I listen to a lot of leadership podcasts and I particularly like to listen to anything that Rick Warren does. Today I listened to an older broadcast, done in 2006 with Rick, James Emory White, and President of Fuller Theological Seminary, Richard Mouw. The topic was staying mentally fresh in ministry. This may be a hard area for people to understand who isn’t in ministry. As a pastor, I am on call 24/7 and sometimes we just get tired, worn, and weary.
Rick started the podcast by saying he found out early in ministry that no one else is going to take responsibility for keeping the pastor fresh and equipped except the pastor. I have also found this to be true.
It amazed me and encouraged me at the same time. The entire hour podcast was about reading. Rick Warren says it is possible to read yourself out of a rut. I too have found this to be true. If you know me, you know that reading is a passion of mine so I loved this one.
Here are a few of the insights that I learned.
#1. If you don’t naturally like to read, you should set time in your schedule, 15 minutes a day to read. You cannot connect with the past or with people today without reading.
#2. Read widely. Read people you like and people you don’t agree with. Read people who challenge you and read people who are not believers at all but choose worthwhile reading.
James Emory White stated that he reads 24 magazines/periodicals every month and 3 newspapers every day. He never said how many books he reads.
Rick Warren said there were several years where he read a book a day. Wow, I admire that but I don’t see that being possible for me very often. I did just read one by Andy Stanley that was about 200 pages long and it only took me a few hours to read it. If I were uninterrupted, I could read a few like this daily.
There were lots of tips, things that I already do. Things like reading while waiting in line, listening to audio books, listening on the ipod while exercising, etc…
If you search the title on itunes you can download it for free, it is well worth your time.
Ronnie