Jeff Iorg emphasizes the importance of rest for ministry leaders in his podcast. He shares his personal journey from being a driven perfectionist to valuing rest after his wife confronted him. Iorg highlights the biblical patterns of rest, including Sabbath and week-long festivals, and their purposes: to remind, refocus, and rejuvenate. He debunks myths about ministry, such as the need to be always available or please everyone. Practical tips include setting definite rest times, disengaging from work communications, and spending time with energizing people. Iorg concludes by advocating for occasional extended breaks to maintain long-term ministry health.
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Welcome to the lead on podcast. This is Jeff Ords, the president of the executive committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, talking with you once again about practical issues related to ministry leadership. If you're just joining me on this podcast, it's important to remember that this podcast is about practical issues. It's about the ebbs and flows, the ins and outs, the ups and downs of doing ministry in churches and ministry organizations. It's about what it really takes to get the work done week by week.
Jeff Iorg:But today, I want to talk about the opposite of getting the work done. I want to talk about the importance of rest for ministry leaders. Ministry leadership is demanding. It's demanding at all times, and during certain seasons of our lives, it can be even more demanding than it seems at other times. Ministry leaders have a responsibility to take care of themselves and their families in the context of expanding themselves and serving others to make sure that there's a healthy balance in that kind of life and relationship.
Jeff Iorg:Now to be frank, that was not my experience when I first started out in ministry leadership. When I started out in ministry, I was a driven perfectionist. Legalist, very, very, self reliant and determined to do it all myself. I started out in ministry as a pastor and really worked myself into the ground the 1st few years. But in the mid 19 eighties, my wife, Anne, confronted me and said things had to change.
Jeff Iorg:I had to spend more time with her and with our family and really take better care of myself so that we could have a long term healthy ministry relationship. I'd like to tell you that I responded well to her confrontation, but I didn't. In fact, I responded grudgingly to her and was only willing to make the changes reluctantly and with some resistance, but I did make the changes. I remember going, for example, to a deacons meeting in the mid 19 eighties and telling my leaders that I that I had to set aside one day a week for my family, and that I was gonna have to start taking some vacation time as well, to invest more time in my family. And I was so messed up back then that I thought they would actually be angry with me, but instead, they actually almost laughed at me and said, well, it finally you finally figured this out?
Jeff Iorg:It took you this long? You seem like such a smart guy, but you're really not getting this, are you? They were very, very supportive of my decision to take more time away for which I've always been grateful. But about 40 years ago, I grudgingly and reluctantly agreed that I was gonna have to start resting one day a week and then pulling time away from time to time for my family and vacation and other activity so that I could have, a healthier and more balanced approach to ministry. Well, as I thought about not so much Sabbath rest, but vacation rest pulling away for a week or more at a time, I wondered if there was anything in the Bible about that.
Jeff Iorg:Now what I'm about to share with you is is tangential at best, and I want to be very clear about this, very clear. I'm seeing a very general pattern in the Bible. I'm not drawing a direct correlation or a direct application from from what I'm about to say. But I did discover a very interesting model in the old testament, and that is the models of rest that are described in the Bible. Of course, the first one of these is the Sabbath rest, one day out of 7.
Jeff Iorg:And that one's fairly well known. People at least understand that God worked on 6 days and rested on 7th. But there are also examples of rests in the Old Testament that were different, and these rests were a week long, and they were called various feasts or festivals that were scattered throughout the year of the Jewish religious calendar. The feast of unleavened bread, for example, or the Passover, the feast of weeks or the Pentecost, the feast of tabernacles. These are 3 week long Sabbath to Sabbath rest periods where people were were given specific instructions about rest and worship and family and reconnection.
Jeff Iorg:Now, again, let me clearly say, I am not drawing a direct parallel, a direct application, or even a direct correlation, But I do find it interesting that when God set up the pattern of rest in the Old Testament, that he set his people up on a calendar of rest, it included 3 1 week breaks throughout the year to give them an opportunity to recalibrate their lives. Now I am not suggesting that you should be given, 3 weeks of vacation as a biblical mandate. I am suggesting that you look into this example of these 3 weeks of rest and ask, what can I learn from that experience that might help me to do a better job of disengaging from work and ministry, and really focusing myself on the kind of rest that rejuvenates me for the work that God has called me to do? You know, this is the purpose of rest in the Bible. It's really threefold.
