Don't Sacrifice - Trade.

Balancing family life and ministry is somewhere between a concise effort and a major struggle for most pastors I know. Some will say "I will never sacrifice family for ministry" and in principal I agree but the truth is the nature of the work doesn't always allow you to tuck your kids into bed EVERY night or never be away for a few days.

Other take the opposite approach and believe that an approach to ministry that causes them to shirk their God given responsibilities as a mom or dad, makes their spouse essentially a single parent, and embitters their children toward Jesus and His church is somehow justifiable or even noble.

I believe the secret is not to throw your family under the bus of ministry nor is it to pretend you can be Johnny punch clock and work a predictable 9-5 5 days a week.

Don't sacrifice, trade. Ministry creates as many positive opportunities with family as it does negative ones. The secret is to see them and grab them. Last night, unlike a lot of good fathers. I wasn't home to tuck in my kids. However this afternoon while those dads were stuck in a meeting, or swinging a hammer, or finishing up the last project I was picking Micah up from school, seeing how his day went, and enjoying a trip to the hardware store on church business. I don't make a fortune and we don't take fancy vacations but this year my kids will go on their first plane ride, not on some crowded stuff jumbo jet but in a small private plane where they will be able to talk to the pilot. It's a ministry trip. Pretty cool if you ask me.

We could go on but the point is this. Ministry is a non-traditional line of work, it will require a weird schedule sometimes, and there will be times you don't get to do all the typical parent stuff as often as you would like to. But don't sacrifice family time, trade it. Take advantage of the flexibility of your schedule, the fact that you can easily move your day off, and the cool stuff you get to do. Be available when sally punch clock is stuck at the factory/store/cubicle. Family time isn't yours to sacrifice but it is yours to trade and like trading anything from baseball cards to commodities if you are any good at it you can actually come out ahead. That's my goal.