Ran into a pastor the other day who hadn’t taken a weekend off from teaching in 15 months. FIFTEEN MONTHS. This sparked a bunch of thoughts, so I thought I’d share 7 simple reasons why pastors should must take time off from teaching from time to time. There are more than ten, these are just off the top of my head.
SEVEN REASONS WHY PASTORS MUST TAKE TIME OFF FROM TEACHING
1 – You’re probably not as great as you think you are.
2 – Burnout sucks.
3 – Your community needs breaks from you.
4 – Writing sermons is not the most important thing you do. (Thanks Dave Gibbons for helping me see this.)
5 – Your community needs to hear other voices.
6 – Your team needs you to lead and invest in them more.
7 – Your brain needs a breather – which in turn will allow it to function & flow more creatively.
Many pastors are afraid to take more time off from teaching because they’re afraid that the church might lose momentum eventually fall apart. Really? If your church is that fragile, you have some other things you need to figure out. Relax. Besides, if you don’t take time off from teaching, there’s a pretty good likelihood that you will eventually fall apart.
