Maybe the church you serve in needs to recognize your giftings and skills and then build a job description around you–not the other way around. Or maybe you are in the process of entering a new season of ministry where you need to be clear about your gift set and passions. Don’t compromise by taking the first job offer if it doesn’t match who you are. That won’t serve you or the church looking to hire you. If your church is willing, look at throwing out your old job description and rewriting a new one.
That is exactly what I found. In the end, I was burning out and my church was getting the leftovers and the role they hired me to do wasn’t being done to the ability it could have been. I wasn’t what the church needed in the season they were in.
3. Move on to something that will be a good fit.
Maybe the church is unable or unwilling to change your job description. Either way, you need to ask yourself, Is this what is best for me? and Is this what is best for this church? You are not irreplaceable and there are plenty of churches who need someone just like you. Don’t believe me? Contact me and I will give you dozens of numbers just in my own city.
I realized I wasn’t what my church needed and they were unable to change the job description. And that was fine for me. I love that church to this day. I still visit and have great friends there. But it became increasingly clear that for myself to thrive and for the church to move forward in its goals, I had to move on.
In the process God led me to a church that had a position that fit my gifts and skill set. In the areas that I wasn’t gifted, I had the liberty to build teams of people who were better qualified than I and then surround myself with them. Which brings us to the last point.
4. Surround yourself with people who are wired and thrive where you don’t.
I know this will be hard to believe, but there is someone out there that loves doing what you hate. The moment I realized this, I was able to find these people and give them the opportunity to serve God in the way they were wired to do. Most times people are just waiting to be asked.
I had someone say to me: “I love spreadsheets and paperwork, can I do that?” Seriously, those people do exist. I usually ask the question: What are you passionate about? If you could do anything to serve God, what would it be, no matter how crazy you think the answer is?
I had one person say, “I would love to serve God with my passion for real estate.” He thought he would have no place in the church to do so, but we were in the middle of trying to sell land and he was an answer to prayer.
Also, don’t be scared to admit you are unable to do everything, or that there are people in your church who can do things better than you. We succeed and are fruitful as a church because we recognize our need for each other. I have key volunteer leaders who I can trust and as a collective, we are stronger.
If you are in a context that everything is expected of you as the pastor, you need to ask the hard question, Am I able to rewrite my job description so that the church and I can thrive? If you don’t think it is possible or you are not the person to do it, maybe you need to eject yourself from that situation. God never called you to be Superman and if the church can’t see that, they have missed out on the blessing of you as their pastor.
So, are you mismatched in your ministry role? Are you slowly burning out because what you ‘do’ isn’t who you ‘are’? Then maybe a change is exactly what is needed.
Thomas
I really appreciated this post. I was a pastor of a church that grew from 70 in Average Worship Attendance (AWA) to 150 in about four years. I was proud of this growth, and I wanted to see our impact extend into the larger community. I made a rather detailed, lengthy report that proposed relocating the church to the growing edge of our medium sized community. The church was unified in their decision to stop growing and maintain for the indefinite future. While this was disheartening to me, I learned that I loved the game of growth. Management, risk, negotiating, and competition were exciting to me, but off-putting to the congregation. I don’t blame the congregation, but I wanted to be a metaphorical “fish-catcher” not a “sheep-tender.” I applied for a job in our denomination’s financial branch. I got the job which relocated me near a high quality business school. I was accepted into the Master of Business Administration (MBA) program because of my obvious ancient church history and Greek skills :-). I am much more happy in my MBA program than I ever was at seminary. In hindsight, I loved people, the Lord, and the church, but I had a passion to fight a fight and be successful. When I stopped trying to mask those feelings with false humility, I found that I was happier.
Drake Farmer
Thank you Thomas for sharing your story. It very encouraging to hear when people find a place that they can be thriving and alive and show that these possibilities are possible. Of course, this usually means making hard choices and having to swim up stream in most cases, but I don’t think we should have to settle in a position that doesn’t give us life, which I think you hit on the nail with your last comment. We so often bully ourselves to stay where we are due to false humility. That if I strange for what I feel I want to do, that means I am seeking this in wrong intentions.
Now of course, that may be the case that we are doing it out of wrong intentions and much wisdom is needed. We may even be called to weather through season, but we should never be ,otivated by guilt or feel bad about wanting to do something we love. So, thank you for sharing your story and adding to this conversation. Blessings.
For those in search of what their calling may be, you might be interested in this article: http://www.boldcupofcoffee.com/3/post/2014/02/how-do-you-know-you-are-called.html