Family Is A Priority

Occupational ministry can be tough to balance with family life. There are sermon preparations, weddings, funerals, counseling, budgets, bills, building to build, building to maintain, people going through crises, board meetings, preaching, hiring, firing, leadership, ministries to launch, programs to stop, missions, outreach, the poor and the list goes on and on. Occupational ministry can be a 24 hour job if you let it. There is always something to do. There are always people going through problems or a crisis. There are always decisions that need to be made. It can be a challenge not to put the ministry ahead of your family.

When it comes to this issue, there are some pastors who are lazy and use family as an excuse not to work hard. This bugs me big time. I think pastors and church leaders should work super hard. We don't hire lazy people at People's Church. There are other pastors who are workaholics and neglect their families for the church. This also bugs me big time. I don't think someone is a spiritual giant because they are always at the church doing ministry and neglecting their family. I'm the first to admit that it can be tough to find the happy medium, but it can be achieved. There have been seasons that I've really struggled to find the balance, but I think I do fairly well with this overall. More importantly, my wife says I do a good job in this area, and that's what really counts.

Tomorrow I'm going to share some things that I do to make my family a priority.