Greg Atkinson has been in ministry for over two decades and has been writing, speaking, and training leaders around the world since 2000.
In 2003 Greg launched a website geared to encourage, network, resource, and equip Christian pastors, media ministers, artists and worship leaders – after having served the previous 11 years as a worship pastor himself in the Carolinas and Washington DC.
Greg currently works with ExPastors.com which seeks to encourage and provide healing for pastors who have burned out and left ministry. ExPastors.com also seeks to create health for pastors currently serving the local church in an attempt to prevent pastors from becoming ex-pastors.
In this episode, we talk about self-awareness, brokenness, redemption and God’s incredible ability and habit of using broken people for further His Kingdom.
Welcome to episode 20 of the Young Church Leaders Podcast with Grant Vissers!
Show Notes
Guest Links
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Takeaways from the Episode
1. Results from the Expastors.com Survey
64% have doubted their calling
64% feel overworked
86% feel unable to meet the demands of their job
77% feel there are unrealistic demands and unwritten expectations about the their job and family
85% have considered leaving the ministry
62% experience loneliness
71% have experienced burnout
29% have considered taking their own life
Ex-pastors tries to be that safe place where you’re welcome to find the care you need with the confidentiality you want. If you need someone to talk to, check them out at expastors.com
The good news is that ex-pastors don’t have to stay ex-pastors!
2. Self-Awareness: How to NOT Become an Ex-pastor
Self-awareness: conscious knowledge of one’s own character, feelings, motives, and desires. A key step, and perhaps even the first step in growing as a person, is becoming more self-aware. Self-awareness allows us to see ourselves as we actually are, and not how we perceive ourselves to be. A key step in becoming more self-aware is identifying the blind spots in our own lives and accepting that we might not be as perfect as we thought. The truth: we all have blind spots. The greater truth: we don’t have to be defined by our blind spots.
3. 2 Key Steps
See a Counsellor
Seeing a Counsellor is one of the best ways to become more self-aware as a leader and as a person. It allows you to have a neutral person, outside of your family and work who can walk you through the things you’re struggling with. Sometimes it just helps to have someone to talk to who is completely safe.
Find a Mentor
Find someone who is a little further along in life than you are and ask if they’d be willing to be your mentor. Find an older parent, a seasoned leader, or a Spouse whose marriage is a little further along than yours.
3. Humility: The Key Sign of a Healthy Leader
Humility is one of the best signs you are becoming more self-aware and growing as a leader. Don’t be that young church leader who sits down with a seasoned leader and does all the talking: ask questions. You are never too old to ask a question and never too old to learn something new. Humility is the leader who realizes they don’t have all the answers and is willing to be wrong for the sake of growth.
Quotes from this episode
Everything that happens to us is God conforming us into the image of Christ Click To Tweet
God won’t love you more when you get cleaned up…he loves you as much now as he ever will Click To Tweet
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Next Episode
Join us next time on the Young Church Leaders Podcast with Grant Vissers.
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