Training Leaders

[Sean Ingram]

Larry Osborne, in his very good book Sticky Church (Zondervan, 2008) writes about the difficulty of training leaders who are "overscheduled and burnt out on unnecessary meetings" as a result of having no "wiggle room in their schedules" because "It was already a stretch to set aside one night a week for their small group and another evening or lunch hour to prepare..." (pg. 134)

 

In addition, he talks about the disconnect between these lay leaders and church staff who "view job and church commitment as one", who might even "take the afternoon off...or sleep in late the next morning to 'recover'" and therefore, "Whereas volunteers come to extra meetings exhausted, staff members come amped up, rested, and ready to do their thing." This leads Larry to conclude that "we were asking too much." (pg. 135)

 

OK, there is some validity to this. It's true that lay leaders have other obligations to careers and family, etc. that make demands on their time and, while I do not endorse or share the practice, I have no doubt that there are church staff out there, even pastors, who view job and church commitment as one. However, let us not forget that Jesus said that those who desire to follow Him must deny themselves and take up their cross daily (Mark 8:34) and that those who do not do so, even placing Him above their own families, are not worthy to follow Him (Matt. 10:34-39).

 

How do we balance these two realities? How much is reasonable for us to expect from lay leaders to protect them from burnout while at the same time exhorting them to Christ's high standard of discipleship?

[Elaine Betts]

Sometimes what we expect others to do and what we expect of ourselves contrasts quite markedly with what the Holy Spirit would like us to do...when someone is experiencing the first pangs of "the icy fingers" of burnout, the first step is to stop,drop, and listen more intently to what God is saying...there may be many worthwhile and necessary involvements, but they may not necessarily be our "involvements" or our "involvements" forever...We need to give grace to others as well as ouselves...our culture tell us that we need to constantly be "doing" or there is something wrong..but Jesus says "come away my beloved"....and it is only through what occurs during our times of resting in His arms in the secret place that we then have a clear understanding of what our roles will be for the current day or hour as well as what He wants to accomplish as opposed to what we think needs to get done....when one makes spending time in the the presence of God a higher priority than anything else.....they will go out with a fresh fire and renewed vigor and joy to do that which they have been "assigned"....and they/we will accomplish much more than we can ever imagine.."his burden is light"...even if it doesn't look like it is to others :-)