Bill Easums Observations

A couple of days ago a long time pastor friend of mine asked if I would re run an article I did several years ago.  So here goes.

Jesus Was Always on Vacation: Leading from Freshness Rather Than from Frazzle

Too many of the pastors I meet these days look like they just stuck their finger in a light socket. They appear frazzled, dazed, and downright worn out. It is apparent they are working hard at something. To make matters worse, for most of them, whatever it is they are doing isn’t effective. It is as if they are chasing either an illusion or their tail. In either case, they wouldn’t know what to do if they caught it.

I can remember my first years of ministry in the church where I stayed for twenty-four years.

The first eight years, I was in the pulpit almost every Sunday. The church was in such trouble and only I could save it! What a joke . . . I remember two results from all of my misguided faithfulness: I had a nervous breakdown and the church grew in a way about as fast and exciting as watching paint dry. I worked day and night, chasing the illusion that I had to be available 24/7/52.

Deep down, I knew better, but the churched culture (to which many pastors are slaves) told me otherwise. Over the years, I have heard several well-known, highly effective leaders tell their story of burnout. We’re all slow learners. It took a personal flameout for me to realize that God must have a better way than frazzled. And there is, a much better way.

Frazzled was not one of Jesus’ strong points. He knew how to take care of himself. He always seemed to be on vacation, withdrawing from the crowds to find time for himself. Sometimes he withdrew from his disciples and even people in need. In the great prayer chapter of John 17, he demonstrates the importance of the leader’s taking care of his or her inner life. He prays first for himself before he prays for his disciples. I wish someone had pointed out the meaning of this text to me earlier in my ministry.

Jesus knew what we need to spend time focusing on: You can’t give to others what you don’t have. The first and foremost responsibility of spiritual leaders is to take care of themselves, not so they can care for others, but so they can inspire others to do the same with their networks.

In a yet-to-be-released book by Group Publishers, Ron Martoia gives a compelling account of how the inner life of a leader leaks out into a congregation to form the ethos of the church culture.

Whatever lurks in the heart of the leader will sooner or later permeate a congregation, for good or for ill. If you are frazzled, the church will be frazzled.

What practical tips can help frazzled pastors basking in an illusion or chewing on their tail?

(Although the following is written for pastors, any frazzled church leader will benefit.)

• Schedule regular, weekly time away from church members. It doesn’t matter how you schedule it as long as it meets your needs, not the needs of the church. Don’t buy into the one day off a week on the same day every week. That’s nonsense. What if someone dies that day, or it’s raining and you wanted to play golf? Take time off based on your schedule and no one else’s.

• Get lost. Go fishing. Whatever. Just do it and do it regularly. I found it was most helpful for me to take two or three days off every other week instead of the one day a week. Some people are so tightly wound up they need a day to unwind so they can start to relax. That’s me.  I can hear a layperson say, “I don’t get that kind of flexibility in my work schedule.” True, most people don’t. But most people aren’t on call all the time and aren’t expected to be creative every week. Most people have an eight-to-five job with a set time off where no one calls them in the middle of the night wanting something. This tip might not work in all jobs but it sure will work for people who have jobs without regular hours, like doctors, lawyers, farmers, and sales people.

• Make space in the schedule for quality time with your family every day you can, even if it is only an hour, and make that time count.

• Spend the majority of your ministry doing what God gifted you to do and what you enjoy doing and try to let the rest slide. Build on your strengths, not your weaknesses. Decide what actions will lend themselves to achieve your God-given goals and spend 80 percent of your time in those areas. If the church you serve has different goals, you might consider finding another church. I did that twice before I landed in one place for twenty-four years.  Spiritual leaders should not put their God-given mission aside to follow the wishes of a congregation. All that does is lead to either boredom, low morale, or burnout. I know that this advice flies in the face of everything you may have been taught. But the fact that you’re reading this article says something. Remember, you can’t keep doing what you’re doing and expect to get something different. If you’re still chewing on your tail, perhaps it’s time to change your priorities!

• Now and then, say once a quarter, go away on a personal retreat to reflect and seek God’s presence and guidance. The last decade of my pastoral ministry I learned the beauty of retreat. I took most of the summer off and was totally gone, including Sundays, for two months or more. During that time I fished, read, contemplated, meditated, spent time with my wife, lay on the beach, and laid personal plans for the coming year. Some days I would do the unthinkable – absolutely nothing! Those were some of my most creative days. I can still remember a leader at the church saying to a gathering of leaders, “Well, our pastor is back from his vacation, and I can’t wait to hear what is on his heart. He always comes back full of crazy new ideas.” I wasn’t sure if she meant that as a compliment, but that’s the way I took it.

• At least four times a year, worship in another church that you respect. Pastors often don’t worship much since they are always “on” during worship. They can become stale listening to themselves all the time. While you are doing this, perhaps you will discover a mentor in one of these churches. If so, negotiate a regular time for the two of you to meet for you to be mentored and held accountable to God’s dream for you. Every leader needs a leader one step further along in the journey. Even Jesus had a Father.

• Don’t forget your staff, paid or unpaid. Make regular time for you and whomever you consider staff to get away from the church to have uninterrupted time to dream, pray, eat, and have fun. Sooner or later, all wise spiritual leaders realize they are no stronger or more effective than the team of which they are a part. So get together with them several times a year. We did it once a quarter. Teams can’t develop as a team without practice. These times away should be seen as practice times of team building and dreaming.

• Make sure all program staff take time off as they need it. Don’t be a time-card pusher and get upset if they come in late or leave early or even come in at all. They may have been tied up in ministry all day the day before and need a break. And above all, don’t make them be on the payroll for a year before they get adequate vacation time. Staff can get burned out too.

