Maintaining Core Spiritual Practices

In this episode of the Lead On Podcast, Jeff Iorg, president of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee, emphasizes the importance of maintaining personal spiritual disciplines for ministry leaders. He acknowledges that while these practices—such as Bible reading, prayer, rest, worship, and fellowship—may seem basic and elementary, they are essential for sustaining a leader over a lifetime. Jeff discusses setting realistic goals for these disciplines, avoiding legalistic expectations, and striving for consistency rather than perfection. He also addresses common excuses leaders use to neglect these practices and offers practical advice on incorporating them into daily life, emphasizing the importance of balancing flexibility with a structured approach. Jeff encourages leaders to prioritize their spiritual well-being to fulfill their roles and sustain their ministry.

Creators & Guests

Host

Jeff Iorg

President, SBC Executive Committee

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Jeff Iorg: 00:01

Welcome to the lead on podcast. This is Jeff Ors, the president of the executive committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, talking with you once again about practical issues related to ministry leadership. On this podcast, we talk about the daily grind of ministry leadership and how to do it more effectively. Today, I wanna talk about 1 of the most basic issues that is essential for every leader. In fact, what I want to talk about today on the podcast is so basic, so simple, really elementary, that I'm a little bit embarrassed to even put it out there.

Jeff Iorg: 00:44

I know you dial in wanting some significant podcast about some dramatic issue, some insightful thing that really is at the cutting edge of what we need to know how to do in ministry leadership. And here I am talking about the most basic, the simplest, the most elemental practices of Christian leadership. I wanna talk today about maintaining your personal spiritual disciplines. I don't want to talk about some dramatic thing that you're gonna go out and do for leader do in leadership. I wanna talk about you personally maintaining your core spiritual practices.

Jeff Iorg: 01:38

Now, when I say spiritual disciplines, there are a lot of things that can fall under that heading. I wanna put them into 2 groups today. The first group are the essentials that I wanna talk about for every leader to practice on a regular basis. These are bible reading, prayer, rest, worship, and fellowship. Bible reading, prayer, rest, worship, and fellowship.

Jeff Iorg: 02:16

Now, these are 5 core disciplines that leaders must practice to sustain themselves over a lifetime. But there are other spiritual disciplines like journaling, scripture memory, fasting, solitude. I don't diminish these other disciplines. They they've been seasonal for me throughout my lifetime, meaning that they come and they go. But the ones that I started with, bible reading, prayer, rest, worship, relationships, or fellowship, Those 5 are the 5 that are core sustaining disciplines in my life and I believe are necessary in the lives of most leaders.

Jeff Iorg: 03:06

So I want to talk today on the podcast about developing some realistic goals for these spiritual disciplines and then how to overcome some lies that ministry leaders use to justify ignoring these disciplines. And along the way, I wanna talk with you very practically about what I do in each of these areas to make sure that I'm practicing what I'm preaching today on the podcast. First of all, in order to maintain your spiritual disciplines, these core disciplines I'm describing, you need to develop realistic expectations, not have legalistic goals. Because I started out in ministry leadership as such a legalist, I had a lot of legalistic goals about my disciplines when I was a younger ministry leader. I can't remember how many times, for example, I vowed that I would read the bible every day and that I would never miss another day for the rest of my life.

Jeff Iorg: 04:13

I must have prayed that and promised it to God dozens of times in my teenage and early adulthood years, but it never happened. It never happened because those were legalistic goals, reducing my bible reading to a series of checked that I could mark off every day to prove how spiritually devoted I really was. I was frustrated when sickness, our unpredictable schedules of my small children, our even travel related to ministry, our demands of ministry from pastoral ministry. When any of those things conflicted with my schedule in such a way that I missed my bible reading, I was greatly frustrated and felt like, believe it or not, that I had sinned against God because I had missed reading the bible. It took a few years for me to work through that kind of legalistic approach and to develop more realistic expectations.

Jeff Iorg: 05:18

But over time, I developed this much more realistic expectation and that is, I'm now committed to reading the Bible on a consistent basis with a goal of daily reading. That's a slightly different way of saying it, but an oh so much more profound way of understanding this discipline. Rather than a legalistic commitment that I'm going to read the bible every day and then feeling defeated and beating myself up when I missed a day for whatever reason, now my more realistic goal is I will strive to read the Bible or I will read the Bible regularly, and I will strive to read it every day. That's a much more realistic expectation instead of a legalistic goal. A second realistic goal has been strive for consistency, not perfection.

