Ministry and Life

If you have been led into ministry, you have experienced the joy of your calling. There have been so many triumphant days with wins beyond your initial hopes. There are also stressors that may bleed over into family and personal life. You have been gifted by God to serve and lead. God may have also given you the gift of a family. He knows your desire is to be the most impactful pastor, as well as the best parent and spouse you can be. When these life callings overlap, you may feel the stress of them not interacting as cohesively as you had hoped. What do you do? Will you have to simply decide that ministry demands a higher priority? On some days and weeks it will, but in the long-term, that would obviously never be satisfying or fulfilling.

Your church and ministry also hold great meaning. To see your goals, hopes, and dreams for it be totally realized, you might be willing to sacrifice many things. You have watched other pastors sacrifice precious family time, regret lost memories, or miss out on the accomplishments and milestones of their loved ones. You get it. Your heart for your church could motivate you to work almost nonstop. You are not alone.

Fortunately, there is much to learn from the life stories of other leaders. There are possibly characteristics that intersect between these overlapping segments of life. The term segment is a term of separation, but the truth is that the callings overlap and fluctuate. Yet they can coexist in a powerful way. Ministry and personal life need not be mutually exclusive.

You can be prepared for the two worlds of ministry and family to collide. That is why it is important to learn how to be prepared for these challenges. In this video, we offer five tips to encourage leaders that the strain between ministry and personal life can be remedied if you follow the advice offered here.