My previous two posts are about the numbers we track in ministry and how they affect the way we think and lead. To read about the difference between outcomes and inputs click here. For practical examples of input measurements click here. Today I want to swing back around to outcome measurements. While my previous posts have focused on the value of shifting from an outcome-focus to an input-focus, my intent is not to diminish the value of outcomes. Please here me clearly: outcomes are worth measuring. It’s healthy to understand attendance trends and to know how much the weekly offering is. It would be foolish of a church leader not to know these things! Some outcomes, however, don’t fit well on a spreadsheet. What do you do with those outcomes?
Immeasurable Outcomes
Outcomes like personal stories are always worth noting and celebrating, but they can’t be seen in a numerical report. Public baptisms are a classic way to show off the immeasurable outcome of people coming to know Jesus. But consider these other ideas too: ask people to share their life-change stories during small groups or during worship services. Make videos of these personal testimonies to play during church or stream on your website. Don’t just tell your church how many people completed a course like Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University, show them a container full of chopped up credit cards. Proudly display pictures of nursery volunteers rocking babies. Hang up photos of adults working with kids and youth. Have all the families who participated in a family retreat weekend put their painted handprints on a giant canvass and place it in your church lobby. Be creative. Don’t just talk about numbers. Visually represent the outcomes most important to your church and make a spectacle of them.
One Important Outcome Almost No One Measures
I’d be remiss to neglect one result that we should all take not of. Sadly most of us try to ignore this outcome altogether. I know I’ve been guilty of such neglect all-too-often.
Having worked at large churches and consulted churches of all sizes, I’ve become keenly aware of how much measurables and metrics are influencing the American church. Common church metrics are things like attendance, offering, small group participation, baptisms and membership. Regardless of the metrics each church tracks, there’s one we can’t afford to ignore: the number of bodies we leave behind us.
Every ministry leader is a human being. Human beings are flawed. Thus, every ministry leader is flawed. Sadly, our flaws wind up hurting people. At the church I lead we often say, “We’ll do anything short of sin to see people come to know Christ.” Usually the emphasis is on the latter part of that statement, but lately I’ve been thinking more about the first part: “…anything short of sin…”
In fulfilling our mission, let us remember that the ends only justify the means as long as we do not sin.
I’m not suggesting that we unhealthily avoid conflict, for that would lead to dramatic dysfunction. I’m not suggesting that we water-down the message of Scripture, for that would be heresy. I’m not suggesting that we make our ministries about pleasing people, for that would be idolatry. I’m not suggesting that our ministries should never offend people, for the gospel is offensive.
Sometimes people will be offended by our work. Sometimes they’ll storm away angry. Sometimes they’ll make unfair criticisms or jump to silly conclusions. Those things we can’t help. What we CAN avoid, though, is damaging people by our negligence, arrogance, ignorance, and selfishness.
Remembering the tragic numbers of bodies we’ve left behind requires internal strength, brutal self-honesty, and humility. If we’re the least bit in tune with God’s Spirit, this activity will sadden us. Yet it will simultaneously inspire us to prevent such casualties in the future.
So today, I encourage you to ask, “What’s my number? How many bodies have been left in my ministry trail?” I doubt this number will ever make it into any church leader’s metric spreadsheet. After all, it’s a discouraging number and hard to track. Nevertheless, let’s all make it a habit to look in the rear-view mirror from time to time, so we don’t needlessly hurt people in our efforts to reach them with the gospel. Let us never become so enamored with the exciting numbers in front of us that we forget the tragic numbers behind us.
That completes my thoughts about ministry numbers for now. What are your thoughts?
In my last post I wrote about my mental shift from just measuring outcomes to focusing more on inputs. You can read that post here. But this time I want to share some practical ideas for making that shift in focus a reality.
How To Focus More On Input Numbers In Ministry
1) Celebrate inputs as much as outcomes. Make a big deal about staff members who have healthy devotional lives and take appropriate time off. Praise individuals for inviting their neighbors to church. Raise the roof when volunteers show up early. A good leadership maxim says, “What gets rewarded gets repeated.” So maybe it would be healthy for your church to stop celebrating outcomes for a season and only celebrate incomes. This would certainly go a long way in shaping the way we think as leaders.
2) Ask the right questions. In order for inputs to become an emphasis in our churches, we must shift our thinking from outcome-oriented questions to input-oriented ones. All-too-often we get stuck in a rut asking the same old kinds of questions. Let’s begin breaking that habit now by comparing the outcome-oriented questions on the left to the input-oriented questions on the right below.
Outcome Questions
How many people attend your church?
How many small groups does your church want to start this fall?
How many students came to the youth group Sunday?
How many children came to VBS?
How many volunteers showed up last weekend?
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Input Questions
How many of your church members invite guests to your church?
How many of your church’s groups currently have an apprentice leader?
How many adult volunteers contacted teenagers last week?
How many VBS signs did our parishioners put in their yards?
