I personally am so excited to be sharing today’s episode of the podcast. I read a book called Replenish by Lance Witt a few years back and actually took my staff team at the time through it. This book is honestly one of my favorite books for ministry leaders.

Well, fast forward to this year and Austin and I got to talk with Lance on the podcast! He was a Senior Pastor for over 20 years, worked at Saddleback Church for a while, wrote 2 books (Replenish and High Impact Teams) and has since started Replenish Ministries and is a consultant with our friends at The Unstuck Group.

We talk about such good stuff in this episode around balance, burnout, calling, and learning to pay attention to what’s going on inside our own soul. Lance has such a huge heart for the Church and some powerful, honest thoughts for ministry leaders. Such a powerful conversation!

Here are some key takeaways from today’s conversation:

1. It’s possible to do ministry out of your gifting while on the inside your soul is shriveling up. The Christian life is meant to be from the inside to the outside. It’s possible to do ministry with a tired and empty soul, but it doesn’t last for long.
2. In today’s leadership culture, we’ve unintentionally fueled a culture that tells us that numbers define our worth. If we ever get to a point where we find our significance in the size of our church, we’re not in the place God wants us to be. “God made you a person before He made you a pastor.”
3. A lot of us have a theology of availability. Many of us in ministry believe that we have to be available to meet everyone’s needs at any time. But despite people’s expectations, that’s not our calling. (Although a lot of us leaders use busyness as a mask for what’s really going on within us…)

Links to Resources Mentioned or Related

• Replenish Ministries
• Replenish by Lance Witt

• Leading Change by John Kotter
• High Impact Teams by Lance Witt

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