0:04

Hey , coming up on today's Mix Fix , we're going to talk

0:06

specifically about burnout and ministry , what

0:09

that looks like for technical artists , and maybe

0:11

some key points to help us walk that out . Hey

0:35

, what's up , guys ? So today , like

0:37

I spoke of in our leader , we have

0:39

some things we wanted to talk

0:41

about specifically , obviously , for Mix Fix and what that

0:43

looks like in 2022 . Some

0:45

key points for that , some things coming

0:47

up and some plans that we have , and then also

0:49

just wanted to talk through , like I said

0:52

in the lead , in burnout , what that looks

0:54

like for ministry some points that

0:56

I think will help us . But , interesting enough

0:58

, obviously , as God does , when I was logging

1:00

in getting ready to record this podcast

1:02

today in the YouVersion Bible app

1:04

, the Daily Verse popped up and it was from

1:07

Luke , chapter 6 , verse 45 . And I just wanted

1:09

to read that because it's very applicable overall

1:11

to what we want to talk about . And it says

1:13

in Luke 6 , verse 45 , the

1:16

good person , out of the good treasure

1:18

of his heart , produces good , and

1:20

the evil person , out of his evil treasure , produces

1:23

evil . For out of the abundance of

1:25

the heart , his mouth speaks . So

1:28

one of the things that that really kind of speaks

1:30

to and some of the things we wanted to talk about is one

1:32

what are the good treasures of

1:34

your heart ? Maybe those treasures still are

1:36

there , but they've faded , they've dimmed

1:39

, maybe they've gone . How

1:41

do you restore that ? And

1:43

then , out of the evil , treasure produces

1:45

evil . What things in your minds and your

1:47

heart are you struggling with that are creating those places

1:50

of evil that

1:52

are not what God has

1:54

designed for us to accomplish in ministry ? Some

1:57

of those things , I believe , are clearly what Satan's placed

1:59

in our paths to try and

2:01

distract us from the cast in

2:03

the ministry that's been placed before us . And

2:06

so us as a team of technical artists , our

2:08

staff as well as our volunteers , we're going

2:11

to start this book . It's actually Zill

2:13

Without Burnout , it's

2:15

by Christopher Ash and it's seven

2:17

keys to a lifelong ministry of

2:19

sustainable sacrifice . So

2:22

what are those seven keys ? So , as I've already

2:24

put out on our Facebook , we're planning to start this

2:26

book in the coming few days here

2:29

, probably about mid-ish February , and

2:32

so what I would encourage you is to one pick up the book

2:35

, read that book . It's

2:37

been great and I believe it will be

2:39

proving beneficial to all of us . If you're

2:41

here local , like several other churches and ministers

2:43

in town have already done , certainly

2:45

feel free to come hang out with us when we get

2:47

going on this . If you're not local , just

2:49

text me , shoot me a DM and say , hey , we want to join

2:51

in . We'll get you on a Zoom call so

2:53

that when we're meeting as a team and just kind of working through

2:55

this book , you'll have some community with that

2:58

. But yeah , so pick up Zill

3:00

Without Burnout . Even if you don't do it

3:02

with us , I would encourage all of you to read the book and to work

3:04

through it with yourself , your staff , your teams . I

3:06

think it'll be beneficial as you

3:08

continue to venture on in this thing called Tech

3:10

Arts Ministry , worship Ministry , where your place

3:13

to be . The other thing that

3:15

I wanted to specifically talk about

3:17

really quickly is there's another verse

3:22

that I had found in Psalms 100 , and

3:24

says shout joyfully to the Lord , all

3:26

the earth . Serve the Lord with gladness

3:28

. Come before him with joyful singing

3:30

. Know that the Lord himself is God

3:32

. It is he who has made us and

3:35

not we ourselves . We

3:37

are his people and the sheep of his pasture

3:39

. Enter his gates with thanksgiving

3:41

and his courts with praise . Give thanks

3:43

to him . Bless his name , for the Lord is good

3:45

. His loving kindness is everlasting

3:47

and his faithfulness to all generations

3:50

. And so one of the things I think

3:52

that we have a propensity to do in Tech Arts