Jeff Iorg: 06:15

I wanna be consistent in my disciplines, not worrying about perfection. I wanted to be able to do these things the most of the time, not necessarily all the time. Striving for consistency more than perfection. What does that mean? Well, for example, in the area of rest, there's 52 weeks a year and my, consistent pattern has been to rest about 45 or so weeks a year.

Jeff Iorg: 06:46

Meaning that 45 or so weeks a year, I have a full day every week where I'm able to pull away, disengage from ministry, and really, focus myself on, rejuvenating and getting ready to go forward into the next week of work. You say, well, there's 52 weeks a year. Why don't you get all 52? Because I'm not perfect. But I am consistent.

Jeff Iorg: 07:13

I strive for consistency, meaning that I want to maintain a pattern, and even when that pattern is interrupted for various reasons, I'm gonna return to that pattern as quickly as possible because I have a consistent commitment to and pattern of weekly rest as a ministry leader. Now I've had this pattern since about 1984, 1985 when my wife and I first established this as a pattern in our lives. And we've been able to maintain it consistently over the years at around that 45 weeks a year number, recognizing that there are going to be some times when life intervenes in such a way that we weren't either able to manage it or unavoidably able to prevent it, and we were not able to perfectly rest 1 day a week, every week, but we were able to make substantial progress in this goal by consistently maintaining the practice for now more than 4 decades. Strive for consistency, not perfection. And then finally, balance flexibility with the structure of a program.

Jeff Iorg: 08:21

Now for me, life works best if I create a structure and then vary from it rather than spontaneously trying to create something new every single day. Life works better if you create a structure and vary it or deviate from it rather than having no structure and just trying to create something new every single day. So for example, for the last several years, I've used a bible reading plan that calls for me to read 2 chapters of scripture every morning, And those scripture passages are assigned to a day of the week and I have those printed in in a notebook that I carry with me in my work bag. Every day, I wake up, pull out the notebook, look at the day of the week and see the scriptures I'm supposed to read. And you say, well, why don't you just put that on your electronic calendar?

Jeff Iorg: 09:15

Well, it's a quirk for me perhaps, but I don't like to engage technology when I first wake up in the mornings because as soon as I engage technology, my mind is gone for the day and I am already into work mode. So I like to look at a piece of paper and find my bible reading, for the day and then get to the bible and read those scriptures that are, for that day, from the word of God. Now, you say, but what about the first 2, steps, developing realistic expectations and striving for consistency? Well, that means that I'm going to have realistic expectations that I'm going to read those verses from the Bible or those chapters from the Bible most days. And I'm gonna strive for consistency, meaning I'm gonna return to the pattern of Bible reading day after day after day, but without without doing it perfectly and being comfortable with that.

Jeff Iorg: 10:05

So I'm balancing flexibility with the structure or program. Meaning, I like a structured program and I'm gonna use that structured program most of the time. But I'm gonna balance that structured program with some flexibility, having realistic expectations and consistency instead of legalism and perfection. And then, even beyond that, I will occasionally, intentionally move away from the structure or program to focus on some other kind of bible reading plan for a season or for a time. I typically do this in the summer where I might say, I'm gonna read through a book of the Bible instead of my normal Bible reading plan.

Jeff Iorg: 10:45

I'll say, you know, I'm gonna read through the book of Ephesians and just read through it several times over the next week or 2 as my Bible reading plan, or I'm gonna look at a character like Moses or David in the old testament and read the scriptures of, that relate to that character and think through their life as I read instead of working through my normal plan. This kind of balance with balancing flexibility with the structure of a program has served me well over the years. It gives me a backbone, if you will, of bible reading that I can always fall back on, but it also gives me the flexibility that I need to choose some other options for a season, if you will, during the year and then to have realistic expectations and to have consistency rather than legal, legalism or perfectionism about this task. And I would say the same thing about prayer and rest and worship and fellowship that I try to have consistency in these areas, and realistic expectations in these areas. And then I try to have a structure of a program in these areas, but not be afraid to vary it from time to time as needed.

Jeff Iorg: 11:52

So those are realistic goals for your basic spiritual disciplines. Now, what are some reasons why this is so hard for us to maintain as ministry leaders? Well, I've listed 5 lies that ministry leaders use to justify ignoring these disciplines. Here they are. Number 1, life is just too demanding right now.

