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10 Tips for Balancing Your Ministry and FamilyHelp for the tug-of-war.Greg Leith| Topics: | Christian living, Family, Fellowship, Generations, Marriage, Pastor's family, Pastor's spouse, Sacrifice, Service, Spiritual disciplines |
| Filters: | Church staff, Counseling, Discipleship, Elder, Family ministry, Pastor, Preaching, Shepherd |
| Purpose: | Discipleship |
| References: | None |
| Date Added: | July 11, 2007 |
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- Get your family together and craft a family mission statement. It's just as important to be intentional as a family as it is to do so where you work. We wanted our family to be on the same page as to why we were here on earth and what principles would govern our time together; we wanted a grid for decision making and conflict to pass through. Need a head start? Here's ours.
"Our family is going through life's journey together, growing roots in Christ and wings for our mission, becoming equipped to make a difference in our world by learning to live like Jesus, for Jesus and in Jesus."
We've designed other elements of this mission statement into the shape of a house with walls of laughter, doors of prayer and windows of other important character qualities.
- Carve out time for your family each week … in advance. Put it on your calendar. Stop saying you have got to get "one more thing done" before you leave for home. Plan your week with specific ending times and stick to them.
- Jettison things from your schedule that aren't important. March to the mission that Jesus called you to, not the mission that others want you to do for them. Be ruthless here!
- If your work situation requires constant excessive hours to get the job done, it's time to evaluate other ways to accomplish the task. You can't accomplish the mission of the organization single-handedly, so stop trying! Pray for the Lord to send workers into your harvest field and then sit back and watch Him go to work. Pray for supernatural results from the time you do put into your day, then go home and be a minister to the other mission field God gave you … your family.
- If you're a leader of others, have people actually write into their job descriptions the need to be committed to their family and specifically how they will do this.
- Develop an activity with your family as a whole and or with individual family members; maybe it's hiking, a date at Denny's for breakfast on Saturday or coffee with your spouse where you pray together for your day. As you do this, remember that those teachable moments are almost like intentional accidents—they happen, but not always because you planned them. So be sure to plan large quantities of time throughout the year so they'll have a chance to occur.
- Create a spiritual life development plan for each of your kids outlining their strengths, their areas for improvement and your plans to shape their character as they grow up under your care. Our children are arrows that are being sent to a world that we will never fully see. It's our job to shape them into arrows that will fly straight and travel the distance to the Kingdom target that God has intended for them.
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