These 58 Things Were Slowly Killing Me…Are They Killing You?

I own a ministry focused company called Ministry Pass.

Not too long ago, we had the greatest month in the history of our company. We are helping thousands of churches around the world, and yet something wasn’t right.

Something was way off.

Despite all of the success, I was more stressed out, worn out and tired than ever.

As I sat in my business coach’s office, the sun was beaming in through from the windows near the ceiling.

I felt overwhelmed.

“Is this what success feels like?” I asked.

I had been a pastor and was always stressed out. I read blogs and books about pastors being overworked. Somewhere along the way I had accepted that this is the life of a pastor…stressed out, underpaid and worn down.

All the time.

I am now a business owner and nothing had changed. Still stressed to the max.

Maybe the problem wasn’t being a pastor or owning a business.

Maybe the problem was me…

I had always prided myself as being a hard worker. But somewhere along the way I allowed the glorification of self to dominate logic.

I “needed” to be involved or it wouldn’t get done right or done at all. I had convinced myself the success of the company would be determined by my ability to power through and push us to success.

To put a number on it…

I was involved in 58 things at Ministry Pass!

In some sort of capacity, big or small, my energy was divided between 58 things. No wonder I was exhausted.

If you peel the onion back, what we are really looking at is lazy leadership. I had been a lazy leader disguised as a hard worker.

There were no systems, no process, just me grinding away. I had not placed intentionality into empowering others on our team.

Thankfully, my business coach helped me see that I was killing myself and any bit of success would be short lived if I kept this up.

We started working on a plan to bring balance to my life and our company. He started by asking me three questions.

1. What things are you doing that are $12/hour tasks?

I was shocked at how many of the 58 things were things that could be done by someone for $12/hour.

We immediately began to build out a plan to siphon off these tasks to part-time employees and virtual teams.

2. What things are you doing that are $125/hour tasks?

These are tasks that require a more specialized skill set. For me that was designing. I have been a designer for 15 years.

If we needed a quick design, instead of allowing someone else to do it or hire it out, I would just do it myself.

It was quicker for me to do it than to invest money or time into someone else.

Speed is the enemy of delegation.

Today, I rarely design. Part of me misses it because I was a designer for so long. I learned through this process that letting go of doing the designs has made our organization better.

Which brings me to his third question.

3. What things are you doing that are $1000/hour tasks?

Where do I bring the most value? Where do I bring the most value to our team? Where do I bring the most value to the church leaders we serve?

What are the things no one else in our organization can do or should do, but me?

We narrowed it to 3 things.

Content

I am now doubling my focus on my blog, email list, and trainings. Producing content that adds value to church leaders at churches under 300.

We did an internal audit of our growing email list and realized our sales emails outweighed value emails 7 to 1.

This was unacceptable to me. While we have to generate revenue to be sustainable as a business, we could do a much better job.

I founded Ministry Pass because I saw a huge need and wanted to help. We are working to bring back balance to our emails and posts.

Collaboration

I love networking and connecting. It’s one of my greatest strengths. I will knock on any door.

This year, I am devoting a lot of time, money, and space to collaborating with other leaders and companies who serve churches.

Partnering together only helps us make a greater impact for the kingdom. Our company may be great at one thing, but weak where they are strong.

Learning and leading together benefits everyone.

My blogs have been featured on pastors.com, sermoncentral.com, and churchleaders.com among others.

Those are big platforms and I am honored to continue to have a voice with their audiences.

Course

As the leader, it’s my responsibility to make sure we are on the right course. The vision for the future will come from me but it can’t just stay between my ears. It has to be transferred to our team and culture.

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What does your workload look like?

Are you tired and worn out all the time?

Maybe it’s time for you to do an internal audit like I did. Get a definitive look at EVERYTHING you are involved in. Chances are, you will see things you could delegate or hire out. Label the $12/hour, $125/hour and $1000/hour tasks on your schedule and bring balance accordingly.

This transition won’t be easy but it will be the best thing for you, your family, your team and church.