{"id":31314,"date":"2022-09-10T15:25:29","date_gmt":"2022-09-10T20:25:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/3-isolation-traps-pastors-should-avoid\/"},"modified":"2022-09-10T15:25:29","modified_gmt":"2022-09-10T20:25:29","slug":"3-isolation-traps-pastors-should-avoid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/3-isolation-traps-pastors-should-avoid\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Isolation Traps Pastors Should Avoid"},"content":{"rendered":"
Photo by Keegan Houser on Unsplash <\/p>\n

By Josh King<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cSenior pastors have a special and wonderful role in Christ’s church, but like folks in leadership everywhere, they face a sinister temptation to massively overvalue their uniqueness in a way that isolates them from accountability and input and burden-sharing.\u201d<\/em>\u2014 <\/em>Andy Johnson, <\/em>IX Marks Journal, June 2011<\/p>\n

This past Sunday as our church began to gather again in person, I shared with them what I call \u201cthe damaging effects of isolation.\u201d While I’m in agreement with and support the precautions we\u2019re taking to mitigate health risks, I\u2019m concerned with the impact of isolation on our souls.<\/p>\n

With that in mind I read the above quote and was struck by how often we pastors put ourselves in dangerous isolation, not from a desire to be healthy, but from an arrogance that believes we already are.<\/p>\n

Here are a few self-isolations I\u2019ve noticed among the pastors I call friends and acquaintances.<\/p>\n

1. Isolation from accountability<\/strong><\/h3>\n

If you\u2019ve pastored for longer than an hour you know how messed up people can be. The hard thing is remembering that we, too, are people\u2014messed up people. We need others in our lives who can tell us when we\u2019re acting out of character or going down a wayward path.<\/p>\n

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I know there are several arguments for a multiplicity of top-level leadership in this vein of thought, but let me encourage you to change the way you interact with nearly everyone. Be honest about your motivations. Whatever decision you\u2019re wrestling with, you no doubt have some pure and some evil motivations.<\/p>\n

When you speak with your peers and mentors, vocalize those base motivations. Let them know you\u2019re leaning toward pride, self-preservation, or even fear. It doesn\u2019t have to be an official set-aside group of people who are constantly giving you a job review. It can be a manner in which you walk through life, allowing others to know you’re not always practicing what you’re preaching.<\/p>\n

2. Isolation from burden-sharing <\/strong><\/h3>\n

We\u2019re told\u2014and repeat it to ourselves\u2014that the buck stops with us. We believe we should shoulder the burden of the church, and sadly, we think if we don\u2019t, we\u2019re not only disappointing our church but also Christ. All of this is a lie.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re not created to carry the burden of a church by ourselves, and so we must allow other people to shoulder the burden with us. One of the habits I\u2019ve developed in my life is regularly taking an inventory, asking myself what things are causing me stress and then looking for people who can either take those from me or help me with them.<\/p>\n

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See also  What Sparks Evangelical Generosity? Discipleship<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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It\u2019s amazing how much care is gained by simply telling another person I\u2019m feeling a bit overwhelmed by a matter and asking if they’d mind taking a certain amount of it.<\/p>\n

3. Isolation from peers <\/strong><\/h3>\n

The final isolation I see suck the life out of pastors is an isolation from other people who are in the trenches of pastoring churches. I find it helpful to make sure I’m in regular and open communication with other pastors who are pastoring churches of a similar size and setting. They know what I\u2019m doing and can help me navigate the challenges.<\/p>\n

While friends who pastor smaller churches are life-giving, they can often be used to puff up our own ego, like building our own fan club. Friends who pastor larger churches or more prestigious positions are regularly used to network for future advancement.<\/p>\n

What we need is a friend who can give us nothing and need nothing from us. We have to be willing to kill our pride and open up to someone else rowing in the same direction about the pain we\u2019re experiencing. We don\u2019t because we want to appear to be the top dog.<\/p>\n

In all areas of life right now, distancing is an aspect; but isolation shouldn\u2019t be. The result of sin is that we slide toward isolation. It\u2019s where we end up naturally unless we fight it. Few people intentionally cut everyone off. But many end up in isolation when they aren\u2019t intentional about pushing toward other people and leaning into those relationships.<\/p>\n

My hope is that as we come out of this season of social distancing we\u2019ll be ever more thankful for\u2014and intentional with\u2014the companionship we find in others both in the local church family and our larger context.<\/p>\n

JOSH KING (@JoWiKi)<\/strong> is the pastor of Second Baptist Church in Conway, Arkansas, husband of Jacki, and father of three boys<\/em>. He\u2019s also a co-host of the EST.church podcast.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Dig Deeper at Lifeway.com<\/div>\n
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Before We Forget: Reflections from New and Seasoned Pastors on Enduring Ministry<\/h2>\n

Nate Millican & Jonathan Woodyard<\/p>\n

FIND OUT MORE <\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Related posts:<\/h3>\n
What Do Pastors Believe About the End Times? What Do Pastors Believe About the Book of Revelation? 3 Ways to Reach Non-Religious People in Your Community <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo by Keegan Houser on Unsplash By Josh King \u201cSenior pastors have a special and wonderful role in Christ’s church, but like folks in leadership everywhere, they face a sinister temptation to massively overvalue their uniqueness in a way that isolates them from accountability and input and burden-sharing.\u201d\u2014 Andy Johnson, IX Marks Journal, June 2011 … Continue reading “3 Isolation Traps Pastors Should Avoid”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31314\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}