10 Keys to Sustaining the Ministry Life

Pastors and church planters face enormous demands as we try to juggle family responsibilities,
ministry, and often, school and part-time jobs. How can we live sustainable lives? We read of tragic
pastoral failures on a weekly basis. Most pastors don't last in the ministry for five yearsperhaps the
only way we pastors are like pro football players! I've been a pastor for 25 years, and these ten
practices have enabled me to pastor for the long-haul:
1. Build a rock-solid daily personal devotional life with God. This simply means that you spend
time every day soaking in God's presence. Pressure is not the problemweak foundations are the
problem. If your foundation is shaky, you won't be able to handle very much at all. If you are going to
be able to achieve and do the great things that God has in store for you to achieve and do, you need a
strong foundation. The granite of your life is your rock-solid personal time with God every day.
2. Choose a prayer partner, a peer with whom you can be utterly transparent. What I have
personally done in my own life for the past 20 years, and what we require of every pastor on the staff
of Vineyard Columbus is to have a prayer partner. We spend one day every month outside of the
office talking and praying with our prayer partner. We have a set of accountability questions that we
ask each other such as:
a. Are you struggling with sexual purity in any way?
b. Have you seen any pornography, or anything on TV or in a movie that you shouldn't have
watched?
c. Have you done anything sexually you shouldn't have done?
d. Are there any emotional attachments forming with someone who is not your spouse?
e. Have you handled your money and financial dealings with absolute integrity?
f. Have you experienced any breach in any relationship? Are you at peace with everyone?
g. Have you forgiven everyone for everything?
h. Are you experiencing intimacy with God on a regular basis?
3. If you are married, schedule a weekly date night with your spouse. It is really important to
stay current and to fuel romance and intimacy with your spouse. My wife and I have a regular date
every Monday. It doesn't need to be expensive. It could be coffee and a long walk through a park or a
leisurely breakfast. But schedule a weekly date with your spouse outside your home.
4. Get financial counseling from a professional financial counselor. Strongly consider (if you
are married, with your spouse) going to a course like Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. Life is
sustainable when your financial house is in order.
5. Ruthlessly avoid all compromising situations with the opposite sex. There are few things
that derail people from the plan of God more than sexual impurity. Jim Downing, who is one of the
patriarchs of the Navigator organization, was asked some years ago: Why is it that so few people
finish well? His response was profound. He said: "They learn the possibility of being fruitful without
being pure. They begin to believe that purity doesn't matter. Eventually, they become like trees
rotting inside that are eventually toppled by a storm." Live a sexually pure life.
6. Take care of yourself physically. Join a gym. Get into the habit of walking with a friend. Watch
your diet. It is not enough that you're involved in ministry. It is not even enough that you grow in
internal purity and intimacy with God. You are a whole person. Your life is integratedbody, soul and
spirit. You cannot neglect your body or your emotional life and continue to do well. So, take care of
yourself physically.
7. Do not confuse knowledge or skills or giftedness for spiritual maturity. You are gifted. You
may know a lot. You may help many people. None of those things are the same as spiritual maturity.
Spiritual maturity is a matter of your internal character, your honesty, your willingness to forgive
everyone for everything, your joy during trials, your trust in the sovereignty of God, your endurance
in hard times, and your unwillingness to compromise integrity. Don't confuse knowledge or skills or
giftedness for spiritual maturity.
8. If you are married, take a great marriage inventory with your spouse and have a
professional marriage counselor discuss the results with you.Here at Vineyard Columbus we
offer a marriage inventory called LIMRI. We have regular marriage retreats. Do a marriage inventory
at the front-end of pastoring, and every few years after that.
9. Join a small group (if married, join with your spouse). Christianity is a team sport. We cannot
grow successfully apart from biblical community. Join a men's group, a women's group, a coed group,
or a recovery group where you can know and be known.
10. Cultivate the fear of the Lord and a fear of sin. We sinners always dreadfully underestimate
the cost of sin and dreadfully overestimate our ability to manage the consequences after we choose to
sin. Sin costs, and once you choose to sin, the consequences are out of your hands. We read
in Proverbs 14:26-27, "Whoever fears the Lord has a secure fortress, and for their children it will be a
refuge. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, turning a person from the snares of death."
Deuteronomy 10:12-13 says, "And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear
the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your
heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord's commands and decrees that I am giving you
today for your own good?"
Psalm 34:9 tells us this: "Fear the Lord, you his holy people, for those who fear him lack nothing."
Psalm 128:1 says: "Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in obedience to him."






