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Thinkholes: The Ministry Treadmill
In Will Mancini's new book Church Unique (Jossey Bass and Leadership Network), he discusses ministry "thinkholes" -- the obstacles, barriers, and danger zones that keep us from thoughtful self-knowledge. Mancini lists six of them in his book, and for the next few weeks we'll look at each one briefly... The first thinkhole that Mancini brings up is the "ministry treadmill." This treadmill is set in motion "when the busyness of ministry creates a progressively irreversible hurriedness in the leader's life. The sheer immediacy of each next event or ministry demand prevents the leader from taking the time required for discerning the culture and defining the DNA of the church."
Have you ever been on the ministry treadmill? Are you so busy with the work of today that you never have the time to plan or dream for the ministry of tomorrow? Determining your vision and future plans takes time. Many pastors and leaders find themselves too busy with the pressing demands of today to take the time to plan for tomorrow. The result is that when tomorrow gets here, you’re still busy doing the day-to-day menial tasks of ministry, and all of a sudden you find that you no longer have a plan or strategy.
If you’re on the ministry treadmill, you’ve got to take some time and turn it off. Take a break. Step off and take a breather. Get out of the office. Delegate. Do whatever you can to make sure that you can keep your perspective in today’s busy and demanding ministry schedule. It’s only then that you can concentrate on discerning the culture and defining the future DNA of your church.
Your future ministry and effectiveness will depend on it.
Next week we’ll look at the thinkhole called the Competency Trap.
Until then, have a great week; and join me as I take a step off the treadmill! You can email me at .
Have a great week!
Todd
This post has been viewed 138 times and was added on April 07, 2008 by Todd Rhoades. Filed under: Leadership Issues Leadership Development Share this post with a friend right now! View reactions to this post at other blogs... You can really help us out by subscribing to our free RSS feed with your favorite feed reader, or here at Bloglines. Also, you can add us to your favorites at Technorati.
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- - - - - - - - - - There are 2 Comments:
I'm Todd Rhoades... the MMI guy. I'm also on the team at Leadership Network (although that doesn't mean that they endorse everything I write here). In my past life, I was the founder and developer of a website named ChurchStaffing.com.
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Posted by
Monday, April 07, 2008 at 9:52 AM
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Posted by
Monday, April 07, 2008 at 2:17 PM
Post Your Comments:While I’m not a pastor, I am full-time at a church producing a weekly television program. This treadmill is difficult to get off of. Soon you begin to practice creativity by memory instead of from God. We begin to spend more time with our creation instead of the Creator.
As one of my volunteers says, “If you don’t take time off to recharge, there’s only one reason, and you’re lookin’ at him in the mirror!”
How did the growing church in Acts handle
this? What were the foundational steps Paul laid out? Keep the church and the message simple. Let the shepard lead the flock; hire elders and overseers as well has helpers.
Most of the busyness of a church deals with how we do church not how we grow the body in maturity so they can take the good news to their community.
What did Moses’ father in law suggest to Moses when the treadmill got going to fast.
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