088: Secrets & Strategies To Avoid Ministry Burnout This Christmas

088: Secrets & Strategies To Avoid Ministry Burnout This Christmas

Laurie Graham 0:01
Hey, this is Laurie Graham. Welcome to the Small Church Ministry Podcast.

Laurie Graham 0:15
Hey, and welcome back to Episode 88 of the Small Church Ministry Podcast. I wanted to take a quick sidestep just to talk about the important work of small churches because I just received this review about this podcast from Pastor Rick. He said this, he said, “Thanks. I just stumbled upon this podcast and have already listened to five episodes. I am a pastor at a small church, and I appreciate the perspective and encouragement that Laurie gives.” And then he said this, “The small church is a significant part of God’s plan.” Now, did you catch that? Rick says, “The small church is a significant part of God’s plan.” And this is so good, and this is so true, and this is what I just want to mention before we talk about burnout today. We’re going to talk about God’s church today, as we talk about burnout, the way that I truly believe He designed it, like the plan A, not the plan B, but the plan A. And if you are in a small church, I think it’s something to celebrate.

I just talked this past week to a church planter, and she was talking to me about how their church has been growing and there’s this shift that’s happening. She’s like, we’re a little over 125 now, and I just don’t feel as connected. Like I miss knowing every single one of them. Did you hear that? Like she’s saying the church is growing, and it’s over 100 now, and she’s having a hard time feeling as connected. And I just want to point this out, the small church is amazing and it’s significant, and it’s not because it’s a stepping stone to a big church, it’s because it’s different. Even as your church gets over 100, if it ever does, great! Celebrate it, but also celebrate it if you’re at 50 or if you’re at 60 because something unique happens in smaller numbers. And here’s the thing, we’re not saying that we don’t want more people or that God doesn’t work in bigger numbers, He’s God! He can work in any sized church, in any place, and in any culture. And yes, we want the hope that we have in Christ to spread. We want more and more people to know Him and follow Him and receive Him and feel the transformation and to shine His light, but this is a Kingdom thing, at least it is in my mind and in my heart, and I believe it’s very biblical.

Laurie Graham 2:37
God’s Church is all over the planet, and these beautiful little satellites, called small churches, are reaching tons of people in a different way, in places where big churches don’t have a reach, or in the hearts and minds of people who would never step their foot in a larger church setting. So let’s be beautiful, amazing small churches, let’s realize our significance and that God is at work right now in your space. Whether you have two kids in Sunday school or 200, whether you have 12 people on a Sunday in your entire church or 120, and this is exactly why we exist as an organization. The Small Church Network, the Small Church Academy, this website for small churches, the conferences we have quarterly, the free conferences. It’s not that we’re focusing on growing our local churches to reach bigger numbers, but our focus is to do excellent ministry, to let God do His work while we are doing our work, amazing work that God has given us to do, right where He’s planted us. And we are going to be good stewards of not just our church or the building or the people He brings us, but also good stewards of ourselves; body, mind, spirit, emotionally, relationally because as Pastor Rick said in his review, and by the way, Pastor Rick, if you are listening, thank you so much, like it was such an encouragement to see your message, but as Pastor Rick said, in his review of this podcast, the small church is a significant part of God’s plan. Amen, amen.

So let’s own this. Let’s embrace the significance. If we are looking somewhere else, or for someone, or for something else, we can’t be present with where we are and who we are with, and really embrace it and love it. So let’s do it. Now, today’s topic, we’re actually going to talk about ministry burnout, especially around the holidays. So whether you call it holiday burnout or ministry burnout around the holidays, they’re all very related, and here’s why we’re talking about this. This is why we’re spending an entire episode on this. Honestly, I became so sad over the past couple of weeks, the more I talked with people in small churches about what they needed, what they dreaded about the holidays, what they wish was different over Christmas. Because, as I mentioned last week, we have this conference coming up, this free conference for small churches all about Christmas, and as I’ve been like really reaching out to hear what people need too many people, in my opinion, way too many people are already dreading burnout. They’re already talking about how as soon as the season comes, they’re counting down to December 26th so that it’s over. They’re too busy. They don’t like it. They feel like they’re sacrificing family time for church calendar things.

