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On this episode of The Lead On Podcast, Jeff Iorg, president of the SBC Executive Committee, discusses decision fatigue and offers practical ways to reset expectations, share the load, and make healthy, mission-focused decisions without burning out.
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Ready to hone your leadership skills and unlock your full potential? Tune in to the Lead On Podcast, where Jeff Iorg dives deep into Biblical leadership.
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Welcome to the Lead On Podcast. This is Jeff Iorg, the president of the executive committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, talking with you once again about practical issues related to ministry leadership. On this podcast, we talk about the daily grind of leading ministry organizations and churches and trying to do our best to expand God's kingdom around the world. Now today, I wanna talk with you about a topic called decision fatigue. I'm basing this podcast on two different streams which flow together.
Jeff Iorg:First, I recently read an article on decision fatigue among ministry leaders. And second, I've actually taught on this theme many times in the doctor of ministry program at Gateway Seminary in a lecture that I do on making more effective decisions by ministry leaders. So for a long time, I have believed that decision fatigue is a real challenge. What is the reality of this issue? Well, first of all, leaders make decisions.
Jeff Iorg:It's what we do. And we make decisions over and over and over again. We go into meetings and make decisions. We make decisions in hallway conversations. We make many decisions in our own minds as we mull over difficulties and problems and challenges and opportunities and decide what to do about them.
Jeff Iorg:We're always making decisions. But beyond that, in ministry organizations, especially churches, about 80% of all evangelical churches have 200 or fewer attenders, and about half of all churches have a 100 or fewer attenders, which means that about half of all pastors are bi vocational or co vocational. Vocational, meaning that these pastors feel the burden of leadership decision making. They are often one of the few decision makers in their location or in their church or ministry organization, and they are
Jeff Iorg:continually burdened by having to make so many decisions. Decision fatigue comes, first of all, from the reality that we are decision makers, and second,
Jeff Iorg:from the reality that many pastoral decision makers and other ministry leader decision makers are doing so in a context where they're having to make a disproportionate amount of the decisions because there frankly aren't that many other leaders. Now in this recent article that I read on decision fatigue, it summarized several reasons why this
Jeff Iorg:happens. Why pastors and other ministry leaders
Jeff Iorg:grow tired of, quote, dealing with all these issues. What are some reasons for decision fatigue? The first is growing tired of perpetual uncertainty of not knowing what is coming next. It seems that there are constantly changing expectations, rules, policies that are taking place in our world. It seems like that our world is in constant upheaval and that we're constantly being challenged to make decisions about things that weren't even an issue six months ago or certainly not an issue five or six years ago.
Jeff Iorg:Decision fatigue comes from this feeling of having to struggle with the perpetual uncertainty of so many things coming at us and not knowing what's coming at us next, and being forced to make decisions many times on either partial information or even misinformation or having to make decisions about things that we know very little about. Man, I'm facing this right now in being asked repeatedly about the application of artificial intelligence to ministry organizations, artificial intelligence to preaching preparation, artificial intelligence to the operation of the Southern Baptist Convention. I was blissfully unaware of the idea of artificial intelligence not too long ago. And yet now, I'm being faced with a continual need to make decisions about this issue, really not knowing that much about it and not knowing what it really means and not knowing where it's really going, and yet people are asking me for guidance and decisions about these issues. Another reason for decision fatigue is we get tired of dealing with what I'll call petty conflicts over lesser issues.
Jeff Iorg:Dealing with people who are bringing things to us that quite frankly just don't matter that much. Man,
Jeff Iorg:we seem to be the person that people come to in ministry organizations. The leaders seem to be the people that people bring us things that they think are just so significant. And yet, when we listen to the problem or listen to the issue, we think, why am I being asked to weigh in on this? Why do I even have to
Jeff Iorg:have an opinion? And why does anyone have to make a decision about this much less me? Things just don't matter that much. Another reason for decision fatigue is we oftentimes find ourselves being what I'll call the punching bag for frustrations that people have with us or with others or with life in general or with ministers as a group. We find ourselves being
Jeff Iorg:challenged on issues and asked to make decisions about issues and asked to deal with issues that really reflect the frustration that people have with others, not so much with us. And then an another issue is we get tired of making decisions because we frankly weren't made for that. We we really don't need to be making decisions about all kinds of issues related to ministry or church ministry or church operation. We we really wanna do what we do,
Jeff Iorg:and that's care for people. Share the gospel, make disciples, help people grow in their relationship with God. We don't really wanna spend much time deciding which insurance company to choose for our organization. We just don't, and yet we find ourselves thrust into the need, into the role of having to make those kinds of decisions all the time. What we really wanna do is go visit a sick person, bring the comfort of Jesus into their hospital room.
