Hey, I'm Lisa Whittle, and welcome to the Jesus Over Everything show, affectionately known as Joe, where around here you will always hear honest conversations about life, faith, and true strength, courage, and love in the midst of our real everyday life.

Continuing our May series with helping pastors and

leaders have better mental and emotional health, this week is a plot twist on where we've

been all month, talking about fun today. When was the last time you had fun in your ministry?

Whether you're intrigued, stumped, don't know what fun even has to do with all this,

think about it for a minute and let's dive in because this might be more important than you think.

Talking about ministry being fun today, and you may be thinking, is that even possible? Was ministry ever

really fun to begin with? I'm teasing, of course, but I think for a lot of us, ministry is not really

something we think of as fun. Or at least it's not the first thing we think of. We think of service.

We think of pouring out. And honestly,

in this season especially, a lot of heaviness. And the gospel of Jesus is not a self-serving way

of life. It's not all about the fun we can have or the ways we can get enjoyment out of a mission.

That's not what I mean or my goal is in doing this show.

The reason this is important to talk about is because there's a difference between doing

ministry to serve ourselves and doing ministry that brings joy to us as we serve Jesus.

We won't always have fun doing ministry,

but Jesus certainly wants us to find pleasure in using our gifts to serve the kingdom of God.

This gives Him great pleasure and joy.

And if we only view ministry as cumbersome and tedious, that is how it's going to always feel.

So much of the way we experience ministry is a mindset.

I asked you at the top of the show, when was the last time you remember having fun in ministry?

And I really do want you to think back to the last time you remember having fun in ministry? And I really do want you to think back

...