Jeff Iorg:The purpose of rest is, first, to remind people that God is the creator and sustainer and provider, to remind us how good God is. And second, to refocus people on God's presence in our lives, to cause us to one day a week or one week periodically to pull back and say God is the focus of my life, not my work. And 3rd, to rejuvenate people for their work. You know, we rest one day a week so that we can be ready to go again for the next 6 days to get the work done that God wants us to to accomplish. So rest in the Bible is about reminding, refocusing, and rejuvenating.
Jeff Iorg:It's really about getting us refocused, on God in our lives and rejuvenated for the work that he has for us to do. Now putting this into practice, however, is really challenging, because so many of us believe what I call myths about the ministry, and these myths about the ministry really keep us from resting in the way I'm describing today, where you pull away for 1 week, one day a week, pull away for 1 week periodically to refocus yourself. What are these myths about the ministry? Well, here's one of them. My success depends on my efforts.
Jeff Iorg:That's a myth. Now most of us give lip service to the fact that we're trusting god to sustain us in ministry, but then we work we work ourselves into the ground, because it as if it all depends on us. Look. It's a myth that your success depends on your efforts. Your success, particularly your spiritual success, depends on God and his capacity to work through you and with you to accomplish his purposes.
Jeff Iorg:So the first myth that mitigates against arrest is my success depends on my efforts. Here's the second one. 2nd myth, I must always be available. I am indispensable. Ministry leaders are interesting in this, in this misunderstanding.
Jeff Iorg:We we believe that by being always available, we raise the level of esteem that people will hold us in as leaders, but that is simply not true. Think about it. The people in your life that you value and turn to for counsel, for input, for direction, your attorney, your physician, your accountant, your dentist. All of these people have one thing in common. They require an appointment for you to see them.
Jeff Iorg:They are not always available, and they do not communicate to you that they are indispensable. Listen. If you're a ministry leader and you think that just because you're always there, people will esteem you more highly, you are ignoring the stark reality of how people ascribe value in our culture. Now don't take this to the other extreme. Don't say, well, I will never be available and no one can ever see me without an appointment.
Jeff Iorg:That's just frivolous and arrogant. Get away from that way of thinking. But there is not anything wrong with saying, I am dispensable. I can be replaced. Other people can do my job, and it's alright if I let them sometimes.
Jeff Iorg:3rd, another myth. I must please everyone and meet everyone's expectations. If you're believing that myth, you're on a treadmill to nowhere. You will never please everyone. You will never meet everyone's expectations.
Jeff Iorg:One of the interesting things about my life is that as I've grown in my leadership capacity and grown in my scope of influence, I have disappointed more and more people. It's an inevitable reality. The more leadership influence you have, the more people you will disappoint, because you will just simply not be able to meet all of their expectations. So these are myths about the ministry that keep us from resting. Because we believe that success depends on our efforts, we work ourselves into the ground.
Jeff Iorg:Because we believe we must always be available and that we're that we are indispensable, we find ourselves running our cell running ourselves ragged and chasing an impossible schedule. And because we think we must please everyone or meet everyone's expectations, we're constantly frustrated because we're never able to do enough, and we're always trying to do more. Well, we've talked today about the importance of rest for ministry leaders and not so much Sabbath rest, but about seasonal rest. And I've laid out for you this pattern of the Jewish festivals of rest that were in the old testament. We've talked about why those were important and maybe some reasons today why they're difficult to implement.
Jeff Iorg:But now let me see if I can conclude with some ways to disengage from ministry and work and to rest more effectively. The first thing I would say is to set a definite time each year for an extended rest. 1 week minimum, longer is better. Set a definite time each year for extended rest. 1 week minimum, longer is better.
Jeff Iorg:It's 1 week to disengage from ministry and from work, to rest your body, your soul, your mind, and to reconnect relationally with the people who mean the most in your life. Now, if you're going to set this definite time each year, it's gonna require some things. 1st, you're gonna have to plan ahead. It means you're going to have to do some calendar planning with the people that you care about the most and wanna spend that week with so that everyone is willing to say, we're gonna block out these days to spend together, and we're gonna make this a priority in our lives as a family. Now please don't misunderstand me.