3:54

is build kingdoms under ourselves

3:56

. I think it's true of worship teams , I think it's in technical arts

3:58

a lot , and we end

4:00

up beginning to get

4:02

to a place where we think it's us . We

4:04

begin to get to a place where we think , hey , look at

4:06

all the stuff we've built , all these things we've

4:08

done . Maybe the worship project

4:11

we recorded or the studio we

4:13

built , and the reality of it is is that

4:15

it is he who made us , not

4:17

ourselves , and I feel

4:19

like Psalm 100 would reveal hey

4:22

, there are things that God

4:24

has created us to do . He's certainly

4:26

gifted and talented and created talents within us

4:28

to do and accomplish , and that's part

4:31

of his plan and his purpose for us . But

4:33

I feel like oftentimes we're really quick

4:35

to begin

4:38

to take credit where credit is maybe not

4:40

due . And

4:42

so , with that , as we're

4:44

looking at the burnout and we're looking at these scriptures

4:46

, is there a place that you definitively

4:48

know today ? Hey , I know for a fact

4:51

that there are things

4:53

that I am crediting

4:55

myself , my team for , that honestly

4:57

are not there . Are there things

5:00

that I have no business

5:02

taking credit for , that are clearly from God

5:04

, and I would challenge

5:06

us that sometimes , possibly

5:09

, the burnout we're experiencing revolves

5:11

around the fact that we

5:13

are running unto ourselves

5:15

. We are doing things unto ourselves instead

5:17

of letting God do those things . Let the

5:19

Holy Spirit work in us , and one

5:22

of the things that I've heard recently

5:24

, and I've definitely been

5:27

tasked with , is this concept

5:29

of if the enemy cannot

5:32

slow you down , if he can't put

5:34

a wedge somewhere in your ministry

5:37

to slow you down or to

5:40

conflict or to bind

5:42

up your ministry , then what he's going to

5:44

do is he's going to speed you up . And so

5:47

in tech arts , in worship , we are constantly

5:49

running . There is no cyclical

5:52

cycle to tech arts , as much as that fallacy

5:54

exists . I know people think , hey , we're

5:56

going to do a lot around Christmas , we're going to

5:58

do a lot around Easter , but we're going to have some down times

6:00

. That's really not true . Especially

6:03

in tech arts , there is never a

6:05

true downtime

6:07

for us . There are things that we might be

6:09

slower at than others , for sure , but

6:12

we are actively running

6:14

non-stop For us . At

6:16

our church . We have Christmas

6:18

. We recorded the service

6:20

after Christmas for the 26th back in November

6:23

we mixed all the way through and all the way up until

6:25

right before Christmas Eve we did our Christmas

6:27

Eve services . Normally , in the

6:29

average We'll have three or four days , four or five

6:31

days there to sort

6:34

of recoup and relax as a staff . But

6:36

in this case , this year , just the nature of things worked

6:38

out . Our staff was back two days after

6:41

Christmas bringing down decorations , changing

6:43

LED walls , moving things around in

6:45

our setup . Then we get another

6:47

couple days to kind of chill , which

6:49

is all great and good and certainly what we needed

6:52

. But then we're right back into the

6:54

start of the new year . We have a fasting thing

6:56

that we do with every nation . We are

6:58

busy with that . We're right now and then ready and

7:00

they'll lead up into our women's and ministry event

7:02

, a big night of , you know , seven , eight

7:04

hundred women in the room . So a bigger deal

7:06

We'll get out of that . And

7:09

we're in Easter , obviously , like the rest of the world

7:11

. And then we're right out of Easter . We're

7:13

planning our camps . We have three camps . We're

7:15

already discussing gear flows

7:17

while we're doing it , what that looks like , coordination

7:20

of staff versus gear , transportation

7:22

, all the different needs that

7:24

revolve around our camps . So

7:26

we don't really have a time , and as soon as we're

7:28

back from camps , we're into our fall kickoff

7:30

, we're back to school and all those different things

7:32

and we're right back into Christmas . So there's

7:34

