The Spiritual Life of a Pastor
The pastor, whether lead, senior, or second-chair, lives in a difficult world that expects a depth of spirituality while also having to regularly prepare messages, lessons, and teachings. The regular time spent on those lessons can often leave you, as the pastor, feeling like your spiritual life has been handled, or sufficiently fed. But the lack of intentional focus on your spiritual life apart from the weekly prep and interactions can lead to a weak and unstable spirituality that ends up at the dead end road of spiritual disaster. It is vital that you make purposeful plans to grow spiritually as a follower of Christ beyond the hustle and bustle of the church staff world. It is far too easy to lull yourself into thinking you are growing because of “church-y activity” rather than heartfelt pursuit of surrendering to Christ daily. Take a look below at some ideas to help your spiritual life thrive as a church staff member.
Avoid the Comparison Trap
You have probably heard, and felt guilty about, the Martin Luther quote that his schedule of the day was so busy that he needed to spend another hour on his knees in prayer. The issue here is not that prayer is not important. It is super important. However, how many times have you heard of some spiritual habit/practice of some other person and felt like you didn’t measure up? Don’t compare yourself to others! Your spiritual path will not match up with someone else’s. You need to identify the spiritual growth tools that work for you and stick with them. Read the Bible on an on-going regular basis. Take time to pray, however long or short that is. Write your prayers out if that is easier. Fellowship with other believers. As a pastor you could use a fellowship group of other pastors that you can get together with and have community. Don’t feel shame because you don’t do things the same way as another person.
You Need Sabbath Too
God blessed the Sabbath and gave it as a gift to His creation. It wasn’t meant to be a demanding burden in our lives, but a respite from the hectic pass of the daily grind. The Sabbath, and its practice, points us back to our Creator and the trust we have in Him. Because Sunday, with all of its activities for a pastor, rarely works as a day of rest a different day of the week should be picked. Take Fridays off. Take Monday off. Just make sure you are truly stepping away from the daily burdens. Do something that helps bring energy back into your life. Read. Fish. Golf. Give yourself that time because you are limited. You can’t do it all.
Model What You Preach
Paul told the people in Corinth to imitate him as he imitated Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1). It is quite the high calling to challenge people to follow your lead because you are pursuing Christ. Telling the congregation to read their Bibles? You should be doing the same. Challenging them to talk about Jesus to their neighbors? You should be doing the same. Telling them to join a community group? You should be involved in a group. You get the picture. Don’t just talk about spiritual growth. Take the steps yourself.
Sermon Prep is not Spiritual Prep
It is far too easy to assume that you are growing spiritually because you are preparing for a Sunday message, a bible study lesson, or some other teaching opportunity. And there are lots of things learned through that preparation. A pastor should always seek to handle the material rightly, and authentically. But if your only time in Scripture is getting ready to teach a lesson on it you will find yourself in a season of instability. Soon the response to the message will begin to dictate how you feel about yourself and your spiritual condition. You will become tossed about like the wind takes an open umbrella by the pool. Develop a plan and a path of spiritual disciplines that works for you beyond the messages and lessons. It will be worth it!
Take some time this week to take stock of your spiritual growth plan. Where is your time being spent as a pastor? What are you asking your members to do that you aren’t doing yourself from a spiritual perspective? Where do you need to start adding rest and time to listen to the Holy Spirit?