Jeff Iorg:This doesn't mean that everyone in your family will do this or can do this. Doesn't mean that everyone in your family even should do this. Maybe it's just you and your spouse, or you and your spouse and your own children that need to do this, but whoever is going to be involved, it's gonna require some intentionality of planning. 2nd, the setting indefinite time means that you have to plan for coverage of your ministry responsibilities when you're gone. Coverage for your ministry responsibilities, things like preaching, funerals, leading, leading meetings, visiting the sick, caring for the ongoing work of a ministry responsibility.
Jeff Iorg:Now you may say, well, I I I just feel like I need to take care of those things, and most of the time you do. But for a period of rest each year, you need to let someone else help you with these things. Train the deacons or the elders of your church to step in and take over these responsibilities. If you're in a small church that doesn't have that kind of support, make friends with other pastors in your area and agree to share each other's burdens while you're on vacation or while you're pulling away for rest times. Plan for coverage of the preaching experiences while you're gone, and maybe even the 1st week after you get back.
Jeff Iorg:I I know I made this mistake when I was a younger pastor, and that is I would plan to come back from vacation on Saturday and preach on Sunday. So what was I doing the whole time I was on vacation? I was thinking about Sunday sermon. That is counterproductive. Alright?
Jeff Iorg:Then I finally learned, no. I need to plan for someone else to take on that responsibility while even when I'm back so that I'm not thinking about it the whole time that I'm gone. So plan for coverage of your ministry responsibilities, like preaching and funerals and other things. And part of good leadership is planning for your absence. Now this story may or may not be true.
Jeff Iorg:It's one of those, Internet sermon illustrations, but I heard it a few years ago, and even if it isn't true, I think it's got some truth behind it. It was said of Henry Ford that he would ask people that he was interviewing to be an executive at Ford Motor Company to tell him about their last vacation. And if someone said, oh, mister Ford, I've been so focused on my work, so committed to building my career. I really haven't had a vacation in 3 years. I've been so committed to getting this task accomplished or getting this project done or getting this company built.
Jeff Iorg:That was the wrong answer. Henry Ford supposedly said, any person who can't organize their work in 50 weeks a year so they can spend 2 weeks a year with their family doesn't have the executive skills necessary to lead Ford Motor Company. Now that all may be anecdotal, but there's some truth in it. If you don't have the capacity to organize your work so well that it can function for a week with you not being present, that may say something about your lack of leadership capacity more than anything else. Part of being able to be away from your role is not to abdicate your responsibility, but to intentionally and carefully make sure that you've planned for coverage, and you've given good leadership in making sure that your responsibilities are cared for while you're gone.
Jeff Iorg:Now in all the years that I've been a pastor and a ministry leader, I can only recall ever being asked to return from vacation one time for a death in my church family. It happened in my first pastorate. My family and I were on vacation together, and I got a phone call. And they said, you know, a prominent member of our church had died suddenly, and I really, if possible, needed to come back and care for the family and lead the service. Well, of course, I knew I needed to do that, and so I made arrangements to fly back, flew back, made the visits to the family, planned the service, and, was able to lead that service.
Jeff Iorg:When it was over, there were only a few days left in our vacation. I just assumed that I would stay home and my family would, you know, come in a few days and join me. But the leaders of our church, basically met me on the church porch after the service and said, you're going back with your family now. And I said, well, it's only a couple more days. I said, no.
Jeff Iorg:You're going back now. We've already bought the ticket. And they sent me back to finish out the vacation time with my family. I always remembered that that experience fondly because it was my leadership saying to me, we needed you, and this time, we really did need you, and you came. But now we want you to know we still support you being away, and we wanna make that happen as well, and so we're sending you back to be with your family.
Jeff Iorg:So the first step to disengaging from work and ministry for a vacation time is to set a definite time, plan for coverage, plan good leadership so that you can be away and not have your responsibilities go unmet. Second thing that's helped me is to disengage from work related communication. Now I know this is really controversial for some and culturally difficult for, it seems, younger leaders, but I have no difficulty when I'm with my family for that week every summer turning off my email and other social media. I just turn it off. I just do not wanna be spending any time thinking about any of those work related issues.
