by Jason Locke
Church ministry is filled with ups and downs. I’ve occasionally experienced the highs that come with transformed lives and numerical growth. And I’ve experienced the lows that come from tragedies, losses, and difficult decisions.
Valleys and mountaintops can be equally draining. Without intentionally taking a moment to refocus, it’s easy to get off track. Even the highs, if not kept in perspective, can lead a church to stray from core values just as easily as the lows might sap one’s strength or weaken the spirit.
In my 30+ years of full-time ministry, I’ve felt drained more than once. How have I hit the reset button? How might you, as a church leader, refocus after a draining season?
Here are three things that have been helpful in getting my focus back on track.
The human brain has an amazing capacity for sorting and giving meaning to our experiences. If you aren’t intentional about this process, however, the brain will create implicit memories and connections that may be hidden and unhelpful for coping. We need to make explicit what we are seeing and try to make sense of it.
This isn’t primarily about placing fault or assigning credit, but it is about gaining perspective beyond the initial feelings of anxiety, exhaustion, or discouragement. As I am able, I work through a set of questions: What has led to these feelings of fatigue? How do I interpret these things? What might we have done differently? What was beyond our control?
Second, strengthen the holding cells. Multiple factors can sap me of my energy and focus. No matter the source of my fatigue, I look for ways to reinvest in the key relational groups that sustain my church and matter most to my ministry. Sometimes I need a minute to process and regroup first, but I come back to this time and again.
Whether you feel burned out or get burned, there’s a very real temptation to step away from the heat. If your mental capacities and spiritual fire have been dimmed by interactions with elders or key constituents, it’s common to say to yourself, “Forget them,” and then go hang out with people who make you feel good but who aren’t on mission with you. Doing this is often a step toward leaving that ministry. As difficult as it may feel, you must reinvest in the main relationships that sustain your church, even if those relationships are the ones that have drained your energy.
My father had a long and successful ministry in Tennessee. As he neared retirement age, one of his key elders became one of his fiercest critics, suggesting that the church had plateaued because they needed a younger preacher. My dad carried the pain of these thoughts with him, but it didn’t stop him from pastoring his elders. When that elder became sick with cancer, it was my dad who visited him constantly to pray and offer support. In the midst of this, not only did that elder repent of short-sighted schemes, but the eldership also grew stronger together as they weathered that season of tension.
Finally, remember your core mission. It’s hard to refocus if you don’t know what your focus ought to be. For an organization in transition, a lack of clarity can make a leader’s life especially difficult. Not having a clear consensus about your mission can cause a draining season of ministry to drag on without end because it’s hard to know what to focus on.
During our church’s journey of transformation and renewal, we got on the same page about who we are as a church and what we feel God is calling us to be and do. This clarity allowed me to let go of tasks and priorities that had occupied big chunks of my time. Even though some of those had been personally rewarding, they were no longer central to our focus. To lead well, I had to allow the mission to come first.
Once you know what matters most, your secret path to refocusing comes by leaning into your core mission. Many things may be pressing, but only a few are of utmost importance. For any successful church or organization, the mission must always win.
About the Author
Jason Locke has preached for the College Church of Christ in Fresno, California since 2009. His adventure in full-time ministry began in 1994. He worked first as a church planter in Prague, Czechia, and later as a campus minister at West Virginia University. Jason’s Doctor of Ministry and Master’s of Divinity degrees are from Abilene Christian, but he did his undergraduate work at Tennessee Tech in mechanical engineering. His current areas of interest are in congregational renewal and adaptive leadership, and he has led his church in Fresno through a remarkable journey of transformation.
Jason is a curious adventurer and an avid reader who loves to travel, cook and follow his favorite sports teams. He has been married to Julie since 1992. They have two married sons. One lives in Fresno with his wife and their new baby. The other lives with his wife in Washington, DC, and they’re expecting a child in April.
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