Leadership Lesson #19: If you have no one to talk to, confide in, process with, etc., you’ll collapse under the weight of what you’re doing.
There’s little in ministry I value more than sharing an office with Chris Jarrell, sitting around the corner from Heather Zempel, and being just a phone call away from Paul Irwin.
These are people I go to for advice and counsel or just to tell that I’m having a tough day. Leadership is full of difficult decisions and situations. Sometimes I make a mistake and need someone to help me get perspective. Sometimes I’m at a loss for what to do.
I don’t think we were meant to lead alone. Jesus had Peter and James and John. Paul had Timothy and Aquilla and Priscilla and Barnabas. Elijah had Elisha. Daniel had Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Sure, there are plenty of Biblical examples of men of God who were lone rangers, but we don’t read that and think, “Wow, that’s great! How wonderful it was for them to be alone!”
Maybe you’re planting a church or pastoring a small congregation and you don’t have the luxury of having other pastors on your staff. I’d encourage you to develop a relationship with a pastor from another church or to begin to work more closely with an elder who you trust.
Whatever you do and wherever you are, don’t try to go it alone. Ministry can and does ruin good people. Our relationships help us maintain our spiritual and emotional health.
No, it’s not what you’re thinking. For the past couple of weeks Dave Schmidgall and I have been transitioning into the campus pastor role at NCC’s Union Station location. Today was Chris Jarrell‘s last day there, and Dave and I handled most of the campus pastor responsibilities while Chris was preaching.
Heather Zempel wrote a post a couple of days ago about how doing church in DC’s Union Station can be interesting. Heather had this to say:
Come to the 9am service at Union Station and you might run into the naked homeless guy taking a bath at the sink. I’m not kidding. That’s what Pastor Dave encountered one morning during service set-up. Doing church in movie theaters keeps things interesting…and keeps church closer to what Jesus probably had in mind, IMHO.
Last week I took care of a dead mouse, no big deal. This week I got to peel a condom off the floor. I’d consider that my inauguration.
P.S. We’re always looking for volunteers. Let me know if you’re interested in helping out.
My friends Chris and Lora Jarrell had a baby just under a month ago (30 days to be exact), and today they started a Twitter account for him. He’s @TorinJarrell. It’s locked, as well it should be, seeing as he’s not yet a month old, but I wonder if this doesn’t make him the youngest Twitterer ever.
Perhaps more interesting are the sociological and developmental ramifications. Whereas I started using Twitter as an adult, Torin will never know life without Twitter. I assume that when he’s old enough, whatever age that may be, Chris and Lora will turn his account over to him. This also means that depending on how long Twitter keeps their records, Torin could very well have a chronicle of his life story from infancy. That could be a very cool thing.