Laurie Graham 5:45
I was hearing things like this, “If I could change one thing, it would be that I would feel connected to Christ during Christmas, that I could keep my focus, that I could experience His gift for me, not just doing a bunch of things for other people.” So many people in small churches, in ministry, in leadership, as volunteers, pastors, whatever position your at, longing and already knowing they’re going to be pulled away from their own, like their own spiritual growth, their own spiritual connection at Christmas, they’re already thinking that’s going to happen. And I just want to say, it does not have to happen that way. That is exactly why I’m talking about this today. By the end of this podcast, you’re gonna have my five main fixes, things to do, along with a bunch of little strategies under each one, to have a very different kind of holiday at your church this year. We are all about less stress and more impact. And I believe it is possible. I’ve seen it. I’ve experienced it, and I say this quite a bit and I really, really mean it. I do not believe we need to do, do more things to have more impact, and if you feel like to have more impact in any ministry area, whether it’s holidays, or whatever you’re into, if you think you have to do more things to have impact, I want to tell you, I actually teach very differently.

So let’s just talk about this, about how to have less stress and more impact, specifically today, talking about strategies and secrets to avoid holiday burnout, to avoid ministry burnout at Christmas time or Thanksgiving. You can apply it actually to any season like Easter, but here are these five main things with a bunch of little secrets, like peppered throughout. Okay? So the first thing is this. Plan ahead. Okay. Now, although this seems like it’s one more thing to do, I want to tell you that planning ahead well actually lessened so much stress. So much of our ministry stress can be completely avoided and preempted if we planned better, and there is no judgement for me because I have been there. When I think about my most stressful ministry times or days or events, when you can’t find the creamer or forgot the lesson or I can’t find the supplies, or things aren’t working how I thought they were or volunteers don’t show up. So much of this ministry stress is alleviated by better planning.

Laurie Graham 8:18
Now, why don’t we plan better? Number one reason, we are busy. Many of us have full-time jobs. Some of us are working several jobs, some have families at home, some are caring for elderly parents or other people, even outside your family volunteering in different places. We have relationships. We have family, job, personal stuff, but here’s the thing, your volunteer job or your ministry, it doesn’t have to come first. It just needs a place. Okay, please hear that again. I am not telling you to sacrifice all your personal stuff to put ministry first, your ministry job, your ministry tasks first, but it does need a place. Have you ever heard those super organized people, I’m not one of these, but those super organized people in their homes that say, there’s a place for everything and everything is in its place? I like to think about that for time because this is so true. If you have a place for it in your calendar, and everything’s in its place, it fits together. We even need to plan to plan. Now it’s September now we’ve got about eight weeks before December even comes around. What could we be planning now? What am I talking about? So this is what I do. I practice this a lot is just blocks of time and groups of people.

So think about where some Christmas planning could fit into your schedule. I love blocks of time where we’re not thinking about it constantly during the week or dreading it or worrying about it, but like there’s a set time. If you have a two-hour block, a three-hour block, a one-hour block. That’s just a regularly scheduled time, like Friday nights, I’m going to meet together with my friend and we’re going to talk about Christmas. We’re going to talk about the kids pageant, we’re going to talk about women’s ministry, we’re going to talk about worship, whatever that would be. It could be a ministry team, it could be one person. It could just be you brainstorming and dreaming and then involving other people as you get closer to the time, but start now to start thinking and planning, especially if you can find a block of time at a regular time, so that you know it’s coming. And keep a notebook, keep a separate Christmas notebook even, for you to jot your ideas down. I don’t know if you’re like me, but I can jot ideas down everywhere. On my post it notes, on my phone, wherever, and I sometimes lose them. Notebooks helped me a lot because they’re going in the same spot. So if you can keep your Christmas ideas and thoughts in the same spot, and start planning now for Christmas, you’re going to alleviate so much stress.

