RELEVANT CHILDREN'S MINISTRY

You look down and your battery is at 1%.  You panic because you suddenly realize your phone is about to shut down, just when you need it the most.  It's happened to all of us, hasn't it?  Without a battery that is charged up, our phones are useless.

There have also been times when I looked at my personal life and realized that I was at 1% emotionally, physically or spiritually.  I had nothing left to give to my family, ministry and other people who were depending on me.  I was drained so low that I was on the verge of shutting down completely.

Ever been there?  The simplest tasks become extremely hard.  You have a difficult time making decisions.  Your creativity dries up.  You begin to resent your schedule and work.  Health issues begin to surface.  You avoid contact with people.  What used to be joyful, now feels like an obligation.

I have a feeling I'm not the only one this has happened to before.  But the good news is you can recharge and see your frown be replaced with a smile once again.

It starts by recognizing what is draining your battery.  Every output action drains your battery at some level.  Every phone call, every conversation, every meeting, every conflict, every lesson you teach, every volunteer you counsel, every event you attend, contributes to your depletion.  It's normal to have some battery drain, if you didn't, it would mean you're not doing anything!  The goal is not to keep your battery at 100%!

Next - find out what is causing a major drain on your battery.  On your phone, there are certain apps that will drain your phone faster than others.  If you leave them running, even in the background, your battery can go down faster.  Again, the goal is not to eliminate drain.   The goal is to find out what is taking you down so quickly and adjust that part of your life.  This might be a person, a plate that is too full or even priorities that are wrong.  If you're going to get back to a healthy battery level, you've got to find identify this.

Know when your battery is getting low.  It's easy to know when your phone is depleted, isn't it?  You can see it.  But often we're not as quick to know when our personal battery is running low.  We ignore the signs of fatigue, frustration and discouragement.  Learn to watch your personal battery level.  Know when you are tired.  Know when you need rest.  Know when you are discouraged.  Know when you are restless.  Know when you are over-extended.  Enlist other people to help watch your personal battery level as well.  Give them permission to speak into your life when they see you running low.

Find ways to re-charge your battery.  At the end of each day, I plug my cell phone in beside my bed and let it charge up overnight.  But occasionally, I'll forget to plug it in and guess what happens the next day...usually at a critical time?  My phone goes dead.  No charge means no power and no power means a useless phone.

The same thing happens if I forget or neglect to charge my spiritual battery.  I get depleted and am useless for the Kingdom.  I must stay charged up through spending time with Jesus, resting, taking my day off, enjoying a hobby, using my vacation time and being poured into by others.

What re-charges your battery?  Make sure you're plugging into it and getting re-charged every day. 

Keep your battery at a consistent, healthy level.  The most productive way to operate is to find a battery level that you can consistently maintain.  Pace yourself so you never get down to 1% and find yourself about to shut down completely.  This will allow you to stay the course and finish strong.

I don't know where your battery level is at today.  Is it at 90%?  50%?  25%?  1%?  Wherever you find yourself, I offer you hope.  Don't give up.  Don't quit.  You can get re-charged.  You can get your battery back up to a healthy level.  It just takes being intentional.

Praying for you today.  Stay charged up!  Your best days of ministry are ahead.  You need to enter them with a full battery!

You're committed to the ministry you lead.  You spend untold hours investing in the kids, parents and volunteers God has called you serve.  You put it all on the line to reach the next generation.  That's what good children's ministry leaders do. 

But that doesn't mean you should completely sacrifice your personal life.  Leaders who push aside their own spiritual growth,  family, sleep, exercise, rest, days off and vacation time will experience a gradual loss and burn out.

Leaders who go the distance and make a long-term, significant impact supplement their commitment to the ministry with an equally important commitment to themselves.  They know their ministry flows from their own spiritual and physical health.

Are you committed to your own relationship with Jesus?  It's easy to be so committed to working for Jesus that it overshadows your commitment to be with Jesus.  When this happens, your passion will gradually wain and the ministry will turn into a job that you find yourself grudgingly performing.  In this post, I share about the importance of being committed to your own spiritual life.

