In this episode of The Craig And Greg Show, Greg and I discuss how embracing a “mulligan culture” in your organizat… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…1 day ago
If I let my natural mind have its way, I can easily go from praising Jesus in one breath to rebuking Him in the nex… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…1 day ago
I had such a great time with Karl Vaters on his podcast called The Church Lobby! Right at the beginning of the conv… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…2 days ago
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
I thought it was very appropriate that I got to be a guest on the Thriving In Ministry podcast with Kyle Willis while his podcast partner Dace Clifton was on sabbatical. It was appropriate because Kyle and I talked about the importance of pastors finding time to rest.
Proper rest is absolutely vital for longevity and vitality. I hope you will listen to this short segment from this conversation.
I shared with Kyle two main roadblocks to sabbathing.
(1) Trying to be something you’re not.
We are all wired differently. God wired us that way on purpose. So if you’re an early bird, guard those morning hours for your creative work and use the evenings for rest. If you’re a night owl, don’t try to copy the early birds, but rest early in the day and do your creative work when you are at your best.
→ So the key concept to overcoming this roadblock is personalization.
(2) Getting distracted by the non-essentials.
Two things have really helped me with this one: Sticking to sustainable daily routines, while at the same time being sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s redirection (check out my post on the idea I call I.T.L.W.).
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
In my book Shepherd Leadership, I take five chapters to unpack the lessons we can learn from the health of Jesus. Yes, Jesus was mentally, physically, spiritually, and relationally healthy.
On the 200churches podcast with Jeff Keady we talked about a chapter in my book called “The Pinnacle of a Shepherd’s Health.” In that chapter I wrote—
The phrase Dr. Luke uses about Christ’s growth is, “Jesus grew in favor with men” [Luke 2:52]. People liked having Jesus around. The word Luke uses for favor is from the same root word that is also translated “grace.” Jesus was a graceful Man. Or we could say that He was a Man so full of grace that when He was jostled, only grace spilled out of Him.
What does it mean when someone is graceful? It means they are pleasant to be around. It means you feel safe around them, knowing they will never belittle you or put you down. It means that their focus is on your agenda, not their own agenda. It means they are a “there you are!” person, not a “here I am!” person. The bottom line: grace-full people are full of grace for others.
Let’s return to our perfect example in Jesus. He was treated rudely and spoken to condescendingly, even by people who should have been His allies. Then there were those on a constant mission to try to trip Him up or get Him to say or do something that would have undermined His credibility. Yet Jesus never spoke inappropriately nor acted childishly. Jesus never had to say, “My bad, I misspoke there,” or “Sorry, I shouldn’t have done that.”
We can make all of our plans to behave in loving ways toward the sheep under our care, but what happens when the sheep ignore us, bite us, or leave us? As boxer Mike Tyson noted, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” Surely the best indication of our overall healthiness and servant-like attitude is not so much our actions but our reactions.
If your reactions are less than what you would like them to be, I believe you will find a lot of excellent content in my book that can help you.
If you want to catch up on some of the other clips I’ve already shared from this interview, you can find them here, and I’ll be sharing more clips from this 200churches interview soon, so please stay tuned. Shepherd Leadership: The Metrics That Really Matter is available in print or ebook, and in audiobook through either Audible or Apple.
Jeff and I spent a good chunk of our time talking about the health of pastors. I think it is very important for shepherd leaders to be wholly healthy because we cannot give to our flocks what we don’t possess ourselves.
One of the things that is very interesting to me is the parallels between maintaining our physical health and maintaining our spiritual health. When it comes right down to it, our physical health can be optimized by getting a handle on four key elements: (1) proper diet, (2) regular exercise, (3) appropriate rest and recovery, and (4) regular times of evaluation and adjustment.
Our spiritual health is optimized with these same four elements.
As my friend Josh Schram reminded me, “Health is not just a big one-time choice. Health is small daily choices.” Jesus made these daily choices to eat well, exercise regularly, rest when needed, and make the adjustments His Father spoke to His heart. He set us an example for healthy spiritual growth that will keep us in a place to grow our shepherd leadership capacities.
I have found that we are much more likely to make and stick to a plan to get physically healthy when we have a workout friend or someone who is holding us accountable. The same is true for our spiritual health. So pastor, don’t try to get and stay healthy on your own, but get a trusted friend or two working out alongside you.
