From Burnout to Breakthrough: How Healthy Church Leadership Begins
On the flip side, it’s just the sovereignty of God. God has sovereignly shaped me from before I was saved. He has sovereignly saved me, and then he’s formed me and he’s raised me up. So I think it’s just this continual response to the story that I believe he’s writing in and through my life. I’m just in awe and I’m humbled and I’m broken by his grace and his goodness and kindness in my life.
[Someone] once said the greatest gift God can give a local church is a pastor who loves God. I just want to love God and give myself as an offering to my church as a response [to] receiving the love of God into my own life.
What encouragement do you have for the next generation of Christian ministers, whether they’re going to become a missionary or a pastor or work in the business world?
Let me start by sharing a story. Right before I launched our church, I was having a meeting with my spiritual director, and she asked me, “How do you feel [now] that you’re about to start the church? This is [10 years in the making].”
I paused. “I don’t really know. Because the things that were once important aren’t as important to me.”
Then she asked, “Well, how do you think God feels about you starting this church?”
To my surprise, I said, “I don’t think God cares.” Then I said, “I think God cares more about me.”
When I said that, tears started rolling down my face, because in one regard that could be very egotistical, self-centered spirituality, but in another sense, that’s the gospel: that he loves me so much that he wanted a relationship with me, that he gave his Son to once and for all [remove] that which separates me from him. And even with Peter: “Do you love me more than these?” The one question that was asked for his job description to become the leader of the church was the love of Jesus.
My encouragement is to ask, do you know how much God loves you? Live from that place, and live your whole life trying to understand that on a [deeper] heart level. Then reorient your life in such a way that you can live in that reality. Create a rule of life and a way of living life that allows you to remain in that love. Not perfectly, but insofar as you have the freedom over your schedule and/or decisions, ask yourself, Are the decisions I’m making in my life leading me deeper into union with God or further away from God?
Rather than pursuing your passions, discern God’s love. Because when [we] pursue [our] passions, we can get lost in trying to accomplish things. But when we have a discerning heart, it gives us the wisdom to make decisions [about] what allows us to experience a deeper union with God.
St. Ignatius says we should not seek riches or poverty, wealth or sickness, a short life or a long life. We should only choose that which leads [us] to a deeper-with-God life. And then help others do the same.
