This is the final part of an article I wrote on avoiding spiritual bankruptcy in ministry. I have found five specific things helpful in accomplishing this: Spend Time Alone with God, Spend Time Alone with the Creator, Spend Time Alone with Family, Spend Time Alone with a Mentor, and finally today’s topic: Spend Time Alone with a Running Partner.
GET ALONE WITH A RUNNING PARTNER
Find someone else in ministry (preferably outside of your church) to live life alongside of. Student Pastors are oftentimes some of the loneliest people I’ve ever met. We have dozens (sometimes hundreds) of people who look up to us, and we have dozens (more often than not – hundreds) of people who look down at us, but often there is no one to encourage us, to share our burdens with, to pray with, cry with, etc. Maybe your area has a network of Student Pastors. Maybe you could be instrumental in creating one. Another option is to get in on the conversation at www.pdymblog.com. But find at least one other person that you can be honest, open, and vulnerable with.
This certainly is not an exhaustive list, there are many other things you can do to prevent your faith from only existing on-stage. But these are some of the things that I have found extremely helpful. As I write this article, I pray for each of your ministries. I pray that you would find the imbalance and ensure that you are a Christ-follower that happens to be a Student Pastor.