5 Ways to Slow Down When Your Ministry Team Speeds Up

Ministry is fast paced and a bit crazy. Support raising, conferences, prayer letters, meetings, outreach, discipleship, traveling to conferences, more meetings, and more evangelism.

All of it is necessary and important, especially when you pour on a tablespoon or two of Great Commission guilt sauce. You work in ministry to reach people with the Gospel, but how do you keep sane?

A former ministry director told me, “Julie, the need does not constitute the call.” His words were a gracious and sweet salve to this missionary who felt like she needed to do it all.  

What if your team leader or team is on the run and expects you to keep up? They may verbally say, “Hannah, take a half-day with the Lord,” but they haven’t taken a half-day with the Lord in over a year.

Your team burns the midnight oil running errands and texting students for tomorrow’s outreach project and you will crash from exhaustion if you type one more emoji to your disciples.

How do you get siesta this week when your team or your leadership (verbally or nonverbally) communicates loud and clear to SPEED UP!?!

STEP 1 | Put your game face on ‘cuz it won’t be easy

You might not want to hear this, but it’s true. It is a challenge to rest when you see how much needs to be done and how few people there are to do it.

You have actual or perceived pressure from team members, financial supporters, churches, leadership, and the biggest culprit — yourself. Resting requires making tough choices that are unpopular with your teammates. Rest is not for sissies. It requires discipline. You are an adult. No one will hand rest to you.

Here’s a CNN article about a woman who died from overtime. This probably won’t be you, but what does your lack of rest cost you?

STEP 2 | Pause your people pleasing meter

You think if you turn your people pleasing meter off, your teammates will see you as callous and unloving. Yes, this could happen. But most of us who are professional people pleasers will never go to this extreme. Telling your director, “I need to rest” or “I can’t do that this week” may seem rude to you, but it is far from it.

Play out the people pleasing movie of your life. If your people pleasing continues, how will your movie end? What are you modeling for your disciples? Do they want your schedule?

STEP 3 | Have two DTRs with your director

Define the Relationship. Yes, you heard me right, but don’t wig out. I’m not asking you to view your director as your significant other or your spouse. But you still need to Define the Relationship.

Do you place your leadership on a pedestal and not even realize it? He or she is your director, not your god, nor your junior holy spirit. While you respect them, and God can use him or her in your life to shape you more into Jesus’ image, be careful to not allow their ‘voice’ to speak louder than Jesus’ voice.

2 | The second DTR with your director should be to Define The Responsibilities.  Ask them to go over your job description line-by-line and pose the questions, “What has to get done? What can wait? Can my job description be done in my 40 hour work week?”

If you do not have a job description, talk with your leadership about crafting one together. Talk honestly with your director about what you need to thrive.

STEP 4 | Learn how to say no, nada, nyet. Let’s practice!

You have heard it a zillion times from seminars, books, and podcasts. You know you need to do this, but when the time comes, it is so much easier said (even in Russian), than done. Or we think, “I’ll say no next time.”

Prioritizing rest requires saying no to things that can be delegated or let them remain undone. Yes, it’s going to feel uncomfortable, make you twitch, and leave a pit in your stomach. 😩

If saying no is hard for you, practice saying no in areas with little consequence. Get used to hearing yourself say no out loud. Ask a trusted friend, “How good am I at saying no?”

STEP 5 | Time block your day

I heard this suggestion when I worked with my missions organization. I really liked it. Many of you in full-time ministry don’t work 9-5 with an hour lunch break. Even if you do work 9-5, your schedule typically shifts during the support raising season.

Time blocking breaks up your day into 2-blocks of work and 1-block off. For example, break your day into time blocks of 8am-12pm; 12pm-4pm; 4pm-8pm (or some other variation). Pick two of those blocks for work and take the other block as personal time.

For those 9-5ers during support raising, talk with your director about working 8am-12pm, taking the afternoon off, then working on support raising from 4pm-8pm. Time blocking is never this neat and pretty, but you get the idea.

If you work all of the time, or feel like you work all of the time, run this time blocking idea past your director. They might try it for themselves after they hear the idea.

Find someone to hold you accountable for time blocking your day — preferably not someone on your team who works as much as you.

In Summary

Full-time ministry is a marathon, not a sprint. Pace yourself and create boundaries around your time.