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    Keeping Your Balance: Seven Strategies for Remaining Steady in the Midst of Hectic Church Life
    Keeping Your Balance: Seven Strategies for Remaining Steady in the Midst of Hectic Church Life
    Keeping Your Balance: Seven Strategies for Remaining Steady in the Midst of Hectic Church Life
    Ebook48 pages40 minutes

    Keeping Your Balance: Seven Strategies for Remaining Steady in the Midst of Hectic Church Life

    By Sharon L. Vandegrift

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    About this ebook

    Pastors, church staff members, and dedicated volunteers are often disappointed to find that leadership in a local church can actually work against life balance and spiritual growth. Even so, there is a way to obtain a sense of well-being while continuing to be fully engaged in ministry.

    Keeping Your Balance provides simple strategies for those who are busy with an active, sometimes hectic church life, yet have a yearning for personal gratification and inner peace in the midst of their work. Author, coach, and ordained minister Sharon L. Vandegrift draws on her experiences to show that there is more to church leadership than busyness. She focuses on seven main ideas to help you find renewed joy in serving the Lord:

    - Saying It Out Loud
    - Savoring
    - Breathing
    - Plugging Along
    - Clearing the Path
    - Making Friends
    - Building Bridges

    At the end of each section, Vandegrift offers reflection questions and a prayer to help you apply these strategies to your life. Designed as a resource, this handy guide will assist professional and volunteer leaders to live out their passion for church work while discovering ways to care for themselves, be intentional about life balance, and move forward on their faith journeys.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisheriUniverse
    Release dateOct 25, 2011
    ISBN9781462058372
    Keeping Your Balance: Seven Strategies for Remaining Steady in the Midst of Hectic Church Life
    Author

    Sharon L. Vandegrift

    The Rev. Sharon L. Vandegrift, is an ordained United Methodist minister and Life and Leadership Coach. Having received her Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and Religion from Albright College, and her Masters of Divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary, Sharon began her professional life as a church pastor. Since then she has served in a variety of capacities: campus minister, pastor of small congregations, and senior pastor and head of staff of larger congregations. While serving as a church pastor, Sharon began coach training and became credentialed through the International Coach Federation as a Professional Certified Coach. In 2009 she left local church ministry and launched Bridge-the-Gap Life Coaching Services, LLC as a vehicle to extend support to ministry professionals through the coaching process. Sharon’s special affinity for the unique life and work of people in professional ministry makes her an extremely effective coach for those who are just starting out on this unique journey, as well as for those seasoned professionals who want to move forward. Over the years, Sharon has developed significant interest and expertise in the areas of life/work balance, strategic life planning, and women’s empowerment. Sharon is an active clergy member of the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church; is a regular contributor to ‘Response,’ the publication of the United Methodist Women; and serves as a pro-bono coach for ‘One to One: Women Coaching Women,’ a non-profit organization that provides coaching to women in challenging economic situations. She resides in Media, Pennsylvania. You can learn more about Bridge-the-Gap Life Coaching Services, LLC and Sharon at www.btglifecoaching.com.

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      Book preview

      Keeping Your Balance - Sharon L. Vandegrift

      Contents

      Preface

      Saying It Out Loud

      Savoring

      Breathing

      Plugging Along

      Clearing the Path

      Making Friends

      Building Bridges

      A Prayer for Keeping Your Balance

      About the Author

      In Memory of

      Edith Grace Vandegrift

      My beloved Mother

      whose voice of wisdom continues to resonate in my heart.

      Preface

      My mother taught me and my sisters that we could be whatever we wanted to be. She never gave us the impression that the journey would be easy. But she did make it clear that it was possible. Mom had the uncanny ability of keeping her balance and remaining steady while being an amazing wife and mother, a highly successful businesswoman, and an active leader in her church. She did all of this while managing the daily pain and challenge of an auto-immune disease. I imagine that in some way, the seven strategies described in this book were lessons that I learned from watching my mother live out an abundant Christian life that was infused with thoughtfulness and grace.

      I wrote this book to address a deep desire I have heard from pastors, church staff members and dedicated volunteers. These are people who want to be fully engaged in an active and busy church life. But they also yearn to find a sense of personal gratification and inner peace in the midst of it all. Surely the two must be compatible! And yet, sometimes that seems doubtful. These faithful and dedicated people are often disappointed to find that leadership in a thriving local church can actually work against life balance and spiritual growth. For some burned-out clergy and over-worked laity, engagement in church life can be all about organizing and planning and juggling schedules and managing group conflict. Being in charge of creating and implementing programs and services that enhance the spiritual life of others can leave leaders feeling empty. This book is for women and men who fulfill a portion of their life’s calling by being actively involved in the work of a local congregation. It is designed as a resource for those who are seeking a greater sense of well-being while continuing to be fully engaged in ministry. It is my hope that the simple strategies described here will assist leaders and workers in continuing to live out their passion for church work while discovering ways to care for themselves, be intentional about life balance, and move forward on their own journeys.

      Each chapter begins with a Scripture passage that supports the strategy described. The texts are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. After the discussion of each particular practice, you will find questions for reflection that are designed to assist you in considering ways in which the particular strategy might work for you. Each chapter ends with a brief prayer that focuses on the given theme. The strategies suggested are in no particular order. Each practice can be used during a season when it resonates with your personal need for keeping balance and remaining steady. You can focus on one, or work on many at the same time.

      I hope that you find this resource useful. I would be delighted to hear from you regarding your personal experience with the book. I invite you to email me directly at sharon@btglifecoaching.com.

      ~Enjoy!

      Sharon L. Vandegrift

      Saying It Out Loud

      "And God said… And it

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