The Leaders Devotional Life
LEADERSHI P magazine featured a survey of 500 leaders about their devotional life through a
list of questions like:
What is the one greatest obstacle you struggle with in your devotional life?
Where do you prefer to have private prayer?
How much time should you spend in prayer?
What goals should you have for your devotions?
What are the signs that you are doing well in your devotional life?
It is interesting to note that most of the respondents indicate that time management, distractions,
inconsistency, and lack of discipline are top of the list of obstacles they face in maintaining a
meaningful and regular devotional life. Most of them would also prefer to pray for at least thirty
minutes daily. The place where they prefer to pray in is the office. Some have specific goals like
completing a biblical book while others have no specific goals and simply go with the flow.
Many have expressed that a sign that ones devotional life is doing well is having peace and less
anxiety in times of trouble, stress, and hectic demands as well as greater appreciation of
significant relationships.
Here is some practical help for maintaining a healthy devotional life on the go (seems like an
oxymoron as reflection and contemplation need patience and persistence).
DISCIPLINE WITHOUT DIRECTION SOON BECOMES A DRUDGERY
Establish The Purpose
Discipline without direction soon becomes a drudgery. In sports, if the athlete does not have a
target in mind, he will become listless and futile in his training. As spiritual disciplines train us to
become like Jesus, we need to have a purpose before us. It could be to develop character, or
some virtues or fruit of the Spirit in our lives. A purpose could be seasonal so that we will not
become stagnant and bored with just reading the Bible.
Establish The Pattern
Some of us are morning persons while others are night owls. Although Jesus seemed to follow a
pattern of seeking His heavenly Father early in the morning, some of us are just not adept to
morning devotions. We come alive in the wee hours of the night. Whatever time of the day or
night you are wired to be more reflective, it should be regular.
Establish The Place
A noisy, crowded place can never be a place for a devotional experience. Find a quiet place. That
was why Jesus always withdrew to a solitary place. The desert lonely place seems to be the
primary place of strength for Christ. As Mother Teresa once said, God is a friend of silence.
The missionary-martyr Jim Elliot was right when he said, I think Satan has made it his business
to monopolize on three elements noise, hurry, and crowds. He is quite aware of the power of
silence.
Establish The Practice
Just like a physician, practice may not make him perfect but will certainly make him a
practitioner in his craft. We need to be transformed and changed by the Word and we need to
align our lives to Gods will and this requires downloads and apps. To be doers and not just
hearers means that we practice what we learn and what we preach. Only then will our devotional
life become significant and irreplaceable for our journey as a disciple and a leader for God.
Here are some great quotes from the paper:
Every Church leader admits that a meaningful devotional life is important, but several factors
conspire to dilute it.
To create a meaningful devotional life, wise leaders recognize the link between personality and
particular models.
Compassionate ministry became a spiritual discipline where I learned to serve people as an end
rather than as a means to an end.
By far the most significant thing Ive done to connect with Jesus is extended fasting
My role as a teacher is to capture the truth and be crystal clear, but the beauty and mystery of our
relationship with God are beyond words.
The responsibility of starting a church made me realize that I couldnt produce spiritual fruit. Only
God could do that.
Some of the greatest moments of my spiritual life are in devotions with my wife.





Praying in a Solitary Place

Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary
place, where he prayed. Mark 1:35
This Scripture teaches us the absolute importance of creating personal space for prayer. From Jesus
example we learn the necessity of good personal prayer habits, which include finding time even if it
means getting up early, becoming more intentional, being more disciplined and using more determination
to fit quality prayer time into our busy days.
But Jesus example isnt simply about carving out time. It is also about carving out physical and mental
space, which is much harder to do.
In order to bring decisions before God in prayer, we need to draw apart from everything else. Intense,
uninterrupted prayer is often the only way to move on toward something new at the expense of leaving
behind dearly loved parts of our lives.
Picture yourself in the place of Jesus, lying there in the house where you feel safe, comforted, loved and
accepted. Imagine how much harder the decision to leave would have been if Jesus had ignored that
restless Get up and go out to pray calling.
What if Jesus had rationalized that He could pray just as well lying there amongst His sleeping friends?
The strong emotions tying Him to the comfortable, protected surroundings would have been a stumbling
block to prayer.
Serious prayer for guidance always calls us out. We must intentionally set out on a mental and physical
journey to an empty, neutral zone, a lonely place thats not full of the precious, hard-to-ignore details of
our lives. We must step out of our little worlds into a setting where we can be totally alone with God,
where we can more actively pray and set our whole attention on God.
Jesus retreated to the holy detachment of a solitary place. Solitary places are not always easy to find. But
once were there, its much easier to find God.
Think about some sort of change that you have been considering making in your life. Instead of praying
about it in a comfortable, familiar setting, intentionally set off to find a physically and emotionally solitary
place where Gods Spirit and the inner voice can more easily help you sort out the next step in your life.