Jeff Iorg: 12:23

Oh, Jeff. You just don't understand. My marriage is really demanding right now. My children are really demanding right now. My workload is really demanding right now.

Jeff Iorg: 12:35

On top of everything else I'm doing, I'm trying to take some seminary classes or some college credits and that's really demanding right now. Listen, my friend. There is never going to be a moment in your life as a ministry leader when life will not be demanding. Oh, you may get a little respite here and there and get a break for a little while, but it's coming back. Life is demanding.

Jeff Iorg: 13:04

And for you to say that life is too demanding for you to pray or for you to worship? Life is never that demanding. And in fact, when life is the most demanding is when you most need to practice these core spiritual disciplines. So life is too demanding right now is not an acceptable reason. Here's another 1.

Jeff Iorg: 13:35

My past preparation will sustain me. I've been to seminary. I've been to college. I've been to marriage retreats or youth camps or discipleship programs. I've read books.

Jeff Iorg: 13:51

I've read the bible. I've prayed. I've rested. I I've built relationships and fellowship. I I have those connections.

Jeff Iorg: 14:01

What I've done in the past is all that I really need. No. Spiritual disciplines are like the manna in the old testament. They're a daily occurrence. It's fresh every day, and you need that every day to sustain you.

Jeff Iorg: 14:24

So past preparation, it's good. It was good for the past. You need daily sustenance, spiritual food, regular and consistent input through worship and rest. Your past preparation was helpful, but it will not sustain you in the moment. 3rd, my sermon preparation or my Bible study for my class or my seminary class work counts.

Jeff Iorg: 14:57

No. Unfortunately, it does not. If you're substituting your seminary classwork for your devotions and your disciplines, you are going to find yourself withering spiritually. If you are substituting your sermon preparation for your own bible reading, You're substituting the prayers you offer for others while doing ministry throughout the day for your own personal devotion of prayer. You are deceiving yourself, and you will find yourself empty spiritually.

Jeff Iorg: 15:41

These things are important, sermon preparation, bible study, even seminary class work, but they cannot be allowed to substitute for the personal devotion time that we spend with God, for the rest that we need before God, for the fellowship and relationships we build with other believers that sustain us in our spiritual commitments. These things matter. They really do. But if but a good way, a good test of a way to know if these things really count for personal devotion is this, is the time you're spending on these issues really focused on your spiritual development or is it really focused on you preparing to help develop spiritual lives of other people? If it's focused on other people, it's good.

Jeff Iorg: 16:27

It's worthwhile. It may even be your job, but it's not part of your personal devotions that enrich you and prepare you to do the work that God has assigned. And then number 4, I'm just too busy to fill in the blank. I'm just too busy to rest. I'm just too busy to worship.

Jeff Iorg: 16:51

I'm just too busy to build relationships. I'm just too busy to pray. I'm just too busy to read the bible. I'm just too busy. If you are 1 who says, I'm just too busy to rest, You are giving evidence of your idolatry every moment.

Jeff Iorg: 17:12

You say, idolatry? Yes. You are exalting yourself and saying that you can do more in 7 days than god can do in 6. That's idolatry. That's placing yourself on a pedestal higher than God's.

Jeff Iorg: 17:31

I'm too busy to rest. I need to work 7 days a week, 12 hours a day. I have so much to get done. I'm just too busy to rest. I'm too busy to pray.

Jeff Iorg: 17:43

Are you really? How much time do you think today that you will spend on social media are flicking through Internet web pages of 1 kind or another? Too busy. Too busy. If you're too busy to pray, take a good look at where you're spending your time.

Jeff Iorg: 18:05

You may find out that you could substitute some things and have plenty of time to pray. I'm just too busy, fill in the blank. That is not a good excuse for missing and ignoring your devotional practices. And then here's the last 1. This 1 seems a little unusual perhaps, but stay with me for a moment.

Jeff Iorg: 18:27

Burning myself out models commitment. Burning myself out models commitment. You may think that if you are burning yourself out, expending yourself totally even to the point of damaging your health, that you're actually doing something beneficial. Now the Bible does say a great deal about sacrifice, and it calls us to make sacrifices for God and his kingdom. So I'm not saying today that there's not seasons of sacrifice that are sometimes necessary, but seasons of sacrifice are not the same as abusing yourself to the point of burnout.

