The Preaching Donkey Podcast

Let me take a wild guess here... There are things you want to change about your church. You have a list. You dream about what it would be like if you could make the changes you want to make. If only your leadership team, elders, staff, congregation, etc would just get onboard with you!! This episode will help you with that! I'm going to walk you through the concepts from my favorite book on leading change in your church. This book is a tried and true gem. I've used the principles it teaches for years, and they are tried and true. What is it? Watch or listen to find out!

Ahh, a pillar of virtue. One who floats on the clouds unaffected by criticism, temptation, angry congregants and everything in between. That is basically what is expected of you at all times as a pastor. Is this fair? Is this biblical? Who gets to define how a "pillar of virtue" behaves? And how does this intersect with the qualifications for pastors that Paul lays out in 1 Timothy? In our final episode of this series on the unrealistic expectations pastors face, we'll dive into it all and discover how we should deal with this particularly hard to fulfill expectation.

Can weddings, funerals and baptisms lead to burnout? It depends on how you manage the expectation of being the officiant of all those ceremonies. In this episode, we discuss how to set the expectations and manage the responsibility of weddings, funerals and baptisms - and any other rituals, ceremonies or sacraments you're expected to facilitate.

I would guess that when you signed up to be a pastor, the absolute LAST thing on your mind was that one day you'd be expected to manage HR at your church. That you would effectively be a human resources director on top of being the spiritual shepherd and preacher of your church. Nevertheless, the expectation to hire staff, fire staff, develop staff, and build a good workplace culture probably falls on you - if you haven't done something about that expecation. In this episode, I'm going to give you a three part framework for how to manage the responsibility of HR in your church so that it doesn't take every last ounce of energy you have!

Your church needs money to operate. Almost nothing happens without it. And the expectation of raising enough funds for the church to meet its budget and fund special projects often falls squarely on you, the pastor. How do you manage such an important responsibility? In this episode, I'll give you a three part framework for fulfilling your role in your church's fundraising.

How do you handle the expectation of pastoral care in your church? Too often the senior pastor takes on this burden nearly entirely. This can become a massive drain on you - spiritually, emotionally and physically. The people in your church have to be cared for, but it doesn't have to be you carrying that burden. In this episode, I'll lay out a framework for making sure that everyone is taken care of without you losing yourself in the process.

When you signed up for ministry, did you know you'd be expected to function as a CEO? Oh, and you need to give a keynote address to the whole organization every Sunday. And, you better lead at a world class level. And bring the right team around you. And never let the church's attendance flatten or decline. And make sure you, your spouse and kids all remain pillars of virtue through every challenge. If you fail at any level as the CEO of the church, you will be replaced. Nothing to it, right? In this episode, we are examining the crippling expectation that pastors be the CEO of their church. We will discover a way to deal with this expectation so that we can come out on the other end with our sanity intact.

If you preach, you know the pressure of making your sermons awesome. But it's not just your content that has to be impeccable. Your delivery has to be at an expert level as well. You simply "must" be: -engaging but not too confrontational -humorous but not glib -biblical but not a seminary lesson -entertaining but still substantive -thorough but not long-winded. Easy peasy right? Recently a pastor wrote an article sharing why he has decided to leave pastoral ministry for good. His article went viral as so many people resonated with his sentiments on the pressures, stresses and unrealistic expectations pastors face. One of the expectations he lists is Professional Speaker. In this episode, we'll dive into that expectation to see how to manage it without losing our minds in the process.

Recently a pastor wrote an article sharing why he has decided to leave pastoral ministry for good. His article went viral as so many people resonated with his sentiments on the pressures, stresses and unrealistic expectations pastors face. In this episode, we'll dive into his article and see what we can learn from his experience. If you've ever felt as if they pressures of ministry are too great to bear, this episode is for you.

When we preach, we need one thing from our listeners in order to get our message across to them: their attention. If they are not listening, the message is not making an impact. This is why building tension in the beginning of your message is so important. It signals to the listener that the message is worth listening to. There are many ways to approach tension building, but in this episode I'm going to show you the best way.