How many times did we adequately cast vision reminding our volunteers why they serve? |
One of the most important tasks we undertake as leaders is asking the right questions. Why? Because asking the right questions leads us to the right answers. Finding answers is not enough. We must find the right answers. If we find answers, but they are the wrong answers, we will not be able to lead effectively. Success, therefore does not automatically follow from outcome-oriented questions. Rather, success follows input-oriented questions.
Practical Examples In Small Group Ministry
A good exercise for us now is to consider what this might look like in a specific area of ministry. Let’s use a church’s small group ministry as an example. What are some inputs you would consider important for small group ministry? In reality, your answer depends greatly on your own church’s philosophy and model of small group ministry. But here are a few ideas to get you going:
1) Grooming Future Leaders. The outcome of future numerical growth in your small group ministry is dependent on the behavior of your current preparedness for that growth. Developing future leaders now is the best way to insure more groups later. Do your groups have apprentice leaders? Do you have a leadership development plan or a small group coaching strategy?
2) Appropriate Self/Soul Care. Leader burnout is one of the worst outcomes, but it is preventable. You do this by promoting spiritual, mental and physical health among your small group leaders. Are you active in your own daily devotional time with Christ? Do you take appropriate time off and vacations? Do you maintain a healthy lifestyle? If your answer to these questions is “no” you need to get your own self/soul care in line first! You can’t lead others where you have never been.
3) Vision From The Pastor. One of the most valuable inputs that produces great results is 100% buy-in from your church’s pastor. How often are you asking your pastor to incorporate small group stories in his/her weekly messages? Are you encouraging your pastor to share the church’s vision for small groups and discipleship from the stage? What are you doing to help your pastor present a compelling group vision to the church? If you’re a senior pastor reading this article, what are you doing regularly to prop up the vision for small groups and promote participation in small groups? As a senior pastor myself, I believe there is no other better input for small group ministry than the senior pastor’s total support.
What would you add? What practical examples can you give from other ministry areas?
Although I’ve promoted the importance of inputs, outcomes are still vital, so my next post will shift back to outcome measurements in ministry.
Numbers in ministry are something every church leader thinks about. The extent to which we think about numbers is often seen in the questions we ask. “How many people attended Sunday? How much was the offering? How many baptisms have we had this year? How many small groups do we have? How many kids went to camp? How many people accepted Christ at the event?” I know I’ve asked these types of questions a million times since 1990 when I started working in churches.
A few years ago though, one conversation really changed the way I think about church numbers. A young pastor I was supervising once asked me, “Are we responsible for inputs or outcomes?” What a great question. I chewed on that question for a long time and it made me re-evaluate my approach to leadership. You see, I tend an outcome-oriented guy. As such, I’m influenced by business-minded-thinking. I like metrics, measurables, goals, and charts. I like the idea of rewarding people who know their measurable outcomes and then exceed them. I’m a firm believer that “measured performance gets improved performance.” But is being outcome-oriented really the best to lead? Generally what I measure focuses on the result rather than the cause. Which of those two measurements is really more important?
Maybe you’re wondering, “What’s the difference between an outcome and an input?” Some refer to outcomes as “lagging indicators” and inputs as “leading indicators”. Simply put, outcomes are the results and inputs are the causes. Understanding the difference between outcomes and inputs can shift our leadership in significant and important ways. I know that as I’ve pondered the difference I’ve certainly changed. Something I’ve noticed is that I’m certainly not alone in being an outcome-oriented guy, but I often find myself in unexplored territory when I start orienting more on inputs.
Why We Tend To Measure Success By Outcomes Rather Than Inputs
1) We live in an outcome-oriented culture. As I mentioned earlier I’m influenced by the world of business. It’s hard not to be living in America where capitalism is a huge part of our culture. Many pastors, like myself, read business books that extol the virtues of measurables and metrics. As a result, in church we frequently ask outcome-oriented-questions: “How many people attend your church?” “How many small groups do you have?” “What’s your budget?” Culturally speaking, these numbers are viewed as measures for success.
2) Outcomes are easier to measure than inputs. Outcomes are very tangible and relatively easy to chart. Inputs can be more abstract and more difficult to track. For example: it’s simple to track how many people came to a special event at your church, but it’s hard to track how many parishioners invited others to the event. It’s easy to do a headcount at the event and measure how many people came. It’s difficult to track how many of your church members asked others to come. At our church we measure how many invite cards we print and how many are taken. That single input-measurement forces us to think differently about how we encourage people to invite their friends.
Why We Should Measure Success By The Inputs
1) Outcomes are the result of inputs. Good outcomes flow from good inputs. We’ve all heard it before: “Garbage in, garbage out.” In my own experience I’ve seen the best outcomes when I stopped thinking (and worrying) so much about them and I instead focused more on the front-end work (the inputs). When good outcomes are not present in my life, my work, and my small group, it’s almost always because I’ve not been putting adequate effort into the inputs.