Jeff Iorg:I wanna spend time thinking about my family, my children, my grandchildren, my wife, and all the fun we're gonna have together. I also set my phone to only accept calls from favorites. I I don't need to be getting calls from people who randomly have my phone number, and there are now hundreds of people that have it. I don't need to get calls from them randomly during that week. I I just wanna talk to my favorites that week.
Jeff Iorg:And that doesn't mean that I can't be reached. I think this is important. When I disengage for that week to be with my family, there's a core of people in my organization where I work who have always a way to reach me. Now I'm not gonna tell you what that way is because then you you'd know and you'd be calling me. But we make sure that there's always a way that if people really need to reach me, they can reach me.
Jeff Iorg:And it's been amazing to me over the years how little that has ever been used, because most people that work with me realize most things can wait 3 or 4 or 5 more days, most things don't have to be decided today, Most things are not an emergency. They can they can wait. And so very seldom has that means of communication been used to connect with me when I've been pulled away like this. So the second step besides setting it up at a time is to disengage from work related communication. Turn off your email, your social media, your phone, and really be present with the people you're with and not focus so much on what's happening, in your work or in your other world.
Jeff Iorg:3, a third suggestion is to use your rest days, your rest time to do whatever you enjoy as a family. Try to avoid over committing to conquering your vacation. Instead, travel or stay home, or if you're able, get a house together somewhere and just be in that place enjoying each other. We have found that some of our most meaningful times have been the least expensive times when we've just simply been together to laugh, to eat, to play games, to do activities that really didn't take that much money, and the serendipitous fun of of experiencing those things together has made a significant difference in our family. Now let me say a couple things about that.
Jeff Iorg:Staying home may be very difficult for you to have real rest if you're in a living in a parsonage, for example, next door to your church building, or if you're in a very small town where every time you, walk out of your house, everybody knows it. If you're in either one of those situations, you know what I'm talking about, you may need to get away to another place. So let me give you some suggestions about that. Check into your state conventions, campgrounds, retreat centers, conference centers, and see what kind of housing they may have. Look around for ministries that are provided for ministry families to pull away and have days or times of rest.
Jeff Iorg:There are more and more of these being created by people all around the country. Check into, opportunities through your state convention and through others where people are resourcing pastor networks and resourcing ministry leaders who need times to get away and helping them to do that. Don't just automatically assume you can't afford or you can't find a way to afford to make this happen. Perhaps you can make it happen if you'll start being aggressive and creative about making contact with some of these opportunities. And then as I've already said, try to avoid over committing or conquering your vacation, meaning that you're trying to just go go go the whole time.
Jeff Iorg:However, I would say also this, I have found on vacation that it really rejuvenates me if I can up my activity level just a bit. So whether I'm walking or swimming or golfing or whatever I'm doing, inactivity is not as rejuvenating to me as some activity. Now again, I don't want to over commit, overdue, but I do want to be active on these trips, and frankly, with my 5 grandchildren, that has not been a difficult problem, But nevertheless, even when Anne and I go away together, we try to up our activity level so that we're not just sitting around all day every day, but that we're out doing things, walking, enjoying each other, exercising, and being active. And we found that that really does bring an invigoration to us, that really does help with the recovery process that we're working through. So we're going to set a definite time, disengage from work related communication, use rest time to do whatever you enjoy, and then last of all, be with people who energize you.
Jeff Iorg:Now I talked about this on a different podcast before about building your friendship team, but when I say be with people who energize you, I mean your family perhaps, but there may be some other people in your life that also are this kind of energizing presence for you. Our family's had a a a couple of relationships like this that have lasted for us for decades. My wife and I have a a friend, a couple that we've spent time with for years. We've vacationed together. We've been on mission trips together.
Jeff Iorg:We've been in each other's homes on many occasions. We really do have a really energizing experience for us. And then our family has had a relationship with another family like this over the years. Our children, connecting with them, being almost mentored by them, guided by them, and then as they started having their own children in that family, our children returning the favor to being friends with and support and guides to their family. It's been a really remarkable relationship, over the years, and it's been very meaningful and enriching for us.
