In case you missed them, here are the top posts for the last month on the blog:
Ever since being a student pastor I have watched lead pastors (sometimes from afar and sometimes up close) burnout and fizzle out of ministry. Ministry and leadership is a marathon, not a sprint which it is so often treated as such. This past year our elder team worked through my job description (I didn’t have one before) and laid out what I should be spending my time on, who I should be spending time with, how much time I should spend on sermon prep, how many weekends a year I should preach, etc. One of the things we talked through was each summer having 3 – 4 weekends in a row that I don’t preach. To use that time to recharge, listen to preaching, go on a family vacation, spend extra time with leaders, work on upcoming sermons and study guides.
Well, my break starts this week. I couldn’t feel more excited and weirder about the whole experience. Which I think is a good thing.
The next month will be filled with some personal evaluation, taking a step back to look at Revolution, looking ahead to the coming year, working on the study guides and family devotional guides for our sermon series Ultimate Fighter (2 Timothy) & The Blessed Life (Philippians), prep for The Perfect Kid series, going on a family vacation, some reading and world cup watching.
Starting this Saturday, we are partnering with almost 1,200 churches from around the globe for the One Prayer initiative in our series Unstoppable. I’m not only excited about this series because of the topic and how it will challenge us as a church, but also who our church will get to hear from over the course of the series. I know many pastors who take the mindset that when they go on vacation, they want to get a speaker worse than them so when they return their church is excited they are back to hear good preaching. Our goal is that whether I speak or not, whether Paul is leading worship or not, 52 weeks a year you can know that Revolution will be awesome and you will not have to worry about bringing a friend. Revolution will be Revolution regardless of who is speaking or leading worship. For the next 4 weeks we will get to hear from Luke Simmons, Craig Groeschel, Steven Furtick and Timothy Keller.
If you think of it, Katie and I would appreciate your prayers to be recharged, refreshed over the next month. God is doing amazing things at Revolution and we are praying and expecting the next year to be even better than this year (which is hard to imagine) as we move to our new location.
Get ready!
Anyone who knows me knows I love a good book. We just wrapped up Nehemiah this past weekend, which means I am heading into summer. This summer will be different for me in a few ways. I am taking a break, which is much needed after getting Revolution off the ground. Ava starts kindergarten, which will usher in a whole new world.
Every summer I set a goal of reading at least 10 books on a variety of topics. Some for my personal leadership, parenting/marriage, future sermons (this summer I’m prepping for The Perfect Kid series), my own spiritual journey and for fun. I didn’t list the fun ones (usually novels). This summer I’m planning to read David Baldacci’s King & Maxwell series. Katie and I are also planning on watching Lost this summer as we have never seen it.
So, if you are curious, here are the books I’m hoping to read this summer:
I think for many people, the idea of a vacation tends to be a mirage. Especially type A, driven leaders who are pastors. The idea of a vacation sounds wimpy. Just when you start to talk about taking a vacation, especially as a pastor, you start to ask questions like, “What will people think if I take a vacation? Who will preach for me? Will my church survive if I am away?” While these are stupid questions, there is that little voice in your head that asks them.
As we got Revolution off the ground, it was non-stop and has been non-stop for the last 18 months. In that 18 month time span, I have had 5 weeks off from preaching until this month. That is not enough for the sustainability of me or the church.
Recently, Katie and I read through Leading on Empty together which led to many really good, challenging conversations about our schedules, pace and what was sustainable. While there are seasons in life that are busier than others, one of the main questions you need to ask is, “Is this sustainable?” We began to see that life was moving too quickly and it was affecting sleep, our relationship, how we related to our kids and ultimately how I worked.
The main reason that pastors step out of ministry is burnout. Most people don’t know this, but when you start out as a pastor, you have about a 5 – 10% of retiring as a pastor. In fact, 85% of pastors quit being pastors after the first 5 years. The reason? Burnout.
As I’ve talked with other pastors, they constantly say pace, balance and having regular rest and vacation are reasons they are still in ministry.
I think for many of us, we are so good at continuing to keep moving, staying busy because if we stop, we aren’t sure what we would do.
Katie and I started to ask questions like: what refreshes us? Why am I having trouble sleeping? Am I stopping enough? What re-energizes me? If we have the same schedule and pace in 6 months, will that be a good or a bad thing?
There was a great article that I came across by C.J. Mahaney about how to maximize vacation. One of the problems with vacation is many people come back from it and say, “Now, I need a vacation” because they didn’t maximize their time away. One of the things he points out is that careful planning leads to a great vacation, along with the fact that the Dad drives the attitude and the feeling of the vacation.
Along with C.J.’s article, I came across a lot of other blogs and articles about the topics of rest and leadership: Killing ourselves in Jesus’ name by Scott Thomas and The sabbath was made for man by Catalyst.
Take the time, do some research, figure out what makes you rest, how you relax and then do it.
For the D.Min. class I’m taking at Biblical Seminary, one of the assignments I had to do was to list out 10 questions that every leader needs to work through as they think about leadership in their context. I will be posting one each day.
How do I recharge?
Going along with pace and scheduling is this question of recharging. This goes back to what I am good at and being self-aware. Every leader recharges differently. As an introvert, being with people can be draining, it is not always recharging. So after a Saturday night of preaching and hanging out with people, I need some downtime, alone. Reading a book, taking a run, playing with my kids, talking with Katie, sleeping, these are things that recharge me.
This is one of those questions that has no right answer, only what works for you. As a couple, Katie and I have had to learn the balance of the other and how the other one needs to recharge.
Also, what refreshes you, what gets you excited? When your passion for church is waning, how do you fire yourself up? How do you keep yourself on track so that you are bringing your best for God and your church? The lines of recharging and refreshing often overlap, but it is important to know what the answer to this question is.
