Being a pastor is an enormous calling. You have dozens of responsibilities and carry the weight of shepherding your congregation.
You’re juggling tasks and wearing an ever-leaning tower of hats as you strive to follow God’s path while guiding your church on the journey of discipleship.
But whether you’re a senior pastor, a minister of discipleship, a youth pastor, or something else in between, one of the easiest traps you can fall into is the temptation to become the “Pastor of Stuff.”
It’s not hard to see the myriad other things that need to be accomplished and feel like you’re the one who has to get everything done. But when you have so many things on your plate, filling your to-do list with too many tasks that aren’t your job means you won’t have time to do what you are called to do.
There will always be miscellaneous tasks to keep a ministry running smoothly. But being a pastor makes so many other demands on your time that it is absolutely essential to your health and the success of your church to ensure that you are fulfilling your role in your ministry.
Burnout is a very real thing. Over 40% of pastors have considered leaving the ministry since 2020 because they’re overwhelmed and exhausted. Taking on too many things that shouldn’t be on your shoulders is one of the fastest ways to add yourself to that statistic.
You aren’t the Pastor of Stuff, so here are three things to ensure your to-do list doesn’t look like you are.
Step #1: Make sure you have a clear job description.
This may sound obvious, but you should have a written job description with your responsibilities and expectations clearly defined.
The first step to ensuring you have the bandwidth to fulfill your role as a pastor is to do your job!
Of course, there will be tasks that have to be done that aren’t covered in your job description, but you need a starting point.
If something comes up that falls under your responsibilities list, then it’s up to you to make sure it gets done. But if the task falls outside your designated role, you should use what you are in charge of to help determine if you have the time and ability to meet the need.
Let’s say you’re the Minister of Discipleship. A closet in the children’s hallway needs to be cleaned out and reorganized. It is full of craft and art supplies for your Sunday evening kids’ activities.
If you have the time, there’s no reason you can’t help with the closet cleanout. But if you’re already stretched thin, that task shouldn’t fall to you.
Let’s look at another example. Say you’re the worship pastor and your youth director needs one more chaperone for camp. You don’t have any kids in the youth group, and the camp falls the week before your church’s anniversary worship celebration.
Of course, you’ll be taking a huge weight off the shoulders of your youth director if you go. But you’ll be adding significant strain to your own to-do list and making it more challenging to perform your own pastoral duties.
This isn’t to say you shouldn’t ever help in areas of the church outside your role and assigned responsibilities. But you should look closely at each need before agreeing to things that aren’t meant to be on your plate.
You can’t fulfill your pastoral role if you’re constantly running around trying to help everyone else fulfill theirs.
Step #2: Delegate!
This is one of the most repeated pieces of advice for those in leadership, but it is also one of the most ignored.
Many times, it feels like it’s easier to just do it yourself or that you’ll actually save time by not having to teach someone else to do it.
While that may be true occasionally, more often than not, you haven’t saved time or energy by doing it yourself. You’ve caused more stress by keeping things on your to-do list rather than asking someone to help.
And just because something is your responsibility, it does not mean you’re the one who personally has to accomplish a task.
You can still be in charge of ensuring that all of the small group leaders have their teaching materials without having to go to every individual classroom to drop things off.
You can still make sure the leak in the bathroom gets fixed without being the person to pick up a wrench.
Part of being a good leader (and a good pastor!) is inviting others in and allowing them to help accomplish the work that needs to be done.
If you want to ensure that you’re doing what you’re meant to do, you have to be willing to ask others to help complete the tasks that don’t require your attention.
There are plenty of things on your plate as a pastor. You’ve been called by God and your congregation to be a spiritual leader and shepherd, so you need to make sure that whatever tasks you put on your plate allow you to be a good one.
Step #3: You can’t pour from an empty cup.
We often hear this phrase when we talk to moms who need to recharge or volunteers who are facing burnout.
But this is just as true for you as a pastor.
One of your biggest responsibilities is to guide your congregation on their spiritual walks and lead them to become on-fire disciples of Jesus who are equipped to make more disciples.
You can’t do that if you’re overwhelmed by fixing the printer, tracking down a missing box of curriculum, taking out the trash, or any of the hundreds of other tasks that go into running your ministry.
Sure, all those things must be done, but you don’t have to do them.
And if you constantly go and go and go and never take the time to refill your own cup with the Word of God, you’re going to run out eventually.
It doesn’t matter if there are 10 tasks on your to-do list or 500 things that must be completed before Sunday. Don’t skip your time with the Lord.
He’s the one who placed you in your position. He’s the one who longs to have a relationship with you. And at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if you miraculously knocked everything off of your list if you’ve failed to spend time with your Creator.
Take the time to pray and study God’s Word. Ask for guidance on making the most of your time and be the pastor He’s called you to be.
You’ll have a hard time pouring into and discipling others if you haven’t been allowing God to pour into you.
Don’t be the Pastor of Stuff.
Whatever your pastoral role, you’ve been placed in it by God for a specific purpose. You have a job to do and responsibilities that can only be done by you. Don’t allow the mundane tasks of running a ministry to inhibit your ability to pastor well.
Make sure you have a clear job description so you know exactly what you should be doing and can make better decisions about when and how to help when things arise.
Take time to delegate anything that you don’t have to do. You have too many things on your plate that can’t be accomplished by anyone else, so allow other staff or volunteers to help where they can.
And don’t skip out on the most important calling in your life. You are called to be a disciple before you are called a pastor. You can’t fulfill your role as a shepherd if you neglect your time with the Good Shepherd.
You aren’t the Pastor of Stuff, so take the time to make sure your to-do list doesn’t look like it!
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