The Ministry Identity Crisis: When Your Role Changes But Your Heart Doesn't

In this episode of the Healthy Church Staff podcast, Todd Rhoades discusses the shift in ministry roles towards more administrative tasks over the years and the impact on church staff members' spiritual and vocational calls. He reflects on the complexity that has developed in churches since the 1980s and offers advice on maintaining a balance between administrative duties and the initial passion for ministry work. • Many church staff roles have shifted from pastoral to administrative tasks over time. • Church complexity has increased, introducing challenges not anticipated by those entering ministry. • Balancing administrative and ministry tasks is crucial for career sustainability and spiritual fulfillment. • Todd recommends blocking time for passion-driven ministry tasks to prevent burnout. • Emphasizes the importance of aligning job responsibilities with one's calling and passion. • Future episodes will address the human aspect of ministry, focusing on relationships and spiritual discernment.

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Transcript

When The Job Drifts Sideways

SPEAKER_00 0:09

You know, Todd, I became a youth pastor medical. Now I'm spending three hours a week on background paperwork. Yeah, maybe you took the worst of role to create life-changing moments with God, but now you find that you're arguing with vendors about lighting contract. You stepped into that children's ministry role to stake young hearts, and now you're updating safety protocols and managing volunteers who don't show up. And your heart says Shepard, but your calendar says administrator. Does that sound familiar? We're going to talk about that today, right here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. Hi, thanks for joining me today. My name's Todd Rhodes, one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffing.com. And here's a common frustration that I hear from candidates all the time. It's kind of a frustration that nobody really warned you about when you got into ministry. And it's it's this drift that you really didn't see coming because over the years, churches got more complex while you weren't looking. I remember when I started as as a well, we called ourselves ministers of music back in the day. This was like 1986 when I graduated college. And I remember this is how complex it was, right? We sang out of hemnals with a piano and an organ. And one of the first things that was kind of thrust on me when I was hired was we want to do, and it was called a chorus of the month. Chorus of the month. And this was the technology that was behind the chorus of the month. Every Sunday we would sing the same chorus. Now, this was unusual back in 1986 because we didn't sing choruses, okay? Choruses for like Sunday school and kids. But we were going to, again, this was not my idea at the time. We were going to sing a monthly chorus. Every Sunday we would sing the same chorus and we would you know use rubber cement. You you guys don't know even what rubber cement is. I'm sure a lot of, but we would use rubber cement and we would we would photocopy the chorus and we would put it in the back of the handle and we would change that out every month. I remember, I remember just like it was yesterday. It's been how long has it been? It's been 40 years. Oh my goodness. The first chorus of the month we did was We Are So Blessed. I believe that's an old Bill Gaither song. But Bill Gaither on a Sunday morning, who does that? Unless you were a charismatic church, but that's a whole other that's a whole other webinar and a whole other podcast. I got a webinar later today, so I'm drifting a little bit, but nobody saw that churches just got more complex. We don't do things like that anymore. And back then what seemed revolutionary, you know, now we've got all kinds of things that have crept into our job descriptions. We're not worried about what chorus we're going to sing. We're worried about legal requirements. We're worried about safety standards. We're worried about lighting and technology demands because they've exploded. And the job description that I had back in 1986 as a minister of music compared to the average job description I see today for a worship pastor, completely different. Completely different. Your job description may have stayed the same, right? You're you're still a worship pastor or a minister of music, but your daily reality completely shifted. And it's been a 40-year shift. But every every day, every year with AI has changed everything again. Just when you felt like things were getting, you know, kind of steady again after after what we did six years ago with our pandemic. Now everything just keeps getting more complicated. The work that you that you're doing today didn't even exist when you even last year at this time, or when you said yes to ministry. And that's a really long introduction to say that things have changed. And I want to talk for a second, because I've not heard anybody really talk about this, about what all of this change does to your soul. Because sometimes maybe you even feel like a little bit of a fraud in staff meetings, because everybody's talking strategy, you're thinking and talking about this and that technology and what we need