AOCM

Running the Race: Playing the Long Game in Ministry

Rt Revd Mike Hill is the Bishop of Bristol.

I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness… 2 Timothy 4:7-8a

Any distance runner will tell you that completing the race depends on a number of factors. Some of those factors are external, that is, they involve circumstances beyond our control. External factors are such things as weather conditions and the type of terrain you will face etc. Some factors, however, are internal. That is, they relate to the choices we make.

They relate to pace and to rhythm and to psychological factors such as focussing on finishing. Such choices involve knowing the right time in the race to lift the pace, to take refreshment and to keep running through the low spots. Thinking about one of the greatest women athletes of all time, Paula Radcliffe, and her inability to win a gold medal, it is also about handling the expectations placed upon us.

Having spent thirty years in Christian leadership I can see some important parallels. The world of church leaders is littered with men and women who started well but for diverse reasons have fallen by the wayside and either fail to finish or crawl over the finishing line with no energy - physical, spiritual or emotional - left.

The London Marathon illustrates well that, on the face of it, most people start the race well. But smiling faces, fancy dress and waves become, for some, pain and vomiting and, for several, failure. For some this will relate to the fact that they were not properly prepared in the first place. For others external factors will prove overwhelming. But others will fail because of the choices they make along the way.

So how can all of this help you as you begin your journey in Christian leadership? What kind of things do we need to think about?

It strikes me that a lot of stuff written on this subject is both preachy and sometimes unrealistic. I pray that I shall avoid such charges. My aim is to be both practical and realistic.

Some stuff to think about

Much is written about our spiritual tool kit and, needless to say, if you ignore constantly working at having a fertile relationship with God, then you will end up with a ministry that has little cutting edge. Spiritual disciplines are vital to the Christian leader and the sooner we can learn good habits the better.

Ortberg makes the point in his excellent book The Life you’ve always wanted that spiritual growth is not just a matter of trying harder (what a lot of people get from the Church’s attempt to teach these things), but a question of training harder - incorporating those spiritual disciplines that have long been in the repository of Christian teaching since the earliest days. One of the books that helped me immensely in this area is Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline. I just wish I had read it in the early days of my ministry! Spiritual disciplines are such things as praying, reading, fasting, worshipping, giving, solitude and learning etc.

A factor often neglected in Christian teaching about ministry is the relationship between spiritual and physical fitness. It seems that we are comfortable with the first, but uneasy with the second. Paradoxically, however, no-one I have met who knows anything about theology understands salvation in such a partial way. We teach, rightly, that salvation is a holistic concept, but we don’t model that when we separate the physical and spiritual within ourselves.

Some of you will have noted that Jesus, to the best of our knowledge never went near a gym. (As a matter of fact he never went to McDonalds either.) On the other hand he walked a lot further than most of us and showed a frequent penchant for walking to the tops of mountains. I don’t think we can use Jesus as a reason for not seeking to stay fit.

Finding time for exercise and being disciplined about what we eat and how much we eat is all part and parcel of the same wholeness. To be disciplined about this is to honour a key factor in spiritual discipline: delayed gratification - learning to say ‘no’ to our bodies and surviving.

Of course, none of this is easy. It takes discipline, time and commitment, and too often we live with curious priorities and blurred boundaries.

But this is not just about our bodies. Neurological research has shown that exercising our brains is equally important. Surprisingly, activities such as sudoku and crosswords will all help.

Availability versus Approachability

I observed, in Mark’s Gospel particularly, that this was something that Jesus modelled. He was always approachable, but not always available. Mark tells us that Jesus frequently withdrew from the crowd (e.g. Mark 3vv 7&13) strongly implying that people who were sick and suffering were left behind, their needs unattended.

At the same time Jesus showed a challenging commitment to people who for historical, theological and cultural reasons, he could have legitimately avoided. Jesus talked to women and Samaritans. He showed mercy to tax gatherers and those regarded as sinners, who might normally be excluded by a Jewish man.

