By Ben Cachiaras
It’s good to talk about how ministry is a privilege and a joy, how the calling is noble and essential. Ministry is all of these things, and more.
But ministry is also just plain hard.
Add up the pressure of teaching and preaching, the load of leadership and the burdens of broken people, while fulfilling impossible expectations on a shoestring budget in a divisive cultural climate—all while holding your own personal baggage and trauma—well, it’s overwhelming. No wonder pastors are burning out and running out. About a third of those who remain have seriously considered quitting in the last year.
But of course, there are myriad beautiful, shining examples of faithful ministers who have demonstrated a long obedience in the same direction. They plug away, putting in the work in gritty, unglamorous ministry trenches year after year. They are not only faithful, they are fruitful. In stark contrast to the highly publicized pastoral failures, these countless workhorses of the kingdom humbly serve with integrity and will finish well.
Don’t you think it’s worth asking how to belong to this second group?! How do we stay faithful and fruitful?
“We are what we repeatedly do,” said Aristotle. Show me your habits and I’ll show you your life! Paul echoed the importance of habits by comparing ministry to an Olympic athlete training to win (1 Corinthians 9:24-27). The discipline of heading to the gym pays off, says Paul, but it’s nothing compared to the power of godly habits in your life (1 Timothy 4:7-8).
I’ve been asked to reflect on some of the seemingly small ministry practices that have a way of compounding in remarkable results over time. My list is long, but I will share what might be the top three habits for meaningful ministry in today’s difficult context.
Becoming
There is so much pressure in ministry to perform. There’s a constant emphasis on outputs: grow the church, build the building, expand the ministry, increase the budget, fix the webpage, choose the curriculum, run the meeting, lead like a champ, preach like TED, do all the things. But the most important thing in ministry is not what you are doing, it’s who you are becoming.
Character trumps outputs, charisma, and skillset every time. To paraphrase Richard Foster, the great need today is not for a greater number of smart or gifted or productive people, but for deep people.
Jesus said in John 3:11, “We speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen.” We need pastors who have firsthand experience with Jesus, which means we need habits that lead to the deep inner work of transformation in Christ. The mission of the church is to make disciples, but before we make disciples, we are first called to be disciples of Jesus.
As Dallas Willard reminds us, all authority and resilience in spiritual leadership derives from the minister’s own life in the Spirit, from their own personal encounter and ongoing relationship with God.
This exposes the great occupational hazard of ministry today and the root cause of so much of our malaise and discouragement: too many pastors are untethered from their Source, working from human strength, rather than abiding deeply in the Vine. The habits most needed today are not those that help us lead the church, but those which help us follow Jesus.
Belonging
There is an epidemic of loneliness among pastors. Especially this side of the pandemic, friendships in the church can be funky, and many pastors have been burned. It’s notoriously tricky to connect with other ministers in town, and places to share honestly about the blessings and burdens of church work are hard to find. Too many pastors fulfill Thoreau’s description and are living lives of quiet desperation.
If we urgently need habits of becoming to produce character, there is an equally desperate need for habits that will foster belonging to produce connection.
I always wince a bit when someone describes our tribe as “Independent Christian Churches” because it is sometimes our fiercely “independent” spirit that drives us apart, like a powerful centrifugal force at work, despite how the New Testament has no place for “independent” anything. Everyone is connected to Christ and to one another, one body, mutually dependent. Interdependent.
Isolation cripples ministers and kicks them to the curb. Pastors need friends. Pastors need accountability. Pastors need connection. More than colleagues, we need a safe place to confess, to cry, and to find life-saving correction and life-giving community of others who share the calling.
Best Practices
In addition to habits that produce character and connection we need habits that foster competency. Pastors need to keep learning, growing, and improving. Nobody drifts towards better preaching, or accidentally improves as a counselor or children’s pastor. The practice of ministry requires intentional effort and deserves diligent devotion to study, practice, and coaching that leads to improvement.
The habit of learning from other healthy and fruitful churches is crucial to provide inspiration, encouragement, and boldness to try something new. I am so grateful someone taught me how to hire and supervise someone, how to read a balance sheet and set goals, how to encourage volunteers, how to write a sermon, the best way to resolve conflict, introduce change, the importance of boundaries in my personal life, and so much more. We launched a community center, have begun an outreach among young adults, have a trauma survivors support group—all ideas we learned from the effective ministry of others. We should be devoted to honing our craft, improving our skillfulness, learning best practices so that like the men of Issachar we might understand our times and know what God’s people should do.
Spire
Ministry is hard. But 1,500 ministry-minded servants gathered last October at the Spire Conference and came away stronger and better focused on Becoming, Belonging and learning Best Practices for ministry.
Spire is much more than an annual gathering, providing resources and guidance to ministry-focused people through multiple channels. But Spire’s annual conference is a crucial hub for Christian Church leaders because it provides a place for us to relearn the key habits we need to thrive in these trying times.
Main sessions were packed with incredible preaching and I was struck by how deep they went, to the core of our character, emphasizing that it is who we are in Christ that matters most.
Pre-conferences did deep dives into discipleship, preaching, and more. Breakouts were provocative and practical. One taught how to care for your soul while driving the mission, others focused on best practices in small groups and kids’ ministry. During mixers, pastors connected with others in similar roles, a crazy time of making friends and trading stories and phone numbers. At the after party, frisbees flew and music played, and over Mexican food casual groupings of ministry people reflected on all they’d absorbed. Others exaggerated their accomplishments in the golf outing or the pickleball tournament.
Some came to Spire with teams of elders or staff, some attended by themselves. Everyone left inspired, encouraged, less alone, and more connected. Some came on empty, about to throw in the basin and towel. Everyone returned home full, charged up.
In our final session, Cam Huxford reflected on 40 years of ministry with Compassion Christian Church in Savannah, Georgia. He challenged us to see ministry as the most important, noble work in the world and to stay in the good fight. This is not a gig. Souls are at stake. And it will be a fight to maintain our character, a fight to stay connected with each other, and a fight to stay current and competent. But it’s worth it. Keep fighting the good fight.
To do that we need some help. We used to say if the North American Christian Convention didn’t exist, we’d need to invent something a lot like it. We desperately need a place that will help us all nurture vital habits that lead to deeper character in Christ, stronger connections with others, and improved competency for ministry.
We need a place we can focus on who we are becoming in Christ. We need a people among whom we can find belonging, and we need access to best practices that help us do what God has called us to do as effectively as possible.
That place for so many is Spire. As more and more join in each year, it will only get better.
Ben Cachiaras is lead pastor with Mountain Christian Church outside Baltimore, Maryland and serves on the board of directors for Spire.
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