By the Rev. Canon Tony Baron.
Both Bishop Todd and I have been deeply touched by the friendship and mentorship of Dallas Willard. Not a day goes by when I am mentoring, teaching, counseling or consulting that I do not share a story about him or a quote from him. “Why the obsession?” you ask. The reason for the obsession is: Other than John R.W. Stott and our own bishop, I have not met a person other than Dallas who has consistently lived the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. (Todd would be embarrassed by the comparisons, but it is true nonetheless.)
I asked Dallas when I was serving the community as rector at St. Anne’s in Oceanside, California, “How I can help my congregation grow into Christlikeness?”
In his gentle and gracious manner, Dallas said, “I must arrange my life so that I am experiencing deep joy, contentment, and confidence in my everyday life with God.” Wow, he saw right through me. I could have handled to preach better, improve my strategic skills or even get more small groups going. But arranging my life? I was so busy with preaching, teaching, meetings and outside speaking engagements that my life had become a series of appointments to keep, rather than sacred moments filled with space for divine encounters with the Almighty. Busyness defined me, and people getting on my calendar made them and me feel important in God’s Kingdom. I swallowed it all and found myself drowning in an overflowing schedule. Although I was doing work FOR the Kingdom of God, I wasn’t living IN the Kingdom of God.
Congregational and clergy care starts with “how we arrange our lives.” If your life is overly busy, I guarantee that you will be neglecting those areas of your life that are least visible to others in your ministry. Your prayer life will suffer, and when you do pray, it will be largely reserved for public occasions or as part of you multi-tasking with something else.
So turn off your Smartphone for 30 minutes, get out a sheet of paper, use an old-fashioned No. 2 pencil, and write out the ways you can arrange your life right now so that others (including your family) can see you experiencing deep joy, contentment and confidence in your everyday life with God. Then place that important sheet of insight in your Bible for review. Make a copy of it for your bedroom. We have been so conditioned in ministry “to do for” that we have often forgot “to be with.” In God’s great Kingdom BOTH are important, but you will never achieve the balance unless you arrange your life in such a way that will help you reflect Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Neither Bishop Todd nor I want you to “burn out for Jesus.” It is not God’s way, Christ’s pattern or the Holy Spirit’s leaning. We desire that your life will experience sustainability in ministry, filled with theological integrity, spiritual vitality and pastoral competencies.
The Rev. Tony Baron is the Canon for Clergy and Congregational Care for C4SO. Contact Tony here.