Value of Health for Clergy
VALUE OF HEALTH FOR CLERGY
Leading a vital church ministry is a challenge in the 21st century world. It is important that pastoral leaders stay healthy and growing – spiritually, emotionally, mentally and physically. Jesus said in Mark 12:30-31(NIV): “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength…Love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus challenges us to assess our own unique needs first so that we may minister to others more effectively.
Further, Jesus asks us to cultivate a balanced life as he values heart, soul, mind and strength, all at the same level. We can’t afford to eat too much, and sleep and exercise too little. We can’t afford to read too much for sermon preparation, and spend less time in personal prayer and self-reflection. We can’t afford to spend too much time with parishioners, and spend less time with family and friends. We can’t afford to train the mind to the neglect of the emotions. Jesus encourages us to integrate heart, soul, mind and body in a healthy and balanced way. Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy 6:4-5 but here he adds the phrase “with all your mind.” It was not in the verse in Deuteronomy, which means Jesus would want to awaken us mentally too.
While studying the pastoral relationship between Paul and Timothy, Paul teaches Timothy how to conduct himself relative to his life, speech, love, faith and purity. This clearly suggests the expectation of healthy leadership. The young Timothy was abounding in mercy, but lacked the courage and firmness necessary. Timothy, being the spiritual son in the faith of Paul, was a good man, but he needed instructions to be a strong leader of the faith communities. How leaders communicate, interact and relate with people, and lead their lives will impact the health of their pastoral leadership.
John Wesley, in eighteenth-century England, focused his renewal efforts on reclaiming boldly and broadly the holistic salvation. He charged his assistants to leave behind books that could provide ongoing guidance, highlighting in particular two works: (1) his excerpts of Thomas a Kempis’s The Imitation of Christ, which Wesley valued as a spiritual guide to spiritual health; (2) Primitive Physick, a collection of medical advice, which Wesley valued as a guide to physical health. He was intentional in promoting wellness of soul, body and emotions. His deep conviction was to see that Christians actively participate in God’s work of nurturing not only souls but also bodies. Wesley’s approach reminds us to return to the early church practice of ministering to the whole person. This holistic model – spiritual, mental, emotional and physical wellbeing – may seem to be a challenge to live up to, but it’s important in order that we can be fruit-bearing for the Kingdom of God.
QUOTES:
King David (Psalm 139): “Search me, O God and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me.”
John Chrysostom (4th century): “the priests’ wounds require greater help, indeed as much as those of all people together… because of heavy demands and extraordinary expectations associated with pastoral office.”
Thomas Kelly (Quaker writer): “Each of us tends to be not a single self, but a whole committee of selves. And each of these selves is a rank individualist, not cooperative, but shouting out his/her vote for himself/herself when voting time comes. And even when a consensus is taken, the disgruntled minority agitates on the street of the soul.”
W. E. Sangster (English Methodist): “I have a sense of certainty that God does not want me only for a preacher. He wants me also for a leader – a leader in Methodism. I feel a commission to work under God for the revival of this branch of His church – careless of my own reputation; indifferent to the comments of older and jealous man. I am 36. If I am to serve God in this way, I must no longer shrink from the task, but do it. The Church is painfully in need of leaders. I wait to hear a voice and no voice comes …I would rather listen than speak. Bewildered and unbelieving, I hear the voice of God say to me, ‘I want to sound the note through you.’”
Wisconsin Conference UMCPage 1