2) Outcomes are God’s business. It’s up to the farmer to plant, water, and harvest. Yet the actual fruit being harvested was made and grown by God, not by the farmer. The same, I believe is true for those of us in leadership. We plant, water and harvest (inputs) but the fruit is produced by the miraculous work of God.
3) Maybe we should focus more on inputs and trust God for the outcomes. It’s human nature to want to control things, but the reality is that we are not in control. We are all taking a ride on a giant dirt clod hurling through space at thousands of miles per hour. WE ARE NOT IN CONTROL! Once we grasp this liberating truth, we are free to focus on inputs.
At the end of the day, if we focus on the inputs the outcomes will improve. So today I find myself asking my staff different kinds of questions than I used to ask.
The funny thing about all this is that although our church staff still maintains a spreadsheet showing our outcomes, I just don’t look at it as much as I used to. Another interesting side effects of this kind of shift is that these kind of input-oriented or leading-indicator-oriented questions make me think more about the health of my staff and our church than outcome-oriented questions. Personally this has been a great change that has stretched me and helped me grow as a leader. What are your thoughts?
In my next post I’ll write about practical ways to focus more on inputs, so stay tuned.
Originall posted September 22, 2016.
Because of the miraculous signs Jesus did in Jerusalem at the Passover celebration, many began to trust in him. But Jesus didn’t trust them, because he knew all about people. No one needed to tell him about human nature, for he knew what was in each person’s heart. (John 2:23-25 NLT)
I love verses 24 and 25 because they reveal the absolute deity of Jesus. Only God knows what’s in a person’s heart. Therefore, Jesus is God! Some people are intuitive and can SENSE what another person’s motives may be. But only God can KNOW.
Today, many people come to Jesus with hidden motives or agendas:
Be honest with yourself: yes you want Jesus, but when you come to Him it’s often because you want something else too. Jesus plus something.
Why be honest with yourself about it? Because Jesus already knows your hidden agenda; it is never hidden from Him. The REAL reason you are hiding it is because you are trying to hide it from yourself. Your desire for clarity, acceptance, encouragement, freedom, hope, strength, friendship, healing, deliverance, or less stress is really an idol in your heart that is keeping you from truly knowing Jesus. Idolatry is a sin.
What is your agenda-idol?
Come clean. Confess it. Confessing your sin doesn’t do anything for God. He already knows about it. Confessing your sin does something for you; it gives you an awareness of the things you’ve been trying to hide.
The bottom line: your agenda is flawed and can not be trusted, but His agenda is perfect and is perfectly trustworthy. Admit your hidden agenda. Give it a name. Lay it aside. Come to Jesus just for Jesus. He will take care of everything else in His time and in His way.
Oftentimes pastors married lives seem idyllic and dreamy, but I’m here to tell you that’s a myth.I’ve been in vocational ministry since 1990 and I’ve been married since 1994. My marriage stinks…at least sometimes. Last week was one of those times.
My wife and I were dueling about things that ultimately came down to selfishness on both our parts. But still, the fights were ugly. We yelled. We said mean things. We felt stupid. But we were both prideful enough to hold on to our side of the argument for a few days. This made living in our home tense.
Today things are better. We came together and confessed our pride. We apologized for our anger and for hurting one another. We made up. But we still have work to do.
As a pastor I know this one thing: Satan hates me and wants me to fail. He wants me to fail as an example, he wants me to fail as a church leader, as a man, as a father and as a husband. He attacks me relentlessly. So I have to continually be on guard and I have to continually improve. If you’re a pastor, you know exactly what I mean.
One of the worst aspects of this reality is that my wife didn’t really sign up for it. She knew she was marrying a pastor, but she didn’t realize that our marriage would be under the intensely concentrated scrutiny and assault of the enemy. She didn’t have any idea it would be this hard. Pastors, let’s own it: marrying us meant things would be hard enough, but marrying one of Satan’s favorite chew-toys makes it that much harder for our poor spouses.
Yes, sometimes our marriages stink. So what are we to do?
Below is what my wife and I have done and are doing to make our marriage, with the help of Jesus, not stink and able to last a lifetime. I’d love to hear what you have done and are doing to help when your marriage stinks.
If I’ve learned anything from marriage it’s this: it’s hard and it takes work. I vaguely recollect the pastor at my wedding mentioning something along those lines, but I’m a pretty slow learner so it didn’t really hit home until a few years into our marriage. Now I realize that if my marriage is to last a life-time I must continue doing the things mentioned in this article and I must do them better. In addition, I will need to do things I’m not yet aware of. That’s why I’m asking you to share your experience. Let’s make each other better by sharing what we do to help our marriages not stink!
I know. I know. The title of this article sounds offensive. Before you judge me too harshly, please hear me out. First, I’ve been guilty of uttering most of these things at some point in my life. I’m not pointing these phrases out with a crooked finger saying, “You’re bad!” I’m writing from the perspective of one who is growing in these areas myself. Second, let me explain exactly what I mean by the word “stupid.”
