When I was in college at the University of Georgia I had a big project in one of my major classes. It was a project that would take hundreds of hours to complete. My professor assigned the project at the beginning of the semester and almost every time class was in session she would remind us of the project and ask a weird question – “How do you eat an elephant?” The answer she was looking for was, “One bite at a time.”

Of course, she was teaching us how to handle a big task or project – one step at a time. When it comes to ministry, we would do well to remember this. You can’t do everything all at once. You need to take it one step at a time.

When you’re leading a church, you will have a big task on your hands. There will be much to do. But you will get overwhelmed if you try to change everything overnight. You can’t transform the culture, redesign the strategy, or realign the structure overnight.

Don’t try to do it all at once. Do what you can, when you can. 

Here are three things I regularly pray for as I’m approaching a big project or task. In fact, these are three things I regularly pray for even if I don’t have a big project or task on the agenda. Continue reading →