• Don’t spend time posting to a listserv or online bulletin unless you have a real question or something profound to say. I know some frazzled pastors who are online too much. Email can be a killer. (I’m still working on this one.)

Now I know some of you are having anal-retentive thoughts like – “If I do any of this, I’ll get even further behind in my pastoral duties and have to work more hours and get even more burned out.”

How do I know some of you think this? Because I have been in staff meetings while consulting with a church and watched the frazzled looking at their watches and thinking about all the things they could be doing if they weren’t having to take part in the consultation.

Another anal thought: “If I do any of this I won’t have time to take care of the church.” That’s right. You won’t. That’s the point. Quit taking care of the church! Look for ways to equip the church to take care of itself. Plenty of time still remains in the week for you to do everything God wants you to do.

Here’s why those thoughts are anal: The more time you spend with these tips, the more time you have to spend effectively on things that matter to the Kingdom and to God. Two things happen when you lead from freshness rather than from frazzle. First, your presence changes, and your fresh spirit permeates your conversation, and people notice the difference in the character of your life. People prefer to be in the presence of life rather than frazzle. Second, you get focused on what is and isn’t important, thus causing you to question many of the daily outines that eat up your day. Over time, you will radically alter how you spend your time. And voilà . . . You will be leading from freshness rather than frazzle.

Bill Easum
www.effectivechurch.com

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Well, now I realize I didn’t publish my thoughts of the Conversations You Cant Ignore in the right order. So here is Part IV

All three of the movements we’ve examined the past three days (Emergents, Incarnationals, and Organics) are clearly reactions against the traditional Attractional church that waits for the public to come to it instead of going out to it. Some 80-85% of Attractional churches is either on a plateau or is dying because their primary function is on the care and feeding of the members and the institution. They are more like hospices or hospitals than churches. So it might be in the best interest of most churches in the West to listen to these voices since they clearly show up the fallacies of the institutionally focused church. But do we really need to throw the baby out with the bath water? I think not.

However, over the past decade too much time and energy has been taken up by these conversations. I have no problem with the Incarnational, Organic, and Emergent movements being part of the ongoing conversation as long as we realize they are just one of the many voices in the midst of much larger and important conversation that is coming to the forefront. We will examine this movement in a moment.

But first. We should all be indebted to these folks for bringing to our attention so elegantly the fact that Western Christianity is nowhere near what Jesus had in mind when he sent his disciples out into the world to build his church.  We should be willing to concede that most churches in the West are spiritually dead and are beyond revitalization or turn around.  Their only hope is resurrection. That is why I wrote A Second Resurrection. They are in need of resurrection. However, these movements are not the primary conversation in which we should be engaged.

So, let’s turn to two other major players in this ongoing conversation that have the potential to eclipse all three of these movements, as important as they are.

The Reproductive Movement

The Reproductive movement focuses primarily on advancing the Kingdom of God by multiplying itself and its people in any way possible. Their primary focus is on transforming the world by reproducing disciples rather than building large institutional churches (even though their efforts are more likely to result in large churches). Most of these churches are heavy into planting churches that plant other churches and multiple-site forms of ministry because they believe this is still the best way to make disciples. Mission shapes everything they do and believe including the purpose and meaning of “ecclesia.” Reproductives believe Christians are called and blessed only to be “sent” into the world to be a blessing to it. Mission is the totality of what the church is.

The most prominent leaders of this movement include folks like Bob Roberts, Dave Ferguson, and all the people involved in church planting movements like Exponential.

The Reproductives realize reaching the world will take the combined effort of all forms of Christianity. Therefore the movement embodies the best of the Incarnational, the Organic, and the Emergent values without throwing the baby (institutional church) out with the bath water. They believe we must plant as many churches as possible in as short a period of time as possible. Rather than the institutional church, their emphasis is on planting churches that will plant other churches in order to transform the world. Their emphasis is on the process of reproduction of Christians and the transformation of societies rather than building buildings. These leaders also realize that in today’s world big may not always best, so they embrace the multi site route as well.

There is one thing the Reproductives need to do. They need to get together and bring about one huge movement that will change the course of the world. So I have to ask – “What’s keeping you from forming a Reproduction Bank where people of all persuasions can donate to the cause of planting church planting churches?”

For my review of Robert’s book, The Multiplying Church and Fergusons book, The Big Idea,click here.

To learn about Exponential go to http://www.exponentialconference.org

By now you know I resonate with all of these movements in one way or another but my heart lies with the Reproductive Movement. So I am happy to know that for the first time in many years more churches are being planted than are being closed.

The Sim Card Movement

The Sim Card movement is the only wildcard in this deck and I couldn’t resist briefly referring to it.  Although it’s a recent player on the scene compared to the other groups, the Sim Card movement has the potential to multiply faster than the other groups, and it just might be a big player in shaping the future church  more than anyone dreams possible.

A Sim Card church is a virtual online church where people do everything people do in a traditional church – form community, worship, get baptized, take communion, get married, etc. Sound silly? Well get used to it because it is already happening.

The reason Westerners have difficulty understanding the virtual church is because they think of the church as a place rather than a gathering of Christians for the purpose of carrying out the Kingdom of God. If the church isn’t a place but a gathering there is no reason the virtual church can’t be thought of as a real church. If the Sim Card church does nothing more than cause us to question the fallacy of thinking of the church as a place it will have served its purpose no matter how well it develops into a movement.

If people can meet, date, and get married based on an internet profile in sites such as EHarmony, surely Christians can meet, worship, and develop community online. So, instead of sitting around asking ourselves if the virtual church is real we should be asking how we use it to transform the world.

Although the verdict is still out on the Sim Card church, it’s worth watching because the whole world is going virtual and why shouldn’t the church?

If you doubt the possibilities of the Sim Card church just google “online church” and see what you come up with.