This article is taken from H.B. London’s “Pastor’s Weekly Briefing” and it couldn’t be more true.  I’m afraid in the 30 years that I was a senior pastor I didn’t heed this kind of advice.  Frankly…my health has suffered for it and I wonder if I even cut a few years off of my life.  Pastor…I encourage you to take this seriously.  Church member…I encourage you to help take care of your pastor so he can be one of those that last.  Andy

Take a Break

While we read in Genesis that God rested on the seventh day, a growing number of ministers are finding that there is more work — and stress — than ever before, and fewer opportunities to unwind. The result has been a myriad of health problems among the clergy — from a lack of exercise, poor eating habits, more hypertension, a rise in obesity, problems of depression and substance abuse, higher rates of arthritis and asthma, and all of the ills of modern life that pastors spend so much time trying to help their congregants tackle. And many of these are at higher rates than most Americans.

A national survey in 2001 of more than 2,500 Christian religious leaders conducted by Duke Divinity School showed that 76 percent of Christian clergy were either overweight or obese, 15 percentage points higher than for the general U.S. population. And other research has shown that clergy across all faiths are succumbing to higher rates of obesity, hypertension, diabetes and other ailments than their congregants.

What are some of the reasons for this decrease in health?

• Some experts say the situation may be aggravated by the recession, with donations down and more financial challenges for pastors on the job.
• The culture and economy are also causing many difficulties for the members of their congregations, which pastors feel they must try to address.
• Clergy routinely work 60-hour weeks and often have just one day off — and not the day everyone else is off. That makes it hard to develop friendships and creates a lot of loneliness.
• Nearly every function a pastor attends is likely to have food — and not necessarily healthy fare — that he or she is expected to share.
• A clergy shortage in many faiths leaves pastors overworked, overstressed, underpaid, and too often a lone ranger with little support from other ministers or the congregation.
• Like other service professions, pastors are expected to be available at all times, whether it is the dinner hour or on vacation. They have “boundary issues,” which means they are too easily overtaken by the urgency of other people’s needs.
• Pastors are often designated the holiest member of the congregation, who can be in all places at all times. But unlike doctors or police, they are supposed to be people who have dedicated their lives to a spiritual goal and are not expected to focus on themselves, their own welfare or their families.
• The root of the stress is that, for a minister, work centers around so many different relationships and the demand that he or she be all things to all people.
• Pastors start thinking that things like their church will be their legacy instead of their families, which knocks them out of balance and “whacks” their own relationships with Christ.

As cell phones and social media expose ministers to new dimensions of stress, and as health care costs soar, some of the country’s largest denominations have begun wellness campaigns for their spiritual leaders. At the center of nearly all of these programs is more rest.

“We had a pastor in our study group who hadn’t taken a vacation in 18 years,” said Rae Jean Proeschold-Bell, an assistant professor of health research at Duke University.

A United Methodist Church directive proclaimed, “Time away can bring renewal and help prevent burnout.” Episcopal, Baptist and Lutheran churches have all undertaken health initiatives that place special emphasis on the need for pastors to take vacations and observe “Sabbath days,” their weekday time off in place of Sundays.

A program called the National Clergy Renewal Program, funded by the Lilly Foundation, has been underwriting sabbaticals for pastors for several years. The program will provide up to $50,000 to 150 congregations in the coming year. And places like the Alban Institute are studying the topic and offering expertise and resources to denominations trying to make their clergy healthier.

But experts say the solutions have to start at the congregation level. Congregants can encourage pastors to take time off, and not view everything in the church as his or her responsibility. They can provide healthy foods at church events. But clergy themselves must find time to exercise and to relax, even if it means saying no to some requests. Otherwise, they will not be healthy enough to serve their flocks later. They must recognize that long hours and porous boundaries between one’s work life and personal life is an occupational hazard.

Rev. Peter Scazzero, pastor of New Life Fellowship Church in Elmhurst, Queens, N.Y., begins his advice by rejecting the constant-growth ethic that has contributed to the explosion of so-called mega-churches. He also advocates more vacation time for members of the clergy, Sabbath-keeping, and a “rhythm of stopping,” or daily praying, that he learned from the silent order of Trappist monks. He was forced to make a change to live more consciously and less compulsively by his depression and alienation from his wife and four children. “The insight I gained from the Trappists is that being too ‘busy’ is an impediment to one’s relationship with God.” [The New York Times, PoliticsDaily.com]

I have read on a number of web sites and in books about where and how the “Image of the Beast” is going to come into play near the end of human history.  Often I have read about the possibility of a microchip being planted on people’s hand between the thumb and forefinger.  To be honest with you I always placed it down, until I ran across an article on American Consumer News.com that I am posting below.  It’s rather eye opening. Looks more and more possible everyday.  Take a read and tell me what you think.

Andy

Walmart [NYSE:WMT] to Imbed RFID Tags on Clothes Beginning August 1

Walmart [NYSE:WMT] maintains imbedding the electronic identification tags is strictly to improve inventory management. Some critics point out that putting the tags on merchandise fringes on a violation of privacy.

