5 Tips for Taking Care of Yourself in Ministry

Are you taking care of yourself?

Ministry is about being outwardly focused. But sometimes we get so busy being outwardly focused that we forget to look inward at all. And when we look back into ourselves finally, we often find some distortions of the truth brewing in there. This is a small list of things to keep in mind, in order to keep those sneaky little lies from setting up and doing damage while you're out there doing your thing.

1. Allow yourself to be yourself. Your personality produces your unique brand of ministry, and that's the most valuable thing you can give to your team. Embrace your own unique deep self—God created it, and he called it good! Trying to be someone else just makes us cheap knockoffs of someone else's original design. It's like a quarterback trying to be a linebacker. The enemy wants us to believe that only one type of person is good at ministry, and when we believe this lie, we give ourselves over to becoming cheap imitators of other people. But when we do that, we lose the strength of our deep self, because we deny it access into our life and our ministry. Leaders have to come in all shapes and sizes because that's how the kids come. People of all types desperately need ministries of all types. So, be free to be yourself, because the Body of Christ deeply needs the genuine version of all its parts!


2. Check your compass frequently. Take time frequently to allow God to refocus your idea of your true self and direct you to what He wants to teach you. When we stop looking inward, we start running with our eyes closed. For instance, I'm passionate about others' freedom until I stop keeping my own lust for attention and success in check. Checking in with yourself keeps you goal oriented, on the RIGHT goal. Without a compass, people will inherently walk in circles—just like the Israelites in the desert. Taking time to listen to God and explore your own heart is like checking your compass, making sure you truly are headed in the right direction. And keeping yourself spiritually healthy and free is what allows for meaningful kingdom work.


3. The pressure's off. You don't have to save them. It's not even your job to save them. It's your job to bring them to the feet of Jesus. So don't allow yourself to feel like a complete failure based on how your kids are responding to the gospel. It doesn't matter how good you said it or how bad you butchered it. God can save anyone He wants to any way he wants to. And He does it frequently. I've heard plenty of stories about butchered Gospel presentations leading to tears and repentance. God's the one who actually does the real work, but he LOVES to use us and involve us in His story of redemption of the world, because he made US to love it too! God’s uses us to bring salvation to the people we're ministering to, but if they don’t accept Him, it doesn't mean we've failed God. It’s not our job to save someone; it’s God’s. That should be a load off! (Recommended reading: Ezekiel 2:4-8)


4. The team leader is the team administrator. The team leader doesn't necessarily mean the most important leader or the most valuable leader. Team leader is a position often given to a person whose ministry would be least affected by the extra hassle of administrative duties. And honestly, when you aren't team leader, you often have the opportunity to be an even better leader. I know plenty of team leaders, former and current, that would agree with me. So if you're someone who's felt "less than" by not being chosen to be team leader, don't feel like that anymore. It's not a strike on who you are. Certain gift sets are more negatively affected by the extra responsibilities than others are. The team leader position is a position of servanthood, not extra importance/value, and seeing it as such will keep you from using the wrong scale to measure yourself with—which will in turn preserve your ministry.


5. Be careful with your heart and your habits. In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul says this: "I have the right to do anything," you say--but not everything is beneficial. "I have the right to do anything"--but I will not be mastered by anything." Just remember, ruts are hard to unmake. When we get in habits, it is extremely hard to change them. Our small decisions define our habits, and our habits define who we are, in a sense. You are what you eat. Therefore, make sure your small decisions glorify God. Over time, they're going to have a huge impact on your life.


Let me know if you have any thoughts! What's been the most valuable thing for YOU to keep in mind while you've been in ministry? Let me know either in the comments or an email on the side of the page!

Knowing God, Not Just Knowing About God

I'm charming.

My sophomore year of high school, I learned something about Christianity that changed everything.

I was actually at a church lock-in, of all places. We had just finished playing a gripping game of "Who Can Kick the Basketball Into the Goal From Half-Court," and we were taking a little break. As we sat down in a circle talking, one of the leaders started saying some things about God that I'd never heard before.

"You can know as much as you want ABOUT George Washington, but it doesn't mean you KNOW him."

"You can talk to someone all you want. But if they don't talk back to you, you don't KNOW them."

"You can know facts about God, but if He doesn't talk back to you, you don't KNOW Him."

What?

My mind was blown. I went home and couldn't go to sleep. I started talking to God in a way I never had before. "God... do you want to talk to me?" I started asking questions that required an answer. I started listening. And that's when I finally realized the truth about God. He wants us to know Him, not just know about Him.

Nothing was ever the same again.

This is the story of how I started meeting with God. It's the story of when I realized a relationship was a two way thing, and when I realized God wanted one of those with me. It was the most important thing that's ever happened to me.

There are plenty of high schoolers in the same place as I was. There are more people who don't listen for the Shepherd's voice because they don't know He wants to speak to them.

It's a two way conversation.