not a lot of downtime for us and we have , I

7:37

think , even in the fall , right there we have men's events

7:39

. So a lot of different things , and that's

7:41

not counting the weekly multi-service , multi-campus

7:44

, multi-destination events of the

7:46

regular service we do . Plus , then we're also

7:48

doing men's ministry events and women's

7:50

ministry events throughout the week , various different groups , things

7:52

, whatever it is , and so there's a lot to

7:54

it . And so I find ourselves trapped

7:56

in that mindset of , hey

7:59

, we got to go , we're going to do , we're

8:01

going to be , this is the thing that's coming , we

8:03

got to tackle that , we got to move through those things , and

8:05

the reality of it is is oftentimes that's definitely

8:07

part of what we do . But I also

8:09

believe that if we don't monitor

8:11

that , if we don't self-evaluate that and evaluate

8:14

that for our teams , we are quickly going to find

8:16

ourselves so sped up that ministry's

8:18

happening . It seems like a lot of momentum

8:20

exists , but the end result

8:22

is that we are so busy we sometimes

8:25

miss what God is doing , and so if

8:27

the enemy can't slow you down , it's

8:29

very likely he may speed you up . And

8:32

, as a ministry that's already got the propensity

8:34

to move quickly and to do things

8:36

fast , have we allowed ourselves

8:38

to be trapped in that , that

8:41

trap of the enemy , that wedge

8:43

that we've allowed to build in ? And so I

8:45

believe you're the only one , obviously , that can answer

8:47

that . So that's going to be a prayerful thing

8:49

I think you need to consider as you

8:52

tackle any kind of form of burnout . If

8:54

you're looking at , hey , man , we're slammed

8:56

, and that can always be partly

8:58

due to the fact that , hey , we're just short staff , we're

9:00

short volunteers all those

9:03

things happen . But there needs to be places

9:05

that you can come back purposely

9:07

and intentionally and say , hey , I want

9:10

to make sure that our team is well balanced

9:12

, our time flows are really balanced

9:14

in how we're doing that , and we're trying to build those even

9:16

kills to time for sure , as much as

9:18

we can , and then allow place

9:21

for rest . And so if that's not

9:23

happening , it needs to happen , and

9:25

that could very well be that you need to have some conversations

9:27

with some of the elder leadership , some

9:30

of your senior leaders , figuring out what

9:32

your team can do , what you personally can

9:34

do as a staff member , as a volunteer , wherever you

9:36

find yourself today , to create those moments

9:38

of rest . And that's the only true

9:40

way to fully be effective as technical artists

9:43

is that we are not just

9:45

running under the gun 24 seven

9:47

, and I get and it happens

9:49

to us a lot we say no oftentimes

9:52

and people aren't really happy about that and

9:55

the reality of it is is they very rarely

9:57

understand the breadth of what they're

9:59

asking and they're not understanding

10:02

that we are running and there's just

10:04

no way we can support the event with

10:06

20 people that really try , doesn't even

10:08

need a microphone in the room but for some reason they believe

10:10

it does . It's just kind

10:12

of rebalancing priorities and managing those

10:14

expectations of other ministries of the church

10:16

, because if you don't do that , if

10:18

you don't sit those boundaries , you will never

10:21

find yourself in a place of healthy

10:23

ministry and it's going to

10:25

take you truly purposely

10:27

, intentionally aligning to whatever the leadership

10:29

is advising . Maybe if

10:31

you're the senior leader , you

10:33

need to be evaluating hey , where am I asking

10:36

too much ? Where have I created a culture

10:38

or a place that

10:40

is putting our people under the gun , not giving

10:42

ample time to rest , putting people in stress

10:45

that don't need to be in stress and ultimately

10:47

prohibiting the real

10:49

amount of ministry that's really truly needed

10:51

, the things that God's place for us to do . Where have

10:53

I began to become the block that's

10:56

not allowing that to happen or flow as

10:58

easily as God has intended ? And