Laurie Graham 10:53
And if there are stressful things on your mind that are always stressful at Christmas, can I encourage you to get off the roller coaster? It doesn’t have to be the same anymore, especially if there’s one thing, and for many small churches it’s that, it’s that Christmas, that children’s program, that children’s pageant, and I want to encourage you to add this question into your planning. How can we do it easier? How can we do this one project, this one thing, easier. If it’s not working, there is a better way to do it. I have so many fun examples of this. One is, my friend Debbie always had a Christmas party for a while and it was stressful. It was so much fun, but it was stressful. It was one more thing to, to put into December. She started doing her Christmas party, her white elephant Christmas party in January. It was perfect. It was awesome. Honestly, people are excited. It’s really great time to do a white elephant party anyway, because there’s a little re-gifting that sometimes goes on, right? And it just worked out so well. What is stressful in your church during Christmas? How can you do it easier? Children’s programs, pageants, how can you find an easy reader one? Or if you don’t have readers, what can you do that is simpler? So many great ideas for this even coming up at our Christmas conference, but I’ll talk to you about that a little later. Okay, so planning ahead is big.

The second thing I want to talk about is integrating, combining ministry areas for those Christmas things that you do, that you’d like to do, that you always do, even if you’ve always done them separately. So hear me out on this. Now, if you’ve been around me for a while, you’ve probably heard me talk about carpooling. I love like bringing ministry teams together different areas. To do one project, combining together. I’m really falling in love with the word integration, like to integrate with, with other things so that they become part of a whole. So we’re going to integrate together. I’m going to give you a couple practical ideas and thoughts about this, but the solute, what this solves is too many things on your calendar. Oftentimes, when you think there are too many things on the calendar in December, there are. It is often too many, even if it’s just one party for the youth group or one Christmas pageant for the kids, because at the same time, we’ve got a women’s ministry or a Bible study, or you know, this special event for worship or we’ve got all these little things add up to be a whole lot. And here’s the thing, small churches are different than big churches, and it does divide us to do so many things.

Laurie Graham 13:34
Have you heard the phrase divide and conquer? Okay. I want you to eliminate that from small church ministry because the better phrase for small churches is not divide and conquer. It’s combine and conquer. Combined, because this is the deal, so many people, like if they’ve gone from a big church to a small church, it’s a bit of culture shock. I did that, many people I know in ministry have in our Facebook community, whether you’re on staff, the pastor, or a volunteer. When you go from a big church to a small church, there’s a bunch of culture shock. Now it’s not bad. It’s just different. But in big churches, they do divide and conquer because they have to. They do less together because by sheer number they can’t. But here’s the thing, in small churches, that Sunday School teacher may also be significantly involved in women’s ministry, in worship ministry, or even running the tech. See, what’s different in big churches, and put this in a holiday perspective, is the parents who are bringing their kids to the children’s pageant rehearsals, right, they are not also on the worship team and running the soundboard and in charge of the Bible study, or the outreach event. Do you see what I’m saying? In small churches, people wear multiple hats. So let’s combine some of those ministries so there’s more power and more impact.

It’s like taking the women’s ministry and inviting the youth group to be part of whatever’s happening in that, you know, in that area, in that arena during Christmas time, maybe there is a big women’s brunch that happens at Christmas time, and maybe the youth come alongside to do the decor, or to do the childcare. Maybe we combine the outreach committee and the prayer committee so they’re not both doing different things, but we’re doing it together, or combining everyone together for one event instead of having so many different ones. So no more dividing and conquering. Small churches, the key is combining and conquering. One cool way is to have an integrated theme. We’re going to talk more about this, that A Small Church Christmas, like as a whole church, to have a theme and how that can save a lot of time and a lot of stress, but it doesn’t have to be the whole church. If you’re not the pastor, and you’re like, oh, I’m just, I just do this, like I’m just teaching a Bible study, start with what you have and what you’re doing and just think of one other area or one other ministry, or one other person who’s passionate about different ministry, just combined with them.

