Pray, Play, Pause

We don’t talk enough in the church about this, but the most important charge I can give to you as a pastor is to put your own spiritual life first. Make tending to your spirit your highest priority in ministry.

As strange as it may sound, for pastors to make time to tend our souls is not popular.

We live in what Nap Bishop Tricia Hersey calls a “grind culture.” In our society we prioritize work, making money, being perfect, and being busy. All of this is driven by capitalism and white supremacy culture that sees humans as machines. 

The church can get stuck in the same grind culture, making ourselves busy “doing” ministry instead of “being” ministry. For church there is a danger in getting caught up in the systems of oppression that overwork, overextend, and burnout staff and volunteers.

Church, we know this is not of God. 

The love of Jesus Christ is not tied to how hard we work.

The love of Jesus is shared by honoring our divine humanity as human beings, not human doings. 

In the church we tend to believe that the pastor’s highest priority is to tend to their flock. But that is a sure path to burnout. 

For pastors to flourish, according the findings of years of research out of the Duke Divinity clergy health initiative, is for pastors to invest in being good stewards of their own well-being.

What does spiritual health require? Prayer, play, and pausing to rest.  

Pastor, my charge to you is this: let other people be in charge of what is not yours to control. It will all be ok.

What you are in charge of and what you can control is yourself: your resources, your time, your gifts, your mind, your body, your spirit. 

Be in charge of being a good steward of your own well-being. 

Pastor, show the church what it looks like to flourish.

Show us what a spiritually alive person looks like in this war-weary world. 

Show us how beautiful it is to pray, to play and to rest in God’s love.

Be in charge of being a good steward of your spiritual roots. 

Make time for prayer, play, and pausing to rest.

Recently during my day of prayer, over a bowl of warm butternut squash curry soup, I gazed outside the window. 

The trees waved their branches as golden leaves let go and swirled around in the blue sky. Dancing through the trees, two squirrels twirled around, leaping from tree to tree. 

The trees rooted into the earth provided the perfect dance floor of the branches for the joyful squirrels. 

In God’s good Creation we see examples like this of how we can co-exist peacefully. 

What if our spiritual lives could be so deeply rooted that our day-to-day life focused on creating space for God’s playful spirit, prayerful presence, and pauses to rest? 

What if we could be like the trees? 

Spirit moving through us. 

Branches reaching to the heavens in prayer. 

Limbs to create space for nesting and resting. 

Do the right thing to nurture your own spiritual life. As a pastor, you are a spiritual leader who leads by example.

Make time in your busy life to pray. 

Take a day of prayer once a month. Or twice a month.

Make time in your busy life to play. 

Take a day or two off every week to play with your friends and your family.

Make time in your busy life to press the pause button and to rest. 

Take your sabbath day each week. Jesus says, “Come to me all who are carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest.” 

I am sorry to say, but since Sunday is now a work-day for you, you’ll need to find another day of each week for your sabbath. What day will it be?

This will be a new rhythm for the church and your family and for you to adjust to and to honor: pray, play, and press pause to rest.

I charge you to prioritize being in charge of your own spiritual well-being.

For the pastor to tend to her own soul is behind the scenes work. 

It is under the earth, roots work. 

It is holy work that is unseen. 

And it matters more than anything else. 

As a wise preacher once said, “Our lives tell a story, that story becomes a powerful witness when we embody our belief and our actions match our words.”  

May you truly flourish.

Let us pray: God of Creation, thank you for the beauty of the earth. Thank you for signs and wonders showing us your divine love for all the earth. May your divine power guide the pastor’s life and ministry, blessing her family, and granting her strength, courage, and wisdom to be a good steward of her own well-being for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Amen.

(The Charge to the Pastor, Installation of Rev. Karen Herbst-Kim, Northminster Presbyterian Church, Indianapolis, IN, November 12, 2023)