Jeff Iorg:What we really wanna do is sit down with a bereaved family and read scripture and talk about the reality of heaven and how that hope can sustain us through deep loss.
Jeff Iorg:What we really wanna do is take someone out to lunch, and in the context of that, could I share with you just for a moment how you could know Jesus Christ personally? And share the gospel with them and then ask, would you like today to commit your life to Jesus? And have them say, yes. That's what we really wanna do. And so one of the reasons we have decision fatigue is rather than getting involved in pastoral care and bereavement ministry and personal evangelism, we find ourselves deciding about what insurance company to use, how to invest money into the stock market or into some other kind of interest bearing account, what to do about a particular problem with the church bus.
Jeff Iorg:Yeah. You get
Jeff Iorg:the idea. We find ourselves making a lot
Jeff Iorg:of decisions about things that just really don't bring that much fulfillment to us. So decision fatigue, it's a real thing. And it comes to us because first of all, as leaders, we are responsible to make the decisions. But it also comes to us because in many organizations and in many contexts, there are very few decision makers and we find ourselves making a disproportional amount of decisions about all kinds of things. And then it becomes tiresome.
Jeff Iorg:Tiresome because of perpetual uncertainty about not knowing what is coming next or about being overwhelmed by the issues that are coming before us. Tired of dealing with petty conflicts over lesser issues. Just tired of sorting out the nonsense that people bring to us and expecting us to decide about it, tired of being blamed for problems that really aren't ours, we didn't cause them, we can't solve them, Being the punching bag for people who have frustrations with others, but they vent that on us in some way, and then tired of not being able to do the ministry that we really crave and that we feel fulfilled in doing, but instead, we get burdened down with so many other things.
Jeff Iorg:Well, how can you recover from decision fatigue and how can you manage yourself in the context of making all these decisions? Well, let me give you maybe six or seven different suggestions today. Number one, have realistic expectations.
Jeff Iorg:Accept the fact that you are going to be a decision maker as a ministry leader.
Jeff Iorg:Some things really do come back to you, and you're going
Jeff Iorg:to have to voice an opinion,
Jeff Iorg:chart a direction, or even make a decision to keep things moving along. I think about this morning.
Jeff Iorg:I went to a meeting for about an hour and fifteen minutes. We had about six or seven agenda items, and every one of those agenda items had decision points built into it. I found myself making decision after decision after decision after decision.
Jeff Iorg:And that was just one meeting, just one day. That is what happens for us in ministry leadership almost every day of the week as we work through the challenges that we have as ministry leaders. So the first thing I would
Jeff Iorg:say is have realistic expectations. You're gonna make a
Jeff Iorg:lot of decisions, and that's just part of
Jeff Iorg:the job. You know, a number of years ago when I became the executive director of the Northwest Baptist Convention, my youngest son was only about five or six years old, and he was just waking up to the awareness that I was no longer the pastor of our church and was no longer up there on Sunday doing the talking. And so he asked his mother, what does daddy do? I'm sitting in the other room and I heard
Jeff Iorg:the question, and I thought this should be interesting. My wife said, well, your daddy's now the executive director of the Northwest Baptist Convention. And my son said, I know that. I know that. But what does daddy do?
Jeff Iorg:And my wife said, well, he listens to people's ideas, and then he makes the decisions. My youngest son was satisfied with that answer, and frankly, I was blown away by the wisdom of that answer. My wife encapsulated for a six year old exactly what my job was as an executive director of a stake convention. I listened to people's ideas, and then I make the decision.
Jeff Iorg:That's what leaders do. We make decisions. So if you think the solution to decision fatigue is to not make any more decisions, that's an unrealistic expectation. You're a leader. You're gonna make decisions.
Jeff Iorg:You're gonna make a lot of them.
Jeff Iorg:So learning good skills in how to make decisions and learning good techniques about how to share responsibility for decision
Jeff Iorg:making, that will help you in the process.
