This is a plea that I’m sending out to pastors. It has implications for everyone, but I especially want pastors to take what I am about to say to heart.

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day who also pastors a church about creating an environment where people can confess their sin and get help. We both agreed:
The Church has historically done a really bad job at providing exit ramps for people struggling with sin. Especially when it comes to the staff who work in a church.

Pretty much, the choice we give people is A) confess your sin and cataclysmically destroy your entire life, or B) hide your sin and slowly destroy your soul.

What great options those are.

Since option B keeps food on the table and your reputation intact, most go with option B. As a result, people end up either struggling with a hidden sin for the rest of their lives. Or they eventually blow it and when they do, it’s catastrophic – to their family, their church, and themselves.

I’m sorry, but I think we can do better than that. We’ve got to do better than that.

Pastors, we need to provide exit ramps for our people who are really struggling with their sin. A way to gracefully exit their sin without destroying their entire lives. And before it destroys their entire lives. For everyone in general, but our staffs in particular.

Maybe through counseling.
Or a leave of absence.
Or releasing them with every bit of support we can give them and following up with them regularly.

Whatever it is, we don’t always need to provide people with an instant pink slip when they finally work up the courage to come clean. Or when they’re in the initial stages of temptation and are afraid they’re going to give in. That’s how you perpetuate an environment where sin isn’t dealt with until after it’s already had devastating effects.

I’m not saying we need to take away the consequences of someone’s actions. Sometimes the pink slip is necessary and warranted. Obviously every situation is different. I’m not saying you should keep someone on staff who has committed an affair. Or something else like that.

What I am saying is that we’re in the business of rescuing people from their sin.
Not destroying their lives because of it.

That includes the people outside of our church.
And the people in it.
And the people working for it.

Pastors.

Let me briefly unpack what one of our main goals should be every time we stand up to preach:
To bring timeless truth in real time.

People don’t need timeless truths that are removed from their situation.
If you don’t believe me, just ask Paul. When Paul wrote the book of Romans, he wasn’t writing theology for fun. The whole impetus for the book was two groups of people, Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians, who were judging each other and claiming to be closer to Jesus because of what they did or didn’t do. Paul, gasp, was responding to felt needs – relational and community conflict.

But people don’t need timeless truths to be removed from their situation either.
If you don’t believe me, just ask Paul. When the Romans were having problems judging each other, Paul didn’t preach a sermon on conflict resolution based on Dr. Phil’s 11 laws of relationality. He unpacked the gospel for 11 chapters. And then brought its truths to bear on the Romans’ situation.

Like Paul, we should always be aiming to communicate timeless truth with up-to-the-minute relevance. And that’s because God’s Word is eternal. Relevant. And therefore eternally relevant.

Our job is not to invent new truth. Not to water down old truth. But instead repackage timeless truth so that its light shines on the unique needs and circumstances of our time.

Whether you preach from behind a pulpit or next to a coffee table, in skinny jeans or a pinstriped suit, to 50 people or 5,000 people…

Make it your goal this weekend to communicate timeless truth in a timely way.
Bring timeless truth in real time.

Usually leadership or spiritual growth books and articles are focused around adding things to your life.

A new principle.
A new practice.
A new person.

Many times that can be good, and sometimes even necessary. But I’m learning more and more that the opposite is just as if not more important…removing things from your life.

As great as it is to add to your life, if there are things in your life that are taking up space or are exerting a negative influence, they will quench whatever good the good things could bring.

Who cares if you learn a new principle if the old ones you’re still living by contradict it?
Who cares if you adopt a new practice if your life is too cluttered to actually practice it?
Who cares if you hire an A+ staffer if the rest are D-?

What if going to the next level in your leadership and your walk with God didn’t look like putting something in, but instead putting something out?

Maybe it’s:

• The insecurities in your life that are keeping you from believing God.
• The excuses that are keeping you from obeying the voice of the Lord when He calls you to greater, higher places.
• The fears that are raging in your mind that try to confront your faith and back you down from believing God that the best days of your life are ahead of you.
• The regrets of your past that are trying to paralyze the potential of your future by keeping the spotlight on who you used to be and keeping the potential of who you might become in the dark.
• The voices of negative people who always have 1,001 reasons why it won’t work, but won’t lift a finger to help you get to the place where God wants you to be.
• The people who are keeping you tethered to your old way of life before you came to God.
• Old paradigms of thinking that are just too small for what God wants to do in and through you.

Whatever it is, one difficult but essential solution is required for each of these if you want to go to the next level: Put them out.

Or they’ll put your chances of going to the next level out.

A certain line of wisdom teaches that great leaders work at a near frantic pace. First ones at the office. Last ones to leave. Nose to the grind, dawn to dusk. They put forth the most effort. Work the most hours. Run around the office the fastest to get the most done.

But this isn’t necessarily the case. It can actually be a sign that you don’t know what you’re doing.

It reminds me of when I used to play racquetball a little in high school and college. I played recreationally and I wasn’t really any good. I remember one time I had a conversation with this guy who played all the time and was really good. I told him I thought I could give him some competition.

He said, “You know I’ve been playing for 20 years, right? I doubt you could give me any competition.”

I said, “I may not have much skill, but I make up for it in effort.”

He responded, “So you run around the court all over the place trying to hit the ball?”

“Yeah.”

“Well then you wouldn’t be any competition for me because if you have to run around the court like that then you don’t know what you’re doing. I know how to make the ball come to me.”

Great leaders know how to make the ball come to them. They work hard, yes, but they work hard to make it as easy on themselves as possible. They develop systems that get five times more work done than they could do on their own. They outsource their weaknesses through delegation. They create effective teams that produce a synergy of progress.

The best leaders aren’t running around trying to make things happen all the time. They’re not the executives who live at the office. They’re not the pastors who are frantically trying to get their ministries to grow.

What makes companies like Apple so successful isn’t that everyone is working 80 hours a week. That would make them a company of interns. It’s that they’ve figured out how to get 80 hours worth of productivity in a 50-60 hour week. That makes them a company of professionals.

Don’t get me wrong. If you’ve put in an 80-hour workweek recently, don’t freak out. It might be a sign that you’re dedicated. Or maybe you had a special project at your company or season in your church that demanded it.

But if you’re putting them in consistently, I would worry. It’s only going to lead to burn out, which doesn’t help anybody. And you’re giving double the effort for a fraction of the return, which doesn’t help anybody either.

Hit the pause button for a few hours and reevaluate your systems. Reevaluate yourself. Ask yourself if you’re working the most effectively. Not if you’re putting forth the most effort.

Stop running around all over the court. Figure out how to make the ball come to you.