11:01

so where the Holy Spirit has aligned that

11:03

ministry to be , am I aligning my vision

11:05

as the vision caster or as

11:07

the participant into making

11:10

sure ? One , I'm following the Holy Spirit's promptings

11:12

to follow the vision of the church . Three

11:14

, making sure that we're not just small minded

11:16

, thinking only of ourselves , that we're expanding out to

11:18

the capital C church . All of those things are

11:20

part of why we exist and , while we're still

11:22

here , is to see that kind

11:24

of ministry flow out of our departments , out of our ministries

11:27

, out of our churches . If we're not accomplishing

11:29

that , then there's probably a reevaluation

11:31

that needs to happen . What I find oftentimes

11:34

in tech arts and in worship team momentum

11:36

is there . Momentum is not something that typically

11:38

ceases to exist in , at least in

11:40

a larger church spitting we've always got something

11:42

moving . So the false sense of momentum

11:45

is always there . But

11:47

what I would say is what's the resolution of that momentum

11:50

? As we talk , gain structure . We've talked

11:52

about the resolution of fader movement . So it's

11:54

similar mindset . If we set our gain structure

11:57

right and we move our fader just a little bit , we're

11:59

going to have fairly minute deep

12:01

resolution . If the gain structure is wrong

12:03

, we could have drastic momentum , drastic

12:06

changes in our resolution by

12:08

the fader . So we

12:10

begin to create a place where

12:12

our resolution is not very detailed

12:15

or dialed in . I think that's sort

12:17

of what happens in momentum . Is the resolution

12:20

of our momentum as detailed

12:22

as it should be or do we just have a whole lot

12:24

of activities functioning , moving

12:26

about ? We seem busy , we

12:29

seem like we're doing a lot , we're accomplishing a lot

12:31

, and we very well may be . But

12:33

is the resolution overall big picture

12:35

aligning correctly to where

12:37

, at first and foremost , the Holy Spirit has

12:39

guided us to be ? Two , where the overarching

12:43

vision of the Church is and leadership of the

12:45

Church is . And three , have

12:47

we seen ourselves be

12:49

able to run resolution to

12:52

the point that we can make minute changes and see drastic

12:55

differences ? Or are we able just to fine

12:57

tune those levels of momentum

12:59

and I would challenge again

13:02

, that's probably something you should look at and

13:05

then from there , if you are just

13:07

not being healthy amongst how

13:09

you live life , whether it's literally

13:11

I'm stuck behind a desk , I don't ever get out , don't

13:13

ever walk , don't ever exercise , don't ever have

13:16

healthy eating practices , whatever . That

13:18

all contributes to burnout , and

13:21

sometimes we've lived our entire lives

13:23

that way for many of us , and there's

13:25

problems with that , obviously , and so I

13:27

think that functioning in

13:29

that kind of environment

13:32

will also provide and lead

13:34

to a propensity of burnout

13:36

. And so I truly believe

13:38

that as we go through the Zill

13:40

Without Burnout book , as we begin to

13:42

function and focus in and really dive into

13:45

what some of these key things are , we

13:48

want to be zealous , we want to have a lot of zeal

13:50

and passion and purpose behind what

13:52

we do , but we also want to make sure that

13:54

that is not driving us to burnout . The

13:57

statistical average is that most tech

13:59

arts directors last

14:02

, on average , three years in ministry

14:05

, and so there's

14:07

an obvious problem culturally

14:10

, as the capital C church of

14:12

one , our people are being used

14:14

so hard that

14:16

burnout happens and they're done , they're

14:19

at the end . There's

14:21

a propensity in those individuals as a

14:23

whole to burn themselves out , which I think we

14:25

all are guilty of . Or

14:28

in some cases , it's literally

14:30

the church just hasn't been able to pay correctly

14:32

, there's not enough

14:34

monetary means

14:36

for them to actually continue to live and

14:38

to provide for their families and

14:40

to have a place where they're able to continue