Jeff Iorg: 19:11

So while all of us make seasons of sacrifice a part of our ministry leadership role, be careful that you don't ignore your spiritual development and spiritual sustenance to the point that you burn yourself out and in doing so, try to deceive yourself into believing that that somehow models commitment. It doesn't model commitment. It only leads to burnout. So so far today on the podcast, we've talked about 3 realistic goals for practicing spiritual disciplines and 5 lies ministry leaders use to justify ignoring their spiritual disciplines. But as always on the podcast, we veer toward the practical.

Jeff Iorg: 19:58

So let me talk with you now about some things that have helped me over the years to practice these disciplines more effectively. I've already talked a good bit about bible reading. So let me just highlight that just for a moment. I spend time in bible reading by using a daily guide that tells me my 2 chapters that are assigned to me for that day. If for some reason, I miss a day of bible reading, I don't go back and try to catch up those chapters.

Jeff Iorg: 20:21

I just move on to the next chapters and figure next year, I'll maybe catch the ones I missed. I used to try to catch up and read and keep up with every chapter, but it just, gets to be onerous or difficult, especially if you miss days because of sickness or other kinds of, reasons that really were just beyond your your capacity control. It can be very onerous trying to catch up every time you miss a day. So I skipped doing that years ago. Now, I have my bible reading plan.

Jeff Iorg: 20:49

I read the chapters assigned for the day. Don't worry about it if I missed a day. I just stay on track with my daily reading, and it is amazing amazing how often God will intersect my daily need with what he has for me in his word, laid out for me and waiting for me on those particular days. Now I also said that I like to vary up the Bible reading plan sometimes by just saying, I'm gonna set this aside for a while. And for the next, you know, 2 weeks, I'm just gonna read every day in the book of Ephesians.

Jeff Iorg: 21:14

I'm just gonna read through the book several times or I'm gonna lay out the scriptures in the Bible that are about the life of Moses and I'm just gonna read those lot that that that biography over and over again and just focus on that for a few weeks. That kind of reading is a good variety for me, but it does give me enough structure to keep me moving on this particular path of good bible reading. Now, let's talk about prayer. Now, these 5 disciplines, this is probably the 1 that I'm the weakest. I am not a prayer warrior.

Jeff Iorg: 21:42

Admit that readily. I pray, usually, in the mornings and then throughout the day, stopping to pray and before I go into meetings or get on phone calls or, go to speak somewhere, and I certainly pray with my team on a regular basis. These are prayers, a normal part of my life. But having said that, I'm not I am not the prayer warrior in our family. That would be more my wife.

Jeff Iorg: 22:09

So let me tell you about a couple of things that she does that are very helpful. And 1 is that she maintains a prayer notebook. And it's not just a prayer list, she maintains a little notebook which has the names of people that she's praying for and these would be people in our personal lives that are focused in on our devotional praying. So this is not an extensive long prayer list of all the church members or all the people on the executive committee or all the people that, I work with on my team. No.

Jeff Iorg: 22:36

This is a much more intimate list that my wife maintains. And with each 1 of these names, she has a scripture verse that she's praying for that person right now. So for my our 3 children, our daughter-in-law, our son-in-law, our 5 grandchildren, my wife's mother, her sister, the people that are in our immediate family that we're caring for and that we're responsible, to to, mentor and care for and support spiritually. My wife has this prayer list with a scripture attached to each person that she's praying for them on a regular basis. Now, when I'm at my best in prayer, I'm using a simplified prayer list like this where I have a list of names or a list of people that I'm working through and that I use to remind me who to pray for and to keep me consistent in that prayer work.

Jeff Iorg: 23:27

So a prayer list doesn't have to be extensive. It can be a 1 piece of paper with names listed on it or can be a notebook like my wife uses where she has the names and scriptures attached to each name that she's praying for. But the these kinds of helps or guides, make us, or facilitate this discipline being practiced more effectively. Now, let's talk about the discipline of rest. I've done whole podcasts on this, so I won't repeat myself today.

Jeff Iorg: 23:55

But the discipline of rest for us means that we pull away, at least 1 day a week from the ministry that we've been assigned and we try to focus our lives on resting and recovering and re really rebuilding our relationship as well with each other as a couple. Now, just 2 or 3 suggestions about this. 1, if you can, try to set up a certain day of the week that works most weeks and stay with that day consistently. And for most people, that's either a Friday or Saturday or a Monday, something like that. But try to set aside that day and say, that's the day when I'm gonna disengage from my ministry responsibilities and focus instead on recovering myself physically, spending time with the people that I care the most about, involving myself in worship with God, and really rejuvenating myself for the next 6 days of work that are coming.

