Laziness, Super-Spirituality or Legalism

Some interesting comments from Pete Dray on his blog, on how Christian leaders can struggle spiritually with laziness, super-spirituality or legalism. Or any combination of them. Pete notes

It's very difficult to manage responsibility effectively in Christian leadership. Often it seems that Christian leaders are burdened, tired and even joyless. (Click here for more on Pete's blog)

I think I see this quite a bit. I commented on the blog:

Many Christian leaders are poor at maintaining ourselves spiritually. Here are a few reasons:

1. We have no measurable standards of success and therefore tend to think we will be valued by visible activity and/or numbers. Therefore activity-organisation easily replaces prayerfulness

2. There are comparatively few boundaries between work and non-work. Two possible consequences: work overflows into everything and we never have any real down time; we start to think of non-work as work or feel burdened by work people-responsibilities during non-work time and therefore justify laziness

3. People don't understand what we do and assume we are doing less than we are. Answer: why should we expect them to understand? They don't do it

4. People assume that those responsible for feeding them spiritually are themselves being fed by someone else. But few people ever inquire. Therefore it is quite easy for Christian leaders to live spiritual lives that are less fed and less observed than anyone else. (And their spouses even more so). There is nothing more spiritually weakening than feeling that you have to feed others when you have nothing to give, but can't tell anyone

I could go on listing reasons for another half an hour. But the conclusions would be the same:

1. Christian leaders are much better at meaningful evaluation - and therefore at boundaries - when someone else is able to say to us when we have done a good job and done enough. Either a line manager or external accountability. We are poor at establishing when to stop otherwise because the workload is potentially infinite

2. Lack of boundaries inevitably affects seeking God, which inevitably impacts on our receiving grace, which inevitably impacts on our joy in the Lord. If we are unable to put boundaries on our work we should at least put unassailable boundaries on our prayer life. And preferably do it with others

3. If I can say this, I think that young (male) missions staff are most in danger of establishing bad patterns that last for a whole lifetime of ministry, by making the following mistake: "I want the super ministry, and the way to get it is for my elders to see me being busy and successful. That is the way to credibility." I see this a lot. It is spiritually deadly

4. Without principles for boundaries it becomes very difficult to say "no". Especially if you know that your ministry will be evaluated positively by saying yes to everything, and negatively every time you decline. It is easy for people to read a "no" as "our minister simply doesn't get why this (thing that I want to do) is a spiritual priority (ie saying no to me means they aren't wise and spiritually discerning or haven't heard the Lord as clearly as I have). If the person or people in question have the power of hire and fire it is very difficult to say no to anything

In my years leading a ministry team I found that ministry effectiveness went up considerably for people who didn't feel they had the final say on when to stop and when they had done a good job. They found it impossible to evaluate. Having someone else tell a student group on their behalf that they couldn't come on this occasion was a blessed relief. Similarly having someone else with experience look over the diary and help review work patterns.

At various points in ministry I have had an accountability group do this for me. Only on a couple of occasions did the group really bite. One time a member said "your work patterns at the moment are to the detriment of your marriage. I want to see your diary tomorrow and will be taking things out of it, and ringing your boss if you refuse"! Fantastic! If there wasn't pressure from my employers to sacrifice marriage on the altar of ministry, it was easy to feel it, and emotionally very hard to decline. That person took all the pressure off me doing so. 

I never did the evaluation for my staff for the sake of merely organising work. It was also for guarding spiritual life, bodily vitality and relationships outside of work that can so easily be damaged by lack of work boundaries. But the most important reason for this kind of accountability was to help the team seek God for his grace, and spot with them when work patterns were to the detriment of this. Because that is entirely self-defeating. Leaders who are busy but not living in grace - or who use busyness as a substitute for living in grace - need to take a serious rain check.

Hope you are seeking Him for his grace today.

Comments

[Ben Carswell]

Marcus
Good to read your thoughts on this - some very helpful articulation of the issues.

I know that we have had some discussion on this matter before - I would add, there are some folks (there's a few with the surname Carswell!) who love the work of sharing the Gospel/discipleship for the sheer joy it brings. True, they need to keep in check to make sure there are the boundaries & that there is time for rest, relaxation, refreshment & recuperation, but different people are wired differently. I think sometimes there is a danger of hedging in someone with this capacity/outlook to the detriment of their ministry.

I would also wish to add that I think for some people your emphasis on those boundaries is needed, however, I think there are also an equally significant number of people who need to be "kicked up the backside" into doing work & not being lazy. It's a hard balance, particularly as our ministry is by very nature a flexible one. However, it is easy going after the over-workers, whereas Biblically, I think there's more explicit mention of the "under-workers". I'm not suggesting that you are either by the way!

[Marcus]

Hi Ben

good comments. I hasten to add that this post was brief responsive thoughts to Pete's contribution, not a fully worked out theology of work. Just a couple of things to add in response:

1. I fully take that there are those who work for love of the work of the gospel. In fact I hope we all do and that it goes without saying. However I think the most workaholic (sorry those with the highest capacity!) are (a) often bad at setting boundaries for themselves, sometimes to the point where they damage themselves (b) often driven for bad reasons as well as good ones (c) are poor at knowing when they have, in fact, reached the point of diminishing returns (d) tend to set short-term goals and run as though the race was a sprint rather than a marathon and (e) are the ones that everyone else compares themselves unfavourably with and try to emulate to their cost

(actually that was five points, not one: sneaky huh?)

2. I think there are some who are lazy and it is indeed a hard balance. In our context here I think I meet many more overworkers than underworkers, but point taken. Maybe where you are its the other way around? You are kind to suggest I am not either, but wrong: I can easily oscillate between the two if I am not careful. I don't hand out advice for living an observed ministry as someone who doesn't need it myself. I think it is useful for all of us, regardless of which particular direction we are wired to tend towards. Either way, external help is a good thing to have.