The Copier is Smoking Again: Why Your Pastor is Too Tired to Start Something Meaningful
It always starts the same way.
You walk into the church office on a Tuesday morning and smell it. Not the Holy Spirit. Not coffee either. Burnt plastic. It’s the copier. Again. It’s jammed, beeping something that sounds like Morse code for “Abandon hope, ye who enter here.” Brother Ralph is already elbow-deep in toner with a screwdriver, Sister Martha’s asking where the visitor cards went, and somewhere in the background, your pastor is trying to remember what their sermon was about before the church van check engine light came on and they still need to update Norton Antivirus software on the PowerPoint computer in the sanctuary.
Welcome to the ministry.
Now, I say this as someone who’s seen the behind-the-scenes of more churches than I’ve had cups of gas station coffee. And I’ve had a lot of gas station coffee. I’ve met incredible pastors. Visionary leaders. Deep thinkers. Folks who wake up every morning genuinely believing the local church is God’s Plan A for reaching the world (because it is).
But somewhere along the way, we’ve mistaken them for a one-man pit crew.
Instead of giving them time to preach, lead, pray, and develop leaders, we hand them an ever-expanding list of mini-emergencies:
“The AC in the nursery isn’t working.”
“Who’s bringing snacks for the deacons’ meeting?”
“Someone needs to chase the raccoon out of the baptismal.”
“The copier’s out of magenta again.”
You laugh, but you know I’m not making that last one up. Magenta is the devil’s ink. No one even knows what it does.
Death by a Thousand Tasks
Here’s the thing. No pastor ever left seminary thinking they’d be an unpaid event coordinator with a theological degree and a side hustle in pest control. But when small fires flare up and there’s no one else around, guess who gets called?
It’s the same guy who was up late counseling a couple in crisis. The same one who preached their heart out on Sunday and then had to take out the trash because the youth forgot (again). The same pastor who’s trying to cast vision and create culture but is too busy changing the church sign with those plastic letters that always seem to spell something heretically stupid by accident.
At some point, something gives. And it’s not the copier. That thing is eternal.
Preaching or Paper Cuts?
Let me shoot straight with you. You can’t expect your pastor to be Moses if you’ve got them stuck in the tent folding bulletins. You can’t want Paul’s level of gospel clarity and also treat them like a holy handyman with a cordless drill and no boundaries who needs to examine why the back door at YOUR house won’t shut straight.
As a mission strategist, I’ve been in enough churches to spot the pattern.
When the people of God decide that ministry is what they pay someone else to do, they’ve already drifted from what the Bible says about being the body of Christ.
Ephesians 4 makes it clear. Pastors are called to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. That means the saints (hint: that’s you) actually have to do the work of the ministry. Otherwise, we’ve got a one-legged race to nowhere, and your pastor is limping along carrying all of you piggyback.
Let’s Talk Trash Fires (Literally and Figuratively)
I’m not saying your pastor shouldn’t help. They’re shepherds, and shepherds sometimes get sheep poop on their shoes. But if every single trash fire in the church requires them to bring the extinguisher, they’re never going to have time to light any bonfires for the kingdom.
So here’s a radical thought. What if you put the snacks on the schedule so your pastor doesn’t have to hunt down Doritos five minutes before youth group? What if you, a grown adult, learned how to fix the copier (or just used your phone like it’s 2025)? What if you signed up to serve, not just to sit?
Saint, It’s Time to Step Up
You want your pastor to be rested, focused, and filled with the Spirit? Start by unclogging the drain in the fellowship hall so they don’t have to. Want to see the church grow? Create space for your leader to lead. Let them preach without the fog of 47 midweek meetings. Give them time to develop leaders without also being the one who locks up after Zumba on Thursday nights (and spray some Febreze Extra Strength while you’re at it).
I promise you, it makes a difference.
Because when pastors have margin, they dream again. They pray longer. They preach with fire. They develop others. They move the church forward. But when they’re constantly reacting to the urgent, they never get to act on what’s important.
A Final Word From the Strategist Who’s Seen It All
Pastors aren’t quitting because they don’t love Jesus. They’re quitting because they can’t find time to talk to Him. Their days are full of duct tape solutions and spiritual triage. And unless someone steps in to lighten the load, we’re going to keep burning them out like off-brand candles at a women’s ministry brunch.
So church member, church leader, faithful deacon, curious committee chair. This is your moment. Ask not what your pastor can do for you, but what you can do to keep your pastor from throwing the copier out the window.
Want a move of God?
Start by moving a few obstacles out of your pastor’s way.
And if the copier does catch on fire?
Well… maybe just let it burn.
This article originally appeared on Substack in Chris’s Substack on October 31, 2025.
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