New Job Description

We tell each other as pastors that our priorities should be as follows:

1. God
2. Self
3. Family
4. Church
5. Friends
6. Recreation

For those who aren't pastors, "work" could go in fourth place.  Also, although we all should pour more into family/others than our selves, when it comes to care, if we aren't healthy, it's very difficult to care for anyone else.

We tell each other this because it doesn't resemble how most pastors and church staff tend to order their lives.  Often it looks more like:

1. CHURCH/WORK
2. [family self faith friends recreation and everything else fighting for a piece of what's left]

As we can imagine, this doesn't work so well in the end.  We burn out, wonder where God is, and sink into the defeat of feeling as though we're not good at even one single aspect of our life.

As staff and other pastors in my covenant groups, we've been talking about rewriting our "job" descriptions, where the top outcome of our work is a deep and robust relationship with a living God.  

While it feels liberating and powerful, the challenge is in the follow through.  Even in this new order, we put all the important stuff first (just like the first list suggests), but in the secret hopes that doing so will ultimately bless and benefit number 4.  When this is the case, number 4 is ultimately still number 1.  

So today I remind each of us, whether pastors, staff, or working people in the world, put your living God first, and build that relationship for NO OTHER purpose than to build that relationship.  Let God grow into the rest of your life.  After all, it's truly amazing what happens when we fall into Jesus' arms.  

More to come!

Jason <><