Talking and listening.

If you do ministry with young people, many of them probably don't understand that God wants to talk to them. Sadly, few high schoolers know that hearing God's voice is an essential component of a relationship with God.

What can we do to change that? How can we bring them to the feet of the Savior?

In Bible studies, I try really hard to encourage my friends to look for God's voice in scripture (the Word of God). Here are some valuable questions:

"What verse is doing something to your heart?"
"Why do you think that is?"
"If God was trying to tell you something through this verse, what might that message be?"

In my experience, high school kids quickly jump to moralism when confronted with Sin and the Gospel, instead of the idea that God actually wants to meet with them. How can we encourage them to have a REAL encounter with a REAL God? After all, Jesus didn't die so that we would stop doing as much bad stuff. He wants us. Because he knows if the inside is transformed, the outside will soon follow.

Getting to know God is what transforms a person. I know from experience. The facts are great, but God wants to do a lot more than give people a history lesson.

Jeremiah 33:3 - "Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know."

John 17:3 - "And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent."

Ministry is Messy

Image by nist6ss under C.C. License

YL Leader Survival Guide, Chapter 11

Ministry isn't always cookie cutter.

And on the bench next to the rock wall, I learned it the hard way.

I found myself on said bench at 3:30 AM, right in the middle of our camp week, talking to one of my high school friends staying in our cabin. I'll spare you the details, but the "you know what" had hit the fan for my friend, and he was in a brutally honest place of evaluating life.


"Why don't you want to follow Jesus?" was my question. Pretty standard, by the book form, right? I was doing great so far.

"You want to know why? Because Christianity just looks like it's all about what I can't do. You say it's life giving, but that doesn't look very life giving to me."

I had no idea what to say. The seconds of silence felt like minutes. I ran through every verse I'd ever read, searching frantically for any kind of answer. But none came. I prayed the shortest prayer you can pray, "Help!" But still, no answer. I was stumped. Was Christianity all about what we couldn't do? Why was I so inadequate for this situation?

It haunted me. I came back from camp with my head low, feeling like a failure. In my mind, I had surely screwed up a kid's chance to know Jesus. And on top of that, the burning question my high school friend harbored had jumped over and ignited my own heart as well. What the heck!

Have you experienced something like this? If so, you'll know you can't get it out of your head until you can find the question for yourself. And that's exactly what happened. After some major wrestling, God finally showed me that the commandments might look and even feel like constriction, but they really lead to real freedom. We were given the guidelines to the most free life possible, but Satan, the Father of Lies, makes it look backwards. I never got to explicitly say this to my friend, but what I did realize is this.

That situation was very much for my growth.

If you've had similar situations, just know you aren't alone. It really is more common than you think. I've had so many times where I either didn't know what to do or say, or I did or said the wrong thing.

And God worked it together for His good.

God carefully crafts these messy moments into our lives. Here are the reasons He's given me for doing such a thing.

1. God wanted to teach ME something. That situation was about me, and all along I thought it was about someone else. Surprise! God already promises He works everything together for His good. Is it too much of a jump to say that He enjoys using our perceived failures to bring about an unforeseen victory? This is the kind of victory that we can't take credit for. We FINALLY have to relent, and give Him all the glory for the work only He is able to do in the first place. Which brings me to my next point...

2. Our failures don't ruin God's plan as much as we think. Only when we fool ourselves into thinking it's our responsibility to save people do we start tallying up all of our failures to do so. Christians in the Middle East are rare. Has that stopped God? Of course not. He's coming to people in dreams. Our God doesn't need us, but he LOVES to use us as his hands and feet. But when we "screw up," God's not sitting there saying, "Oh no... look what you've done!! Now I can't save this person!" Does this mean we don't need to do ministry? Of course not. But when we don't have an answer to a high school friend's question, we don't walk away with someone's blood on our hands. Prayer is the most important ministry there is, because God's the one who does the heavy lifting.

3. God's power is made perfect in our weakness. It's God's good pleasure to put us in situations that are too much for us. In our weakness, His strength finally has room to work how it wants. And in our hearts, we begin to finally realize He was in complete control all along. What a load off our shoulders! So often we forget that God chooses the most unfit to do His greatest works. We forget that Moses said this, "Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue" (- Exodus 4:10). Or that Gideon said this, "Pardon me, my lord, but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family" (Judges 6:15). But God used those guys to do some of the craziest things that have ever happened throughout history. What about you?

God has a plan for the messiness. So don't fret when you feel taken advantage of, or when you've hurt someone's feelings, or when you have to set harsh boundaries with a kid. Ministry is just messy. And the rest of life is just as messy. But messy is beautiful. 

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.

1 Corinthians 1:27-29 "But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being[a] might boast in the presence of God."



P.S. For a special edition of the Young Life Leader Survival Guide, go to the Young Life Leader Blog's post for today! It's called, "Why Do My High School Friends Keep Partying?"