Your role as pastor will change as your church grows. You must lead larger. As the church grows, it will become increasingly difficult for you to eat lunch with everyone or play golf every week. It becomes physically impossible! There will come a time when you will have to explain this. Christian leader and professor, Howard Hendricks, said it well, “There are many things I can do, but I have to narrow it down to the one thing I must do. The secret to concentration is elimination.”
I remember a retreat our staff once took. We were experiencing a season of growth and I was overwhelmed. A member of my staff walked to the whiteboard and said, “Let’s make a list of all the things you do.” He began to write – weddings, funerals, counseling, event prayers – and it grew to 26 items! Then he said, “Now let’s make a list of the things God has called you to do.” Only four items.
I no longer do weddings, funerals and many other things. In fact, if I visit you in the hospital, you’re sicker than you think. :)
God’s called you to do what only you can do. Figure that out. Eliminate the things you shouldn’t be doing. Allow teams to lead the things you eliminate.
When Moses was overwhelmed, Jethro said, “The thing that you do is not good. Both you and these people who are with you will surely wear yourselves out. For this thing is too much for you; you are not able to perform it by yourself.”
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