A few months ago, I was talking Chris Seay (pastor of Ecclesia in Houston) about some of our growing pains. Really trying to figure out how to manage everything. He recommended that I talk with Jerry Butler who did a consultation for them. Long story short, Jerry is hanging out at NCC for a couple days to help us navigate some of the challenges that come with growth.

We’re looking at everything from staffing issues to structure issues. For example, I had 10+ direct reports last year. We’re trying to get that down to 5. We also need to find new ways of facilitiating communication and streamlining interaction within out staff.

One of the things we talked about today is how I personally manage church, family, writing, and speaking. While I feel like I’ve managed it pretty well this past year, I also feel like I naturally push myself to my limits.

Here are some of the things I’m wrestling with.

I have to say “no” more.

I’m so grateful for amazing opportunities to write and speak. And each one seems like such a great opportunity. But I can’t say “yes” to all of them. So we’re trying to come up with a baseline of how many outside speaking engagements I’ll take. We’re talking about submitting this to our Stewardship Team. Not only will that make it easier for me to say “no.” I feel like it’s an area where I need accountability.

I need to preach less.

In the early years, I preached 44-48 times per year. I was hardly ever out of the pulpit. I’m trying to get my preaching load down to 32-36 times this year. Fortunately, we’ve got some gifted communicators on staff. Not sure how else to say this, but preaching is stressful. Even though I work as hard and as long when I’m not preaching, it’s almost like I’m on vacation. I feel like 75% of the stress I feel has to do with sermon production.

I need to take more vacation days.

I always feel a little convicted when I have a ton of vacation days left at the end of the year! I feel like I need more away time. In fact, getting away more will help me be here when I am here if that makes any sense.

Sustainability is my word going into 07.

I don’t feel like I’ve paced myself like I could have or should have the past year. Throw in a coffeehouse, book, and buzz conference to my normal responsibilities and it adds up. I want to make sure I have good boundaries going into 07.