I received church planting and senior pastor coaching from Kerrick Thomas and Nelson Searcy of The Journey Church for five years. Here’s one of the best things I learned from them. Nelson used to say that the way to stay fresh in ministry is to: Divert daily, withdraw weekly and abandon annually.
If you’re going to stay fresh you have to take breaks, you have to rest, you have to do something other than work. And you have to do this daily, weekly and annually. Here’s how this fleshes out in my life.
- Each day no matter how much work I have to do I find time to unwind to an episode or two of my favorite TV show (or maybe end the day with a movie). This helps me mentally disconnect from my work day and relax.
- Each week I take a day off. For me it’s Friday. Maybe for you it’s Monday. I don’t believe the exact day is important but we absolutely need to have a weekly Sabbath Day’s rest.
- And each year it’s important to take some extended time off in the form of a vacation (or a staycation, if money is tight).
If you have a hobby, maybe this is what you could spend a little time diverting to daily, withdrawing to weekly and abandoning to annually. Whatever it is that you diver to, withdraw to and abandon to – it must be something that relaxes and refreshes you. This is how to stay fresh in ministry.
Leave a Reply