May
19
2011

A Church Leader’s Soul and Crisis Management

An article by Matt

I have been doing a great deal of traveling of late. While I miss being with Theresa, I do enjoy meeting people and learning about new places. One of the best parts of my job is getting to meet church planters and church leaders all over the place and hear what God is doing through them and the ministries that God has entrusted to them. There are few things as exciting for me than to sit across the table with someone to whom God has given a big vision and hear them share what they are called to, and how it is playing out in their ministry context.

I also love the broad range of personalities that I have the opportunity to come across during my travels… some pleasant, some less than that. Last night I spent far too long on a flight from Atlanta to New York and was able to experience a less than pleasant personality. The flight was probably one of the three worst I have ever been on (I say three worst because even though I can not think of a worse flight, I may well have been on one). We actually spent more time on the tarmac than we did in the air: two hours in flight, three on runways. While I am sure that there were several passengers who were less than pleased with our situation, there was one in particular that I have no doubt was highly upset about the situation. How do I know? She made sure to tell everyone, including the stewardesses… every thirty-seven seconds.

The old saying goes crisis doesn’t build character, it reveals it. When things become difficult, the things that are going on inside your soul become visible for the world to see. It may not be immediately obvious, but it will come out… and soon. How do you deal with stress and crisis? I am a firm believer that easily fifty percent of church leadership is crisis management. If you are planting a church, make that ninety percent. How you deal with difficult situations will say more about your ministry, your faith life, and your thoughts about Jesus than anything else that you do in church leadership.

One of the greatest gifts that I have been given was courtesy of the United States government. In 1995 I matriculated as a freshman to the United States Air Force Academy. While my time there was short, it has had a huge impact on my life. It was at the academy that Jesus and I first met. It was at the academy where I was called to ministry, and it was at the academy that I had the ability to think under fire instilled (beaten?) into me. During our freshman year we learned that in order to lead under pressure, you needed to be used to pressure. As many of you know, the freshman year at any of our service academies is pretty intense… and they made sure that we were used to pressure. During our regular training sessions we learned the ability to receive, process, and respond to information quickly and correctly. This skill was integral to our survival at the academy, and to leadership in the real world, and our classmates that did not quickly learn grace under pressure did not last. I am grateful to the academy for forcing me to learn to deal with pressure well, but more so for teaching me the importance of the discipline of developing character.

How do you treat those around you when things are stressful?
Do you become rude, impatient, or disrespectful?
Do you focus more on your needs than the needs of those around you?

What are you instilling in your life right now, that will prepare you to handle stressful situations when they get here? Here are a few things that help me:

A regular rhythm to my relationship with Jesus. I know that this was the expected answer. I know that this is not a shocking insight that you are going to write down and celebrate as THE ANSWER, but it is true… and it is something that church leaders often neglect in order to do more ministry. Your congregations will learn more from the things that are overflowing from your cup than anything that you will say or do. Your cup needs to flow over with Jesus.
Community. I am not talking about the “pray for my stressful situation at work” type of community… the superficial, check a box because I went to small group type of community. I am talking about the type of community where you have the freedom to call someone at 3:00 am because you need help, and they will pick up type of community. So much of the panic and desperation that comes from stressful situations is the feeling that you are drowning in your struggles and no one can save you. True community does two amazing things in these situations”
- First, true community keeps you out of these situations by speaking into your life and warning you of impending doom when they see something going on. This is not always pretty or “nice”, but spurring one another on always includes a little pain (think about what a spur really is).
- Second, true community bails you out of these situations. This does not always mean that you are rescued, sometimes this means that you will be resourced (given the skills to clean up a mess or negotiate your predicament). Community will take away the all alone feeling that we often feel in a stressful situation.
Rest. If you are consistently moving from crisis to crisis you will flame out. No amount of preparation will save you from this. Church leaders always have more to do, and feel guilty for taking a break… but Jesus tells us clearly that he will give us rest, and we need to take that rest. I regularly find myself heading of for times of solitude, whether it is a monastery, or simply a long, mind cleansing, drive. Theresa and I have a regular vacation schedule where we disconnect from anything that produces stress in our lives (aka cell phones, computers, and any other communication device). I also highly recommend a regular personal retreat schedule to help heal the wounds of ministry (check out what Mitch Hunter at Refresh Retreat Network is doing, this is important work).

How are YOU currently handling the stressful part of life and ministry?
What do people learn about Jesus when they see YOU stressed?