This post is for my fellow pastors and ministry leaders…PLEASE read this next sentence slowly…
You don’t always have to be the tough guy, the person who has it all together and has all the answers…SOMETIMES the GODLIEST thing you can do is swallow your pride and ask for help!
One of the things that bothers me the most about ministry leaders (including myself) is that we all have what I like to call “The Messiah Complex,” we think that being godly means NOT having to ask anyone for anything…and for us to do so would show signs of our weakness.
Guess what…WE ARE WEAK…and the sooner we all realize that the sooner Jesus can shape and mold us into who He wants us to be. It’s HIS strength in us that makes the difference…not how others perceive our strength.
It took me a while…but I finally realized a few years ago that I don’t have to pretend to be someone that I’m not…so…
I’ve asked the people I serve with to pray with/for me on numerous occasions. God didn’t place me among a group of people so that I could meet their needs…but rather so we could meet each others needs and take care of each other.
So…pastor/church leader…who around you are you leaning into? (BTW…if you have no one on your team that you can trust and lean into…you’re probably serving with the wrong people!)
UNDERSTAND that admitting you are struggling with something and that you need help doesn’t cause them to disrespect you; in fact, the opposite is true.
Pastor/church leader…who are the other pastors in your life? Every pastor needs a pastor…so who pastors you?
The bottom line is this…what we do is NOT easy, the pressures we face are intense…and there is hardly ever a time where we can completely disengage.
- Some of you are struggling with wanting to quit…
- Some of you are struggling with lust issues…
- Some of you are allowing fear to dominate your ministry…
- Some of you have marriages that are one argument away from divorce court…
- Some of you have kids that have gone off the deep end…
- Some of you are facing spiritual battles like you’ve never faced before in your life…
And the GREATEST TRAGEDY of ALL of this is…YOU ARE TRYING TO GO THROUGH THIS ALONE!!!
Please…for HIS sake and for the Kingdom’s sake…STOP IT…
Sit down with your team and ask for help…TODAY!
Pick up the phone and call another pastor…TODAY!
You are too valuable to the Kingdom to try to go ONE MORE MINUTE doing this by yourself…
Let’s lean into one another…stay in the game…refocus on lives…and do all we can to push back the Kingdom of darkness and see HIS Kingdom enlarged in UNDENIABLE ways!