Jeff Iorg:But there's not anything I can say on this podcast today that will alleviate the responsibility you will have to make decisions. Now if you say, well, I I'm not a person that likes to make decisions or wants to make decisions or even will make
Jeff Iorg:decisions, then do not take on a leadership role. Leaders make decisions. It's what we do.
Jeff Iorg:Now don't mishear me saying that we make all these decisions unilaterally or arbitrarily or that we don't involve other people. Come on. You've been listening to this podcast for a while
Jeff Iorg:with me. You know that
Jeff Iorg:I believe in plurality of leadership. I believe in shared leadership. I believe in team leadership. I've done podcasts on all these things. So when I say you make the decisions, I I don't mean that you unilaterally have to decide every single thing, but I am saying you can't abrogate the responsibility you have to make decisions to keep the organization moving forward.
Jeff Iorg:That's first. Have realistic expectations. You are a decision maker,
Jeff Iorg:and you will always be responsible to make a lot of decisions. Second, adjust your definition of success or effectiveness as a decision maker. Now, I like to get things right. How about you? You know, for
Jeff Iorg:twenty five years, I umpired youth baseball, and I loved the challenge of that. I particularly liked the challenge because I was competing against myself. I wanted to get the call right. Not so that people wouldn't yell at me or not so I would please the one coach over another, but because my challenge was to get it right because I wanted to be the very best umpire I could be in the moment. I bring that same kind of thinking over into my
Jeff Iorg:life as a leader. I wanna get things right. I wanna make good decisions, the right decision. I wanna be perfect in my decision making. Well, get over that.
Jeff Iorg:Get over that. Adjust your definition of success or effectiveness in decision making to a to a more reasonable expectation. I, these days, try to
Jeff Iorg:be a b plus leader. I I I'm not gonna get it all right, and I'm totally fine admitting that. If I can get it 85% of the time right, I'll feel like I'm doing pretty well. I wanna be a solid b or a b plus leader. I'm going to make mistakes, but that doesn't mean I still don't have to make decisions.
Jeff Iorg:I know that I'm gonna make some decisions that are not gonna work out as well as I hope. They aren't gonna prove to be the right decisions. They they just aren't gonna accomplish what I thought they would. I'm gonna make some mistakes. So I'm gonna adjust my expectations and move away from this perfectionistic attitude that I have sort of deeply ingrained within me.
Jeff Iorg:How about in you? I'm gonna move away from this deeply perfectionistic attitude that I have that everything has to be perfect, and I can't make a decision unless I can make one that's perfect, and instead recognize that I'm gonna make a lot of decisions every week. Most of them are gonna be the right decision, but some of them are not. And I'm gonna be okay with that because when I make a bad decision or a wrong decision, I'm gonna do two things as quickly as I can. Number one, I'm gonna admit it.
Jeff Iorg:And I'm gonna say, you know, that was a wrong decision, or that was not the right decision, or that's something that I wish I had done differently. Number two, I'm gonna go a new direction as fast as possible. You know the old saying, you can't ride a dead horse. Well, when the horse dies, I like to say dismount. Just dismount.
Jeff Iorg:Stop beating a dead horse and just dismount. Go a new direction.
Jeff Iorg:So step one, accept reality. You're gonna make decisions. Step two, adjust your definition of effectiveness or success. You're never gonna get it all perfect, But make the
Jeff Iorg:best decision you can in the moment and when you make a mistake, do two things quickly. Number one, admit it. I was wrong, bad decision, need to go a different direction. And number two, go a new direction quickly. This is now what I see we need to do.
Jeff Iorg:Let's shift. Let's pivot. Let's go. Let's do something that's more effective in this moment. So accept reality and adjust your expectations.
Jeff Iorg:Third, lessen your dependence on being needed to validate your ministry. I recently had a letter from a lay leader of a church who was very supportive of his pastor who was now retiring after almost three decades of leadership. And he was writing to me for some counsel about their church moving forward. And one of the things he said was, our church has grown over the years, but we've reached a point where I think we need a different kind of pastor going forward. And he was asking for my perspective and opinion on this issue.
Jeff Iorg:Very well done letter and very, very insightful, that this person sees what's happening. You know, he said our pastor is a hands on guy who really enjoys making a lot of decisions and being involved in a lot of what goes on in our church. But as our church has grown, he's only been able to do that because he's been here a long time and he knows everybody and he knows everything. He said, we're about to bring in someone who I think is going to have to have a more of an executive style approach to ministry, who's going to have to be less dependent on being needed in the moment to make all these decisions and more willing to trust other people to make some decisions on his behalf. That got me thinking.