to do for safety. And and all you're thinking about in your head is thinking about that kid who needs Jesus. You know, you signed up to preach, but now you're managing budgets. You wanted to disciple, and now you're just doing damage control, it appears. The thing that energized you is now about 20% of your week, and the thing that drains you has turned into about 80% of your week. And you start questioning if you heard God right, because maybe you're just not cut out for this. Maybe you should just get a normal job. Because there are all conversations that we have in our head when our positions slowly change over time. And I mean, listen, your church needs both your heart and your administrative school skills. But here's what sometimes we've gotten backwards, and it's almost like a little bit of the other way I can think to describe it is almost like a bit of an identity reset. You know, your calling doesn't disappear when your role expanded. You're still you're still the same person that God called, and administrative work can be ministry when you frame it right. Okay, that background check that protects the kids you're called to love, that budget spreadsheet that funds the mission that you care about, that safety protocol that creates space for transformation, even that boring task does serve your bigger calling. So it yeah, you're not less of a pastor, you're not less of a minister because you do administrative work. You're probably a little bit more of a complete leader. But, and this is this is a big butt, and I'm not gonna tell my joke here. Okay, those that those that listen to me know that I've gotten in trouble when I say big butt. I'm not gonna do that today, okay? I'm not. It's a big butt, though. You've got to make a crucial, crucial shift, right? It's weekly rhythm fix. And and here's what I would recommend. Block some time. Block a good amount of time for the work that feeds your soul. If you love teaching, protect that block. Protect that prep time. If you love counseling, schedule those conversations. If you love worship, don't let programming kill the artistry that God has called you to do. Make the heart work non-negotiable. And then let your admin work fill in the gaps, not consume the calendar. See, that's that's where we make the mistake is we we don't control our calendar. We don't protect those things that are vital to our passion and vital to our calling. Your passion is what makes all of that admin and the administrative work bearable. And without it, you'll burn out in six months. I talk to a lot of people, a lot of staff people that have either gone through just a slow over time, their position has changed to where it's become a lot more administrative or maybe they've been promoted and they're taking on a little bit different role. Uh and it's up the ladder, right? So that you're you're you're maybe maybe you're a worship pastor and then, or maybe you're a student pastor, and then you're you're promoted to next gen that's over kids and youth and and a bunch of different things. I've heard people say, you know, I just feel like I'm not getting to do ministry because everything is administrative. Well, that may be true, but part of it might be that you just have not looked at your calendar and you've not safeguarded those areas of passion and those areas of ministry that you need to do. Your role may have changed, but your calling is bigger than your job description. Okay. So this week, here's what I'd love for you to do. Block two hours for the ministry work that originally called you. Block two hours for that. Put it on your calendar, almost like it's a board meeting. You gotta go to it. Don't let anybody move it and don't feel guilty about protecting it. Those two hours will energize your other 38 hours in the office. Your heart for ministry isn't outdated because churches got more complicated, although they have. You need to protect what called you and let it fuel everything else. That's the secret to getting some of that passion back when you feel like you're just bogged out in all these administrative tasks. Guard what God has called you to, guard what really fuels your heart. Well, I hope this has been an encouragement to you today, because I I hear a lot of people say, man, I just I hate all the administrative stuff and I'm not good at it, or or maybe I'm really good at it, but it just doesn't, it doesn't, it doesn't it doesn't make me feel good because it just it's draining. And what I really I gotta do this so that I can do my ministry. Well, maybe just reverse it a little bit and say, I gotta do my ministry, and and that's gonna give me the fire in my belly that I can actually do the administrative stuff that again will fuel the ministry. It's kind of a circular thing. I hope this has been helpful for you. I haven't heard a lot of people talking about it, but that's what's on my heart today. Hope you'll join me again. This is Friday, so have a great weekend. We'll be back on Monday right here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. We're gonna talk next week about the human touch. Kind of a four-part series. We're gonna talk about the problem solving and relationships and spiritual discernment and why your presence in ministry is huge. We're gonna talk about that on Monday, so good. Thanks.