Beginning August 1, 2010, clothing will be imbedded with a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag. The tags can be read with a hand-held scanner which will assist employees with the inventory and boost efficiency on the floor and in the warehouse.

Using RFID tags is a common practice for large retailers but most tags are located on pallets of merchandise and are used mostly to track inventory from factory to retail outlet. Some consumers are getting chaffed at the idea of having a tracking device in their shorts. One type of tracking device that is being implemented is a passive tag that can be tracked by anyone with a scanner tuned to the correct signal. The tag can be removed from clothing by the consumer, but the device will continue to be trackable even if it sits in a trash can or dumpster.

Once the large retailers such as Walmart start to initiate a program such as RFID tags other retail outlets usually follow suit. In some cases it is for control that the big retail outlets, like Walmart, have over the suppliers. It may also be that retail stores draw from the same supply network as Walmart so the clothes will have tags installed. Other retailers such as JC Penny and Bloomingdale’s have also begun to manage their inventory levels with smart tags.

Privacy advocates are worried that the smart tags are just another way for big business to glean personal information from consumers. A RFID tag could be scanned as people walk the store or tracked even outside the store to see what else the person has purchased.

Even if the original purpose of RFID tags is to track inventory and to increase efficiency, there will always be someone who will use the tool, not for its intended purpose, but use it for personal gain and fraudulent activity.

So…what do you think?  Are we getting closer to 666?  Do you think that what the merchants are doing is opening the door?  I’d really like your comments.

Andy

This post is for Father’s Day and has absolutely nothing to do with disciple making, churches or anything that this blog is about at all.

Captain Forrest L. McAdams

Yet…as I remember my dad, it’s important to me that I post this article about him.

If no one reads this or comments, that’s OK.  This is a tribute to my father who died one year ago today.  Yes…on Father’s Day.  Dad always had a way of entering or exiting with some sort of command.

The word “command” is to the reason I write these words.  You see…my father commanded men as a Captain in the United States Army.  Captain Forrest L. McAdams lived just shy of nine decades by 7 months when he passed on the morning of Father’s Day, 2009.  His was a soft-spoken man with a dry sense of humor that had very little to say, but when he spoke it seemed to be important.

I desperately wanted to be close to our father and no matter how hard any of us kids tried, he held us at an arms distance.  It wasn’t his fault; he was a product of being raised during the depression and was the sort of father that his father (who died very young) modeled for him.  Dad loved us he just didn’t know how to show it very well.

I can probably count on one hand the number of times I could remember seeing an outward sign of emotion or affection.  From what I learned from his siblings and my grandmother it was common in his family.

As a young boy I used to see my dad leaving the house in full uniform with those silver bars shinning brightly on his shoulders and though neither myself, my sister Helen or my brother Joe were real close to dad, there was still an overwhelming sense of pride that he was a soldier that welled up inside of me. I recall how it made me smile inside when I would see enlisted men salute him and call him “sir”.

In so many ways, I wanted to be like my dad and join the Army…but that never happened.  To me he was a hero and I felt that way my entire life.  He was a man of pride and dignity and always carried himself as with the honor becoming an officer.  I am so grateful to my sister that honored him by taking care of him in elder days, always protecting his dignity as a man.

Dad loved going to the VFW for a beer and to be around others that also laid their lives on the line on some foreign soil somewhere in the world, even if they weren’t sure why they were there.  All they knew was, “it was for their country, the flag and freedom for family as well as everyone else” and that was all that mattered.  Those soldiers of yesteryear seldom talked about their days of battle…probably because it was painful for many of them.  They just wanted the comradely again from those who had been there and understood and were able to come home.

Even though our father served well over 25 years in the Army and fought in two wars, he never stormed a hill to win some medal for valor.  He never rescued comrades from an enemy POW camp and he certainly didn’t have a movie made about his heroic battlefield accomplishments.  But to me…he was and always will be a hero and I thank God everyday for the part he played in keeping this country safe.

I recall standing with tears running down my cheeks looking at his flag covered casket that was soon to lowered into the ground, then the guns of military salute were fired into the air and the distant sound of “Taps” that came from the bugler, while those family members in attendance that had also served saluted him with respect, love and honor.  Speechlessly I accepted the folded flag with great pride for my dad the solider, while an Army officer on behalf the president and a grateful nation, thanked me for dad’s service.  I wanted to sob, but held it all in, probably because that’s the way dad would have wanted it.  Today that flag is in a glass case in my office with his Captain’s Bars on it and each time I look at it, I recall my father the military man and thank him for being my our dad in the best way that he knew how.

So why am I writing and posting this?  Because on this day as my mind wondered to him, I decided to do something that we all do from time to time when we want to find out something about someone.  I “googled” his name and to my disappointment…nothing came up.  How can a man that gave much of his life to his country, family and life in general go out of this world and into eternity without any permanent memory of him?  It’s not right!

So now…due to his son the preacher’s blog, if anyone anywhere from this time on would happen to type his name into the high-speed information network we call the Internet, his name will appear.  His name is now immortal beyond a headstone in a cemetery.

I love you dad and I will never forget you.

Andy

Please feel free to use the comment section of this post to leave a tribute to your own father.