Jeff Iorg:I've worked with a number of leaders over the years who felt validated by being needed. In other words, they they felt validated by being in the room and making the decision. Not validated so much by the results, but by the process. To get away from decision fatigue and to make fewer decisions means you're going to have to make some very important decisions like who you can trust and train to make decisions on your behalf, and then step away and let other people start making some of those decisions and you being validated by the results that are produced, not the process that you've managed. Now think about that.
Jeff Iorg:Are you more validated by the results that are achieved or by the process that you managed? This is
Jeff Iorg:a real challenge for many ministry leaders because they like having their hands on things. They like being involved in the decision making, and they feel validated by being needed in the moment. The problem with that is you very quickly consume all the available time you have for leadership, and the organization can only go so far. But some leaders are able to be validated by the results of decision making, not just the process. So for example, in my new role here at the executive committee, there are many decisions, many decisions that get made every day about the operation of the annual meeting that we have every summer as the Southern Baptist Convention.
Jeff Iorg:We coordinate that meeting, and I really enjoy the validation that comes from the successful accomplishment of that meeting, but I make very few day to day decisions about how it functions. Now, I make some big decisions about putting certain people in certain places to manage certain aspects of it, but those people have to carry forward with a 100 decisions a day, it
Jeff Iorg:seems, to get us to the point of accomplishing it. My validation comes not by being involved in the process, but by being able to celebrate the outcomes. So I wanna challenge you on this.
Jeff Iorg:If you wanna have less decision fatigue, make fewer decisions by making some big decisions to trust other people with decisions that are a part of the process so that you are validated more in your leadership by the outcomes. You draw more satisfaction, let me say it that way, from
Jeff Iorg:the outcomes than you do from the process.
Jeff Iorg:And part of this also strikes at what fulfills you and what gives you self esteem and a sense of value to your ministry organization or your church. Some ministry leaders get that sense of value or esteem from being plugged into the daily decision making and being down in the weeds, so to speak, and having people care for them and depend upon them to get things done? Well, there's certainly nothing wrong with all of that, but leaders who have growing responsibilities and growing organizations often have to step away from that and trust other people to step into those roles. Therefore, we get more validation, we get more satisfaction from the results of the process, not from being enmeshed in the process. As a part of this, number four, you wanna move away from decision fatigue, you're going to
Jeff Iorg:have to reject the myth that you're responsible to keep people happy in your organization. You know, the governing documents of The United States Of America say that we have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Now that is very carefully written. We have right to life. We have right to liberty.
Jeff Iorg:We do not have the right to happiness.
Jeff Iorg:We have the right to pursue happiness. Now think about that with me just a minute.
Jeff Iorg:Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, that's what our founding documents of our country promise us as citizens. But in leadership context, we often think we're responsible for producing happiness in the lives of our followers and the people we work with. This is an unrealistic expectation.
Jeff Iorg:It's a myth. You are not responsible to keep everyone happy. You are responsible to keep the organization healthy, and those are not the same thing in every circumstance. You do not have a responsibility to keep everyone happy. You have a responsibility to keep the organization healthy.
Jeff Iorg:So
Jeff Iorg:a lot of people spend a tremendous amount of time stewing over all kinds of decisions because they're trying to find a solution to every problem that keeps everyone happy. Those don't always exist. I was once employed a person who had six children, and that employment decision involved them moving internationally to come from, another continent back to United States to go to
Jeff Iorg:work for the organization, the seminary. I knew he had six children, and
Jeff Iorg:so in the context of the move one day, I said, How's everything going? Is everyone happy about the move? He smiled and said, Oh, no, of
Jeff Iorg:course not. I was taken aback by that answer.
Jeff Iorg:I thought, Oh, no. I've wrecked a family. What have I done? He said, no. No.
Jeff Iorg:He said, Jeff, when you have six children on almost any issue, someone won't be happy. He said, we're not we're not trying to be happy. That's not our goal. We're trying to be healthy. This is a very healthy move for our family.