In my book Shepherd Leadership, I have five chapters that focus on a leader’s mental, physical, spiritual, and relational health. I hope you will pick up a copy to help you operate at peak healthiness.
If you want to catch up on some of the other clips I’ve already shared from this interview, you can find them here, and I’ll be sharing more clips from this 200churches interview soon, so please stay tuned. Shepherd Leadership: The Metrics That Really Matter is available in print or ebook, and in audiobook through either Audible or Apple.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
A few years ago Mark Schultz wrote a song about someone living a go-go-go, overly-busy life and he entitled the song “Running just to catch myself.” Ever been there?
There’s a Hebrew word that shows up 70 times in the Bible (mostly in the Psalms) that, sadly, many English translations of the Bible have relegated to a footnote. That’s too bad because Selah is such a powerful word. Unless we want to live our lives “running just to catch myself,” we all need a take time to Selah. Look how some have translated this word:
“Stop there and consider a little” (Matthew Henry)
“the sacred pause” (Charles Spurgeon)
“pause and calmly think of that” (AMP)
Whether it’s a planned exercise time or just something that frightens or excites us, our heart rate is designed by God to increase—this is how we prepare for fight-or-flight. Doctors say that one of the most vital statistics they now look at to gauge overall cardio health is heart rate recovery (HRR). Doctors want to see a significant increase in HRR after exercise, fright, or excitement.
A few of the factors that boost HRR:
Regular, planned exercise
Getting the proper amount of quality sleep
Reducing stress
Respond-and-recover is part of a health-building cycle. But if we’re “running just to catch myself” all the time, this time of recovery isn’t happening. Not only are we not recovering well, but we are not properly prepared for the next time our heart needs to start beating faster.
This HRR is just as vital for us emotionally and spiritually as it is physically: We cannot always be stressed or always be “on.” We need a Selah—a time to stop and consider, a time to take a sacred pause to calmly think.
This is what David teaches us in Psalm 68. Check out the “bookend verses” where he reminds us that when God arises His enemies are scattered, and that God is awesome and He gives power and strength to His people (vv. 1, 35). And look a the middle verse where David says that when God ascends in victory He gives gifts (v. 18).
This tells me two things: (1) God is sovereignly in charge (not me or anyone else), and (2) In His love, God delights to use His sovereign power to bless His children.
The question is not IF I’m going to be confronted by difficult things or difficult people, but HOW will I recover from these confrontations?
May I suggest a 3-step process to increase your spiritual HRR?
Acknowledge your situation—don’t try to cover it up or justify it
God uses His strength to care for His people (vv. 28-31)
Sing praises and Selah (vv. 32-35)
As you breathe deeply in this worship of recovery, think on this: “Your sigh can move the heart of Jehovah; your whisper can incline His ear to you; your prayer can stay His hand; your faith can move His arm.” —Charles Spurgeon
Our Selah pause leads to proper perspective, which allows us to recover more quickly. That, in turn, helps us to be better prepared for the next time we’re confronted by difficulties.
Sleep is so important for maintaining good physical and emotional health. In the book The Secrets Our Body Clocks Reveal, the authors share some interesting information on sleep.
“The clearest ninety-minute rhythm is the ‘sleepability’ cycle. About every ninety minutes, you enter a short period during which you are vulnerable to fatigue and sleepiness. …
“These rhythmic periods of sleepability are shorter during the morning hours than in the afternoon. That’s why it’s usually more difficult to take a nap in the morning than later in the day. Some of the time, you can fight off this fatigue—particularly if what you are doing is interesting or different. However, most of the time you would do best to give in to the rhythm and take a short break from your work—especially around the lunch hour, when you are already battling the early afternoon let down.”
“Scientists have found that when we are bored, under stress, or short of sleep, our ninety-minute cycles tend to shorten to roughly sixty minutes. That may explain why we eat and smoke more under stressful or boring circumstances.”
