Recovery Time
This morning I was reading a post from Clayton King’s Blog written to Pastors, Preachers, and Church Leaders who have a huge role in Sunday activities. The post was called “It’s Monday. Be Careful, Pastor.” In the post Clayton outlined why it’s important for Pastors to have some recovery time after the craziness of preaching, teaching, and leading that happens on Sundays. Here are some suggestions that he made that I thought were great.
1. You are most vulnerable to criticism and discouragement. Hold off on most calls and emails til Tuesday. They can wait unless they are a medical or spiritual emergency.
2. You are susceptible to sexual temptation, whether in person or online. Monitor your mood and your online activity everyday, but particularly on Mondays.
3. Fatigue from Sunday means you have less energy to focus on important tasks on Monday. Schedule, in advance, important meetings, including staff meetings (if possible) to Tuesday.
4. Hold off on making big decisions (staff, budget, family decisions) until you have had time to reconnect with God and regroup personally. Most big decisions can wait a few days and the extra time may bring greater clarity.
5. Plan margin on Monday. Create uncluttered space to read, reflect, pray, eat lunch with your wife, take your kids to school, go to the gym, or (gasp!) take a nap. You worked hard yesterday. Take some time to rejuvenate today.
Great advice if you’re a Pastor, and a great principle for us all to live by. You can ask yourself these questions.
What is the height of my responsibility and stress each week?
What can I do to relax after that, yet still keep my guard up from the work of Satan?
What sins am I most susceptible to after my body and mind are completely drained?
Knowing the answers to these questions and implementing some of the principles that Clayton talked about can keep us all strong and still allow us to properly recovery from those high impact, high responsibility, high stress situations we all experience.