When I was in middle school I had a wonderful shop teacher named Mr. Tawney. He was very respected by the kids he taught. I’m convinced that a great part of that respect came from the fact that Mr. Tawney was blunt. You always knew where Mr. Tawney stood. He said some of the most memorable things like, “Don’t be a ninni-capoop!” or “Look. I have all my fingers.” Another thing he said that will forever be stuck in my memory was, “There’s a difference between dumb and stupid. Dumb is something you can’t help; stupid is a choice. Don’t be stupid!” To Mr. Tawney “stupid” was a decision to do something that would hurt yourself or others.
As a pastor I’ve noticed the difference between dumb and stupid that Mr. Tawney was pointing out. I’ve seen people who may never be classified as smart who exercised tremendous wisdom. I’ve also seen many people who are perfectly intelligent, yet choose to say things that are divisive and damaging. These things harm the church, and as such are stupid. Compared to many places on earth, Christians in America are very educated. We have lots of information and we have easy access to even more. Yet still we have some stupid notions that do more harm than good. Here are the top 5 stupid ideas I’ve heard expressed by American Christians.
“This church isn’t meeting my needs.” // Of all the criticisms people make about church, this one melts my brain the fastest. Why? First of all, God is your provider, not a church. When we expect churches to meet our needs, we set them up for failure. Only the Lord can truly satisfy. Only He can ultimately provide. If you expect a church to do what only God can do, you’ll be disappointed every time. Secondly, while the church can’t meet all your needs I desperately want to know, “What needs?” If you’re in my church, I want to know what you need so we can help you! My point is this, I’ve never heard a truly needy person make the complaint that the church wasn’t meeting their needs. You know why? Because needy people almost always come in two forms: those who ask for help and those who are too embarrassed. If you truly need help, please say so! Someone in your church would probably love to help in some way. Thirdly, what are you doing to meet needs in the church? I’ve never met a person who is a committed servant in their church make this complaint. The people who say this are the people who attend a church only for what they can get out of it. Yet Biblically, we are told that each of us are a part of the body and have something to contribute. Contributors don’t complain about not getting their needs met. Lastly, almost always, what people mean when they say this is, “This church isn’t meeting my wants.” Frankly, that’s not really worth addressing, so let’s move along.
“I’m not being fed at this church.” // This comment is similar to the last, but different enough to make this list. I’m stunned every time I hear this phrase. I always ask people who say this, “What’s wrong? Are you feeling ill?” Here’s my point: hungry people eat. I’ve seen homeless people eat leftovers straight out of a garbage can. I’ve seen college students rejoice over the nastiest, waxy-looking-cheap pizza. I’ve seen starving children gladly eat vegetables that my kids snub their noses at. Hungry people eat…regardless of what’s put before them. This phrase is one of those great church excuses that only people who have been in the church a long time use. People who are new to Christ and new to church don’t say this because they are hungry. And because they’re hungry they find some spiritual food to eat every time they worship at church. Long-time-church-people often become so spiritually flabby and lazy that they expect someone to come along and pour the spiritual truth down their throats for them. How tragic. If you’ve been in the church long enough to utter the phrase, “I’m not being fed” I have this simple reply: “Eat what’s in front of you!” If your complaint is that your church isn’t feeding you, you’re problem isn’t REALLY hunger. Hungry people eat. They grab for every possible morsel and clamor for every calorie. Only over-fed, picky Americans stand in front of a refrigerator filled with food and say, “There’s nothing to eat.” Your church is offering spiritual food every time the Bible is taught. Quit being picky and eat!
Now to be fair, maybe you’re a Christian who is at a church where the sermon content is more like baby food than a gourmet meal. If that’s the case and you aren’t feeling fed, here’s my two-fold response: “Eat what’s in front of you AND feed yourself more later!” There’s SOMETHING in every sermon for you. God’s Word ALWAYS yields fruit in fertile soil. If your pastor’s sermons don’t fully satisfy your hunger, go home and eat some more. My goodness people, there are more sermons on the internet to listen to than any human being on earth could ever devour! You have multiple translations of the Bible on your shelf but you’re complaining about not being fed?!?! Resources for personal Bible study fill multiple shelves even in secular book stores, yet you’re still hungry? That’s not the church’s fault. It’s yours. Get up and feed yourself.
