Ben Reed, pastor of small groups at Long Hollow Baptist Church (Hendersonville, TN) and communications director for the Small Group Network, recently blogged about how people wreck their ministries. Reed shared a few obvious ways people ruin their ministries before sharing a list of 17 additional ways he labeled “not so obvious,” including:
- quit dreaming,
- never build relationships with people outside of the faith,
- spend 98% of your time in your office,
- never go to conferences (or, on the other end of the spectrum, go to 25+ conferences a year), and
- always think you’re right.
So What?
Being successful in ministry requires a commitment to ongoing growth as a person and as a person of faith. Often ministry leaders engage in unhealthy behaviors that compromise the effectiveness of their ministries.
- In addition to the items listed on Reed’s list, what are examples of unhealthy behaviors that you have noted in other ministry leaders? healthy behaviors these same leaders have failed to model?
- Identify one unhealthy behavior in which you find yourself participating and one healthy behavior you often avoid, then commit to focusing on those areas for the next two weeks.