Scientists and efficiency experts encourage it. Your body
and your family may be saying you need one. Even McDonalds says you deserve
one.
What?
A break, a vacation, a sabbath. Humans are not machines that can run
24/7 without maintenance or nourishment. So when the Ascending Leaders board of
directors insisted I unplug from this ministry for six weeks, you can imagine I
hesitated. Not that I wouldn’t know what to do with myself, though Gina and I
did struggle with exactly where to go and how to successfully disengage from
the demands of a ministry that is reaching its stride.
A 16-day trip to the
northeast US and eastern Canada turned out to be just what we needed to reconnect
with one another and disconnect from the daily demands of ministry.
Scientists say taking a break, even a short ten-minute break
periodically throughout the day, has three benefits:
·
It keeps us from getting bored and losing focus;
·
It helps us retain information and make
connections (Have you experienced as I have the difference between those days
when your mind just seems to make beautiful connections and those when not much
seems to fit right?);
·
It helps us re-evaluate our goals.
I found all those to be true. The
last three weeks of my mini-sabbatical included reading, studying, writing and
doing some manual labor with both of my adult children and their spouses in
their homes. This mini-sabbatical was refreshing and reinvigorating. It was
just what I (and the ministry) needed. I am enthused and more hopeful than ever
for the future of helping churches, disciples and leaders flourish!
Now I am back in the office and on the road
with my batteries for discipleship recharged. I look forward to sharing some of
the new findings related to helping churches grow effective disciples in coming
communications and through the DiscipleForward
workshops and other workshops I will be presenting this fall.
In the meantime, staff members have
found some great, practical articles about discipleship on the Internet.
I’m not familiar with Preston Sprinkle or his work, but I’ll
be interested in reading his book on the state of discipleship in the American
church when it comes out. Until then, I think you’ll find his story of an
ex-con turned pastor and the resulting ministry highly inspiring and
challenging as I did.
For those who are in a discipling
relationship, find Derek Brown’scautions against becoming a
discipleship bully is instructive, if not a little painful. Sometimes our best
intentions conflict with our human nature. I pray your relationships are
nurturing.
