One of the most common traps in ministry is that of taking on too much work for yourself. Ruth Haley Barton, in Strengthening the
Soul of Your Leadership, (Chapter 7, “Living Within Limits”), refers us to the story of Moses and his father-in-law, Jethro, who
observed that Moses was working at a pace that could not be sustained. Jethro’s suggestion was to delegate ministry, appoint
judges under you to hear some of the cases. Moses pushed back with his ego, they come to me . . . and I hear from God . . . ! Is it
possible that we are guilty of the same excuse for overwork: they come to me . . . and I hear from God. . . ?
Sadly, the consequences of extreme overwork are substantial: poor health, broken relationships with God and those closest too
us, poor ministry work, and moral failure. This assignment includes a reading about moral failure among pastors and the
connections that the researchers were able to make to stress and workload. Life has limits and we must learn to live within them.
In this assignment, you are invited to an honest evaluation of your workload and your motivations.
Upon successful completion of this assignment, you will be able to:
 Identify personal and ministry tasks that prevent optimal life
margin.

Background Information
When you reach the limits of your resources or abilities you have no margin left.

Yet because we don’t even know what margin is, we don’t realize it is gone.

We know that something is not right but we cannot solve the

puzzle beyond that.

Our pain is palpable, but our assailant remains unnamed.
– Richard Swenson, Margin

Instructions

Read or reread:
a. Chapter 7, “Living Within Limits,” in Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership
b. “Maintaining Personal Resiliency(new tab)” from the Journal of Psychology & Theology
c. The article on clergy sexual misconduct(new tab), from The Journal of Pastoral Care
Watch the YouTube video: “Margin—Dr. Richard Swenson on Overloaded lives(new tab) | Podcast #018.”
For your written assignment of 4-5 pages,
a. Provide a written response to each of the prompts from Chapter 7, “Living Within Limits,” on pages 104-106: i.e. irritability or
hypersensitivity, restlessness, compulsive overworking, emotional numbness, etc.
b. Provide a written rationale for your responses (These may be either positive or negative. If you have worked through the issue
of overwork, use this space to describe how you found freedom; if you are struggling with any of the areas, explain how you came to
be where you are).
c. Describe present or prospective methods or coping mechanisms for working within limits. These may be from the readings, the
YouTube video, or your own personal experience.
For this assignment, proper Chicago Style(new tab) formatting is expected. Every written assignment must include a title page,
headers, page numbers properly formatted footnotes, and a bibliography.

APA

1500 Words