is located in the Broad Ripple area of Indianapolis, Indiana.
This church is:
Full of young families who are striving to live out the gospel.
Bursting at the seams with growth.
Committed to its community and building church community.
In an area with affordable new housing for a pastor.
This church fits well in this diverse, trendy, eclectic area and has tapped the code of Practicing the Way of Jesus for the Life of the World.
It has quickly become one of my favorite churches in the country.
Main story continues…..
N – Navigate Complexity
Let’s face it, friend: your life was probably simpler when you started at this congregation. Your family was smaller, and you didn’t have teenagers or adult children to keep you awake at night. The congregation was smaller and less complex as well.
It now takes you more time to manage family issues and concerns in addition to the church issues—staff, finances, and preaching.
Great leaders learn to delegate well at the pastoral level including the preaching and teaching of the scriptures. If you have not developed a more robust teaching team – start now. That is imperative as you grow. Consider this part of helping the church prepare for what could be coming.
Plus, it helps your preaching and teaching by investing in these leaders in their speaking gifts. You will learn new things from them as well.
D – Deepening Faith
There is no resource more important than nurturing our own walk with Jesus through devotion, prayer, and reflection to sustain the long-term demands of ministry.
Some of you were like me, blessed with a gift of simple trust and faith from an early age.
Others are like one of my mentors, Tom, who worked through “My Utmost to His Highest” every year. Every day, every morning, he was in that book and the accompanying scriptures. Every year, on the days we were together, he would share his thoughts from that day's reading and reflection. Some of you need that discipline.
Some of you need a discipline like that for many years, and some need to change yearly.
My only recommendation is to “stick with it” for at least a year in regular practice to engage in faith practice and let it penetrate the surface to the heart.
Like those sharpening, grinding stones, these do take work. But they do sharpen us for further use in your current role or for a future role in serving God’s kingdom.
(While I was writing this series, my old friend Charles Stone shared his thoughts on these areas. You can read his post here. It's not the same as mine, but it has some good thoughts.)