I have been pushing it for ten years since Mars Hill Church opened up, and the end of last year was a particularly rough patch. I was looking forward to a few weeks off after Christmas to catch up on sleep. Sadly, what happened was that I would be very tired and go to bed at a decent hour only to wake up a few hours later, unable to return to sleep. I was not stressed out or thinking, but it seemed something was physically wrong. Even sleeping pills were of little to no help and by the end of the holidays I was exhausted, having slept an average of perhaps three hours a night. A naturopath said I had overextended myself and worn out my adrenal glands (which regulate my sympathetic nervous system). The result of basically a decade of perpetual stress and a final taxing season was that I was exhausted all day—I literally had blurred vision and would fall asleep quickly only to wake up a few hours later, unable to sleep again. So, I spent a few months conserving energy for my family and church, but some Sundays were brutal. At times, I actually found myself nodding off on the side of the stage before one of the four services I preach live.
Nothing permanent seems to have been done, but without a change in pace, stress, Sabbath, vacations, diet, exercise, and supplements, I could end up in a really bad place a few years down the road. I find this to be what the Puritan Flavel calls a "sanctified affliction," given to me by God out of His great love. My naturopath, who is a wise and godly Christian brother, said that if I heed God’s advice, I will enjoy a Sabbath rest. But, if I ignore it, He will impose a Sabbath on me through physical inability to continue and so I am taking steps to walk in greater wisdom and repentance.
In January we added no new services or campuses in an effort to slow things down until we can aggressively expand the church next fall. However, we still grew by as many as 1,000 people in a month and had to turn people away from services for the first time in many years. This means that the demands are as intense as ever so the Sabbath issue is an urgent priority. Encouragingly, this season has also been filled with some wise counsel (from pastor friends such as C. J. Mahaney, Dr. John Piper, Ed Young Jr., and Craig Groeschel) that has been very helpful in laying out a plan for the next season of life and ministry. Their counsel, along with a godly naturopath, past conversations with pastor Wayne Cordeiro, and a great deal of personal study comprise the bulk of the content for this lecture.
Thankfully, I am feeling much better having made some major adjustments to my life, schedule, and approach to ministry. My sleep is again very good and my energy and hope are returning. So, although I am limping along, I am encouraged.
As leaders we commonly set the pace of ministry for those under us, which can lead to wholesale burnout of others if we fail to model health and teach it to others. The following points are some brief thoughts from what God has been teaching me as of late. Lastly, the fact that at least twenty-two separate organizations exist in the U.S. solely to deal with pre- and post-pastoral burnout indicate that this is a widespread problem (which has only been identified and researched since the 1950s).
1. How do successful leaders manage their lives?
From 1978 to 1984, Bill Gates took only 6 days off.
Carlos Ghosn (CEO of Renault and Nissan) has an assistant screen all emails and documents, will not allow a meeting to exceed 90 minutes, splits meeting time into half presentation and half discussion, and has to have at least 6 hours of sleep and his weekends off.
Marissa Mayer (VP at Google) gets 700 to 800 emails a day, sometimes spends 14 hours straight on Saturdays and Sundays catching up on email, and has learned to live on 4–6 hours of sleep a night.
Howard Schultz (Chairman of Starbucks) rises between 5 and 5:30 a.m. and prefers face-to-face meetings and phone appointments over emails.
Bill Gross (Chief Investment Officer of Pimco) gets up around 4:30 a.m., arrives at the office around 6 a.m., refuses to look at any emails he does not want to, only answers the phone 3–4 times a day, does not have a cell phone, does not have a BlackBerry, is intentionally disconnected with the exception of his wife, and works out for an hour and a half every day.
A. G. Lafley (Chairman, President, and CEO of Proctor & Gamble) takes a 5–15 minute walking break every hour or hour and a half to refresh, eats 5–6 smaller meals a day to manage his glycemic levels, prefers conversations to emails, works some on weekends, focuses on developing leaders, and spends time each day meditating.
Amy W. Schulman (Partner of DLA Piper) has one assistant from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. and a second from 4 p.m. to midnight, wakes up between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m., arrives at the office around 8 a.m., gets home around 7:30 p.m., is online doing her 600 daily emails until midnight, has two cell phones from two carriers to ensure constant coverage, and tries to turn off her cell phone and BlackBerry during meals and in movie theaters.
John McCain (U.S. Senator from Arizona) reads emails but does not write any because he is a "Neanderthal" who cannot type and barely knows how to visit a website, has no laptop or Palm Pilot, keeps his daily schedule in his pocket on a note card, and leans heavily on his Chief of Staff who has been with him for 17 years.
Jane Friedman (CEO of HarperCollins) is "an email addict" who checks her email virtually every waking moment via computer or BlackBerry and personally reads every single email that anyone sends to her.
Judge Richard Posner (U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, Chicago) has few phone conversations and relies almost entirely on emails, returns emails on a laptop rather than a BlackBerry, gets up before 8 a.m., arrives at work before 10 a.m., returns home after lunch and works until 11:30 p.m. from home.
Henry "Hank" Paulson (Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs) never uses email, but spends the day on the phone leaving and personally responding to a few hundred voicemails without any screening, works out five times a week, and sleeps nearly eight hours a night.
Brett Yormark (CEO Nets Basketball) wakes up around 3:30 a.m., is in the office by 4 a.m. on weekdays and 7 a.m. on weekends, and often works until midnight.
