Jump directly to the Content

Pastor, Have You Lost Your Edge?

When your enthusiasm for the ministry fades, you need a plan.
Pastor, Have You Lost Your Edge?

I knew something had changed when I started systematically watching reruns of my favorite TV show, "Friday Night Lights." Netflix, you see, is a dangerous invention. And over the past year or two, it had slowly, subtly siphoned my passion.

I'm a teaching and campus pastor, and this is a confessional of sorts. The main issue is not television or Netflix per se. It's about a stage of life, in which I, as a pastor, have been tempted to exchange my calling for a paycheck. My ability to care was being compromised by other pastimes.

Part of the temptation is surely due to the prevalence of technology and entertainment everywhere we turn. Entertainment on demand—on our phones, our tablets, our computers—renders the disciplines of the spiritual life, and the demands of pastoral work, boring. And so, in this particular slice of time, we find it increasingly difficult to focus, as Eugene Peterson puts it, on a "long obedience in the same direction."

That's ...

December
Support Our Work

Subscribe to CT for less than $4.25/month

Homepage Subscription Panel

Read These Next

From the Magazine
God’s Promises Are Clearest When We Turn Out the Lights
God’s Promises Are Clearest When We Turn Out the Lights
Christians have every reason to reduce light pollution.
Editor's Pick
Come Ye Pastors, Heavy Laden
Come Ye Pastors, Heavy Laden
Learning to walk under the weight of ministry's many hats.
close