ABOUT
Anyone can hold a conviction.
Formation is what lets you carry it in public.
Most pastors are not short on conviction. They are short on rest. The work asks for everything, and the people who carry it learn early to give everything, until the giving runs out. Exhaustion in ministry is rarely a failure of devotion. It is usually the cost of it. The leaders most likely to burn out are the ones who took the call most seriously, and somewhere along the way stopped believing that restoration was meant for them, too.
Formation is not one more thing to do. It is permission to stop. It is the slow work of learning that you are a person before you are a position, that your soul needs tending as much as your congregation does, and that a tired shepherd cannot lead anyone to still water. This is a place to put the weight down for a while. To be reminded what called you in the first place, and to find your way back to it rested, not just relieved.
WHO'S BEHIND THIS
He works on the sermon and the soul.
Sean Palmer is the Founding Director of the Center for Prophetic Formation and Teaching Minister-in-Residence at Bammel Church of Christ. Twenty-four years in ministry, most of it preaching, and most of that in smaller rooms—churches under two hundred people, where you know every name, every casserole dish, and every grief.
He specializes in helping people say the truth without setting fire to the room, or themselves. That means pastors and preachers. It also means writers, nonprofit leaders, and anybody whose job is to stand up and tell a group of people something they may not want to hear. He is the author of Speaking by the Numbers (IVP), 40 Days on Being a Three, Unarmed Empire, and Kingdom and Country. Board member at Missio Alliance, a contributing writer to The Voice Bible, and was named one of Christian Standard's 40 Leaders Under 40. He studied at Abilene Christian, Austin Presbyterian Seminary, and Fuller.
HOW THIS WORKS
1
Send a note.
Tell us what you are carrying, or what is wearing you down. No pitch on the other side.
2
We talk it through.
One conversation about what you need and whether we can help. Sometimes the answer is someone else, and we will say so.
3
We find the shape.
A Sunday, a season, a circle, or a room to rest in.
4
We stay.
The work is slow on purpose. A lamp someone has to keep relighting was never built right.