Almost every pastor and church leader I talk to these days is exhausted. The last 6 months have brought culture-shaking change at a pace none of us have ever experienced.

The spread of a global pandemic (which significantly altered everyone’s daily experience of life while at the same time severely limiting in-person gatherings like church services) and the once-in-our-lifetime focus on issues of systemic racism has left both church leaders and people in our communities reeling … and yet holding things together on the outside.

You can see the insecurity and uncertainty in the email attacks in your inbox and the social media posts on your feed.

In late March, I shared an article about how the global pandemic has the qualities of a blizzard, a season of winter, and a little ice age. The initial blizzard has passed. We’ve gone through a season of winter. Now, as church leaders plan for the fall and early 2021, we’re entering the little ice age.

You are now leading in a circumstance that you never prepared or trained for. You probably entered local church ministry with training based on a specific model of “doing church.” And now you’re faced with the need to innovate—to develop and implement a new model for how you will do church in your specific context with your specific resource set. Of course you’re exhausted.

In a previous post, I offered 5 ways for you to be replenished personally. In this post, I’m going to share the 5 most important ways you can decrease your exhaustion through the way you are leading.

I want to help you prioritize and focus your energy where it will produce the greatest return for your mission—that’s one of the best ways I know to defeat exhaustion.

[Side note: As you read through the content below, you’ll see that I’ve linked to different tools and courses I’ve been a part of creating over the years. I’m honestly not trying to sell you something. I simply believe in the power of these tools to literally change your day-to-day experience of life and ministry. If I knew of better or free tools out there that accomplished these same things, I’d direct you to those. Providing these tools is the best way I know to serve you well.]

I want to help you prioritize and focus your energy where it will produce the greatest return for your mission—that’s one of the best ways I know to defeat exhaustion.

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1 - Revisit Core Clarity: Because there are elements of who you are that never change.

As you probably know, I’ve been obsessed with the power of vision clarity for decades. Clarity isn’t everything, but it changes everything.

For me, you don’t have organizational clarity unless you have a Vision Frame—you’ve answered the five irreducible questions of clarity.

  • Mission: what are we doing?
  • Values: why are we doing it?
  • Strategy: how are we doing it?
  • Measures: when are we successful?
  • Vision Proper: where are we going?

Three of the elements of the vision frame: your mission, values, and measures should never change.

This is the highest level of the clarity conversation—clarity at the 30,000-ft level. And it’s extremely important for advancing the mission and decreasing exhaustion during times of significant social change.

There is nothing more crucial for you to be revisiting with your staff and key leaders during this time than your core clarity—mission, values, and measures. In a moment where everything is changing, these are the things that should ground you as an organization.

Not only that, but these are the things that should be woven into all of your communication with your entire church. No matter what you’re preaching on or how your methods might be shifting, when you revisit your core clarity, you restore confidence in your team and in your church as a whole. If you’ve somehow made it to this blog post without having a Vision Frame, you can’t afford to try to navigate this time without a clear sense of your core identity as an organization. Buy the Church Unique book and get started!

There is nothing more crucial for you to be revisiting with your staff and key leaders during this time than your core clarity—mission, values, and measures. In a moment where everything is changing, these are the things that should ground you as an organization.

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2 - Make Bold Decisions: Because it’s not about being right, it’s about being clear.

In the last several weeks, I’ve watched two church leaders provide crystal clarity for their churches in the midst of uncertainty: Andy Stanley of North Point Community Church and J.D. Greear of The Summit Church.

While many church leaders around the country are investing significant time and resources into reopening their church buildings for poorly attended worship services (or, worse yet, have entered a “wait and see” mode where they don’t really make a decision at all), these two leaders made the bold move to focus the energy of their churches in smaller gatherings and serving their communities.

Do you think everyone agreed with the decisions they made? Of course they didn’t. Is everyone clear on the decisions that were made and what’s most important for those churches? Of course they are.

Imagine the energy the staff and key leaders of those churches are feeling right now. Their strength is not being drained by the uncertainty of questions like, “How long are we going to be doing this?” and “When are we going to get back to normal?” Bold, clear decisions minimize distractions, significantly reduce sideways energy, and unleash the power of synergy in a common direction.

Here are two questions to ask yourself that will help you make bold decisions.

  • What would a secure leader do?
  • What decision would you make right now if you had nothing to lose and nothing to prove?

Once you’ve made a decision, communicate it over and over, focusing on the why before the what. Don’t rehearse in detail all of the complex factors you weighed in making your decision. Sometimes as leaders we can over-communicate our decision-making process, leading to greater confusion. The reason for bold decisions is always mission and vision. Invest your time connecting each decision to mission. That will energize and focus your team and your entire church.

My home church, Clear Creek Community Church in Houston, TX, is a perfect example of making bold decisions and communicating with clarity. Do I love every decision the leadership team has made since March 15th? Not necessarily. Yet I trust our leaders’ hearts and every decision has a super-clear WHY: we love our neighbors as we fulfill the mission of leading unchurched people to become fully devoted followers of Jesus. That clarity raises my sights and captures my heart. And that’s enough to keep me all-in despite any difference in opinions on specific ministry tactics.

Bold, clear decisions minimize distractions, significantly reduce sideways energy, and unleash the power of synergy in a common direction.

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3 - Leverage Unlimited Space: Because church space is the most limited option.

Every person in your church operates in three spaces: church space, life space, and virtual space. For far too long, the primary model of doing church in North America has focused almost exclusively on church space. The reason you and your team have been so tired the last few months is because your default—church space—was taken away from you.

