discipleship | mission | practical theology

Sometimes we come across someone in ministry that appears to be on the uncomfortable side of chaos.  There is a level of disorganisation that means people get let down, too many things on the to-do-list that means it is difficult to exist in the present and the first space in the diary for a friend is sometime next month.  It is often that such a person struggles with self-confidence in their role as a minister and their identity finds a degree of stability in the overworked chaos that they live in.

This sounds awful and perhaps too close to inappropriate judgement of another person and their work habits.  Telling someone that they are like this would probably lead to relational difficulties that would take a good while to overcome.  If you think you know someone like this then the point here is not to go and tell them, we can leave that alone for a good while, the point here is what are you doing to make sure you don’t become someone similar?

Leadership is not just about a position: that some people are following you, in your team, looking to you for answers or guidance.  Leadership is also, or perhaps mostly, about you as the leader.  Sometimes referred to as ‘leading-the-leader’ or self-leadership, this is about what you do for you because you are the leader.

There is a wider framework of thought, experience and practice that I intent to explore somewhere else, but this page is about forming self-leadership habits in those early years of ministry.  I am particularly interested in assistant curates just out of college and in their title post.  I have been asking them to think about a ’5-a-day’ approach to self-leadership.

Following the Food Standards Agency’s work on eating 5 portions of fruit and veg a day as part of a healthy diet.  I have been asking curates to think about what it is that keeps their ministry healthy and what 5 things they might do each day as part of a healthy approach to leadership and ministry.  Perhaps an example might make it clear…

This was my 5-a-day list when I started my title post in West Berkshire as an assistant curate in a small rural team.

Prayer: by which I meant time I am listening as well as talking. Getting in to a place where the only voices I can hear are mine and God’s.

Family: eating together as a family and having time together that is not just getting ready for school at one end of the day and bath and bedtime at the other.

Physical: Ministry can be fairly sedatory: lots of sitting and standing still.  This is about getting my blood moving, my body working and becoming out of breath.

Visit: It sounds odd, but modern day ministry can be done largely in front of a screen.  Without daily contact with the parishioners this job becomes boring.

Friend: being in contact with a friend from preferably outside the parish.

I could go a week without doing any of these, but I would know it.  Practising these 5-a-day meant that I felt healthy in and with my calling and vocation, I felt healthy in what was asked and demanded of me and when I had the opportunity I felt what I had to offer was the best it could be.

My 5-a-day changed a few times in my time as a curate, and now I am focusing my working time on my research my 5-a-day looks completely different.  As I have reviewed it from time to time and particularly at times of change I have tried to discern what it is that I both love about my current situation and position and what I need to do to not just survive but flourish in it.

This research then asks curates to identify their 5-a-day, to record it, to practice it and 12 months into ministry to review it and feedback.  The purpose of the research is to explore early habit formation for healthy leadership and ministry.