“What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8)
I remember the exact spot where I was driving in Charlottesville 15 years ago when I was listening to a John Ortberg interview. He said, “I had to decide whether being a pastor was getting in the way of being a disciple of Jesus.” I almost had to pull over to the curb to gather my breath — because I knew exactly what he was talking about.
John Chandler
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Here’s a true thing that is hard to say without it sounding mean: one of the great challenges of leading a church is that you are constantly with church folk. Most church folk are delightful people most of the time. The problem is that when church activities and relationships consume almost all of a leader’s calendar, other things can get crowded out, including:
• Personal devotional time with God.
• Time for personal development and interests.
• Appropriate time with spouse, children, family, and friends
• Adequate relational time for people outside of your congregation – or outside of the Christian faith.
Being in “church fellowship” is a good thing. It’s just not a good thing when it’s the only thing.
What is trending is leaders being more intentional about balanced relationships. This means spending time:
• “Up” with God.
• “Out” in the world beyond the local church.
• “In” of time with significant fellowship relationships (family, church family, friends).
Micah’s prophetic word might be that “walking humbly with God” (up) and “doing justice” (out) are just as important for leaders as “loving mercy” (in). This triangle of “up-in-out” is a metric for balanced relationships that is becoming a valuable lens for evaluating calendar, schedule, and priorities. After all, followership to God’s leading — self-leadership, family leadership — these are all part of the leader’s modeling of discipleship. Right?
Ortberg eventually decided that he could remain a pastor and a Christian at the same time. But it took a new scorecard whereby faithfulness to God’s call meant more than spending 60 hours a week in church meetings. We’re seeing more leaders trying “up-in-out.”
How hopeful!
Trending is written by John Chandler, leader of the Spence Network, www.spencenetwork.org./equip.htm.