The Healthy Church Staff Podcast

The Addiction to Momentum_ Why Some Churches Cant Stop Running

Todd Rhoades Season 1 Episode 410

Church leaders often confuse constant motion with progress, using momentum to mask deeper issues that need addressing. Slowing down isn't failure—it's a faithful choice that allows space for healing, growth, and sustainable ministry that Jesus himself modeled.

• Momentum feels like growth but can actually be directionless motion
• Constant activity often hides anxiety, unhealed trauma, or unresolved conflict
• Churches fear pausing because silence might surface pain or inadequacies
• Warning signs include always saying "we don't have time," launching new programs without evaluating old ones, and postponing conflict resolution
• Healthy solutions include canceling one thing without replacing it, processing unresolved issues, and teaching congregation why slower seasons are spiritually valuable
• The goal isn't less impact but deeper health—healthy churches grow stronger, not just faster

Ask yourself: What's one thing you can slow down on this month before something breaks? Reach out with your thoughts at podcast@chemistrystaffing.com.


Have questions or comments? Send to podcast@chemistrystaffing.com

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Speaker 1:

Is your church addicted to momentum? Why do some churches seem absolutely incapable of slowing down? The foot is always on the gas all the way to the floor. But behind the polished cameras and calendars and packed programming lies a deeper issue a lot of times, and it's this addiction to momentum. And today on the podcast, we're going to explore why some church leaders stay in constant motion and why it might be costing in their health and their team and in their congregation. So if your church feels like it's always going, doing, but never stopping to breathe or reflect or to heal, today's podcast is for you, because we're going to talk about the subtle signs of ministry burnout, the hidden wounds that we avoid, and how we might be slowing down, how slowing down might actually be the most courageous leadership move you could make for the next quarter anyway. All right, thanks for joining me today.

Speaker 1:

My name is Todd Rhodes, one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffingcom, and I'm your host right here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. What if your church? What if the reason your church can't stop running is because stopping would force you to face what's broken? It's easy to stay busy, it feels really productive. But is all that momentum really masking something deeper, and I think in some churches it is, and today I'm going to try and unpack for you why some churches, I think, need motion to avoid emotion and what to do if it's your church, so stick around, because we're going to talk about the healthiest move your church might make this year Could just be to slow down.

Speaker 1:

All right, let's talk about momentum just for a second. Okay, momentum, it feels like growth. Okay, break it all down. That's really the bottom line. Okay, break it all down. That's really the bottom line. Our busyness, our momentum feels like growth, but it isn't always Because, if we're honest, momentum can feel like success. People are showing up, the events are happening, the calendars are packed, but there's a danger with all of that too. Not all movement is progress, and sometimes momentum is not just motion. It's motion without any kind of direction or intention.

Speaker 1:

And in ministry, momentum, this movement, can also be like a drug. It keeps us from sitting in silence, it keeps us from asking hard questions or naming brokenness. And sometimes, sometimes, momentum, you keep going and going and you never see where you've gone off the rails. And you keep going and going and pretty soon you've got a train wreck because, like I said, sticking with that analogy somewhere along the line, and all that momentum, you went off the rails and you never corrected. So have you ever felt like slowing down, never corrected. So have you ever felt like slowing down might make the wheels fall off? That could be a symptom that your church might be addicted to momentum, because churches that are addicted to momentum often fear any kind of pause because that silence is going to surface some pain or inadequacies.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so when anxiety, when activity, a lot of times when there's a lot of activity, it can hide that anxiety. So there's often maybe some unhealed trauma behind the relentless pace that we keep. So maybe your church has gone through a split, maybe there was a moral failure, maybe things just feel a little fragile and churches go through struggles and conflict and even moral failures quite often, more often than what we'd like to admit. But if your first reaction when something like that happens is just to keep your head down and barrel 90 miles an hour faster, that is probably not the right thing to do, because instead of processing or grieving or healing, we just think we got to keep going. We got to keep going, we got to launch another initiative and we're going to pivot. We're going to chase what's next and we never take the time to sit in our silence and mourn and heal. The anxiety is not going to go away. It just gets buried deeper and deeper. And you can't preach peace while you're operating from panic. Sure, you can put on a good front, but that panic is going to surface at some point.

