Have you outsourced your spiritual development?

I've been thinking some recently about outsourcing. 

We are in a staff transition at New Life. We lost a valuable member of staff in February (I think officially in March) and we have yet to replace the position. This gap has been necessary. We needed time to figure out what we need going forward.

I'm now feeling like it's time to re-staff up a bit.

One of the possibilities is keeping some of the work in-house and outsourcing some of it.

So I've been reading a lot about outsourcing. Outsourcing is a wonderful thing as it allows someone like me to focus attention on the stuff I'm best at and let go of some of the things other people are best at. And it's relatively cheap. 

HOWEVER, there is a shadow side. Outsourcing can lead to an abdication of responsibility.  

A friend of mine said when he was in high school, he thought math was so awful he tried to "delegate" his math homework by paying another kid to do it.  Didn't work too well when it came time for the test!

That attitude is not healthy.  Nothing wrong with not being good at some things and focusing our attention there, but we also have to take responsibility.

This has gotten me thinking: Do we have a tendency to outsource our spiritual development? I mean, do we expect someone else to do the work of prayer, praise, service... for us? Do we expect them to raise our kids spiritually? Love our neighbors spiritually? Care for our communities?

What do you think?  What's your experience?  If you're struggling in this area, can you identify what the issue might be? 

I'd love to hear back from you!