Reflecting on ministry today we seem to place too much of a priority on availability. Inside us all lurks ‘superchristian’, the anytime, anyplace champion (hero?) of those in any need. I have oft reflected on the fact that a lot of Christian leaders seem to relish situations of extreme need, partly because if gives them a raison d’etre!

The problem with all this availability is that it depletes our physical and emotional energy. This is exacerbated by working without proper pastoral supervision. All this can mean we are available but at the same time in the process of becoming less and less approachable. Eugene Peterson, in his excellent book The Contemplative Pastor, points out that the death knell on a ministry rings when a person who has been in great need never came and spoke about it to you. You ask, ‘Why didn’t you tell me about it?’ only to be told by the person, ‘I though you were too busy.’ This will happen if you major on availability. You will have to learn to say ‘no’ and survive. (Practise in front of a mirror!)

Ebb and flow

Much today is made of work/life balance. Let me make a confession. I long since rejected the idea that my life could be in balance. Then I noticed something. Jesus’s life got out of balance in relation to the demands placed upon Him (see Mark 3:7-12). Mark even tells us that Jesus and his disciples were too busy to find time to eat (Mark 6:31)!

Ministry means that your life will probably have a permanent imbalance. The way Jesus dealt with this was to create moments when following a period of great output he would ensure that he called a time out and withdrew. I suspect that Jesus would refer to His life as ebbing and flowing rather than in balance. Many Church leaders say to me that the only way they can get any time for replenishment is to get away from their work context all together. I suspect this is true but for various reasons it can be complicated.

In the midst of a season of extreme busyness, Jesus asked his disciples to prepare a ‘small boat’ for Him. This was his escape route, his opportunity to ‘ebb’ for a while after a period of extreme ‘flow’. All of us I believe need to find our own equivalent of a small boat - our own route to replenishment. What will yours be?

As a footnote, my friend and colleague Stuart Taylor, who shares pastoral responsibility for Church leaders and their families in this Diocese, says to me that sustained overwork can only lead to emotional and physical damage.

What to do when ebbing?

The next question is what to do when we create some space? Spouses and families need your time and your full attention. Lewes Smedes writes about ‘sunset fatigue’, which is what we all suffer from when we save the worst of ourselves for the people we claim to love most. Long term this can be very destructive and can become the reason why so many Church leaders’ families can be very dysfunctional.

You will have to work out your own salvation on this one. Spouses’ employment, school terms etc can all be disruptive. Singles, particularly I think, need to be diligent about time off, partly because there is not necessarily anyone around to hassle them into submission!

Find activities that re-energise you. How well I recall playing golf with a Church leader whose game so frustrated him that he threw his six iron into a lake! When I asked over lunch why he bothered playing golf he seriously said, ‘To relax’! Activities that further stress you out probably don’t help much!

Also find some people who replenish you. We all have friends whom we love greatly but a session with them can leave us ‘wrung out’. On the other hand, I know some people whom just to be with is a gift. Somehow they make me feel better about myself, about my calling and about life. I think we all need to be around people who can offer us this gift, because they feed our souls.

Accountable relationships

There is however another set of relationships that we need, although interestingly I think a lot of Church Leaders imagine that they can get away without them. I mean relationships of accountability. Being intentional about spending some time with people who love us enough to tell us the truth.

All of us have our ‘stuff’ and in ministry you collect what I would describe as emotional collateral damage. This can accumulate over the long haul and culminate in the kinds of ministries that we can so quickly recognise in others but often never notice in ourselves, where lack of compassion, anger, cynicism, lack of boundary keeping creep in and paralyse our ministries.

We might not like this, but we all need people who we can tell about our ‘stuff’ and who love us enough to give us critical feedback if and when we need it. The kind of Church leader who says things like, ‘I am only accountable to God’ doesn’t get this and doesn’t get the way that God mostly deals with us - i.e. through other human beings.

And finally…

This article is about perseverance in ministry. How do we build ministries that prevail and honour God? I can only share my experience and pray that you with me will be able one day to join with Paul in saying, ‘I have finished the race’. As they say, ‘You’re under starter’s orders!’