Ep. 42 - Ministry, Reading, Burnout

If we stop reading, we stop learning. And if we stop learning, then we stop ministering effectively. If we’re going to pour into others, we need to be poured into as well. Reading is an important tool toward fostering longevity in ministry and avoiding burnout. But reading is not just about reading more books but the right ones, good books. 

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Ministry, Reading, Burnout

If we stop reading, we stop learning. And if we stop learning, then we stop ministering effectively. You know it's easy to put reading on the back burner and tend to other things, isn't it? But I think this eventually leads to stagnation. If we're going to pour into others, we need to be poured into as well. Reading is not the only way that we can be poured into, but it is an important way. Reading is to our intellectual life as exercise is to the body. There may be times of rest or focus on other things, but consistent neglect is a detriment to health. So if we aren't reading, our intellectual life is not healthy. And for those of us in some form of ministry, we deal with ideas and words and creativity. These are the tools of the trade, our own internal source of these tools of creativity words, ideas. They're limited and they'll be exhausted. And if we're not being poured into and we're only pouring out, that will be exhausted And this will lead to frustration, repetition, repetition, poor performance and even burnout. Have you ever realized? while preaching I am saying the same thing I said last time. That's not a fun feeling. The greater the output, the greater the drain on your creativity and originality. Think of it like this, like this totally scientific chart As the output goes up, your creativity goes down. You need to find a way to recharge that area of your life. Here's another analogy think of it like a balloon. My kids love balloons and they love keeping their balloons when they get for their birthday for forever. And you can tell after a few days that the balloon that they've gotten is beginning to lose some air. But it's still going strong, it's still up in the air and it's still doing great. But then it seems like all of a sudden, overnight at even the thing is like barely hovering above the floor. That's our lives, if we don't find a way to recharge. Howard Hendricks says something similar in his book Teaching to Change Lives. He says quote if you stop growing today, you stop teaching tomorrow. Neither personality nor methodology can substitute for this principle. You cannot communicate out of a vacuum. I remember reading this book several years ago and that line has really stuck with me. I've tried to make this an emphasis in my life and ministry. The times when I've read more, i've found my ministry to be much more enjoyable and fruitful at least from my perspective When I haven't been able to read or just been honestly simply lazy. My mind feels muddled and I'm repetitive, regurgitating the same things over and over and over again. I want to encourage both of us to read more. Turn off the TV, read a book. Turn off YouTube well, except maybe my videos watching. Like all those, i'll confess I'm not a great reader, but I want to do better. Let's read more together Now. I want to shift a bit now and share some different types of books that you should consider reading Now. Stay with me. I feel like Batman. Stay with me. The point here is not just to read more books, but to read the right books. Good books, those that excite the mind and heart. Books that challenge us, challenge our thinking, our prejudices. Books that help us to see life in a new way. Books that help us to hear scripture better Good books. Put a comment below if you've got another type of book that I don't cover here, or just one book that's had a huge impact on you. Okay, so with that, read biographies and fiction books. I put these two together because I think they're two groups that are easy to neglect, especially for people in ministry or who just love theology In ministry. We can prioritize theology books and just only theology books and like commentaries, biographies and fiction books helps us to get ourselves out of abstract theology and into real life. With biographies, you can see how people lived out their faith or how they handle difficult circumstances. With fiction, it helps you to see the world with different eyes. Stories make you feel something, and I think we have a lot to learn from this. A lot of times when we talk about God, we talk about him very clinically. When we talk about God in this way, it seems like we're talking about the idea of God rather than the person of God, and this is the problem with that is that we are dealing with a person, not just propositions, not just the abstract. We're dealing with the creator of the world. So stories help us to connect with that emotional element. They also help us to see how stories are put together. Scripture is one giant, cohesive whole story, and it's filled with lots of individual stories as well. The more we can appreciate how stories are told, it will help us to be more sensitive to the stories of Scripture. It can also help us be more engaging in our teaching and preaching. Next, read challenging books. I think it is super helpful to read books we disagree with, maybe not a constant diet of it, but we need some of those in there. We live in a really polarized time, right, don't we? And we need to develop the skill to engage with other views and do so fairly and compassionately. We're not trying to do a hit job on somebody or just trying to get in an argument. That's not our purpose. We want to deal with it fairly and compassionately. And it's so easy for us to stay in kind of our silos and our echo chambers, but this doesn't help foster critical thinking or thinking carefully about scripture. It just fosters groupthink. Reading challenging books helps to refine our position and beliefs. You may have the right position, but the way you get there might also have some holes in it. So reading challenging books can help you fill those holes, to see your position with greater clarity, but also with greater compassion. It can also give you a greater awareness at what's out there and give you compassion for people who have a different view, because you've seen some of the complexity of the issue. That doesn't mean that we move from our conviction, but we have compassion. And, side note, choose a good, challenging book, not a weird one, not an extreme one that you'll just laugh at. The point is to learn and grow, not get ammunition for a fight. You should also read encouraging and deeper books. These are books that will help flourish your heart for the Lord and for others. They help you in your walk with the Lord. They also can help develop your view of God to a deeper level. We're not just choosing fluff here, but some of us may need that push to read deeper, harder books. Also, you don't want to get stuck reading one type of book. That's why we've got many different types here. We don't have one constant diet of just one type of book. You want to read widely, and I found it helpful to also read multiple books at the same time. You want to choose topics that maybe you wouldn't normally look at, and this will help give you a better view of the wider world and of others as well. It helps develop you into a deeper person. Additionally, reading multiple books at the same time keeps you from getting bogged down or bored with just one book. If you read a little bit every day, you'll still make good progress. Try just 20 minutes a day. That's it. I've plowed through some bigger books just doing that every day. Finally, read scripture. Who cares if you've read lots of other books. We want to hear the voice of God in scripture. Sometimes we like reading about the Bible more so than the Bible itself. That is a spiritual red flag If we like reading our theology books more than scripture. Red flag. We need more scripture, not less. All of these other books are there to supplement our faith, are to point us into a closer relationship with the Lord. Scripture does that and these other books do that, and if they are drawing us away from the Lord, then we need to go back to scripture and hear more from him. All of this is not meant to be a guilt trip, just an encouragement to read more. There may be more pressing things for you to do in your life than to read. If you're not able to read, you're not inferior, but I do think there is tremendous value, personally and spiritually, to read more. We want to minister effectively, so we need to keep learning, so we need to keep reading. May the Lord bless you and thanks for your time.