Rest IS a Weapon

How many hours a week should a pastor work? Every minister and every congregation will, at one point or another, ask this question. Ministers are weary of hearing the joking jab, “You only work one hour a week.” Yes, it is said jokingly, but behind the joke is a serious question/ concern about just what is it pastors do and how long does it take to do it. Just how long does it take to write a sermon and the accompanying liturgy? “Don’t you just get that stuff out of a book or off the internet?” For the diligent pastor that last one really hurts.

In my observation, the issue is not that the pastor works too few hours. The issue is working too many hours. Unless a minister leaves town and leaves their cell phone at home, a minister is never off the clock. Even when on a date with one’s spouse, if the cell phone rings the pastor is expected to answer the call. If the call involves a personal crisis for the person on the other end of the call the pastor is expected to respond appropriately. Responding may mean having to leave your date to find a quiet and less public place to hear the person out and to give the necessary reassurances. Responding may mean having to end the date and make a trip to the hospital to be with the family of a person facing emergency surgery or end of life issues.

That sermon for the next Sunday is always on the pastor’s mind, even when not frontally active. When enjoying an evening home watching the TV or reading a book the sermon is simmering on the back burner. A word, a scene, a paragraph can suddenly bring the sermon off the back burner to the front burner and to a galloping boil.

Much of a pastor’s work is hidden except from those to whom the pastor is ministering. The pastor cannot go about telling others the story of having sat for hours with the distraught parents of a teenager who was arrested for drug possession. The pastor cannot begin to describe the personal emotional and spiritual toll in preparing for the funeral of very close member of the congregation. For pastors, in more rural areas, it may take two, three, or more hours driving each way to visit a member in an acute care hospital in “the city.”

In the Robert Ludlum novels featuring Jason Bourne a frequent refrain of Bourne is “Rest is a weapon.” It is Bourne’s contention, in any struggle or conflict, the person who is the most rested has the advantage. In the Gospels, Jesus and the disciples periodically pulling away from the fray for rest and prayer. If we look to the account of the Fall, arduous work is one of the consequences associated with being expelled from the garden. If we look at Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus invites those who labor and are overburdened to find rest in Him. Jesus redeems the negative consequence of arduous labor inviting us to rest.

Pastors and congregation members, rest is not optional for the pastor. Rest is essential. The pattern is set for us in the creation account where God rested. Every day, pastors are in contention with powers and principalities of this world as they seek to minister to those they have been called to serve. Taking at least one day a week for rest and re-creation is essential. Taking an extended vacation each year is essential.

Those who continually work 10-12 hours a day, seven days a week and fifty-two weeks a year are not doing themselves nor the congregation they serve any favors. Such a pattern is a failure in the stewardship of self. Such a pattern rejects the gift of Sabbath. Such a pattern is to ignore Jesus’ invitation to rest.

Jason Bourne had it right. Rest is a weapon. In any struggle or conflict the one most rested has the advantage.