Laurie Graham 16:10
So let’s say you’re leading a women’s Bible study, and you want to do an outreach project, don’t cut, don’t like reinvent the wheel, talk to the person who loves outreach or talk to the person who already volunteers on their own at the homeless shelter, or you know, working with the Job Corps kind of, you know, community resource that there are. Talk to somebody who’s already doing something, because in that way you are dividing together, and when I talk about carpooling like this, it’s the same idea. We’re all going to the same place. If we ride in the same vehicle together, we’re not just saving on gas and resources and time and energy, we’re also saving on leadership energy, because we only need one person driving at a time. We can take turns. We can divide it. And you know what else happens with carpooling, when we’re having fun along the way, we’re also building relationships together. It actually builds more unity within the church, when you start taking different ministry areas, or teams, or people who are passionate in different ministry areas, and just combining them together. So do some integration for Christmas. Don’t do everything separately.

The third thing I want to mention, is changing your view of ministry, not as I do ministry in addition to worship, but changing your view of ministry to being my ministry is my worship. Ministry as worship, not in addition to worship. Now, let me unpack this and let you know what I mean. Have you read the book Brother Lawrence, oh, the Practicing The Presence of God. Brother Lawrence has this little tiny little book. If you haven’t read it, it’s one of my favorite dead monk books. It’s super tiny. You can grab it on Amazon. It’s, it’s very short and very little, but what is amazing about Brother Lawrence, many things are, but one thing that pops to mind as I’m doing this podcast episode right now is when he would wash dishes, okay, put this in context. If you don’t know, Brother Lawrence, go grab this little book, but he would wash dishes as an act of worship. He would talk to God while he was washing dishes, while he was doing menial work. That was his time with Jesus, part of his time with Jesus, and he did it unto Him. If you think about the verse in the Bible that says, don’t do things as though you’re doing them unto an earthly master, but as you’re doing them unto the Lord. Now, we think of ministry this way often, but I want you to just to view everything you do in ministry, as worship.

Laurie Graham 18:39
Now, what this looks like, I get pretty crazy on ministry projects, sometimes. I did this really cool, Good Friday service that was a walkthrough called Journey To The Cross, and we transformed our small church sanctuary, into this amazing walkthrough with stations and I’m telling you it was transformed like it, there was a place to not just like, pound a nail into a railroad tie, and we did do that, but there was a sand table that we built where you could, you know, write initials of people that you wanted to forgive and then wipe it away. There was a trough of water. So you could throw your rock in symbolizing what you’re letting go of, there was an anointing station, like it was so beautiful. And a couple years later, people decided not to do it. I was no longer at the church, but they decided not to do it. It’s just too much work. And I just want to say, for me, that work was my worship. It was part of the event for me. I wasn’t doing it for other people to enjoy on that Friday. That ministry, the work of the ministry was my worship. It deeply connected me to Jesus, setting up for lock in tearing down, cleaning things up setting up tables, when those things become your worship, something changes in our hearts. When we’re not just doing it as a ministry task, can you kind of feel the difference? But it is our worship, it’s not one more thing to do, and we’re gonna get into like, how, how do we choose these things because we can’t do all these things that we usually do. But when those tasks become your worship, something changes.

We have a Rally Day coming up at my church, and I’m in charge of the table for family and youth ministries, and it’s my first Rally Day at this church and I’m so excited. I’m, like putting together this little scavenger hunt in my mind, and the kids will be able to go around kind of like a self-directed thing and find little things around the church, and there’s so much to it. It’s very excited. But I was sharing it to somebody today with somebody today, and they’re like, why don’t you just set up a table like everybody else, and it’s so funny. She wasn’t being negative. She was just kind of, like being like, wow, that’s a lot of work, right? But when that work is your worship, think about what you’re passionate about, what you would willingly and lovingly, because you love it and enjoy it, pour yourself into. Think of ministry as worship, not the stuff to do, not stuff for other people, but the actual task is being part of your worship. Now, what can help us embrace ministry is worship. Stick with me. One is to plan ahead, which we already talked about because you can’t embrace all these tasks as worship if you’re feeling rushed, if you’re not planning ahead, if you wish you were doing something else, if you’re under the wire, if you never wanted to do it anyway. This is all about planning and choosing. So we can help, it can help, to, us embrace ministry as worship if we plan ahead and also if we carpool or integrate, if we’re not doing it alone, if all the weight is not on us, if we have good relationships with people we’re with, okay?

