One important key to success in any endeavor is passion. If one does not have passion for what he or she does it's unlikely they are going to enjoy the level of success they could have. I spent eleven years working on an assembly line. It was a good job that provided well for my family, but I never felt passion for anything I did. I enjoyed the people I worked with, I mostly enjoyed the work I did, but there was never any passion. When my shift ended I was glad to go home.
Ministry has been different. Yes, there have been difficult times and even times when it has been unpleasant, but I've always felt passionate about this call God has on my life. Since much of my ministry has been done as a bivocational person passion has been something much needed. I cannot imagine doing bivocational ministry and not feeling passionate about what I was doing.
In my book The Bivocational Pastor: Two Jobs, One Ministry I include a chapter on the importance of passion in ministry. That chapter includes some reasons why some pastors lose that passion, and I will be pulling some thoughts from that chapter to this post.
One primary reason many pastors, bivocational and fully-funded, lose passion for the ministry is fatigue. Pastors are notorious for not practicing good self-care. We overbook ourselves, leaving no room for margin, and then struggle when unexpected events demand even more of our time. I'm reminded of the acts on the old Ed Sullivan show that featured an individual who kept several plates spinning on slender rods. He had to run from one to another to keep them spinning. That describes the way many ministers approach their ministries. We run from one thing to another trying to keep them all going. For the bivocational minister especially, trying to maintain balance between our ministries and other jobs plus managing everything else we need to do can be very tiring and a major drain on our passion for ministry.
Another factor that can drain us of our passion is pressure. Ministers face many pressures related to ministry. The pressure of loneliness, the pressure of expectations, the pressure of relationships, and the pressure of feeling inadequate for the job are just a few of the pressures we may feel.
In the book I discuss how to identify if you are losing passion for your ministry and some ways to recapture that passion. Our churches quickly reflect the personality of their pastors, and if the pastor has little or no passion for ministry, neither will the church. If passion is missing I highly recommend the ministry seek someone to talk to. This might be a denominational leader, another pastor you trust, or even a counselor. Your church deserves to have a pastor with a passion for serving them so make sure you maintain that passion.
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