The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
We're all about helping create a healthy, positive, and spiritually positive environment for church staff members and leadership teams.
The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
When to Leave - Does Excellence Exhaust You?
The episode delves into the impact of incessant striving for excellence on ministry leaders, focusing on how it can lead to burnout and exhaustion. It offers insights and actionable steps to reassess one's priorities, embrace imperfection, and maintain motivation in ministry.
• Exploring the relationship between excellence and exhaustion
• Recognizing perfectionism as a warning sign for burnout
• Understanding the cost of relentless pursuit of perfection
• The importance of reassessing why we pursue excellence
• Prioritizing connections over performance in ministry
• Strategies for effective delegation and teamwork
• Learning to embrace the concept of 'good enough'
• Suggestion to take action on personal perfectionism struggles
• Encouragement to download "When to Leave" for deeper reflection on one's calling
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Hey there, welcome back to the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. I'm Todd Rhodes, one of the co-founders over at Chemistry Staffing, and, as always, I'm here to walk with you on your ministry journey. We're here every day, monday through Friday. And here's the reason why because ministry leadership can be fulfilling but it can also be exhausting, especially when you are on the constant pursuit of excellence, and it really can start to take a toll. And today we're going to take a really big question and try and answer it Does excellence exhaust you?
Speaker 1:We are in the middle of a series here on the Healthy Church Staff podcast, inspired by Wayne Hodge's book that's called when to Leave, how to Know it's Time to Move On Before you Stay Way Too Long, and we're going to explore how striving for excellence can lead to burnout and what to do if you're feeling overwhelmed. So excellence is a big buzzword in ministry. It has been for the last generation anyway. I mean, we want our sermons and our music and our programs to be top-notch and we should. We're doing it for Jesus, right. But we often equate excellence with faithfulness. And here's the thing when you drive for excellence, when your drive for excellence becomes relentless, it can drain your energy and your joy and even your sense of calling and that's what we're talking about in this series is kind of your sense of calling.
Speaker 1:So Wade and his book highlights some warning signs that maybe excellence might be exhausting you right now. And first one is maybe you're just a perfectionist and that you know, maybe over your life you've known forever that you're a perfectionist and you've done, you know, taken steps and you do better. But you've noticed here recently that that perfectionism is just really rearing its ugly head right. Are you constantly reworking your sermons, tweaking your worship slides, you know, late into the night, because they're never just right. You could always make them just a little bit better. Man, I have issues with this many times. Perfectionism can paralyze you and it can make you never satisfied. I mean, if you feel like nothing you do is ever good enough, it's a sign that you're probably running on fumes. You've got those perfectionistic tendencies going and it's really going to catch up with you. Maybe you're so busy being the perfectionist that you just have lost sight of the why. I mean excellence is a means to serve the mission of the church, not to overshadow it. I mean, are you focusing more on performance and perfectionism than you are on people? That's a big question to ask. And maybe your health and your relationships are suffering because you're striving so hard all the time for excellence. And let me tell you if your drive for excellence is costing you sleep, if it's costing you your health or time with your family, it's really time to reassess. Now. Hear me, hear me strong here.
Speaker 1:The pursuit of excellence is not bad. In fact it's necessary. But when it becomes the only thing, or your biggest priority, or priorite as they say, it's unsustainable. You know, ministry is a marathon, not a sprint. So here's the bottom line for today Excellence should inspire you, not exhaust you. Excellence should inspire you. It should be something to be attained, something you're going after. It should inspire you but not exhaust you. And if you're feeling drained, it's time to recalculate. So maybe you just need to revisit your why. We talk about this often here on the podcast.
Speaker 1:Ask yourself why am I pursuing this excellence at all costs? I mean, is it to glorify God? Is it to make my church look better? Is it to make me look better? Or is it just to meet some unrealistic expectations that I'll never meet? I know myself. I know I'll never meet the ultimate, it'll never be perfect, right?
Speaker 1:Maybe you need to prioritize your relationships over the perfection. Shift your focus away from the perfect execution to connection. And for perfectionists, man, this is hard. It means you got to stop sometimes and you got to say it's good enough. Excellence in relationship matters more than the perfect, flawless program.
Speaker 1:Maybe you need to delegate and empower others. Maybe you're just trying to do everything perfectly. Maybe you're trying to do everything perfectly. Are there tests that you're holding on to that you could give to somebody else? I know it hurts, it's hard to delegate, but sharing that load can reduce stress and it can build your team. And here's one. That's the last thing that I'm going to share. And it's tough, I know it's tough, but embrace good enough.
Speaker 1:Now you can go the other extreme where, eh, that's good enough. That's different than man. You're just constantly striving and you need at some point to say you know what? This is good enough. Not everything needs to be perfect and sometimes good enough is exactly what's needed to get the job done and, at the same time, keep you healthy and preserve your energy. So here's your action step this week Pick one area where I mean, if you're dealing with this man, excellence is a high priority for me and it's just, it's starting to exhaust me.
Speaker 1:I'm just, I'm tired, I'm exhausted. If you're dealing with this, here's your action step Pick one area where you can kind of dial it back and maybe it's not the public area, maybe it's not the preaching, maybe it's something that only your staff will see or something. But dial back, see if you can dial back that perfectionism. I mean, maybe it's behind the scenes on your sermon, maybe it's simplifying your sermon prep, maybe it's trusting a volunteer to handle a task that you usually micromanage. Start small and see how it feels and see if it helps, because this is really important. You can't be exhausted. You can't do great ministry when you're exhausted. And you know what, when you're exhausted, even though you're a perfectionist, the good enough is not going to be good enough, it's going to suffer. All right, is the pursuit of excellence wearing you out?
Speaker 1:I'd love to hear your story, email me, reach out to me anytime on anything. Podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. Love to hear your story and give some encouragement there. And also if there's any way that I could help you or your church or anybody that you know in the area of staffing, finding a job, keeping a job, maybe if it's for your church hiring staff, you know, making the tough decision to cut staff, any kind of realignment. You can reach out to me anytime. Podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. I'd love to be able to help and partner with you if there's any way that that makes sense.
Speaker 1:And finally, man, if this series and this is and we're finishing week two next week is our last week in the series, but if this is really resonating with you, if you feel like God is maybe calling you into a time of reflection and maybe even a time of transition, I'd love for you to download the when to Leave book. It's absolutely free. It's the book we've based this whole series on, by Wade Hodges. You can get a free copy right now. Go over to chemistrystaffingcom. Slash when dash two dash leave. Chemistrystaffingcom. Slash when dash two dash leave. It's absolutely and I'm this time I'm being honest with you. It's packed with wisdom for leaders just like you.
Speaker 1:All right, hey, thanks for spending some time with me today. You don't know how much it means that you take time out of your day to spend it right here with me. Podcasting is very, very personal thing. I mean it's just you and me kind of hanging out and I enjoy our time together. I would love to get to know you. Podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. Just drop me a line, tell me you're listening. But today, remember, excellence is a tool, it's not a taskmaster. When balanced well, it can inspire, it can uplift, but when it's overdone, it will exhaust and it will drain. So take a step back, refocus on your. Why give yourself grace to embrace the good enough. All right, take care, have a great day and we'll see you again. Have a great weekend, actually, and we'll see you again here Monday on the Healthy Church Dad Podcast. You.
