12 Balancing Acts in Ministry You Might Face this Week

Ministry is complex at times, and balancing responsibilities and passions is not always easy. Recognizing our obligations to deal with all of these issues below, here are some places where we may need to work on balance.

1. Doing pastoral care vs. leading the organization. We can come across as aloof and uncaring as we focus on leading, or we can be so consumed with pastoral care that we never get anything else done – including time with God and time for equipping.   
2. Focusing on private study vs. doing public ministry. “Winging it” when teaching on Sunday because we’ve been with people all week is not good, but nor is retreating to the office as if it were a monastic cave for study. 
3. Prioritizing new members vs. concentrating on longer-term members. It’s easy to give more attention to new members, but we then too often neglect those who called us as leader in the first place.
4. Doing evangelism vs. doing discipleship. I realize that both of these are connected when rightly understood and taught, but the balancing act is still a reality. Most of us lean in one direction.
5. Budgeting for staff vs. budgeting for ministry and missions. Acceptable budget percentages for staffing vary somewhat in every situation, but it’s problematic when staff costs leave little for ministry and missions; on the other hand, treating staff members as if they’re called to be paupers is also a problem.
6. Changing things too quickly vs. changing them too slowly. Too many pastors push change before people are ready, but others are so slow to change that they miss the opportunity.
7. Spending time with family vs. being with the church family. These responsibilities don’t have to be mutually exclusive – and should not always be – but the tasks of ministry sometimes make these choices complex.  
8. Reaching our neighbors vs. reaching the nations. The Great Commission demands that we do both, yet most of us favor one or the other – sometimes to the serious neglect of the other.
9. Honoring the past vs. preparing for the future. Failing to plan for the future seldom works well, but only thinking about tomorrow can ignore God’s past-tense care and blessings. 
10. Ministering to older folks vs. ministering to the young. We’re inclined toward those who are most like us, which means we sometimes miss part of the family of God.
11. Extending grace vs. carrying out church discipline. In some of the more “gray” cases, it’s one of the toughest balancing acts there is. Too much grace can become libertinism; too much discipline can become legalism. 
12. Hanging out with non-believers who need the gospel vs. hanging out with believers who love their church staff. It’s easy to spend time with believers–and we need that time of support and love–but gospel evangelism requires that we get to know non-believers, too. To be honest, I suspect most of us need to lean more in that latter direction to be balanced. 

What other balancing acts do you face?