{"id":23816,"date":"1988-10-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"1988-10-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/1988\/10\/01\/danger-of-spirtual-vitality\/"},"modified":"1988-10-01T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"1988-10-01T00:00:00","slug":"danger-of-spirtual-vitality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/danger-of-spirtual-vitality\/","title":{"rendered":"THE DANGER OF SPIRTUAL VITALITY"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Recently someone asked me, &#8220;How can pastors stay spiritually vital?&#8221;<\/p>\n\n<p>I said, &#8220;I don&#8217;t worry about that.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n<p>He looked surprised, even shocked. &#8220;To me, there&#8217;s an issue even bigger than staying spiritually vital,&#8221; I explained. &#8220;The important thing is to stay spiritually authentic.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n<p>There&#8217;s a difference. Usually when I hear people talk about staying spiritually vital, they&#8217;re talking about staying pumped, being spiritually up, feeling strong, keeping the glow. But that&#8217;s only part of the spiritual life. To expect to be spiritually high all the time is like expecting to romance your wife every evening. It just isn&#8217;t realistic.<\/p>\n\n<p>In the Christian life, there&#8217;s an ebb and flow. Sometimes you feel exalted and glorious; other times you feel weighed down or simply quiet. Some days you feel despairing; other days resilient and joyful. The strong, vital times come, too, but they&#8217;re not the constant.<\/p>\n\n<p>The rub comes when we expect to be buoyant constantly. And as pastors we may get that message from others. We&#8217;ve all known churches where each week had to be a grand and glorious spiritual experience, higher and stronger than the last.<\/p>\n\n<p>But then comes a day when, to be truthful, we&#8217;re spiritually wrung out. There&#8217;s not a drop of vitality in us. At that moment we are greatly tempted: Will we be honest about it, or will we mask it because we&#8217;re supposed to be &#8220;spiritually vital&#8221;?<\/p>\n\n<p>Being honest, being true to our actual spiritual condition, is what I mean by being spiritually authentic. It&#8217;s not easy.<\/p>\n\n<p>I plead with my staff: &#8220;It&#8217;s okay sometimes to let people know you&#8217;re struggling, that you feel dry, that your prayer life or your family life isn&#8217;t what you want it to be. Be honest. If you&#8217;re down, admit it. If you&#8217;re flying high, it&#8217;s okay to tell them that, too. Just be spiritually authentic, for when you&#8217;re authentic, you&#8217;ll grow-and so will your people.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n<p>One time when I was preaching on heaven, I had to admit, &#8220;The first thing I did this morning was pray a prayer of confession, because I wasn&#8217;t proud of the way my mind has been working these past few days. I have been too worldly recently; I have been too caught up in the here and now. I get so tired of having a guilty conscience. I get so tired of saying things I have to apologize for. I get so tired of lashing out at people and then trying to make up for it later on. I get so tired of sinning.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n<p>By letting people know I needed forgiveness as much or more than they did, I could then point to an aspect of heaven that appeals to me greatly: &#8220;But the Bible says a day is coming when you&#8217;re in heaven and there&#8217;s no more remorse, no more regret, no more stained consciences.&#8221; No, I may not have come across as the paragon of spiritual vitality in that sermon. But I hope I came across as spiritually authentic.<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead1\">Why?<\/h2>\n\n<p>Sometimes in my more honest moments I think, I&#8217;ve given probably a thousand messages at this church, but I&#8217;ll bet my best people couldn&#8217;t give you the titles to three of them. Then I think, But, man, their lives have been radically altered, and preaching is at least fractionally involved. What&#8217;s happening?<\/p>\n\n<p>I&#8217;ve come to believe that a major benefit of preaching (and ministry) is indirect-what people pick up as they watch us and listen to us over time. And when we&#8217;re honest about our struggles and admit our failures, people see that Christianity can fit with the ups and downs of their lives. I rejoice on those occasions when someone will come to me and say, &#8220;You know, Bill, I&#8217;ve come to the conclusion that you&#8217;re a real person just like me. Thank you for shooting straight with me about occasional mistakes you make in raising your children. Thank you for telling us you had a problem controlling your temper in a volatile discussion. It just reminds me that if there&#8217;s grace to cover your mistakes, there&#8217;s probably grace to cover mine.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n<p>When I hear that, I&#8217;m reminded that I don&#8217;t always have to be spiritually &#8220;vital.&#8221; But I do have to be authentic enough to admit when I&#8217;m not.<\/p>\n\n<p>-Bill Hybels<\/p>\n\n<p>Willow Creek Community Church <\/p>\n\n<p>South Barrington, Illinois<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"is-style-article-copyright\">Copyright &copy; 1988 by the author or Christianity Today\/<em class=\"citation\">Leadership Journal<\/em>.\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/le\/help\/permissionsprivacy\/permissions.html#answer\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"copyright\" rel=\"noopener\">Click here<\/a> for reprint information on <em class=\"citation\">Leadership Journal<\/em>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Recently someone asked me, &#8220;How can pastors stay spiritually vital?&#8221; I said, &#8220;I don&#8217;t worry about that.&#8221; He looked surprised, even shocked. &#8220;To me, there&#8217;s an issue even bigger than staying spiritually vital,&#8221; I explained. &#8220;The important thing is to stay spiritually authentic.&#8221; There&#8217;s a difference. Usually when I hear people talk about staying spiritually <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/danger-of-spirtual-vitality\/\">Read more&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"tax_ctp_authors":[921],"tax_ctp_books":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[154],"tax_ctp_field_guide_subcategory":[],"tax_ctp_field_guides":[],"tax_ctp_format":[131],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[607,608,156],"tax_ctp_tags":[3918,4088,4164,4275,4679,5065,5256],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-23816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tax_ctp_authors-bill-hybels","tax_publications-1988-leadership-journal","tax_publications-fall_1988-leadership-journal","tax_publications-leadership-journal","tax_ctp_tags-expectation","tax_ctp_tags-grace","tax_ctp_tags-honesty","tax_ctp_tags-intimacy","tax_ctp_tags-prayer","tax_ctp_tags-spirituality","tax_ctp_tags-vulnerability"],"acf":{"scripture_references":null},"yoast_head":"<!-- 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