Laurie Graham 21:54
Now the next thing that also will help us embrace ministry as worship, and this is number four in the list, is developing healthy habits now before Christmas. Okay? So we talked about planning ahead. We talked about integrating with other ministry areas. This is all about avoiding holiday burnout in ministry. The third thing was change your view of ministry as worship, and the fourth thing is develop healthy habits now. Now, if you’re thinking ahead to Christmas, and you’re listening to this episode, when it’s released the first week of September, this is for you now. Why now? Why is what I do during September, important for how I’m going to experience December, Christmas time? It is so important. In fact, it’s vital. In fact, I don’t honestly think you can have a great Christmas season if you don’t start these healthy habits now because habits are habits because they’re automatic, because we don’t have to think about it, because when we develop a habit, it just happens. Okay? Your habit might be emotional eating. That’s a habit that can be replaced with a healthy habit. Your habit might be spinning out mentally and getting really stressed, and this is what happens with my brain or what used to happen a lot.

One thing disastrous happens and my brain goes into oh my gosh, it’s over. Black and white thinking. Catastrophic stuff. Okay, so I am replacing that spinning in my head with breathing, and I’m doing really well at it. It used to take me a couple days of, kind of, spinning out and get a little crazy in my head to be able to calm myself down, now it takes about 10 minutes. I wish it was automatic, but it’s becoming a habit because I’m stopping myself before I, I don’t know, I like to say spin out. That might not be a good illustration, but I’m stopping myself. I’m recognizing this is not a habit I want and I’m replacing it with a different habit. So the thing is, is if you develop healthy habits now and I’m gonna go over a little list of things that I believe are very healthy in ministry, if you develop them now and practice them, by the time Christmas rolls around, you’re gonna see a really big difference. And one thing truly is breathing better. Can you practice breathing? Do you already do this? There are so many different ways to practice breathing well. A lot of it has to do with breathing through your nose instead of your mouth. When we get upset, when we get anxious, watch what happens with your breathing.

Laurie Graham 24:29
I think another really great habit in ministry is to have a 24/7 prayer life with Jesus. This doesn’t mean that you’re in your closet. It doesn’t mean your eyes are closed. It just means you’re conversing with Him all day long. Somebody cuts you off in traffic instead of, well, you know what most people do, it’s praying. It’s praying Jesus, like thank you for keeping me safe, or God, help me react differently or Lord, please keep that person safe. Right? Or you could be praying that, I pray that, that a cop pulls them over and stops them because they are recklessly driving. Whatever a 24-hour, 24/7 prayer life looks like to you, when you’re having a conversation with somebody you don’t enjoy being in prayer about how you feel about that person, about seeing them through Jesus’ eyes, about them and praying for their stress level and where these reactions are coming from, that’s a really great healthy habit to develop.

Another great healthy habit is listening to people, becoming a better listener than you are a better talker. Healthy habits with your body, taking care of yourself, maybe adding a little bit of exercise, maybe really taking seriously this thing about rest that God calls us to. Another great healthy habit to develop is being very aware of when you are reactive, instead of responding. When the hair is standing up on the back of your neck and what to do instead. Just even being aware of your reactive cycles, it changes so much when your emotions are not quite what you want them to be. What I want you to practice, when you find yourself reacting, is pulling back into some healthy habits instead of pushing through. For me, and for many people in ministry situations, when we’re called on to get something done, and we’re being responsible for something we want to push through ourselves. Like, okay, that’s not okay, we’re going to forget that we’re angry or sad or hurt, and we’re going to push through, and I want to encourage you to pull back not in a hiding way, okay, or an ignoring way, but pulling back into God, what is going on here? Teach me. Show me. Taking care of yourself, acknowledging that hurt, figuring out what that is, asking God to come into that space. Instead of just, people are like this, let’s push through. So stop pushing through as much and start like pulling back a little bit inviting Jesus into those tough times. Okay?