Are you committed to your own family?  Are you so busy reaching everyone else's kids that you are neglecting your own kids?  Are you spending so much time helping other people's marriages that your own marriage is suffering?  Are you investing so much in other people's families that you are hurting your own family?

The most important kids we minister to are our own kids.  The most important marriage we work on is our own.  The most important family we minister to is our own family. 

Are you committed to your physical health?  Do you find yourself constantly running through the drive-thru and ordering unhealthy food because you're too busy to sit down for a healthy meal?  Are you too busy to exercise?  Running on little to no sleep because you've got so much to do?  When your physical health goes down, your ministry will go down.

Are you committed to your mental health?  Stress.  It's part of ministry.  And if you don't find ways to relieve it...reduce it...deal with it...it will bury you.  I found out the hard way that you can burn out doing what you love.  You can read my story here. 

Are you committed to your life outside of ministry?  Ministry will take over your entire life if you let it.  It can take you to a point where it's all you think about and you can't even slow down enough to enjoy any hobbies or other things in life you would enjoy doing.  

There's an interesting analogy in Song of Solomon 1.  It says this - "They made me the keeper of the vineyards: but mine own vineyard have I not kept."  The person writing this got so busy taking care of other people's vineyards that she neglected to take care of her own vineyard.  She was so busy planting seeds in other people's vineyards that her own vineyard was barren.  She was so busy watering other people's vineyards that her own vineyard became parched.  She was so busy pulling weeds out of other people's vineyards that her own vineyard became overgrown with weeds. 

Can you relate?  

Please...please...please stay committed to the ministry....and please...please...please stay as equally committed to yourself.  Spend time with Jesus.  Exercise.  Take your day off.  Use your vacation time.  Go home and be with your family.  Get some hobbies. 

We need you for the long haul.   

Are you feeling burned out in children's ministry?  Here's some signs your tank is on empty.

• You feel that every day at work is a struggle.
• You feel emotionally exhausted much of the time.
• You have very little joy or interest in your work.  You may even feel depressed by it.
• You feel overwhelmed by your responsibilities.
• You feel hopeless about your life or work.
• You experience physical exhaustion.
• The stress from work causes sleeplessness.

Burnout won't go away on it's own.  You have to be proactive to beat it.  Here's some steps you can take.

Identify why you are experiencing burnout. 
Is it working too many hours?  Conflict with another person?  Unrealistic expectations?

Start keeping a log of what causes you stress.  Look for patterns and incidents that stand out.

Make some changes based on what you discovered.
It may mean delegating more, having a conversation with your boss, resolving a conflict or saying no to some things.  In this article, I share how to decide what to say no to.

Check your physical condition.
Are you getting enough sleep?  Are you exercising?  Are you eating well?  How you take care of yourself physically is a big factor.

Take some time off.
I know, that means you'll have to work more up front and afterwards just to be able to take the time off.  But it's vital to get away on a regular basis.

And don't be pulled into work while you're on vacation.  With smartphones it's hard, but disconnect while you're away.

Reassess your responsibilities. 
Burnout can occur when your responsibilities don't line up with your passion, giftedness, or calling.  Take a look at your job description.  Are you excited about it?  If not, it may be time for a shift.

Check your thought patterns.

Want to burnout your volunteers?  Here's 7 ways to do it.

1. Place them where you "need" them.  Use them to fill a hole instead of finding out what their gifts and passions are.

2. Don't follow ratios.  Place them in an overcrowded room...especially if they are serving in preschool ministry.

3. Ask them to stay over and work an extra service.  Ask them at the last minute and make them feel guilty if they can't stay.

4. Don't give them any time off.  Expect them to serve 52 weeks a year.  Vacation or time off in the summer?  Yeah, right!

5. Make sure they skip the adult service.  They don't need to attend the adult service.  They can stay spiritually fed and healthy by listening to or teaching the children's lesson.

6. Don't thank them.  They should be serving because they love Jesus...not for a pat on the back. 

7. Have long, required training sessions that take them away from their family.  It doesn't matter how busy their schedule is.  They should be committed enough to attend your 2 hour training sessions on a regular basis.

The floor is yours.  What are some other ways to burnout volunteers?  Please share your thoughts with us below.