Workaholism

NADCE (National Association of Directors of Christian Education)

This month’s episode, hosted by Katie Morgan, features a discussion with DCE Jeremy Hetzel (Family of Christ, Colorado Springs, CO) about working too much and steps he has found to avoid burning out while serving in the crucible of ministry. Jeremy defines workaholism as going over the boundary line of putting energy and effort into your ministry so much that it consumes you. Sometimes church workers care too much and don’t want to let the smaller things slide. They don’t realizing that it’s God’s church and we church professionals are there to serve and facilitate the ministry, not be the ministry. In his own ministry experiences Jeremy came back from a youth trip on a Friday to lean that he would filling part of a pastor who had left his position. This including preaching on the coming Sunday. Through this experience and others Jeremy found some effective tools to create margin in his life and ministry including starting a prayer journal and spending a significant amount of team each day (at least 30 minutes) in God’s word where he rests in Jesus. He does this in the morning when he gets to church and recommends everyone find a time to fit this in that works for them. Because of his newfound healthy self care practices Jeremy has found he is able to stay healthier in many areas of his life and is more open to the Spirit’s leading because he starts every day in a place of peace. He attributes this to praying out his worries and concerns knowing that he has feed himself spiritually and can then go out and serve other throughout the day. His advice for new DCEs is to mark down daily when you arrive and leave your church (to the nearest quarter hour) to know when you’ll need some comp time because some seasons of the church busier than others. Also, list weekly what you have to get done and what it would be nice to be done.
Books referenced:

· Spiritual Formation of Leaders

· 9 Pathways to Connect to God

· Emotionally Healthy Spirituality