I'd Rather Burn Out than Rust Out

I recently assessed a staff pastor from one of the larger churches in our nation.? He was being considered for another position and was very careful not to criticize the church he was leaving.? But he clearly had been working in a stressful environment with a high production mindset. He didn’t know that over the years, I had assessed other staff from the same church who were leaving. Though the lead pastor would never admit it, he values productivity over health. Let me state clearly that healthy church cultures have nothing to do with size! I know of many larger churches and smaller churches that have healthy cultures.? The same can be said of unhealthy cultures.? Think about it. Is a larger person healthier than a smaller one?? No.

Though the size of the church doesn’t matter in this regard, it is easier for larger churches to fall into the trap of valuing effectiveness and excellence (over health) because they have seen the result of these and have set the metrics to pursue it.? Smaller churches may not see or experience this kind of impact and so they are not as tempted to pursue it.? I fully appreciate the urgency in this thinking…”there is only so much time left, and our world is going to hell in a handbasket.? So we need all hands on deck and must be passionate about our mission to reach and disciple lost people.”

This isn’t bad thinking; it is just insufficient thinking. ?Insufficient, because it leaves God’s providence, power, and presence out of the process.? God is in control.? He is at work in ways far beyond what we are doing.? It isn’t up to each of us to save the world.? God has been in this business long before any of us came on the scene, and he will be in this business long after we are long gone and forgotten.? So, our dependence must be on him working through his healthy body.? For the Body of Christ to be healthy, its members and leaders must be healthy!

Have you ever tried to concentrate while experiencing a toothache or a backache?? If our members are unhealthy, the body will not be effective in the long run. This is especially true of its leaders. As we pursue our missional objectives, we are best to pursue them from a position of health.? Health is measured by all metrics: spiritual, emotional, physical, relational, and mental.? Jesus is very clear that the most important principle in our lives should be to love God with our whole selves, body, soul, mind and spirit.? We best love God through health. ?

In Mt 11:28-30, Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Ironically, Jesus is talking to people whom the religious leaders had put all kinds of expectations on them such that they were continually feeling tired, trapped, and never good enough.? That sounds like some church cultures today.

There are seasons when we are called to love you and serve God when we are not healthy in any of these areas.? But, these seasons must be seen as the exception, not the rule.?

I learn to practice this as an engineer for General Motors.? My first boss tried to get our entire team of 150 engineers to put in excessive casual OT (overtime without pay) to be productive for GM.? I saw the toll it took on the families of those engineers. I worked very smart and hard but usually didn’t come in on Saturday/Sunday unless there was some special reason.? He finally called me into his office and challenged why I wasn’t working casual OT.? I asked him to judge me by my productivity metrics not by the casual OT hours put in. He did, and to his credit, I was promoted after that.?

This was easier for me at that time than it was when I was pastoring a church.? Now, there were eternal consequences!? Or so I thought. The lead pastor of the first large church where I was on staff had a similar culture to what I experienced at GM.? The lead pastor worked 108 hours per week by his own admission.? He said he had to pray in the shower or in the car because he had no time to slow down and reflect. He told me that he would rather burn out than rust out.? To which I responded that I would like to run like a finely oiled machine.? I also challenged him to judge my effectiveness by impact, not the hours he saw me working. I had worked hard and continued to do so. ?He respected me and allowed me not to work seven days a week.? He was a great leader and appreciated my approach. Unfortunately, his ministry ended early due to his imbalanced life.

Church Planting was simply another opportunity to seek a healthy rhythm in ministry. If we didn’t grow, most likely, I wouldn’t get paid.? Once we went six weeks without getting paid simply because the church wasn’t growing fast enough. Again, I refused to sacrifice my family, health, or daily walk for the church to grow faster. ?Some would say I failed as a planter because of this.? I will let God be the judge of that.? I do know many of my colleagues who sacrificed in these areas and now live with many regrets.?

Few people accomplish as much as Dallas Willard did in his lifetime, yet shortly before he died, he said, “I’ve had to learn that the important thing is not what I accomplish but the person I become…What God gets out of my life is not what I accomplish; it’s what I become.”1

Don’t think what God can do is limited to your own efforts or your own gifts.? I have found if I walk daily within his principles for living, he is powerful enough, gracious enough, loving enough, and wise enough to produce the results he desires in and through my life. Ironically, I believed this by faith for the first 45 years of my life, and now I believe it because I have seen it!

1Dallas Willard, “Streams in the Desert and Wells of Living Water,” For Such a Time as This (Baylor University, Waco, TX, February 23, 2004), MP3, 44:00.