As a young pastor/visionary, I was awakened to this reality when a godly Christian layman in my first congregation came to see me. I think I had plans for him to attend several meetings- two or three committee activities, and a planning effort or two- all in one week. I mean, whatever else could be more important than my vision to build the church into an impressive lighthouse for the gospel?
Seriously and respectfully he said to me, "Pastor, I need you to understand something. When I leave here on Sunday, I often go back home and then work on Monday and do other things I have to do and don't even think about the church or you for two or three days."
I was shocked. I thought about church all the time. I assumed everyone was caught up in my vision for a larger church, a more diversified staff, a more aggressive program. And he's telling me that he might not think about it? For two or three days at a time? Astonishing!
Then he pointed out that he was not living for the church. He was living to lead and raise his family in a godly way, living to make his job a place where his quality of work and his character reflected the Spirit of Jesus, living in a world that he wished to enjoy and in which he might experience the glory of God. And he was also working to add value in the name of Christ to people who weren't as blessed as he was.
The church, he said, could help him do that by pastoring him. Ot it could thwart him from doing that by overwhelming him with the insatiably ambitious demands of its vision.
Gordon MacDonald, "Blind Spot" Leadership, (Summer 2000), 33.
Perspective. It is so easy to lose it! This life is so busy, so great, so painful, so lonely. Perspective on what is really important can easily be washed away with our day to day issues.
I love the opening quote in this post. I have made it my mission to design and promote ministries that do not overload anyone in the church. I think life is stressful enough without having to add the guilt and drive of "ministry" to the mix. I know we have to have meetings, we need to plan, and our ministries must take place. Yet, too many meetings, too much planning, and too much practice can ruin a ministry, and they definitely can ruin an individual.
Why?
The purpose of this life is to grow in our trust and dependence upon the Lord Jesus Christ.
We do so by growing in repentance and faith. All of our ministry, all of our church work, and all of our discipleship should grow us in this understanding and point us toward deeper dependence by faith.
Such faith must go somewhere. It is not merely an internal feeling of some sort. It has legs! It must and will express itself in love (Galatians 5: 6). The beauty of this work is that it happens in all of our lives, not just the church part! In fact, if our faith is only expressed in church, then we do not understand the gospel and the glory of knowing Jesus.
The Church is here to help us grow in our understanding of the gospel, and its call should be for us to love and serve in our families, our work, and in all of our life. Without this constant reminder and the encouragement of the Church, believers will walk away from living and believing the gospel. I have met way too many believers who have grown strange in their faith and practice because they believed the church was not needed.
In other words, the church is vitally important! Yet, it is not everything in a believer's life. We are called to have a life in this world. We are called to love our spouses, to raise our children, to work our jobs while fulfilling our occupation, and to be salt and light in a dark and lost world. We have these responsibilities and privileges. The church is a fellowship of believers who are to train and encourage us in these tasks. Together we are stronger witnesses to the light than we ever would be separately!
Several observations now can be made. In this post I only have space for one. So here it is:
As individuals, we must guard our hearts from overwork in any area of life.
If something leads us away from growing in dependent faith
we must limit our exposure to this toxic poison.
Such a toxin could even be seemingly good things. Family is important. Biblically we have no higher calling than to love and take care of our families. Yet, if we value and honor our families more than our walk with God, we have made family into an idol.
Past generations seem to understand this danger better than we do. They would guard honoring God above anything else. All too often, we make family fun and comfort our highest priority, and neglect or relegate honoring God under our family's plans. I do wonder if the past thirty years of parents have a higher or lower rate of passing on their faith to their children than previous generations?
The same difficulties that are found in making the biblical good of family into an idol, can also be found in our attitude toward working in the church. Working, ministering, and serving are wonderful! I know I find them a great joy. Yet, when people do them to extremes or a church demands too much labor from its servant leaders, burnout and discouragement will result.
We all have different levels of ability, and we all have different places where service goes from joy to drudgery. How do we know if we are approaching burnout?
Are you growing in dependent faith?
Do you find yourself growing in your understanding of the gospel
because you are growing in repentance and faith,
which leads to heart transformation and joy?
There will be some seasons of life where we find ourselves working too much, serving too much, doing too much. We need to make sure it is a brief season, if we wish to run the race of faith for a lifetime. Burnout is not a badge of spiritual achievement, but a cheap token of misplaced loyalty and trust. Come back to the source of the power for ministry, which is reliance on the Holy Spirit through dependent faith!
How? Take a break. Renew yourself in the gospel. Find others to walk with you. Confess the danger your approaching burnout is placing upon your soul. Most importantly, allow the church to refresh you instead of use you. Take responsibility to guard your soul and to begin to refresh it.
May each of us find refreshing and renewal in the gospel!
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