Jeff Iorg: 24:42

Again, I've done whole podcasts on this, so I don't wanna go into it in too much detail today. But what helps me to do that day of rest is to calendar it, meaning that it gets blocked on my calendar and restricted and kept open, from other kinds of appointments. And then second, disengaging from electronic media on that day. Turning my phone off, definitely turning my email off and making sure that unless it's a serious emergency, I do not engage with anything related to work either on the phone, on the computer, or in any way related to any kind of electronic input. I've found that if I can disengage in that way, I can really focus my attention on resting and recovering and on other more enriching things than just following along in work and in work mode by connecting again electronically.

Jeff Iorg: 25:37

Now let's talk about worship. Now this is a challenging 1 as a spiritual discipline. Because quite frankly, many of us who are listening to this podcast or me making it, we are worship leaders. We are upfront. We're speaking, preaching, teaching, praying, singing, doing all of that stuff.

Jeff Iorg: 25:55

And so you might say, well, I go to church every week, but I wouldn't call it a a spiritual discipline that enriches me or or fills me up or rejuvenates me. It really drains me because I'm the worship leader where I go and I am too most of the time. But that's why it's important to engage in other places and times to meet this need that we have for worship. How can you do that? Well, you can definitely do that by going to conferences, by going to prayer gatherings with other ministry leaders, by going to the alternative service.

Jeff Iorg: 26:27

If you're in a church that has multiples and you can slip into 1 of the services where you're not working or leading and participate as a as a as a worshiper, there are ways to do this. 1 of the things that I've tried to do as a speaker is not just show up and speak in the session where I'm speaking, but when possible, and I can't always do it, but when possible, I like to go to the session before or after the 1 where I'm speaking and enter into the worship experience. I wanna sing the songs and pray the prayers and hear the the preaching of God's word and then respond when the opportunity is given so that I find myself experiencing worship and experiencing it in such a way that it rejuvenates me. And then finally, fellowship, relationships. Building the connections needed, as a spiritual discipline to sustain me over a lifetime.

Jeff Iorg: 27:17

Now this has been a long growing process for me, but I've really reached the point where I've come to value relationships significantly and particularly relationships with key men in my life who are very supportive. I'm fortunate that my sons are 2 of these men. My son-in-law certainly as well. I'm thinking of a couple of family friends that are very dear to me, and these are 5 men that I can call on at any time. And I do call on them regularly, not just when I'm in trouble or discouraged or need somebody to talk.

Jeff Iorg: 27:50

We just call each other and check-in and see how things are going and keep up with each other so that we have a sense of relationship and connection with each other that is spiritually invigorating and sustaining. You know, this word community is a buzzword, but in the Bible, it's simply called koinonia or fellowship. And we all need it and we have to cultivate it as a discipline so that when we really need it in a time of real spiritual challenge, we have it to draw on as another resource. I told you at the beginning of the podcast, this 1 was gonna be so basic. Probably a lot of you thought, I should have just turned this off in the middle.

Jeff Iorg: 28:27

So basic. But let's also be honest. Many of us in ministry leadership, we struggle to maintain these disciplines. We struggle to read the Bible and pray and rest and worship and fellowship. We struggle.

Jeff Iorg: 28:45

And we think, well, we're leaders. We're exempt. We're different. We're special. No.

Jeff Iorg: 28:52

No. Don't believe the lies. Leaders must practice these basic disciplines, and not for a week or a month, but over a lifetime. I'm now in my mid sixties, and I still get up in the morning, make a cup of tea, and start my day by opening the Bible and saying, God, speak to me. Show me some insight in your word.

Jeff Iorg: 29:23

Strengthen me. And then I pray for the people that are dearest and nearest to me, and for the work that's before me for that given day. And I make sure that I'm planning ways I can rest and worship and be invigorated by relationships, and I build these patterns into my life so that I am practicing these disciplines. And in the disciplines, in the practice of them, I find God's sustaining power for me as a ministry leader. Look, earning degrees is admirable.

Jeff Iorg: 30:04

Gaining influence, good for you. Reading books, writing papers, achieving goals, developing plans, All of that is good. But none of that will sustain you overall. Practice the basic spiritual disciplines. Practice them regularly, consistently.

Jeff Iorg: 30:30

Work on them so that they are realistic expectation and a part of the structured plan of your life. As you do that, you will be amazed at how God will sustain you. Spiritual disciplines, doing the basics well, it's a part of your challenge as you lead on.