“I only serve where I’m gifted.” // Oh brother. This statement tops the list of elitist-church-phrases. I can’t count the number of times people have made this complaint when asked to serve in the church. Can you imagine the things that will be left undone if people only serve where they’re gifted? I mean, who has the gift of window washing? Who has the gift of scrubbing nasty, sticky, splashed urinals in the youth building? Who has the gift of changing brown-liquid-bomb diapers? Do some people do those things with a joyful heart? Absolutely, but that doesn’t mean they’re “gifted”. It means they’re grateful! Grateful people serve where ever they are needed. Why? Because they are thankful for the gift of salvation. They know Jesus died for their sins, and cleaning up poop is a small offering in light of His sacrifice. They do what no one else will do because they are grateful that God has given them the chance to make a difference. Let me ask you a question: why did Jesus willingly serve us by laying down his life? Did he do it because he had the spiritual gift of bleeding? He did it because He loved you. People who truly fall in love with their savior find that nothing is beneath them. NOTHING. And they serve however they can because they know it’s a practical way they can lay down their lives for others. Serving where you’re gifted is wonderful. It’s fun. It’s fulfilling. But serving where you’re needed is even better!
“The music at this church is too ____________.” // Is your church music too loud, quiet, long, short, country, rock, traditional, unprofessional, or over-produced? If you think about it long enough, there’s always something wrong with every musical element in every church every week. Arguments about music always seem to be present in church. Why? Because everyone has their own personal preferences. Here’s my plea: can we just stop?!?! The music isn’t for us! Music in church is a tool for worship and worship is for God! If you’re not pleased it’s because you think it’s for you. Please…just…stop it! Please!!!!
Gripes about music only accomplish three things. First, they divide the church and the Bible is pretty clear that dividing the church is a sin…a serious sin. Second, they waste people’s time. I’ve spent countless hours in deacon and elder meetings enduring arguments about music. When the arguing finally settles down, it comes back again a few weeks or months later. It’s exhausting and it will never be solved on this earth. Third, it breaks the heart of God. The Lord longs for the sweet fragrance of our worship. He wants to hear the joyful noises that we make when we sing. Instead, he finds us huddled with other complainers with our arms folded making awful-screetchy-complaining-noises. Yuck!
“Our church isn’t deep enough.” // People in church like to sound spiritual by saying, “I want to go deeper”. More often than not, it reflects a desire for exhaustive expository teaching. Now please understand I love good expository Bible study. It’s awesome! But the pious complaint that one’s pastor isn’t doing enough “deep teaching” is really kinda silly. You know why? Because Jesus didn’t teach that way. Jesus didn’t own a Strong’s Complete Dictionary of Bible Words or a complete set of Bible commentaries. He never once said to his audience, “In the original Hebrew, this is what the prophet meant.” There’s no record of Jesus giving a verse-by-verse expository message anywhere in the New Testament. If Jesus preached the Sermon on The Mount in your church today, I wonder how many people might complain that it wasn’t deep enough. Jesus said to love your neighbor like you love yourself. How deep have you gone with that in your daily life? He said to forgive everyone. How deeply have you forgiven all who have wronged you? Jesus said not to worry. Are you deeply resting in God’s provision all the time, or do you sometimes flounder with worry. Jesus taught us to have the faith of a child. Do you deeply trust God with everything or does your shallow mind sometimes doubt? The fact of the matter is that Jesus was a topical preacher. Going deeper shouldn’t mean understanding more about every detail of a text. Rather it should mean taking the clear meaning of the text and letting it deeply change how we live. Generally speaking, people who make the deeper complaint just want more information. They don’t want deeper life-change. How sad.
So there’s my list of the top 5 stupid things American church people say. What would you add to the list?
I felt like dying. I couldn’t explain it, but I just wanted Jesus to let me die. The church I was pastoring had recently become debt free, I had a wonderful wife and three amazing kids and my staff was incredible. Yet in spite of these wonderful things I would find myself fantasizing about being in a fatal car accident or choking to death on a large bite of steak. One night I actually bought some sleeping pills and contemplated taking all of them. I was deeply depressed and while I talked about it some, I was reluctant to open up about the true extent of my depression. Thankfully, a lot has changed and I’m not there today.
I’m sharing this with you because I’m know there are too many people who are living daily with depression. Maybe you’re one of those people. People at war with depression MUST KNOW they’re not alone. And most of all, they need to know there is hope.
What I’m writing about next is how depression affects pastors. That’s because I’ve been a pastor for nearly 30 years and I know what the depressed-pastor-battle looks like. But what comes next is NOT just for pastors. It’s for anyone fighting the agonizing conflict against the beast called depression. A pastor named Wayne Corddeiro wrote a book called Leading on Empty. It’s a book for pastors and leaders who are burnt or burning out. In it Cordeiro writes of the major causes of depression. Here’s my summary of these causes and how they often affect pastors:
I don’t know about everyone else, but I have had all four of these causes of depression in spades. For years I did nothing about these things. The result was a deep and lasting depression that went on for more than two years. My dad (who was my greatest mentor) died and then so did my closest friend. I was worn out from the continuing stress and pressure that come with being a pastor. And to top it all off, I was trying to lead our church to overcome an overdose of debt and major dysfunction. All of this made me ripe for extreme depression.
What about you? Do you see any of the four causes of depression mentioned above in your own life? If you aren’t taking steps to address these things, you’ll be like me. You’ll find yourself spiraling downward with feelings of utter hopelessness.
