Burnout, Leadership and Vision, the Balance of Attitude
Paradise Community Church is a place where much is asked of the congregation. We are constantly exhorted to become involved, to do more, to give more, to serve. At every turn it seems that there is more we can do in our Christian lives. We are encouraged to go to church twice on Sunday, to life group every fortnight and 30 Something every 2 weeks. We are asked to read 4 chapters of the bible every day and write about it as well as praying. We are encouraged to give 10% of our income to the church. We are also encouraged to devote time to serving in some area of the church. On top of that there are many courses to help us enrich our spiritual life, conferences and special events to go to as well as prayer and fasting for special needs. All of this can add up to many hours a week.
Why would anyone devote so much time and effort to the church? Is all of that necessary? In looking at that list all together it seems wearying to me and yet I do most if not all of those things every week (and more, leadership brings its own set of expectations) and I do them gladly.
To those outside our church in other Christian denominations this begins to raise some very real questions: Why should a church set the standard of Christianity so high? Didn’t Jesus die on the cross so that we could have free access to salvation? Why then must we do all of these things so that we can be Christians? Who does the church think they are to demand this of us? Can’t we just decide for ourselves what is reasonable for us? So much commitment is unhealthy and I need to look after myself, don’t I know what is best for my life? It’s between me and God. I don’t trust the leadership of this church to look after my welfare, I have to look after myself. Why should I feel a constant sense of guilt at not measuring up when the message of the church is God’s grace and freedom from rules and regulations.
These are good questions. I know of people both within and outside our church who struggle with many of them and I admit to struggling with some of them myself from time to time. At the moment this seems to be a relevant issue to where a number of people I know are at so I’m going to have a go at providing some answer and explanation to them. I’m not going to be able to give a perfect answer so feel free to talk back in the comments so that together we can come to a better understanding.
The first thing I find helps me is to ask whether God called me to be at Paradise. The answer is yes, I believe He called me both to live in Adelaide and to attend Paradise Community Church. I believe that God knew before I was born that I would be here and He knew in advance both the blessings I would receive and the imperfections I would encounter. I trust God. I believe He has given me the resources to be a contributor to the mission that He has given to Paradise and I believe that He wants me to contribute fully rather than holding back. I believe that when He called me to be a Christian it was with everything I am and everything I can bring and that half measures don’t enter in to it. By holding nothing back from God I am only bringing Him what is his due. I know I fall down in this but I want to keep the attitude of pressing on towards the goal.
The second issue to deal with is that of leadership. God is perfect and of course his requests of us should be obeyed but what about imperfect fallible leaders, why should we obey them? The first thing to say is that I don’t believe that leaders are perfect. I believe that sooner or later a leader at Paradise will do something that will hurt or upset me either through my fault or theirs no matter how wonderful a man or woman of God they may be. Why should I follow them so wholeheartedly then? The reason is because God has commanded us. Hebrews 13:17 commands us to obey our leaders and furthermore commands us to make their work a joy and not a burden, why? because that will be to our advantage. What advantage? It comes down to vision. I believe that God has called me to be a part of the vision of those in authority over me and and that He has selected them intentionally to be my blessing. If that changes I trust God to call me somewhere else but in the meantime I am called to work through any disagreement I have with what they are doing in a way that does not rebel against their God appointed authority. I believe that God is sovereign and that nothing can happen to me when I am in the place where He wants me that will restrict the destiny that He has for me. I believe that even if those in leadership over me are doing the wrong thing (and I don’t think they are BTW, they are doing a great job) then I will be blessed by serving whilst God has called me to be there. I know that I can trust my leadership because I can trust God and He has put them there intentionally.
Why does Paradise Community Church set such a high standard? Because God has a purpose and a destiny for our church that requires a greater commitment to see achieved. While I am called to Paradise I am called to serve the vision that God has ordained there.
Finally we come to the question of burnout. What if I am called to do too much, more than is healthy? It is certainly possible given the zeal with which the church goes about fulfilling the vision. The answer to that has to come back to my attitude. If I shrink back from doing something in the church because I am thinking only of my own needs then I am doing it wrong. By sowing my energy into the things of God I know that I will reap a harvest both now and in eternity so holding back doesn’t make sense. If on the other hand I don’t do something only to concentrate better on those things I know I am called to focus on, to serve others better then I think that is healthy. In everything I need to watch my attitude because if I ever do anything for any other reason than to serve God and serve others then eventually it will become a work and a burden to me.
Attitude is everything.
This is a long post covering a lot of ground so let me know what you think in the comments.
