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Running on Empty

Several years ago a friend and I took an extended road trip from Michigan to Alaska. Before our trip I investigated the route and realized there were significant stretches of highway that meandered through completely deserted wilderness regions. In addition, the gas stations on these mountain roads were often over 200 miles apart. This tiny bit of knowledge turned out to be extremely important.

As a precaution, we carried eight gallons of gasoline with us at all times. I have a nice photo of myself standing in the middle of nowhere, pouring those eight gallons into the gas tank. I also have a close-up shot of my gas gauge on empty as we rolled across the Alaskan border. Thankfully, there's a gas station right there.

You don't have to be in youth ministry long before you realize there are similarities with the Alaskan/Canadian highway. Ours can be an extremely tiring profession. Sometimes there are long stretches of ministry that have the same look and feel of a barren wilderness where there seems to be little opportunity for refueling. Having advanced knowledge of the terrain certainly helps. After just a few years as a youth worker, I learned to eliminate from my vocabulary that ten-letter youth minister cuss word, “all-nighter.” Yet even such a drastic measure didn't keep me from frequently feeling like I was running out of gas.

As I noticed my power dwindling and eventually my spiritual, physical, and emotional engines sputtering simultaneously, I searched the Scriptures for some practical guidance from the master teacher. I wanted to know what secrets Jesus utilized in order to maintain power in ministry—against temptation, through the storms, and even in the face of death.

A quick trip through the Gospel of Matthew revealed two of Jesus' key strategies for staying powered-up for ministry. First, Jesus consistently modeled the power of solitude. He took a month-and-a-half-long spiritual retreat (Matthew 4:1-2), deliberately distanced himself from the crowd (8:18), escaped for some private focused prayer time (14:23; 26:36), introduced the spirituality of power-napping (8:24), and even just sat and relaxed (24:3).

Also, Jesus was relentless with his delegation of power. At the beginning, he surrounded himself with disciples who would take over for him when he was gone (10:1). What would happen if we did that? Perhaps the opportunities for staying powered-up are there after all; we've just been too busy to stop for refueling.

Joe Neill is the junior high journey designer at Westwinds Community Church in Jackson, Mich. He's served in various youth ministry settings, including church youth pastor and Christian schoolteacher. He's also a freelance writer and the 2004 summer intern for Youthworker Journal.