"I'm Expected to Do Everything Around Here!"

Are you exhausted from wearing too many hats and juggling endless responsibilities in your ministry? Discover how you can reclaim your time and energy while maintaining your effectiveness! On this episode of the Healthy Church Staff podcast, host Todd Rhoades shares invaluable strategies for pastors and church staff to set boundaries, delegate tasks, and prioritize effectively. You'll learn practical tips to prevent burnout and create a sustainable work-life balance, ensuring that you don't have to do everything yourself to lead a thriving ministry.

Join Todd as he delves into the reality of high demands and expectations in church work, and how acknowledging your limits can transform your approach to ministry. From having honest conversations with your team to starting small with delegation, Todd equips you with actionable advice to manage stress and empower others. Tune in to hear how setting crucial boundaries and prioritizing tasks can help you protect your time, reduce frustration, and ultimately lead a healthier, more effective church ministry.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:08

I'm glad you joined us here today on the Healthy Church Staff podcast. This is going to be a fun one. Do you ever feel like you're wearing a dozen different hats, you're juggling flaming torches and running on fumes? If you've ever muttered the words, I feel like I'm expected to do everything around here. This episode's for you. Hi there, my name is Todd Rhodes. I am the host for this podcast you are listening to. We'd like to call it the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. I'm also one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffingcom.

Speaker 1: 0:43

Ministry is a calling and it's a passion and it's a privilege. But let's be real, it can also be downright overwhelming. The demands are endless, expectations from everyone are high and the resources a lot of times are limited. So it's no wonder that so many pastors and church staff feel like they're just drowning in a sea of to-dos. How long is your to-do list today? What do you feel like you have to get done today? But here's the thing you don't have to be a superhero. You don't have to do it all. In fact, trying to do everything is going to be a recipe for burnout and frustration and, ultimately, ineffectiveness. And here's the thing with pastors in particular If you keep going all the time you try to be that superhero and by doing everything, you eventually get frustrated and burnout. A lot of pastors and some of them have burned out, and burnout for pastors is different than burnout for other people. Burnout for pastors, many times, is acting out in ways that will ultimately cost you your job and maybe even your family. So it's really important that you stay healthy. So here are a few strategies that I want to share with you today and hopefully this will be helpful if you feel like you're getting burned out or you just feel like the expectations are like Todd man everybody expects the moon of me and there's just I have no breathing room.

Speaker 1: 2:15

So here are a few things that you might want to consider. First of all, you just acknowledge that you can't do it all. Don't even pretend that everything's fine. Admit that you're feeling overwhelmed and stressed, and maybe talk with a counselor or someone just to know that you're not alone in this struggle. And you just have to admit and it's hard for us to do this you have to admit that you can't do it all. Have an honest conversation early If you are feeling overwhelmed. Have an honest conversation with your team. That could be if you're on a staff. Maybe that's your supervisor or your pastor. If you're a senior pastor, maybe it's your board or your elders whoever have good relationships with your team. Just sharing with them that the struggle is real and there's a lot of pressure can help, because a lot of times they will make some margins for you and at least you'll feel like they're on your side and on your team. Sometimes you just have to set some boundaries too.

Speaker 1: 3:43

You need to learn to say no to requests that don't align with your priorities or that stretch you too thin or just aren't good for you or your church. Protect your time and your energy for those most important tasks, and sometimes that means you have to say no. Other times it just means that you need to delegate and empower other people to do it. You don't have to do it all yourself, and sometimes can I be honest, sometimes we do it all ourselves, and I know I fall into this you feel like if I want it done right, I'll just do it myself, and you end up doing a lot of the stuff yourself and you wear yourself out. You don't have to do it all yourself.

Speaker 1: 4:23

Identify some tasks, particularly if you're not a good delegator, if you're not good at releasing things. Find something that someone can openly fail on and it's not going to kill anything. Start delegating small things. You don't have to do it all. So identify maybe one or two tasks, even this week, if you're feeling like this. Identify one or two tasks and empower, delegate, empower your team members to take on some leadership of some of that and take some of that off of your plate. And then those things that you do I just said, do those things that you do. Prioritize those almost ruthlessly.

Speaker 1: 5:05

Not all tasks are created equal. Not everything is of equal importance, not everything is of equal urgency. So, focused on the most important, the most urgent, the most impactful activities that will not only you enjoy but also move your church's mission and vision forward. And, as I said before, don't be afraid to ask for help. Maybe it's from a colleague, a friend, maybe you get a professional coach, ministry coach, but make sure you have a support system around you that can make all the difference.

Speaker 1: 5:38

You just can't do this on your own and you definitely can't do everything on your own. Okay, so here's your bottom line for today Feeling overwhelmed in ministry. Man, if you're feeling like that right now, you are not alone. It's a common experience, but it doesn't have to be your long-term reality. If you can acknowledge your limitations and set some boundaries, maybe delegate some tasks and empower some people on your team, you can create a more sustainable and fulfilling ministry rhythm. You're not called to be superhuman. You're not Superman. You're called to be faithful, and faithfulness doesn't mean that you have to do everything. You're not unfaithful if you're not doing everything. Faithfulness means doing what God's called you to do and doing it with excellence and integrity.

Speaker 1: 6:31

I'd love to hear your feedback anytime, or maybe you've got just something you would love for me to tackle or talk about here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. Reach out to me anytime. Podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. I'm here to help you however I can, to create healthy boundaries, healthy staffs, to hire well, to manage your team. Any way that I can help you, reach out to me. I'd love to talk to you at podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. All right, I hope you'll join us again right here tomorrow. Hope you have a great day. Talk to you again tomorrow right here at the Healthy Truth Staff Podcast.