14:42

to serve in the church in that capacity . And so there's

14:44

some burnout and some exodus

14:47

from the church ministry mind

14:49

as well , and I realize

14:51

we all today are going to find ourselves in a different place

14:53

. Some of us are staff , some of us are senior

14:56

staff , some of us are not senior

14:58

staff but we serve under some leaders . Some

15:00

of us are volunteers . Some of us are volunteers that

15:02

are actually the leader of our departments and we're not paying

15:04

, we're not compensated at all . I still

15:07

think all of that applies , everything

15:09

that we've talked about . So today I one

15:11

feel encouraged by the fact that

15:13

it seems to be a year of a

15:15

lot of people really reevaluating

15:17

, stepping back and going hey , where are we healthy

15:20

? Where are we not ? Where are we needing

15:22

to grow ? Where have we needed to maybe pull

15:24

back a little bit because we've been pushing the envelope too hard

15:26

? I feel like we're , as

15:29

a culture , beginning

15:31

to see that . You know , for many of us COVID hit

15:33

hard , not because of

15:35

all the health things for sure there were challenges in

15:38

that . But in tech arts we had churches

15:40

that literally had not had a huge mindset

15:42

of technical arts , had no

15:44

concept of streaming , no real intention

15:46

to stream , forced into a place where

15:48

now churches shut down . We have to

15:50

figure the start to this tech arts thing down . We got

15:52

to get to streaming Many times

15:55

. Churches still aren't even in person . So in Texas

15:57

, where we're at , we've been in person pretty

16:00

much , you know , just a few months out of COVID . But

16:02

there's plenty of churches that are definitely not

16:04

a capacity of where they were . They've

16:07

never fully come back . There's some that are still

16:09

online only . There's some that are son of hybrid

16:11

. They're sometimes online , sometimes not online , sometimes

16:14

, depending on the culture of the city , the state

16:16

or whatever they're at , they're in and

16:18

out of being live versus not live

16:20

. So there's a lot still happening and

16:22

for many of us some staff were able

16:24

to come into COVID and had a season to

16:27

relatively rest Tech

16:30

arts literally hit the gas pedal and haven't really

16:32

let off . It's only been in the last really

16:34

six months that

16:36

we started to see

16:38

, at least in most circles , stepping

16:42

back a little bit . Some of the tech arts people have began

16:44

to slow down a little bit , but it's still

16:46

under the gun and tomorrow

16:49

we all realize this whole thing could

16:51

change . We could literally see states

16:53

shut down completely again . So

16:56

I feel like we need to find balance in that

16:58

, and that's one of the things we're going to talk about , and so

17:00

I hope that's encouraging . I

17:02

hope that that gives you some food

17:04

for thought as you begin to continue

17:07

to walk through the year , as you begin to plan out your year . We

17:10

as a team are still evaluating how we're

17:12

going to do some things , but we will have mixed fixes

17:14

coming soon an

17:17

all day Saturday kind of practical deal for

17:19

anyone that wants to come and join us . We will

17:21

have our Tech Arts Bootcamp again

17:23

looking at dates for those things , trying

17:25

to work all that out . So stay tuned . We'll

17:27

have more of those details to you soon . Again

17:30

, I am encouraged by you guys . I know

17:32

that you're all dedicated , intentional leaders

17:34

and you do what you can to further the

17:37

capital C church , to further the kingdom and to

17:39

help your local church there . So please

17:41

know that we appreciate everything you do . We

17:43

realize that it's not out

17:45

of ill intent , it's not out of ill will

17:48

, but perhaps today many

17:50

of us have found ourselves in a place of burnout

17:52

or near burnout . So I would just

17:55

encourage us all , as technical artists , as worship

17:57

leaders , as church staff , to volunteers

17:59

, to really intentionally think and

18:01

pray through those things . Hey , we love

18:03

you guys and we will see you soon .