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5 Critical Young Leader Mistakes


1. Handling the Pressure of Ministry.

Of all the mistakes I made as a young leader, I think the most surprising and the most costly mistake was knowing how to handle the pressure of ministry.

Ministry brings pressure that seems to be unique to the calling. 

It’s not that I hadn’t experienced pressure before.

I went through university working part-time and often taking extra courses to complete the program early.

In my brief time in law, I had to prepare for court almost every day, faced judges who were not impressed with lawyers, dealt with big clients who had high expectations, and lawyers and partners who were looking for you to win. It was pressure (I loved it), but it was a different kind of pressure.

I love ministry and am so thankful to have been called into it, but with it comes pressure that is, well, just different.

You feel the weight. 

As a leader, you need to get your mind and heart around why ministry is so challenging.

Here’s my theory as to why ministry is such a pressure cooker for many.

Ministry combines three areas of life that are intensely personal:

Your faith

Your work

Your community

Because of that, it gets confusing.

What you do is what you believe.

What you believe is what you do.

Your friends are also the people you serve and lead.

Throw your family into the mix (because they believe what you believe and are friends with the people you/they lead and serve) and, bam—it’s even more confusing.

Because of this, things that normally happen ‘at work’ very seldom stay ‘at work.’

The pressure, if not handled well, can lead to problems that impact your home, your life and even your faith, as Michael Lukaszewski so accurately points out in this post.