Jeff Iorg:Being around people who energize us is a part of resting. It's a part of finding that rejuvenation that we need, And hopefully, you'll find that within your family. But if not, don't be afraid to reach out to some other circles of friendship that can form these kind of bonds. They really do make a major difference over the long haul. Well, today on the podcast, we've been talking about the importance of rest, of disengaging from work and ministry, and pulling away from time to time.
Jeff Iorg:Again, I find a pattern in the old testament of 3 1 week long blocks of time, and refocus themselves on their relationship with and refocus themselves on their relationship with God, their relationship with their families, and rest their bodies for the work that God had for them to do. Again, I'm not making a hard and fast rule about this. I'm just looking for a pattern, and I do see a pattern that God made us to occasionally pull away for what I call seasons of rest, where we pull away for at least a week, maybe longer if we can, and really have an opportunity to recharge ourselves both spiritually and physically. Now I've talked about this in the context, not so much of Sabbath rest being a Sabbath day on this particular podcast, because I've covered that on other podcasts. I've talked about it instead in this what I call seasonal time of rest.
Jeff Iorg:But let me just end with one more thing. A few years ago, after the seminary relocated at Gateway Seminary, where I was formerly president, The board of trustees, knew how hard I had worked over the previous 3 or 4 years to get the seminary successfully moved, and they, insisted that I take a longer period of rest of the one and only sabbatical that I've ever had in my lifetime. And so during that summer, I took 6 weeks off, and I put all the principles into practice that I've just shared with you for that 6 week time frame. We spent about a week of that time really with our family and enjoying them and investing in them, and then my wife and I just spent time together, the 2 of us, and we spent some of that time traveling, and we spent some of that time at home. And during that whole 6 weeks, I I worked really hard at not focusing too much on trying to conquer my sabbatical, but instead having a very reasonable reading plan.
Jeff Iorg:I read 3 biographies and journaled about them every day, and I use that as a spiritual focus and a spiritual devotion time, as spiritual formation time for me during the sabbatical. I I I learned from talking to other people about the danger of trying to conquer or do too much, having too many ambitious goals for a sabbatical, and so I had very limited goals in terms of what I wanted to accomplish. But I look back on that 6 week window as really transformational in my life. It it came along at a time when I needed it badly. It solved some deep needs in my life to re to rest and to sleep and to recover.
Jeff Iorg:It really gave me a new lease on life, if you will, a new energy for the future, and a new passion about moving forward. Now I don't really find, you know, in the Bible, a lot about sabbaticals. I don't say they're not biblical. I'm just saying I don't really find a a lot of patterns about how to do them or what they might look like. But if you've been in ministry leadership for a long time, it would be appropriate for you to say to the people you're serving, would it be possible for me to have an extended time to pull away?
Jeff Iorg:And I don't mean a year like a faculty member gets at school, but I do mean several weeks that would give you a complete emotional and physical break from the work that you're doing, and to give you the opportunity to refocus and reenergize for going forward into the future. A few month a few years ago, that that 6 week sabbatical was, so meaningful to me. And I'm so grateful to the leaders who made it possible. And I'm also, I'm also very, understanding that, you know, as a as a executive leader, I I can't do that every year. You know, I I have a real job.
Jeff Iorg:You know what I'm saying? And I can't I can't take off that kind of time, year after year, or all the time, or anything like that. But I can pull away from time to time. And I was grateful that they made it happen for me when they did. So if you've been in ministry at your place for a number of years, or you've been in a cur your current role for a while, and you're feeling just worn down by it, and you particularly need, to disengage and recalibrate.
Jeff Iorg:Think about a sabbatical, and thinking about talking with your ministry team and your leadership team about the need for 1, and about how one might be structured to really accomplish good for you in your life. Well, today, we're talking about resting for ministry leaders, and if I've timed it correctly, you'll be listening to this podcast while I'm resting away with my family. I hope this happens on the same week that I do the podcast on this topic. It's important to me. It's been life changing for me.
Jeff Iorg:I'm so glad my wife confronted me in the mid 19 eighties about the need for Sabbath rest, and out of that study of Sabbath rest, I developed this pattern of seasonal rest, and then occasionally even have had a sabbatical rest. Resting helps rejuvenate us for ministry leadership, and refocuses us on God's work in our lives, as we lead in His kingdom. Rest is essential for ministry leaders. Put it into practice, as you lead on.