Why Ministers Need to Have Spiritual Retreat Days w/ Dr. Mike Glenn

In this talk from the Surviving Monday conference (February 2025), Mike Glenn shares why spiritual retreat days are essential for pastors and their staff — and how to make them a priority. Ministry is a marathon, not a sprint, and without intentional rest and renewal, burnout is inevitable.

• Transcript

  Mike Glenn: The, the answer is I don't know how you stay at a church for 32 years. I got up and went to work. There was something to do, so we did that. And the next day I did that. The next thing, before I knew it, 32 years was shot. Uh, and, um, the, the wonderful thing, uh, about my life is I was taught how to pastor by other pastors older than me, older guys who liked me.

  And now I have, uh, awakened to find out I am the old guy. And I don't know how that happened, but I see pictures and I wanna know who the guy with the gray hair is, and everybody says, "That's, that's you." And so, uh, w- we have turned the ministry now into spending time with pastors, church leaders, a- and that kind of thing.

  But how you survive this marathon of ministry, and it is a marathon, it is a lifelong race. [00:01:00] A- and you don't get a trophy for the first 100 years, or the first 100 yards. You have to finish the whole race. And I found out there were a couple things to that. One, staying engaged in your personal Bible study and prayer life.

  If you serve on my team, there will be two questions I will ask you randomly. You'd better be able to answer them. I wanna know, one, what have you read in scripture? Not what are you studying to teach, not are you reading to preach. What are you studying in scripture? We got into this business because we loved scripture.

  We loved what happened when we read scripture. The first thing the church does is it takes scripture away from you. All of a sudden it becomes the tool for your ministry, right? It becomes a, uh, uh, like [00:02:00] something hanging on a hook in your garage, uh, that you use to repair lives and that kind of stuff.

  That, that, that, that pull into your church garage. But you lose that joy, you lose that spark, you use that... You lose that overflow. What are you reading in scripture for you? Two, what is Jesus teaching you? The radical teaching of Christianity is our rabbi is alive, and he has promised if you'll sit down long enough, if you'll be quiet long enough, I will teach you just like I taught Peter, and James, and John, and all the rest.

  What are you reading in scripture? Two, what is our rabbi teaching you? If you cannot answer those questions, I will send you home. I want you out of the building. I don't want you anywhere near our ministries because you are dangerous to us. [00:03:00] If you're not showing up to your ministry out of the overflow of who Christ is in your life, you are a danger to the ministry.

  We have had a plethora of ministers who have fallen. Big news, ministries lost, churches wounded, on and on the list goes. I guarantee you, you find them, and they will have dropped the fundamentals. One recent guy, pastor of a mega church, president of a seminary, CEO of a local nonprofit, spoke several times during the week.

  And you look at his schedule and you think, "My word, when did he do the basics? [00:04:00] When was he at home with his wife? When was he, uh, hanging out with friends? When was he reading scripture?" Ravi Zacharias was one of my big heroes. Loved Ravi. Do you know Ravi wasn't engaged in a local church for over 25 years?

  He had no pastor. Now, here's my question. Who didn't love Ravi enough to pull him aside and say, "Dog, you can't do this. You can't keep running like this"? Why didn't he... You know why. I know why. Because Ravi Zacharias Ministries Incorporated needed another book. They needed another speaking engagement because Ravi was the cash cow, and without him out there giving it all, the ministry would lose money.

  Church does the same thing to you, does it not? You need to announce this. You need to be president [00:05:00] this. You need to do that. You need to do this. Uh, and I tell, I tell young pastors, "The church is a wicked mistress.

  We will reward you into self-destruction. We want you at every meeting. We want you at every event. And when your wife leaves you, we will fire you the same day. We will give you trophies. We will give you plaques. We will give you raises. When your wife leaves you, you're history. And we wonder why you couldn't hold it together."

  Okay, first of all, you come out of the overflow of that ministry. So how do we protect this overflow? One of the things that I require of staff, and that I would ask that you begin to require of your own life, is a spiritual retreat day. Once a month- I would like for you to step aside, [00:06:00] step out of your ministry, and remember why you do this.

  Okay, one day a month. I, I didn't think that was that big a deal. Then my team started coming back going, "Hey, you know, you're, we're the only church that requires this." And it is a requirement, okay? Because people always used to get mad at me. They'd say, "Well, you know, you shouldn't be this involved in your pastors' lives."

  But the, the pastors' wives have my phone number, okay? Because they see the mess up long before anybody else does, and they can call me. And I say, "Well, aren't you crossing any lines?" I have to clean the mess up, right? Something happens, the pastor falls. "Well, Mike, what are you gonna do about that?" I have to clean the mess up.

