From Dave Bryant serving in Centennial, CO
QUESTION: Time off?
How often do you take time away from the stage/leading worship? Are you expected to lead every Sunday, or do you take time off?
RICK MUCHOW:
To answer this question, we'll follow Pastor Rick Warren's pattern: 1) abandon annually, 2) withdraw weekly, and 3) divert daily. These three principles are a very important part of staying fresh and avoiding burnout. Burnout is one of the biggest issues for those of us serving the church body.
ABANDON ANNUALLY
Abandon annually means taking a real, non-working vacation at least once per year. Abandon is a radical statement, and that's what it feels like for those of us who have a tendency to be fast-paced, always with one more thing on the To Do list. Work never ends, and inevitably there's a major crisis that must be handled before we can leave. That's why "abandon" is the appropriate term because the truth is that the work will never end, and the enemy does not want us to be refreshed and refocused. We need to equip our staff to the best of our ability and then turn everything off. Jesus took time away from his disciples when he fasted in the desert for 40 days and nights. I take four weeks for vacation each year, and another 4 weekends for personal time. These include conferences, missions, concerts and recording times.
WITHDRAW WEEKLY
I take Mondays and Fridays off. Friday is a relax-and-refresh day for me to make sure that I know my music for the weekend. Monday is my true day off.
DIVERT DAILY
The principle in diverting daily is that we do something every day that's not church related. This can be a half hour or less each work day.
At Saddleback, we currently have 6 services in the Worship Center every weekend with 2 on Saturday night, 2 on Sunday morning and 2 on Sunday night. These are identical services. When I lead these, I do all 6 services. We also have a total of 12 additional "venues" which are on the campus and run concurrently with the Worship Center services every weekend. A venue service is simply a service targeted at a specific audience, whether it's a music style or an affinity group.
I have a 4 week cycle, doing a weekend on and weekend off pattern for the Worship Center along with a venue service weekend in the middle. That means that in Week One, l lead all 6 services in the Worship Center. In Week Two, I lead one venue service. In Week Three, I lead all 6 Worship Center services. In Week Four, I don't lead a service. When I'm not leading during the 2nd and 4th weeks, I spend time walking the campus, looking at venues and taking it all in to see where we on track and where we can make improvements. Some weeks when I'm not leading, I stay home and enjoy family time and enjoy God's incredible blessing of rest and relaxation.
In a smaller church setting when attendance ran under 300 during my days at First Baptist Gilroy, I led 3 services each weekend. I led the Sunday morning and night services and a third believer-oriented service (with the choir, pianist, organist, youth choir) and a Wednesday night rehearsal. I had 2 weeks off per year with the flexibility to be gone during the week, but I was expected to be on campus pretty much every weekend. I also had 2 weeks of concert, conference, missions and/or recording time.
I found at my smaller church that I had more flexibility with my time during the week. On the weekend there was very little flexibility for me in my available time. The majority of my work took place on the weekend; whereas at Saddleback, the slight majority of my work takes place during the week at meetings, in organizing the ministry, staff relations, strategic planning and working through the complexity of a large organization.
I'm not expected to lead every service or even every Sunday. In fact, there's no way I could lead every individual service on the campus. I'm encouraged to use multiple leaders in our services in order to serve our church body and to help our members serve with their gifts. At Saddleback, our goal is not to lead through personalities, but through the Purposes, reaching one more for Jesus and growing until there is no one left to reach.