Laurie Graham 27:07
Another healthy habit I would love to suggest practicing now, is saying yes sparingly and saying no more regularly, but letting those yeses be big yeses, like going all in on those yeses. So often, we are so bent on helping everyone and serving everyone and making sure all these things are happening, that it takes away from those yeses we are excited about, that we should be pouring into. So say yes, sparingly. One of the best tips I have for saying no is, don’t say no instantly to anything or yes instantly to anything. Okay? Don’t respond instantly with a yes or no, but say, hey, I’m going to think about that, or let me check my calendar and I’ll get back to you, or let me, right, kind of give me a little bit of space so that I can make a conscious decision, instead of just my quick yes or my quick no. Okay?

And the last thing I’m going to mention as just a healthy habit to consider developing now is planning buffer time. There’s an old practice in the early Christian church, I believe it was, just called staytio, and it basically is about the time in between the moments. So between driving and church, putting a little time in there, when you arrive early and sit in your car, between when the meeting starts and when you arrive. Planning buffer time planning time in between the moments, when you’re taking a break, taking a breath, even if it’s just a pause, to being early enough, and again, you see how these all interrelate right? Planning ahead enough that we have a little more buffer time. Now, it’s been difficult for me in my life over the past, you know, however many decades, building in more quiet time because to me, it feels like it’s not productive. I need to be using every moment of my day to be productive, and what I want to tell you is quiet time, pauses, this concept called staytio, this practice, it is so productive. It’s actually more productive than pushing through everything.

Laurie Graham 29:23
If you think about, like people who run, marathon runners, serious runners, you know how they stretch before they run? I don’t know any runner who thinks stretching is a waste of time. In fact, the more serious of a runner or an athlete are, the more you recognize how important the stretching is. It is not a waste of time. It is not killing your productivity. It’s actually productive. It’s preemptive. It’s preparation. It’s guarding. It’s making your time more effective because you’re taking those pauses, you’re preparing ahead of time. So develop healthy habits now, for December, that can help you avoid holiday burnout. I promise. Guard your personal life, guard your spiritual life. And by personal life, I mean spiritual connection, I mean, your peace, that deep stuff in you that makes you who you are, that is life giving to you. And it’s not tennis, it’s not line dancing, it’s not reading a book, although those things can lead to it, okay, but guard that. That’s part of those healthy habits. Okay.

So healthy habits. We talked about changing your view of ministry as worship, not just doing, integrating, carpooling, planning ahead. The last thing I want to mention, that I believe is one of the keys to avoiding holiday burnout, is making a choice ahead of time to be relationally present whereever you are, and at all costs, and again, this is one of those things to start practicing now. So that whoever is in front of you is more important than what you’re doing, than what you forgot, than your productivity. And when you make a choice to be relationally present with whoever you are with, whether you are physically in a car transporting somewhere, going shopping to pick up supplies, whether you are in your Sunday school room preparing and somebody walks in early. Ugh. It’s a killer, isn’t it? Whether people arrive early for an event that you’re still running around trying to set up for, when you can choose to be relationally present with whoever is in front of you, this is so like Jesus, like think of so many times, Martha, Martha. And by the way, I don’t think Jesus was scolding Martha, I think He was seeing her. Martha, Martha with love. Zacchaeus in the tree, or when Jesus was surrounded at a crowd and somebody touched His cloak. He said, “Who touched me?” and He turned, and He looked at this woman, not in annoyance, recognizing who He was with.

Laurie Graham 32:22
Who is in front of you? It is a divine appointment. You didn’t plan it. God knew. The other stuff, not so important. So making a choice ahead of time to choose to be relationally present, and yes, sometimes you are doing things you are setting up, you may not be able to stop setting up, but you can choose to be with that person and say, “Hey, I need to set up. Let’s talk while I do this. Do you want to help?” Do you see what I’m saying? We can do ministry and be relationally present with people. When we are at peace, not one more rushed, not when we’re stressed, and choosing to accept that person to be relationally present, even in the interruptions, watch how it makes a shift.

Okay. So what do you think? What was your favorite tip I gave you? I talked about five things with a bunch of little things on each one. Planning ahead, looking at where you can integrate with other people or ministry areas, that concept of carpooling, ministry as worship, embracing it, and joining the tasks as worship, not as a separate thing, developing healthy habits now. Choosing to be where we are, to be relationally present ahead of time, choosing this. When we do these things, we show up differently. We show up differently. Now, if you’ve been listening in, you’re like, “Oh, I’m totally great at this. I don’t have burnout issues. I’m super healthy. This is not my issue.” Can I suggest that you think about the people who are surrounding you? Because I’m going to tell you there are people in your church who do feel like this about Christmas, they, they are already anticipating burnout.