Speaker 1:

What I'm really trying to say here is that this constant motion, this movement, this constant, we got to charge the next hill all the time. I'm all for charging hills, matter of fact. I can't be a part of an organization or a church that doesn't have a couple of hills that they're trying to climb right. But that constant motion, the never-ending motion, is often a coping mechanism and burnout is just around the corner. It's the body eventually saying it could be your body, it could be the church body as a whole just saying eventually I can't take it anymore, I can't take the stress anymore.

Speaker 1:

So what I'm encouraging you to do is it's okay to slow down. It's okay to slow down. It forces us to face some of the uncomfortable truths and stop. It helps us to expose things that really need to be exposed. It will expose unresolved conflict. It will expose unhealthy systems. It will reveal the real conversations that we've been avoiding. Are all of these things that we want to tackle? No, is that part of the reason why we keep going and going? Yes, but we gotta stop. This can't continue. Somebody's gotta fall off the merry-go-round sooner or later, and usually when they fall off, it's not pretty. There's no wonder we keep moving. That stillness, that slowness, that pause in the motion, the forward moving motion, the pause, and having our foot on the accelerator it feels dangerous. But here's what I want to say to pastors and church leaders Slowing down for a season isn't failure, it's faith.

Speaker 1:

Okay, jesus retreated, he Sabbathed, he said no, he walked when other people wanted him to run, and maybe your church honestly doesn't need another big initiative right now. Maybe you need a season of intentional stillness, and if that thought terrifies you, it's probably exactly where God wants you to work. So let me talk quickly, going a little long today, but that's okay, because this is important Signs that you might be addicted to this momentum. Okay, let me give you some warning signs. We don't have time, for that is your team's favorite phrase. You'll launch new programs without evaluating old ones. Maybe there's conflict that keeps being postponed until after this next big thing happens. Maybe rest is seen as a reward, not a rhythm, and if I just get through this, then I can take a little bit of rest, but you never are able actually to do it. Maybe you're more impressed by hustle than health.

Speaker 1:

These aren't just red flags, and it doesn't mean you're a bad leader if you have some of this going on in your team. It means that you're human. But honestly, the longer we ignore some of these red flags, the louder the crash is going to be when the momentum finally stops on its own Because I've learned this in ministry over 30 years that momentum will stop. There are ebbs and flows to momentum and you love to have the momentum, but you can't control the momentum. You can manufacture the momentum sometimes, and sometimes it's a work of God and that momentum keeps going, but eventually that momentum will stop and you don't want to be there for the crash when it does.

Speaker 1:

So what could it look like to pause without totally falling apart? You don't have to shut everything down. I'm not asking you to do that. What I'm asking you to do is just slow down. Maybe you just need to cancel one thing this month and don't replace it. Maybe you need to process that unresolved issue with your team that keeps getting tiptoed around. Maybe you need to ask your staff what they really need right now, with your team that keeps getting tiptoed around. Maybe you need to ask your staff what they really need right now. Maybe you need to teach your people why a slower season is actually a spiritual decision. This isn't weakness, it's wisdom, and the goal isn't less impact, it's deeper health, because healthy churches grow stronger, not just faster.

Speaker 1:

All right, so here's the bottom line for you. I'd love for you to take away today what's one thing that you can slow down on before something breaks? That's really your next step. Don't miss that. Again. Here's the question what's one thing that you can slow down this month before something breaks? And if you're constantly chasing momentum and movement and don't take time to get healthy, bad things will happen. Bad things do happen when you've always got your foot on the gas. Hopefully, this has been a little bit of a warning for you, and if there's something that kind of resulted as a result of you listening or watching this podcast today, I'd love to hear from you. Reach out to me anytime personally. Podcast at chemistry staffing today. I'd love to hear from you. Reach out to me anytime personally. Podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. I would love to hear from you. All right, we will be back here again on Monday. We're here every weekday right here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. I hope you'll join me again, you.

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