My articles for Building Church Leaders are all about caring for your soul, nurturing your relationship with God. I'm convinced that most of us just soldier on, and don't really think about caring for ourselves. We're busy caring for our families, earning a living, leading at church. We care for the people or children we lead, our families, friends, but we back burner our own needs.

Suppose you decided you needed to improve your physical health. How would you do it? Perhaps you'd read a book on diet and exercise, even talk to a personal trainer. Or, you might just decide to skip desserts and go for a walk every day. You know that reading a book or even talking to an expert will only get you so far—you have to put the advice into practice in order to see change.

How is your spiritual health? Can you even tell? Ministry productivity doesn't necessarily equal spiritual health, especially if productivity is the result of working too much or ignoring relationships in order to accomplish ...