Comments on: Major Disruptions

By: Liquid Community » Embracing Change

Liquid Community » Embracing Change — Fri, 30 May 2008 03:09:30 +0000

[...] Craig Groeschel wrote a bit about change recently… [...]

By: Nate

Nate — Mon, 26 May 2008 21:09:16 +0000

Thanks for this post, Craig. Your transparency in ministry is refreshing and blesses me beyond words.

By: Sheri

Sheri — Mon, 26 May 2008 06:27:43 +0000

We are going through some major changes right now…change reveals where you are not trusting God (I get comfortable with certain things - I KNOW that I know He will do).

By: Andy Wood

Andy Wood — Mon, 26 May 2008 03:37:51 +0000

One of those changes for me happened when I had to admit that the church would do just fine without me for a season. And if it would fall apart without me, it NEEDED to fall apart without me for a season (hope that makes sense).

At any rate, it has also been a priceless gift to have a high-trust team who routinely informs me when I’m getting, in their words, “crispy,” and insists that I “get out of Dodge” for a while. All of us need people whom we allow to gauge our crispiness and speak into it.

By: Jennifer Miller

Jennifer Miller — Fri, 23 May 2008 16:19:45 +0000

I too am interested in what changes you have done. It seems in ministry sometimes we take on more and more, and don’t know what we should say no to and yes to.

I find that I say yes, thinking it’s the right thing to do, but it consumes my time and makes me ineffective in other areas of ministry. I don’t want to be a 80% leader, I want to be a 100% leader in the ONE thing I’m good at.

By: Mike Jones

Mike Jones — Thu, 22 May 2008 21:18:37 +0000

@ Terry Foester - the problem with being a workaholic, or just working too much, is you often don’t realize you’re doing it. It’s only a meeting here or a night there until all you’re doing is working … even if working is ministry your family should come first.

By: Terry Foester

Terry Foester — Thu, 22 May 2008 21:12:50 +0000

On Monday night I told my son Eli (who is 5) that I had to go to worship practice. He looked at me and said, “Dad - that’s 2 nights in a row!”. He was right, the night before I had a worship meeting.

On the drive to practice, it hit me that a night out of the house (even for ministry) is still something negative to Eli. I often criticize my buddy for working too much overtime in engineering. But to Eli, what I’m doing is no different.

By: Dan Atchison

Dan Atchison — Thu, 22 May 2008 19:37:04 +0000

I’ve been in ministry for the past decade and I’m taking a two year sabbatical. After losing our five-year-old son, Josiah, to cancer two years ago, I jumped right back in because I thought I had to. I didn’t wrestle with my own disappointments honestly and I drifted. It almost cost me my marriage and family but God’s grace has stepped in and we are doing wonderful but it’s because I had to call a time-out. It’s been the best thing for my family and for my own spiritual health… breaking from professional Christianity. If God sees for us to ever reengage the ministry, we’ll definitely build margin and healthy boundaries into our life.

By: Jan Owen

Jan Owen — Thu, 22 May 2008 19:20:11 +0000

I was not stuck, I was buried. I did two things to disrupt my life -
1) I joined a retreat community through The Transforming Center and committed to meeting each quarter for two solid years. This requires me to spend almost $1000 each quarter out of my own pocket - but it’s been well worth it. I can’t exaggerate the huge difference this has made in my life, walk and ministry.

2)I’d love for you to check out my story on my blog at: http://aworshipfulheart.typepad.com and read my latest entry entitled “The Refiner’s Fire”. In short I went through some difficult times at church and decided to ask for a sabbatical, which I am presently on. Again, one of the most difficult yet rewarding steps I’ve ever taken.

Both of these have been MAJOR disruptions in my life that I’ve done purposefully. They were both quite scary, btw.

By: Chris Dillingham

Chris Dillingham — Thu, 22 May 2008 17:16:03 +0000

I’m with Rick, Bill and Suraj… I’d love to see an example or two of what you mean by “major changes”.

By: Suraj

Suraj — Thu, 22 May 2008 16:20:59 +0000

I’m with Rick and Bill, I’d love more detail as to what kind of major changes you made. Thanks for this post!

God Bless ‘_^

By: Bill G

Bill G — Thu, 22 May 2008 14:17:09 +0000

I am currently not working in ministry but can relate to feeling stuck. I was totally there in my last job. My major change was leaving the job and a 25k cut in pay. At the time it was exactly what I needed. I am beginning to feel that way again and it is bumming me out. I feel as though I should be in ministry but don’t know how how or where.

By: Kevin Bussey

Kevin Bussey — Thu, 22 May 2008 13:58:48 +0000

Craig,

I was there back in Nov. I made a decision to resign with nowhere to go. I’ve made huge changes in my life since then. But for the first time in ministry I made a change and didn’t have to move to a new house or community. That has taken some adjustment.

I’m also making a change by driving a scooter to work because of almost $4 gas. My son wants to make sure I wear a full mask on my helmet. :)

By: Craig Groeschel

Craig Groeschel — Thu, 22 May 2008 13:04:44 +0000

Rick and Bill, Thanks for your questions. I’ll try to do some writing on the changes. (I am still working on it!)

By: Bill (cycleguy)

Bill (cycleguy) — Thu, 22 May 2008 12:26:43 +0000

You don’t play fair C! You tell us you made changes but then don’t tell us what you did! :) Care to share what you have done?

Other than keeping a cycling “date” at lunchtime one of the things I have had to do here is adjust my time. My wife’s day off is Monday and mine is Friday. I abhor Monday’s off so I work in the morning and spend some time in the afternoon with her. I still take Friday off, for me and my sanity.

By: Scott Fillmer

Scott Fillmer — Thu, 22 May 2008 12:02:13 +0000

Interesting to read you post in light of watching the conference in SoCal this week with Rick Warren. He talked quite a bit about burnout amoung those in the ministry and his remarks about it were very good.

There are some good steps to keep in mind like remembering that God intended for us to work 6 days a week, not 10 :)

By: tony

tony — Thu, 22 May 2008 11:36:44 +0000

and we’re glad you did because we want what God wants for you - and burnout is a tough place to be in any facet of life. wellsprings of water (life) are much more fun - and we get to watch you get wet! plus we all get to get soaked together

By: Rick

Rick — Thu, 22 May 2008 11:34:37 +0000

This post is hitting right where I am at right now. Would you mind following up this post with how you were stuck and what changes you made that made the difference?