Ministry is a Marathon

Photo by Miguel A Amutio on Unsplash

It’s so exciting when you first start in ministry. There’s so much passion and energy, and you just can’t wait to get in with the kids or youth and change lives.

But if you’ve been in ministry for more than a year, you have to know that not everything moves as fast as you thought they would.

There’s a famous quote that says, “We overestimate what we can do in a year and underestimate what we can do in a decade.”

Ministry is a marathon, not a sprint.

I’m a runner. I try to run 4-5 times a week and have for years. I’ve run 5ks, 10ks and half-marathons. I can tell you the amount of effort it takes to run 100 meters is significantly different than running ten thousand.

You have to go slower and pace yourself. You have to train for weeks or months. You have to eat right and hydrate. You have to rest and recover in between workouts. My coach always likes to say that my slowest running is at the beginning so that I can look my best at the end.

Ministry is not that different.

The start

Coming into a new place, whether you’re new to the role or just new to the church, it’s easy to jump in and start changing things. But you need to go slow. Get to know the people, the volunteers, the students, the parents. Get to know how and why things work the way they do.

Make a list of things you’d like to change and talk to your pastor or supervisor about a plan to change them. You don’t have to do everything today, this week or even this year.

Start slow.

Make a plan and follow it.  You’ll be much better off than changing a bunch of things without any direction. That's a surefire way to make a lot of people angry and leave.

The middle

After you’ve been in the role for about 6 months, you’ll start to settle into a rhythm and consider picking up the pace. However,

Sunday is always coming.

Build your schedule to work hard at times and slow down at others. Frank Bealer wrote in The Myth of Balance that we can’t find work-life balance, but we can have seasons where we focus on ministry and seasons where we focus on our families.

Yes, Sunday is always coming, but you don’t always have to be there. Take some time off. Build and train a team to take your place and fill in for you.

I spent many summers running from one church event to the next. One summer, I had two days off in the entire month of June. It was tough and I was tired. But what got me through was the family vacation in July and the ministry slow down in August.

Just like a run, you want to pace yourself and find a sustainable rhythm. If you push too hard at any point you may have not have anything left in the tank and burn out. Take some time to take care of yourself and your ministry will be better for it.

The end

We don’t like to think about endings, but there will come a time when you’re no longer the leader of your ministry. It can be next week, next year, or even next decade, but at some point, you will say goodbye.

Your legacy will be greatly influenced by how you leave.

Are the people in your ministry discipled? Do you have a ministry team that can keep the ministry moving? Are your systems and structures sustainable or have you been doing it all?

The good news is that no matter where you are on your ministry journey you can take steps now to prepare for the end. 

Imagine what you want the ministry to look like in a perfect world. Break it down into parts and figure out what steps can you take now to get there.

Don’t get discouraged that your ministry isn’t like the big awesome one down the street or on Instagram. You can get there one step at a time, and then you’ll look back after years of faithful service and see all the places God has brought you.

Ministry is a marathon because it’s never over. We’ve never “arrived.” There’s always something else to do, but if you pace yourself and as Paul said, “run your race as to win the prize,” you’ll get there and hear those wonderful words:

Well done, my good and faithful servant.