A Gratitude Practice That Changes How You Lead
by Brian Rutherford
The holiday season is one of the best and hardest times to be a church leader. You're celebrating Jesus' birth with your church while also shepherding people in a polarized world, balancing a budget, preparing special services and year-end giving campaigns, and trying to be present with your own family and friends. And you feel the pressure of doing all this well while still being a good friend, spouse, and parent.
That's a lot. (And that's an understatement!)
Here's the tension: You know meaningful work matters more than metrics. You believe "For the One" is what it's all about. But there's still this whisper that you'll finally be happy when attendance is up, the budget is healthy, and people are responding. It's hard to know, in the moment, which one is actually driving your activity.
So, in this Thanksgiving and Christmas season, I want to invite you into a simple practice that won't resolve that tension completely, but it will make you a healthier person and a better follower of Jesus.
At the end of his letter to the Thessalonians, Paul penned this phrase: "Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus." (1 Thess. 5:18)
When Paul wrote "Be thankful in all circumstances," he wasn't addressing comfortable followers. These were brand-new Christians, converted just months earlier, facing intense persecution from their own countrymen. Accused of treason for proclaiming Jesus as king, they endured isolation from their community. They'd abandoned the Greek and Roman religious practices that defined daily life in their city, paying a steep social price. Paul's call to thankfulness wasn't a denial of their pressure, but an anchor reminding them that their circumstances didn't define God's faithfulness.
Here's the gratitude practice that will make your heart healthier:
Grab a legal pad and draw two vertical lines down the page to create three columns. Label them "Personal," "Family/Friends," and "Professional."
Down the left side, write today's date and the next 27 days. Most legal pads have 28 lines below the header, which is perfect for this exercise.
Each day, write one NEW thing you're grateful for in each category. The key is that each gratitude must be something you haven't written before.
This practice won't just make you feel better. It'll actually make you more energetic, less anxious, more forgiving, and honestly—more like Jesus. You'll feel less pressure to perform.
This simple practice won't solve every challenge you face as a leader, but it will change how you face those challenges.
Over these 28 days, you'll train your mind to notice goodness even in the midst of pressure. You'll remember that God's faithfulness isn't dependent on your attendance numbers, budget margins, or program performance. You'll build the kind of gratitude that anchored those early Christians—gratitude that's rooted in who God is, not in how things are going.