Senior leaders long to be effective leaders, but we may not be as good as they hope to be. In the church, the demands on the senior pastor has increasingly become more complex. The expectation to be excellent in leadership, managerial, and administrative on top of preaching, teaching and pastoral care is one of immense pressure!

Under this kind of stress, we might suffer cyclical patterns of burnout, unhealthy coping modes, or psychological patterns we are unaware of. When under this cloud of stress, one may resort to detaching by excessive use of screens, alcohol, drugs, pornography, running to control, micromanaging situations, overwork, reassurance seeking or over-researching. These traps aren’t that hard to fall into.

Valerie Ling and Sarah Hindle, from Sydney’s Center for Effective Serving, say among leaders self awareness an emotional awareness is critical (https://effectiveserving.com.au/)

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