I recently wrote an article for Christianity Today entitled “The Craftsman in the Pulpit”. The article discussed how sustaining a passion for ministry is directly linked to being good at ministry. As you might suspect, it concluded with 3 practical steps to improve one’s ministry skills. Now that the article is published and I’ve had some time to reflect, it’s become clear to me that those 3 steps are vastly insufficient. Don’t be too hard on me; there’s only so much I can cover in a 1600-word article. But since I now have this blog and no word count leash tugging at my collar, I want to run free on this topic.
We’re beginning a new series. I’m calling it, “Honing Our Craft.” As the title implies, the goal is to deliver concrete steps to improve our ministry skills.
How does one get better at ministry? You probably expect me to discuss things like time management, team building, casting vision, Scripture exegesis, sermon prep, and the like. These are important, and we’ll cover some if not all of them. But over the past several years of being a pastor it has become clear to me that none of these are the correct starting point. What is the correct starting point?
Ministry craftsmanship begins with self-awareness.
That statement may elicit a strong response. Something like, “Oh great, another narcissistic, self-help guide. Good ministers are supposed to focus on others not themselves.” I strongly encourage you to reconsider that opinion. Every leadership meltdown in the church can be traced back to unhealthy ministers. It gets confusing because that man or woman may be great at casting vision, a terrific Bible teacher, and compelling as all get out. But inside they’re a wreck. They lack the ability to understand their own needs, wants, and emotions so how could they possibly understand anyone else’s? Sooner or later their underdeveloped interior world seeps into their outer world and the resulting damage is heartbreaking.
They lack the ability to understand their own needs, wants, and emotions so how could they possibly understand anyone else’s? Sooner or later their underdeveloped interior world seeps into their outer world and the resulting damage is heartbreaking.
The great leadership guru John Maxwell emphasizes the crucial importance of self-awareness. Maxwell explains, “People unaware of who they are and what they do often damage relationships with others.” He continues, “The first person I must know is myself.”
In Wholeheartedness: Busyness, Exhaustion, and Healing the Divided Self, pastor and Christian counselor Chuck DeGroat offers similar insight,
When you and I lack self-awareness, we inflict our enraged self on a co-worker or our avoidant self on our spouse. Or we unwittingly project our unresolved anxieties onto our children…Unaware, we simply react to life’s situations rather than reflecting on what we’re feeling and where we are what we need. In fact, if we’ve never learned to listen to our hearts, we might be completely unaware of our unique stories, our manifold feelings, and the state of our relationships.
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Self-awareness is, obviously, important for anyone who occupies a leadership role. Yet it’s especially important for pastors. Why? Because as pastors our whole job is to shepherd people. If the shepherd doesn’t even understand himself, good luck understanding the sheep. The pastor ends up, as DeGroat explains, inflicting his own inner rage or insecurities or emotional triggers or anxieties on those under his spiritual care. To quote Maxwell again, “You can’t lead people somewhere you haven’t been.” That means as a pastor you can’t lead anyone to a place of mental, emotional, and spiritual health unless you are a mentally, emotionally and spiritually healthy person. You wouldn’t even know what the destination looked like.
To be honest, I don’t totally know what the destination looks like either. I’m not the most self-aware person in the world. But I’m determined to get better. Remember the purpose of this blog. I don’t pretend to already be a master ministry craftsman. I’m journeying towards that goal just like you. If we learn together, we’ll make better progress and have fun along the way. After all, a journey is better when shared with a friend.
This first post in the “Honing Our Craft” series was to lay the groundwork. In the next post, we’ll examine what it means to be self-aware. After that, we’ll explore some tangible steps forward. Stay tuned.
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