Thankfully, my life is very different today. What changed? First, let me tell you for sure what didn’t change: life. Life on earth means suffering because humans messed everything up with sin. Therefore, on earth we will always face the stuff that depression is made of. The change that helped me face my depression was not circumstantial, it was spiritual.
Today the four causes of depression are still present in one form or another, but because of a profound inner transformation I am able to deal with them differently. Below are the steps I took that have led to this transformation. I strongly encourage every pastor battling depression to take each of these steps as soon as possible. But beware! The steps aren’t magic. This list is not “five easy steps to beat depression.” Rather, these steps will force you to face your depression and become accountable for the personal changes needed to overcome it. This journey is not easy. In many ways it’s harder than the depression itself. BUT it’s worth it. Beating depression is one of the hardest battles any of us will ever face, but face it we must!
…to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud. Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time He said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (NLT)
By embracing my brokenness I’ve become healthier, more-complete person. I’ve learned to accept that I need help and that it’s okay. By allowing others to help me, I’ve gained strength from them. Finding strength in my brokenness has been like a second conversion experience for me.
Today things are better. Not perfect, but better. One of the most important lessons I’ve learned is that recovering from depression and burnout isn’t a fast process; it’s like trickle charging a car battery. Only in the case of people recovering from depression it takes months to recharge. My family and genuine friends have helped me recharge and they are helping me stay charged. There are still times when depression pops up again. In fact, I’ve found that it’s always near the surface. But because of Christ, my second conversion and the strength of those around me, I’m better equipped to face it. You see, the Lord has not delivered me FROM my depression. He is delivering me THROUGH it. The things I value are changing, and my heart is being reformed. I’m happier, not because my circumstances have changed, but because the Lord is changing me.
Please make note of this truth: your depression is not about your situation. It’s about you. What steps do you need to take to really let God begin reforming you? What steps will you take for your second conversion?
If you are a pastor and you feel used up, tired, out-of-ideas, uninspired, anxious, depressed, burned out, totally spent, angry, disappointed and feel like there’s little hope for the future, listen up. This message is for you.
Last year I stopped blogging. I stopped a lot of things. And not for good reasons. I was near the point of total exhaustion and collapse. That kind of experience is often referred to as a “Nervous Breakdown”. I don’t think I went as far as to have a full-blown nervous breakdown, but I know I was severely burned out. Finally in October 2015 I started doing something about it. The slow and necessary healing process has not been easy at all. It has spurred me to change my work life and home life dramatically. Thankfully, today I’m doing much better because of God’s grace and these changes. One change I’d like to share with you today is the habit of solitude and silence.
I used to be a 15-to-20-minute-per-day-devotional-kinda-guy. Not anymore. Now I try to spend at least one hour if not two with Christ each morning. My intent is not to brag, but simply to share how I’ve changed and why. Daily I read first, then I reflect, journal and pray. After that I sit quietly and listen for an extended period. Below is a list of why I believe this is an indispensable practice for pastors and how it’s changing me.
Why Solitude and Silence Are Necessary For Pastors
Longevity In Ministry // When I was graduating from seminary, the commencement speaker said that 80% of seminary graduates are no longer in ministry within five years of their seminary graduation. I don’t know if that statistic is true, but it sounds about right. What I do know is this: not a single church leader started out hoping to someday burn out. But it happens. What I’m learning is that slowing down to include extended periods of solitude and silence is helping me last longer in ministry. I’ve been in vocational ministry since I was 18 years old in 1990. I’m now in the middle of my life and career. Now is not the time to give up. I want desperately to thrive in the second half rather than fizzling out. So I’m spending less time on other things and more time alone with God. Silence and solitude is improving and guarding my mental health by helping me face my anxieties and surrender them to Christ. It’s not just good for mental health, but physical health too. Anxiety (AKA worry) manifests itself physically through stomach issues, high blood pressure, weight gain and even hemorrhoids. Pausing regularly to silently listen and meditate helps reverse these physical maladies.
Psalm 37:34 (NLT) says, “Put your hope in the LORD. Travel steadily along His path. He will honor you by giving you the land.” Pastors tend to be good at the first part of this verse, but not the second. Perhaps the reason many pastors feel like they are not reaching their promised land is that they have not “traveled steadily along His path. What we tend to do is charge ahead quickly and sometimes blindly. We work long, hard hours, but neglect meditation and meaningful time with Jesus. As I’ve been making solitude and silence a habit, I almost feel like I’m getting to know Jesus all over again in a deeper and better way. This is definitely preparing me for the next half of my life and career.
To Be Set Apart From The Culture // The culture expects us to put in longer hours working for success, but Jesus is often counter cultural. Jesus periodically dropped everything to just spend time with the Father. Could he have accomplished more if he had started his ministry sooner and worked longer hours? Could he have healed more, fed more, raised more from the dead, or taught more? Maybe, but those things weren’t his first priority. The Father was his first priority.