Jeff Iorg:Ultimately, it will be to everyone's benefit that we've done this. And right now, different days, different people aren't happy, but ultimately, it's the right decision because it won't be healthy for everyone. Man, that was such an eye opening moment for me. Here was a father who understood that not everyone's gonna be happy with every decision, but if every decision is designed to bring about health and healthy families or healthy organizations, then you're making better decisions. So reject the myth that every one of your decisions is supposed to make everyone happy, and recognize that as a leader, you
Jeff Iorg:have a responsibility to make decisions that are about being healthy more than about being happy. Well, I think we're down to number five. Another
Jeff Iorg:way to avoid decision fatigue is to learn to make the best decision possible and then move on.
Jeff Iorg:Make the best decision possible and then move on.
Jeff Iorg:I spend a lot of time just like you do, stewing over my decisions, working through options, considering possibilities, talking to people, trying to discern what's best, praying over them. But once a decision is made, stop second guessing yourself, stop rehashing that decision, and move on. I remember once I had a friend that was a really good bargain shopper, and he was responsible for buying things for our church, etcetera. He he worked hard to get the best price points and save every dollar he could to extend our church's money as far as it could go. And one day he told me that he said, after I buy something, I intentionally and specifically stop looking at the pricing for that item in the immediate following future because I just don't have time to rethink every decision.
Jeff Iorg:Once I've made it, I move on. I thought, how
Jeff Iorg:wise is that? Once you've made a decision, you stop the comparisons, you stop looking back, you stop second guessing, and you simply move forward. Now
Jeff Iorg:when I was a parent of teenagers, I had a thing I would say to them sometimes in conversation that really also encapsulates this point. My children, just like a lot of you, my teenage children like to discuss and argue and debate and try to convince me of their position or their perspective or talk me into giving permission to something that I didn't want them
Jeff Iorg:to do, you know, all the kinds of conversations that go on between teenagers and parents. Parents. One day, was having one of these spirited conversations with my oldest son, and I stopped him and said, let's stop for a second. This is my decision. I might be wrong, but we're moving on.
Jeff Iorg:He said, what do mean you might be wrong and you're still willing to move on? I said, that's exactly what I'm telling you.
Jeff Iorg:I might be right, I might be wrong. I'm not claiming I'm a
Jeff Iorg:100% perfect on any on anything that I'm telling you as your parent, but I am telling you this. This is my decision today, and we're moving on. Well, he didn't really like it, but we moved on. But I started using that in conversations with my children. Now, I didn't use it preemptively to keep them from having opportunity to talk with me, and sometimes they made a a good case, and they changed my mind or shaped my perspective, or we were able to negotiate something.
Jeff Iorg:Sometimes they were simply right, and I had to admit that and make a decision based on what they were saying to me. But sometimes, when all the dialogue has taken place and all the information has been put out and all the conversation is that has been had, somebody has to make a decision. And in my case, as the father, it was my role to make that decision, and so I would make it and then say, look,
Jeff Iorg:I might be right, I might be wrong, but this is my decision and we're moving on.
Jeff Iorg:And I've now learned to do that in my ministry responsibilities. Look, I'm not getting it right every day at the executive committee. I didn't get it right every day as a seminary
Jeff Iorg:president. But most of
Jeff Iorg:the time, most of my decisions are good enough that they keep the organization I lead moving forward in a
Jeff Iorg:healthy way. I'm satisfied with that. I might be right. I might be wrong,
Jeff Iorg:but this is my decision and I'm the one responsible to make it. Now, we're moving on. Stop second guessing every one of your decisions. Stop vacillating in response to complaints that come from decisions you make. Stop thinking that because people aren't happy with the decision that you made the wrong decision.
Jeff Iorg:Learn to make your best decision and move on. And then finally, to avoid decision fatigue, make sure that your decisions reflect your focus on God's mission, that the mission matters most, and that you are making decisions based on that overarching reality. This is God's mission. This is God's mission as is expressed in the ministry of our church organization. And because this is God's mission and this is our mission, this is my best decision in the moment, and we're gonna live with it.
Jeff Iorg:Decision fatigue is real. It comes because we're responsible to make decisions as leaders, and it comes because so many of us work in organizations where we have to make a disproportionate amount of the decisions that are at hand. Decision fatigue, it comes from many sources as I've described. It could be addressed through about five or six different steps that I've given you. Listen, you're a leader.
Jeff Iorg:You're going to make decisions and it will wear you down. But don't let it wear you out and you can keep that from happening by putting into practice some of what we talked about today. Decision fatigue, it's real, but decision making strategies can help you avoid it. Do it today as you lead on.