What’s your burnout plan?
I’m serious.
If you set out to burnout how would you do it?
Pick your poison; the slow fade, physical exhaustion ending in spiritual depletion or a public moral crash.
None of us ever plan to burn out. Yet many end up here.
It’s obvious something has gone awry. Leadership has been flipped on it’s head in our culture. It’s a sad reality, but in many cases there is very little difference between leadership in the way of our culture and ministry in the way of Jesus. We’ve lived more into the cultural narrative of striving for success than the kingdom narrative of abundant abiding.
As kingdom leaders we must refuse to continue chanting the cultural anthems of stress, striving, fear and white-knuckle leadership. At some point our lives must declare: ministry will not win at the cost of my heart, soul, mind, body and family.
Please understand; I don’t write this from a euphoric ivory stage of strength but from a sweaty wrestling mat of struggle. I nearly burned out less than two years into ministry. I was engaged to an amazing woman, and I knew I couldn’t drag her into the way I was living. It wasn’t fair. I couldn’t even keep up with my pace and my expectations, how could she?!? God was gracious. He forced me to learn lessons I desperately needed. He’s been teaching me the other stuff one moment at a time over the past ten years.
Jesus offers a paradigm-twisting invitation in our stressed and fearful culture; abundant life. And abundant leadership. We teach and preach about abundant life, but have we experienced it? We treat it like it like a unicorn. It’s fun to read and dream about, but we live as if it isn’t real. I’ve experienced life and healing amidst the ministry journey. Others are experiencing it too. It turns out abundant life doesn’t have to be a unicorn.
What’s the good news? In the power of the Holy Sprit kingdom leaders can forge a countercultural path into right-side up leadership.
How do we get there? It’s a daily journey. I’ve come to believe it has everything to do with what we actually believe and how we actually live. Talking about abundant life won’t get us there; our actions need to change.
I’ve started living by six counter-intuitive declarations. They’re rough to the touch, but have become the smoothing sandpaper for myself and other leaders who have adopted them.
Six resolutions every healthy leader must make
I will live healthy so I can help others live healthy
I will refuse to work harder on someone else’s life than they’re willing to work
I will ask others crucial questions, even when they seem obvious
I will put the ball back into their court
I will learn to live and lead as God designed me
I will ask others for invitation into their growth process
These have paved the path for permission to live a different life. They remind me I am not God, and He can do everything without me. But he’s given us a beautiful invitation into kingdom life. He’s also invited us to be part of his ministry team, although He could do it all by himself.
What is holding you back from adopting these six declarations of right-side up leadership?
If this struck a chord you can download my ebook The Right-Side up Leader for just five bucks. This message is the foundation of everything we do at Stay Forth Designs.