The word “Holy” means to be set apart. It carries the notion of being different from the world. Pastors, perhaps one of the greatest differences we need to manifest is related to the way we work. The time we spend silently listening to God is some of the most productive work we ever do. I’m spending less time in the office and more in my prayer closet. Are people noticing? You bet. And most are saying things like, “There’s something different about you. You seem less stressed. You seem happier. You’re leadership and preaching are getting better.” I credit these comments in large part to my habit of silence and solitude.
To Hear From God // In more than a quarter of a century of leading churches I’ve noticed that church leaders excel at cutting and pasting ministry ideas from other churches. Sadly, this seldom works out like we hope. Perry noble often says on his leadership podcast, “You are only two or three decisions away from your next breakthrough. So the most important thing pastors can do is listen to God and do what He says.” Hands down, that’s the best ministry advice I have ever heard.
You can hear God during your normal devotions, yes, but you’ll hear Him more frequently and more clearly by implementing the habit of silence and solitude. To me there’s nothing sweeter than knowing the will of my Heavenly father. And by meditating on His Word and how it meets my circumstances, I hear His messages regarding my life and my ministry. I’m chagrinned that I did not listen as diligently in the past as I am attempting to do today. I’m certain I would have made fewer wrong decisions and I would have experienced more of His blessings in my ministry. Well, lesson learned. I won’t make that same mistake in the second half.
To BE With God // A book I read when starting my journey of recovery from burnout is The Emotionally Healthy Leader by Peter Scazzero. Again and again, Scazzero emphasized the point that God made us human BEINGS not human DOINGS. The author’s point is to drive home the truth that God is more interested in spending time with us, than He is interested in us doing things for Him. This made me think of my dog. Yes, I’m one of those people who loves their dog maybe a little too much. My dog spends a lot of time with me, but she does very little for me. Imagine if she was the world’s smartest dog and she could wield a hammer and some nails. Do you think she could build a house better than a human? Of course not. Why? Because her mind is so far removed from the depths and power of the human mind. Would I love my dog more if she built me a house than I love her right now? No. My relationship with her is built on time together, not on her ability to do me favors. More realistically, consider her house-training. Do I love her less when she wets the carpet? No. I get upset, but I don’t take her to an animal shelter. I correct her, and within a few minutes she’s right back where she belongs: snuggled up next to me on the couch.
How does this dog-and-human relationship parallel the human-and-God relationship? Consider the human mind and God’s mind. We are much further removed from His mind than my dog’s mind is removed from mine. Can anything humans build, compare to the universe He has created? Our work might impress other people, but it does not impress the One who made the Grand Canyon, Horse-Head Nebula or the Andromeda Galaxy. Does the Lord care about what we do? Absolutely, but He cares for more about us being with Him. I’ve found that solitude and silence is like crawling up into my Heavenly Father’s lap and snuggling up for a while. He strokes me and makes me feel safe. I sense His love without a word being uttered. It’s beautiful. There’s nothing like it. I’m learning how to BE a human being rather than a human doing.
To Stretch Your Faith // In the most practical sense, spending more time with God means spending less time on other things. If you’re already busy, what do you take time away from in order to spend more time in solitude and silence? Family? Sleep? Health? I certainly hope not. These things are too important. So what’s left? Work. At the beginning of my recovery journey I sensed the Lord asking me a few questions that I’d like to pose to you now: “Do you trust Me enough to work less FOR Me and to just BE with Me more? Do you believe I’m big enough to make up for the things you won’t have time to get to? You’ve trusted Me with your eternal life, but do you trust Me with your today?” I had been living my life such that my honest answer to all of these questions was, “No.”
Broken hearted, I wanted desperately to say, “Yes.” So I began living differently. I began giving Him more and more of my time. Am I getting as many things done as I used to? Nope. But you know what I’ve found? God somehow makes up the difference. My ministry is stronger, my sermons are better, my staff is healthier, and I feel a lot better. I’ve found that the same Jesus who said weird things like, “The first will be last, the greatest will be the least, and to live you must die,” is the same Jesus who is proving to me that less is more. Spending less time at work is producing more for His Kingdom. I have less time for work because I’ve spent more time with God, yet somehow He is increasing my productivity and effectiveness. Suddenly Psalm 36:7 makes more sense to me: “Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for Him to act.” It’s supernatural. I can’t explain it. And that’s exactly the kind of story I want told of my life: I’m not enough, but Jesus is!
