Q&A: How Do I Balance “Paid” vs. “Authentic” Ministry?
Q:
I’m struggling with the balance of “paid work” vs. authentic, organic ministry and service. How do I avoid the feelings of burnout and going through the motions when it comes to church life?
[Anonymous reader from Florida]
A:
Church staff members are odd creatures (I speak as one of us). We typically do what we do because we love to do it. We often use phrases like I can’t believe I get paid to do this! and I would do this for free! (Curious that very few of us ever back up that claim.)
And then there’s the reality that – for the Christ-follower – life-as-ministry is more than a nine to five job. If we check out when we clock out, then maybe we don’t understand this concept of calling…not just as a vocation, but as a disciple.
So it’s no wonder that our personal pendulum often swings from overwork to burnout and back again. If we love what we do, what’s the big deal about doing it more?
I’ve been down this road. I could be “anonymous reader from Florida.” While the Lord has been gracious in this part of my growth, I still have far to go. In my own journey, there have been at least five things that have been helpful to me:
1. Find a boundary buddy.
Most of us are really bad at setting our own boundaries for stuff we enjoy. We always find a way to justify adding just one more thing to the calendar. So we need a spouse or a supervisor or a friend or a trusted coworker who has access to our schedule and can call out our impure motives. I have combinations of all four that I’ve used for different scenarios over the years. All have permission to call me to the carpet at any time, but I try to stay proactive in bringing opportunities to them, asking “What do you think?” and then – at least most of the time – honoring their wise counsel.
A boundary buddy can help you determine a few things: how much you should serve above and beyond your “real job,” where you should serve outside your real job, and when it’s okay to say no. To put a finer point on it, they can help you determine what you’re saying yes to because you have to as opposed to you just want to.
2. Serve outside your area of expertise.
I’m paid to be the primary Guest Services guy at our church. I also love to throw on a parking vest and help in the parking lot on a Sunday morning or at a special event (it’s genuinely one of my favorite things to do). But when the primary Guest Services guy throws on a parking vest, what does the primary Guest Services guy do? He matches his vest with his “real job” hat, and critiques and overthinks every step of the process.
So yes, serve in the trenches with your frontline volunteers. But also serve in the trenches of a ministry you have nothing to do with. A coworker of mine loves the phrase “Not my circus, not my monkeys.” I say, find a circus and some monkeys every once in a while. Find a place where there’s no payoff, no payback, and serve there. Unplug your leader brain and serve for the joy of serving.
3. Serve outside the church.
Here’s what I know about me: I can pull off a lot of stuff as long as I have a clear role and other people know what that role is. I don’t wear that as a badge of honor…it’s actually a glaring character flaw.
It’s harder to serve in a role when you’re not necessarily in charge and your performance isn’t clocked by a paycheck or lead pastor. Whether it’s coaching your kid’s soccer team or volunteering at the local homeless shelter, look for ways to serve that are in no way tied to your paid position.
4. Find a way to give it away.
Here’s another thing I know about church staff: you sit on a mountain of knowledge that others would love to mine. Even if you’ve just been in your role a couple of years, that’s a couple of years longer than the newbie who’s just starting out.
So find a person or a ministry or a cause to invest in. Redeem your commute and hop on the phone for a quick call of encouragement. Hand back an honorarium occasionally. Yes, “the laborer deserves his wages,” but there’s something to that I would do this for free! bravado that seems to make actually doing it for a free a bit more meaningful.
5. Honor the Sabbath.
Let’s go full-circle back to point #1, and give some additional boundaries to points #2-4. Whether we’re talking paid ministry, unpaid ministry, or a combination of the two, no task or passion project or side hustle in our lives is worth violating the Sabbath rest that God calls us to. This has been a hard-fought battle and learning lesson for me over the past few years. While I’ve made progress, I still find myself believing that Sabbath is a sometimes-optional thing for me.
Of course, for those of us in ministry, our Sabbath rarely falls on a Sunday. So figure yours out. What 24 hour period during the week can you go off the clock and experience “an isle of get-to in a sea of have-to”? (Kevin DeYoung)
“Anonymous reader from Florida” is on to something: for those of us in vocational ministry, the lines blur too easily between what we’re paid to do and what we’re called to do. For the sake of our souls and the sake of the kingdom, let’s not let the weariness of the former keep us from the joy in the latter.