For years I’ve talked about virtual space as being accessible no matter where we are through simply walking up a spiral staircase of technology to join the constant conversation taking place in “the cloud” above us.

Until recently, I’ve watched as leader after leader has dismissed virtual space as “not real” and “unable to create authentic connections between people.” I’ve been a part of conversations where pastors don’t want to include online views as a part of attendance metrics (they’ve changed their tune pretty quickly in the past few months, though, right?!?). Most pastors haven’t had a clear or meaningful strategy for connecting with people in virtual space.

Part of what we’ve learned so far in 2020 is that virtual space is, indeed, real space. And as a matter of fact, some of the people you are leading and many of the people you want to reach are actually more comfortable with connecting in virtual space than they are in physical space or church space. Virtual space and authenticity can indeed be found together.

Right now, church space is your most limited option for reaching people—both people in your church and people in your community. Virtual space is unlimited—not just for streaming your worship service but also for providing points of connection every day for caring, building relationships, and disciple-making.

Because of this growing need for disciple-making tools that can be used in a virtual environment, we’ve created Younique On Call. With Younique On Call, you get access to all of our online teachings and tools for every person in your church for an affordable monthly amount. It can be used by individuals, 1-on-1, or in small groups and is perfect for small virtual gatherings.

If your sole focus is on returning to church space as quickly as possible, you will only become more and more exhausted. How could you recapture the energy of your team and your church by leveraging an increasingly digital strategy?

If your sole focus is on returning to church space as quickly as possible, you will only become more and more exhausted. How could you recapture the energy of your team and your church by leveraging an increasingly digital strategy?

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4 - Move Toward Training: Because content is a commodity, but true growth comes through training.

Barna has been doing some amazing work in tracking the engagement of people with their churches in 2020. The most shocking and disheartening statistic they’ve shared could be this: about one-third (32%) of people who identify themselves as practicing Christians have not streamed a worship service since March.

An equally if not more frightening statistic for many pastors is this one: 34% of practicing Christians have streamed the worship service of a different church since March … a church they did not previously attend. People are streaming pastors they’ve heard of but never watched before. If you weren’t aware of it before, suddenly you are in direct competition with the best preachers in the country every single weekend.

Content is a commodity—even biblical content. This was true before 2020, but many pastors acted like it wasn’t the case. Now, it’s a reality for everyone. How can you compete with best preachers from around the world?!?

No offense, but you can’t. And you shouldn’t try to. Instead, you should be focused on developing tools and training experiences that add significant value to people’s everyday lives. What kind of life competencies does Jesus want them to grow in? What is the real opportunity for every believer to find and fulfill the unique ultimate contribution of their life?

As you probably know by now, I’m obsessed with tools. Tools bridge the gap between learning and doing, between gathering knowledge and implementing change. Tools bring a level of clarity and application that cannot be achieved any other way.

Whether it’s in your weekend message or in your disciple-making process, you should always be asking, “What could I have people DO that would drive this home?” It may be creating a worksheet for them to download and complete or providing a matrix that allows them to plot their current location and develop a plan for moving to a better place. Here’s a post I did several years ago about the power of tools.

If you provide tools and practical training for people that actually changes the way they interact with their families, the way they approach their work, the way they react in difficult situations, you’re no longer competing with great preachers. You’re in a different category completely.

Whether it’s in your weekend message or in your disciple-making process, you should always be asking, “What could I have people DO that would drive this home?”

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5 - Communicate through Presence: Because mass communication doesn’t reinforce community.

The most effective communication is the most personal communication. This is true no matter what, but it’s especially important in times of crisis, insecurity, and uncertainty.

In both of the examples I referenced about in the lead with clarity practice, the leaders communicated using video. Those video messages, I’m sure, were followed up with emails. But video is a step more personal. It’s still mass communication, but it feels more personal.

Now, more than ever, I believe that effective, energized pastors will communicate through presence, in the context of relationship, first and foremost. It is imperative that your communication strategy right now leans heavily on a person-to-person strategy rather than on person-to-crowd strategy.

When you make decisions about where to focus the efforts and energy of your church, those decisions should be communicated primarily through a network of relationships and then reinforced by any mass communication.

I’ve been talking about vision dripping instead of vision casting for years. You need to be dripping vision in every one-on-one interaction you have. You need to be dripping clarity about decisions in every one-on-one interaction you have. And … you need to encourage every single one of your leaders to do the same.

I firmly believe that especially as we step into a new reality and pursue new models of doing church, person-to-person invitations are the single-most important communication tool in our arsenal. Large numbers of people aren’t going to respond to a mass email. But they will respond to a personal invitation. Here’s a post I did years ago about how to craft effective communication.

Remember: The greatest opportunity in your life over the past four months is that people are a phone call away and many are more accessible now than they have ever been before. What would happen if a cascading effort of personal connections was accelerated in and through your leadership?

We’ve become addicted to the ease of mass communication. We think that by talking to everyone, we’ll connect with someone. Jesus, although He used mass communication, invested the majority of His time communicating personally with His disciples. Then He sent those disciples out to communicate with others. He communicated with someone and then released those someones to connect with everyone.

One of my favorite COVID stories is a pastor who looked over his Facebook page and decided to personally call all of his “friends” who didn’t know Jesus. I love that. He wouldn't have done it without the pandemic giving him the idea.

Advancing the mission of your church during this season doesn’t have to mean that you and your team are completely exhausted. If you’re continually over-tired, it’s usually a sign that you are wasting energy in areas that are not producing a good return. My prayer is that you’ll embrace these 5 ways of advancing the mission and step into a new reality for you, for your church, and for your community.

Topics: Date: Aug 6, 2020 Tags: Clarity / Vision Frame