Pastors, we don’t have enough time to not spend time with God. Give Him more and you’ll find that you’ll never out-give Him. If you’re feeling tired, burned out, washed up, worn out, beat down, discouraged, hurt, angry, frustrated, heart broken or just plain empty, begin your recovery with some serious solitude and silence. I suggest a week or two away in a cabin alone. No TV, Internet, tablets, phones or even radios. Just you, your Bible and Jesus. Then come back home and spend a regular extended daily time with God. IT WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
I started in ministry at age 18 back in 1990. It didn’t take long to notice a couple of peculiar trends among pastors. First, I saw that pastors were almost always excited about churches in other cities who were doing well. They’d say things like, “God is really blessing them. We should learn all we can from them. I really respect their leadership.” Second, I saw that pastors were almost always downplayed things when it came to other churches within the same city who were doing well. They’d say things like, “It’s no wonder they are getting lots of new folks; they can afford the advertising. Well, they’re growing because they were the first ones to have a contemporary service.” Sadly, pastors would sometimes move from downplay to derogatory. I’d hear them say things like, “That church doesn’t preach the truth. The people there are not really being discipled. That pastor is a control freak. That pastor has an ego the size of Texas.”
I have to admit, I’ve been guilty of living out these trends myself. It’s great that I’m happy for churches in other cities when they succeed, but it’s tragic that I don’t always rejoice when the churches in my own community succeed! If you’re honest, you’ve probably been guilty of this too.
We know this kind of attitude grieves the heart of God, so why do we act this way? Here are a few reasons that I can think of:
We get territorial // Too often we have the small mindset that other churches are encroaching on our turf. Let’s get really honest for a moment: is your church reaching everyone in your city? How about everyone in your zip code? Okay, how about in your church’s neighborhood? Is there any legitimate reason to think that there are not enough people in your community to reach?
Territorial behavior reveals several unsettling things about us. First, it reveals that we are thinking more about our own kingdom than God’s Kingdom. Second, it reveals that we think people belong to us and not to God. Third, it reveals that we think the harvest is not plentiful.
Pastors, let us all repent of our territorial thinking.
We become jealous // Imagine how you’d feel if the person you like least in the world suddenly started driving your dream car. How would you feel? Even if you already have your dream car, do you want to see that awful person driving the same kind of car? That might be enough to make you trade your dream car for something else. Similar feelings often arise between pastors.
Admit it: you don’t like some of the pastors in your community. There are certainly other pastors in my community I don’t particularly like. I can be pretty okay with their churches growing as long as mine is too. But I feel a twinge of frustration when their churches grow and mine doesn’t. That’s jealousy. On the other hand, when my church is growing, but one of my un-liked counterparts is leading a church that’s stalled, I feel kinda good. That’s also jealousy.
How does it make Jesus feel when I act or think in these ways? Heartbroken. Who am I to curse what He blesses? Who am I to stand in judgement over my fellow pastors?
Pastors, let us all repent of our jealousy of other churches.
We feel insecure // There’s a little voice inside all of us that speaks when we see other pastors succeeding. That little voice says, “You can’t do that. You’ll never succeed. You’re not smart enough. You’re not talented enough. You’re not a good enough leader.”
One of the hardest things for us to deal with as pastors is our own insecurity. Maybe it’s because we try to present a sense of confidence so often. After all we need to look confident when we are speaking to a group of people, counseling people, leading staff members, leading elder meetings, visiting people in the hospital and praying for lunch in front of the rotary club. Maybe we fein confidence so often that we begin to buy our own press. Whatever the cause, we have to stop and face our insecurities.
Back in 1989 I loved playing Zelda II: The Adventure of Link on my Nintendo Entertainment System. I remember that right before fighting the final boss, your character’s shadow suddenly starts attacking you. For me, it was harder to defeat my shadow than it was for me to defeat the final enemy. In fact, I found the final enemy pretty easy compared to my shadow. What a great metaphor for ministry!
Pastors, we must face our shadows! We must look deep within ourselves at the uncomfortable, ugly parts of ourselves and deal with them. God has given us the power to defeat our shadows, but we must face them. Part of facing your shadow is recognizing your insecurities and overcoming them. The Lord is in you and His power is available to overcome your insecurities. You CAN do whatever God calls you to accomplish because HE will empower you. Do not compare yourself to others. Just be the person God is calling you to be and strive to do what He is calling you to do. Face your shadow. Believe the best. Overcome in the power of Christ.
Pastors, let us all repent of giving in to our insecurities.
We are sinful // The root of everything mentioned in this post is one thing: sin. You and I are sinners, but Christ has forgiven us and has empowered us to overcome. The reason we don’t thrill to hear about how the church across town is growing is because we are sinful beings. In fact, the more of a hold sin has on us, the more skewed our perspective will be. I find that when I am attentive toward living a godly life and letting Christ overcome my sin, my attitude toward other churches is better. The opposite is true for me as well; the less attentive in keeping sin from my life, the worse my attitude becomes.
Pastors, let us all repent of the sin in our lives.
Let’s not grieve God’s heart by rooting against his Bride. Let’s not divide the body of Christ by wishing ill toward any other part of it. Let’s not split the family of God by jockeying for position against our brothers and sisters. Sibling rivalry has no place among pastors and churches. Let’s lead well, by rooting for each other and rejoicing when and wherever we see a victory for Christ!