Laurie Graham 34:11
Some of us who run like the Energizer bunnies don’t always think about the burnout that other people are feeling because we’re so embracing it in a different way. The holidays are already a stressful time. They’re already stressful, and honestly, churches can add a lot of stress to it, or we can be different, get more impact while we’re doing less and easier and still embrace the beautiful, beautiful, awesome, amazing holiday of Christmas. Please hear me, I’m also not saying to play down Christmas. I’m not saying to de emphasize it. Honestly, I want you to emphasize it more because if you heard last week’s episode, if you didn’t, please go back and listen, there are opportunities that exist in our world around Christmas that do not exist any other time of the year. So please, embrace it, and learn how to do it with less stress and more impact.

We would love to be part of this with you, and while you’re listening, like who can you share this episode with? I am a huge fan of starting conversations about deeper things about God honouring things, about things that involve us as disciples and being a light in the world. This is one of the best conversations you can have with people, like they are the light in the world, you are the light in the world. Let’s talk about this more, how we can increase our shining, right? So who can you share this episode within your church? And then after they listen, can you have the conversation? Ask the simple questions, what stood out to you? What’s one thing you think you could apply? How can we do better together or support each other in this as a church, as a ministry team, as friends. And if you hear someone on your ministry team who’s dreading church, or somebody who’s already moaning about the Christmas Pageant and how stressful it is, and how much anxiety it brings up, let’s talk about how we can do it easier ahead of time, before we’re into November, and we’re just going to throw the same thing on the calendar we always do, because we’re out of time.

Laurie Graham 36:14
And the last thing, if you really want an amazing Christmas season this year with less stress and more impa, impact, please join us for the upcoming free online conference happening on September 23. It’s called A Small Church Christmas. You can grab a free ticket today, if you’re listening while this is 2023 smallchurchsummits.com/christmas2023 We’ll put the link in the show notes so it’s an easy click, but some of the topics we are covering, okay? Going deeper into one of the areas I tackled today, we’re talking about developing an integrated theme for more impact this year. How about what to do when Christmas is not the most wonderful time of year? How to minister to people who are hurting and struggling. Another title for this conference Two Ways To Lighten The Load In Ministry And Why It Matters. Creative Christmas events for women’s ministry, how to embrace and include all the single ladies this Christmas. Holiday exchanges, bringing deeper meaning and connection with cookies and gifts and cards instead of the same old, same old. We’re talking about reimagining kids ministry, a new take on an old story kids Christmas programs tips to make music and singing easier and less stressful, as well as less stress Christmas Pageant alternatives, what to do instead. Inclusive Christmas, making space for people of differing abilities. How about turning holiday food drives into ongoing community connection and so much more, keeping visitors coming back, outreach ideas to bless families and needs.

These are just the highlights. I can’t go through all the titles right now, but more than 24 speakers and leaders sharing. The main stage happens on Saturday, but we bookend it with a Kickoff Events on Friday and then Masterclasses on Sunday. It is just an incredible weekend. Please check out more details. Again, it’s online. It’s free. Check it out, the full speaker lineup you can find at smallchurchsummits.com/christmas2023. The link is in the show notes.

Laurie Graham 38:19
And thank you for hanging out with me today. If you ever feel like you’re alone, or nobody gets it, or nobody gets you, it is not true. There are 10s of 1000s of people, of us, well probably millions, but we haven’t reached them all quite yet, but we’re gonna, and 10s of 1000s of people getting encouraged, sharing what works, growing excellent ministries in small churches that are impacting not just inside the walls but their communities. We are growing amazing ministries as we grow as leaders in discipleship and skills and strategies that work in smaller spaces. So don’t forget to grab your free ticket to Small Church Christmas. Go do what Jesus has called you to do on Sundays, yes, but also in between Sunday’s, be a light!