My hope is that these Ministry Pivot articles have been helpful for you and your team as you navigate this season. As you have read, there are several self-care pivots to be mindful of and to implement. Each of these shifts is essential to helping you and your church move through this season successfully. The final pivot, however, is critical because it focuses on personal well-being. If you are not well-rested and healthy, you cannot effectively care for others. Consider these strategies for your next ministry pivot:
Pivot No. 1 — Your time. In this season, you cannot spend your time the same way you once did. Since Sunday services have shifted, many pastors are now recording on different days. This change provides a unique opportunity for reflection on how you allocate your hours throughout the week. For example, if your Sundays were previously spent entirely within the church building but you are now at home once the online service concludes, how are you utilizing that reclaimed time?
This shift may allow you to reorder your Sunday to worship with your family and then engage in a run, walk, or bike ride to mentally break from work. You should not only take advantage of this flexibility yourself but also encourage your team to do the same. Analyze your weekly meetings and sessions to determine if you can consolidate or cancel them to allow for regrouping. Regardless of the specific changes you make, view this season as an opportunity to pivot toward better self-care.
Pivot No. 2 — Your family. If you’re like me, you have a family with a calendar and schedule that could beat yours in a competition. During this season of stay at home and the process of slowly reopening, all of our calendars have changed and there is also a self-care opportunity here.
One of the ways as leaders that we can replenish our cups is by spending time with the people we love and care about. Since this season began my wife, daughter and I have taken advantage of daily walks together at a certain time to give our five-year-old the outside time she needs and to give my wife and me the time that we need. At first, I didn’t realize it but after a few days I saw the major benefits to our conversations and our laugher that are a result of this newly found family time. I also noticed that when I was with them and saw them happy, that made me happy.
One piece of exciting news is that part of my self-care with the family allowed me to finally teach my daughter how to ride a bike without training wheels. She and I started last summer, but because we didn’t go out enough, she didn’t fully get the hang of it. This summer however, in the first few days together, she was off and running … well, riding.
Pivot No. 3 — Your rest. When I say rest, here I mean more than sleep. Rest in self-care is anything that gives you peace or enjoyment that isn’t linked to “real” work—you know real work consists of the things that you don’t always like to do but you have to get done because you’re an adult. Things outside of the real work box like running or working out. Like writing and painting or even fixing up cars or remodeling rooms in the house. There are several activities that can be done to add to your rest and engage your sense of peace.
I hope you get my main point that you need to do some things that are simply for you and that give you peace and rest in this season. Those activities should be on your self-care list and should be done on a rotation that continues to provide moments of rest and peace throughout your week.
What things do you do for self-care? What would you add to the list? Who do you know that is really doing a great job taking care of themselves in this season?