What deep sleep does for you:
Restores body and brain
Stimulates growth
Maintains mental health
What dream sleep does for you:
Consolidates and sorts memory
Enables learning
Ensures our physical safety
Things that can disrupt your sleep rhythms:
Dieting (loss of weight can cause more frequent awakenings during the night)
Caffeine
Alcohol
Low-sodium diet (elderly people only)
Cigarettes
Sleeping pills
Exercising vigorously if you’re not accustomed to it
A sleeping partner who snores or thrashers about in the night
Pets moving about in your bedroom
Sporadic, unpredictable noises
A room that is too warm (more than 75° F) or too cool (less than 60° F)
Hunger
Stress
Things that can enhance your sleep rhythms:
Regular aerobic exercising (at least twenty continuous minutes) particularly in the late afternoon
Sex right before bedtime
Following a bedtime ritual
Relaxation exercises right before bed
A bedtime snack high in carbohydrates
A dark and quiet bedroom
A “white noise”
“Many scientists now believe that we were meant to sleep twice a day, once during the afternoon and again at night. … In one study, college students who regularly napped showed improved scores on skill and memory tests taken just after a nap.”
“Scientists have also discovered that short naps (twenty minutes or less) are just as revitalizing as long ones—and less disruptive to regular sleep rhythms. In addition, regular nappers wake up more refreshed than those who take only an occasional nap. When naps are part of the regular daily rhythm, they are less disruptive.”
You can check out my full book review of The Secrets Our Body Clocks Reveal by clicking here. Some other quotes and statistics I shared from this book can be found here.
Another great book is Sleep: It Does A Family Good. That book review is here.
Do you know when is your best time to work on a mentally-challenging project? Or perform an athletic event? Or even take a nap? Our body clocks function predictably, but the issue is knowing what rhythm your particular body is following. In The Secrets Our Body Clocks Reveal, Susan Perry and Jim Dawson help us discover how to tap into our optimal performances.
The ups-and-downs, alert-and-tired, focus-and-distracted cycles of our body are largely predictable. Our bodies operate fairly consistently on a “clock” that can be learned. Once you know your rhythms, you can adjust your daily activities to operate at your very best. This book gives you amazing insight into the research of chronobiologists, and lots of charts to help you track your body’s clock, and even highly practical tips for how to re-adjust your clock if things have gotten askew.
You will learn about how to keep things in sync, as well as how to get things back in sync after an illness or traveling to a new timezone. You will discover the best time of day to do certain activities, how to plan your sleep schedule, how to anticipate and regulate your mood changes, your “health thermometer,” and even how your diet can work with your body clock.
This is a highly practical book! If you want to get back in sync or raise your performance levels, I recommend you check out The Secrets Our Body Clocks Reveal.
What goes in the blank? Not wealth, health, position, prestige, popularity, success. We turn all those good and legitimate things into God’s rival when our focus is on any one of them.
Bottom line—NOTHING can go in that blank. All we need is God.
“Your Father knows what you need” (Matthew 6:8). If you need wealth to complete His purpose for your life, He will give it to you. If you don’t, He will withhold it. But He will always give you your daily bread.
If you need a prominent position, He will place you there; if you don’t, He will withhold that position. In either place, we still submit as faithful servants to holy God.
If success will allow me to bring glory to God, He will give me success; if falling flat on my face will allow me to bring glory to God, He will knock me down.
If physical health will allow me to share the Gospel with others, God will keep me healthy; if I can serve Him best from a place of physical limitation, I can still do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
“My God is able to supply all your needs” (Philippians 4:19). He gives me all that I need to fulfill His plans for me. “So do not worry” about your bank balance, your standing in the community, your health, your family, or anything else. His grace is sufficient for you.
[Each chapter in the Book of Proverbs contains thoughts that fit into a theme; they are not just random thoughts gathered together. In this “Saturday In The Proverbs” series, I will share a theme that I see in each chapter. But the cool thing about God’s Word is that you may see an entirely different theme. That’s great! If you do, I would love for you to share it in the comments below.]
A man shall eat well by the fruit of his mouth … The righteous eats to the satisfying of his soul… (Proverbs 13:2, 25).
God’s wisdom never leaves us flat. Never leaves us with a bad taste in our mouth. Never leaves us unsatisfied. Never leaves us without all that we need.
I thought it was very appropriate that I got to be a guest on the Thriving In Ministry podcast with Kyle Willis while his podcast partner Dace Clifton was on sabbatical. It was appropriate because Kyle and I talked about the importance of pastors finding time to rest. 
Craig T. Owens 