Navigating the Pressure of Church Leadership

Are you experiencing fear and anxiety as a church leader? Here is a practical and biblical thought to help you navigate fear and anxiety.

Aaron Buer

Digital giving apps and tools

As a leader, what has you anxious right now? Staff morale? Church attendance? Volunteer shortages? Giving? A sermon that is just not coming together?  

In my experience, it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been in leadership, there’s this constant battle with fear and anxiety. It’s just part of the pressure of leadership.

However, there’s a big difference between experiencing fear and anxiety and allowing these challenging emotions to dominate our lives and leadership. When we allow fear and anxiety to run rampant, that is when we become unhealthy and ineffective leaders.  

So, how do we navigate fear and anxiety in leadership?  

I’ve been studying Joshua 1 and thinking about how much pressure Joshua must have been feeling as he stepped into leadership of God’s people, at a critical moment, as they prepared to take possession of the Land of Promise. Let me paint the picture.  

 

High Expectations

Moses is gone. Just understand, Moses was a legend. The 10 plagues. The parting of the Red Sea. The 10 Commandments. Moses was the best leader Israel would ever have!  

“Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses…for no one has ever shown the mighty power or performed the awesome deeds that Moses did in the sigh of Israel.”

Deuteronomy 34:10-12

Hey Joshua, before we get started…you’ll never be Moses. No pressure bro.  

And about this Land of Promise, 40 years before, Israel had spied out the land. The official report from 10 out of 12 spies was not encouraging.    

“We can’t attack these people; they are stronger than we are.”

Numbers 13:31

Bottom line: Don’t try to conquer these people. It will be a disaster. They are bigger, stronger, more advanced and there are a lot more of them. No pressure Joshua.  

Oh, and about the people Joshua is trying to lead. They don’t exactly have a great track record of faithfulness and bravery. Again, 40 years before, when they were supposed to take possession of the land, they listened to the spy report and concluded, 

“We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.” 

Numbers 14:4

Forget Moses. Let go back to slavery. No pressure Joshua. What could go wrong…besides everything?  

How in the world is Joshua supposed to handle all this pressure? And, how are we supposed to handle all the pressure on us? It’s not an easy season to lead a church!  

 

A Name Change 

There’s something that happens before Joshua is officially named as the successor to Moses that I think is incredibly important. It’s back during that scene when the spies return and give their report. There’s this little detail that I think is a game changer.  

Moses gave Hoshea son of Nun the name Joshua.

Numbers 13:16

Moses changed his name. This is significant because names communicate meaning in the Bible, especially the Old Testament. His name was Hoshea, which means “salvation” or “deliverance. Moses changed it to Joshua, which means “Yahweh saves.”  

It’s like Moses was saying, “Joshua, before you step into leadership of these people, understand, you aren’t the savior. You aren’t the deliverer. You aren’t the hero. God is.  

Who exactly is the pressure on in this situation? Not Joshua. The pressure is on God. God is the main character in the story here. It’s his land. His people. His promise.  

Also, names communicate identity in the Scriptures. Moses is teaching Joshua about his identity. Root your identity in God and you’ll be just fine. Attempt to make yourself the hero in the story and you will struggle.

 

A Weight to Carry 

I like to imagine the leadership responsibility that Joshua felt as an actual heavy weight he was carrying around. I imagine God taking that weight off Joshua’s shoulders and saying, “That’s not your weight to carry.”  

And that’s really the thing about leadership anxiety. It’s all about not carrying weight that’s not yours to carry. The question is this:  

Are you carrying weight that’s not yours to carry?  

The decision of a congregant to leave your church.

The choices of a staff member on social media.

The words of a board member.

The attendance in your youth ministry.  

Are you carrying weight that’s not yours to carry? You aren’t the savior. You aren’t the deliverer. You aren’t the hero in the story of your church. That job belongs to Jesus. Let him carry that weight.  

Wrap Up

My hope for you is that you would experience a lightness this week—a freedom, a lowering of your anxiety as you remember what is your weight to carry and what is His. 

Share this Article:

Looking for an easy-to-use software to help manage your church?

We'd love to show you what we built!

Join 10,000+ happy churches using Breeze ChMS™.

Name
loves Breeze

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat. Aenean faucibus nibh et justo cursus id rutrum lorem imperdiet. Nunc ut sem vitae risus tristique posuere.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Name
loves Breeze

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat. Aenean faucibus nibh et justo cursus id rutrum lorem imperdiet. Nunc ut sem vitae risus tristique posuere.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Name
loves Breeze

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat. Aenean faucibus nibh et justo cursus id rutrum lorem imperdiet. Nunc ut sem vitae risus tristique posuere.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
David P.
loves Breeze
St. Pauls United Methodist Church

Breeze has been incredible. Their customer service, commitment to innovation, and their product are top-notch. I love the features, the ease of use and the mobile applications.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Karen M.
loves Breeze
Hillcrest Church

All of our database needs have been more than met, it's easier to use than the last database we had, and the price is amazing - what a value this has been to our church! All of our staff can use this software and they do regularly. We use it to track…literally anything a church could possibly need to track regarding it's attenders.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Chris K.
loves Breeze
Crossroads United Methodist Church

Breeze has been a great asset to our church and congregation. Especially from an administrative standpoint, it has been the most adaptable and easiest church database I have ever used. The features from blast emails to giving on-line, and texting have been one of our greatest assets. Thank you!

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Ed R.
loves Breeze
Church Admin

We switched from a major, web-based ChMS to Breeze and our decision is confirmed every day. We are a medium size church and we use Breeze for contributions, member management, event checkin and a few other applications custom to our church. I had trouble getting any staff to use our previous ChMS but almost all staff are using Breeze. The product is very well designed, extremely easy to learn and use and customer service is incredible.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Ellen G.
loves Breeze
Grace Church

Breeze has opened the communication highway for our congregation and staff, with very little training. Because members can update their own records and search easily for other members - and map their locations, send emails and text right from Breeze, they love it and our data is more real-time accurate. Our ministries are stronger, because they can trust the data in Breeze, which is easily accessed anywhere, anytime.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Steve H.
loves Breeze
First Presbyterian Church of Ramsey

Breeze is the first ChMS my volunteers have actually embraced. That's because it's so easy to use. The software is very flexible and gives us the opportunity to make decisions based on actual data we've collected and not just hunches or stories we believe to be true.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Allicia B.
loves Breeze
Ellel Ministries Canada

I cannot say enough about Breeze. Their customer service is so friendly, you feel like you have friends and family helping you get started, they're prompt to reply and will do whatever they can to help you get things sorted out. It's been so easy to learn, our staff is loving it and best of all even our staff who are not computer savvy find it a breeze (pun intended). We are just thrilled by our choice.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Kevin D.
loves Breeze
Central Baptist Church

From the start of our process looking for an online solution, Breeze has exceeded all our expectations. Fast data import, fast and friendly customer support, and we can’t say enough about how much we like the program itself. Very well designed and user friendly. On a scale of 1-10, Breeze gets a 15 from us!

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!

Rated 4.9 stars – 560+ reviews on Capterra