  So if I have to clean the mess up, I'm gonna do all I can to pre- forget... to prevent that mess from happening in the first place. Okay, we had rather prepare pastors [00:07:00] than repair them.

  Okay? I want you to have a spiritual retreat day. How do you do that? Well, I've given you a couple of tips in there, uh, in, in the, in the documents that you were given. One, work out with whoever you need to work out with that you can be gone for the day. Usually with me, that would mean begging my wife to give me a day and promising her that I would keep the boys.

  We had twins. We have twins. You don't ever quit being a dad. They're just 41 now. And, and that I would say, "Okay, if, if you allow me on Thursday to have the spiritual retreat, on Saturday I will keep the boys." Okay? Uh, talk to whatever ministry team you need to talk to. Uh, clear it with your administrative assistant, who will protect your time.[00:08:00] 

  Limit access to you and where you are. Voicemail is your friend, okay? The church is gonna call you. You can't stop that. What you can stop is answering every time they call, okay? It's okay to say, "I'm sorry I missed your call. I'm sorry I missed your call." Okay? That's okay to say. Let voicemail do its work.

  Find you a time when you can be away. Find you a place where you'll be left alone. There are several places that I found around Vanderbilt. There were a couple of libraries. There are s- or there are parks and all where you can go and be left alone. Don't let it be your local coffee shop- Where everybody knows you go.

  Don't hang out in the places that [00:09:00] you usually hang out. Our, our church has a coffee shop. That would be a lousy place for a spiritual retreat day. Okay? Go. Take a Bible and your journal. That's all. Take your Bible and a journal. Take an analog Bible. Take an analog journal. Paper, pen, pencil, something like...

  One, the paper Bible doesn't have access to Google. It's not connected to the inter- uh, to the internet. It's not going to interrupt you with, "Hey, there was a trade in NFL. Hey, so-and-so released a new record. Hey, pay attention to this." It's not gonna interrupt your day. We now know that when you interrupt your train of thought, it takes anywhere from 15 to 20 minutes to get back to the previous level of concentration.[00:10:00] 

  Okay? Read scripture. There are 100 good books, thousands of great books. Nothing takes the place of scripture in the life of a believer. Read. Read until your brain settles down.

  Write. The first thing you'll probably make a list of, of all the things you don't wanna forget. I've gotta call so-and-so. I've gotta follow up with this. That's okay. Get it out of your head. Then spend the time journaling about how you're doing, how your ministry... Pay attention to those hanging chads in your life.

  I'm angry about, I'm still messed up about this, I'm disappointed in, I keep making the same mistakes. What we're looking for in your journal are [00:11:00] those places that keep getting mentioned. Okay? I keep talking about this a lot. I keep talking about my dad, my brother, my mother. I keep talking about this a lot.

  And we want to start paying attention to those kind of things. What you'll find out is that we want forgiveness to work like a stairstep. Deal with it, move on, deal with it, move on. It works like a spiral. Okay? You keep coming back to the same issue at a deeper level. So you will ask yourself, "I thought I'd had already dealt with this.

  I thought I was finished with this." You had, not at this level. Okay? So pay attention to those kinds of things. Forgive who you need to forgive. Forgiveness is releasing the person from the expectation they can fix what they did. Okay? [00:12:00] I've been married 45 years, almost 45 years now. That's long enough for me to screw up.

  And I will say something to Jeannie that I thought was funny that she didn't think was funny, and it will hurt her feelings, and I can see it in her face. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I... And she knows I married an idiot, and I'm sorry. And she will know my apology is sincere. But the hurt I put in her life, I can't take out.

  You see, even though she says you're forgiven, she still hurts. She still-- She's gotta deal with the Lord in that. She's gotta go say, "That idiot you gave me did it again. Help remove this hurt from my life." Only Jesus can do that. Okay? You keep expecting the person to fix what they did. They can't. Only Jesus can bring that kind of healing, and this may be a time [00:13:00] where you take the time to work through that.

  Okay? Paper Bible, paper journal. It's okay that you step outside the world for a few hours. Jesus modeled this behavior. Early on in the Gospel of Mark, when the crowds are starting to respond to Jesus, Peter finds Jesus, who'd been praying all night, and said, "Jesus, everybody's waiting to hear you." Remember what he said?

  "Let's go to these other towns that I may preach the gospel because that's why I came."

  Having the time with the Father allowed him not to be sideswiped by other people's agendas.

  Take a day, take your Bible, [00:14:00] take your journal. Deal with your stuff before your stuff deals with you. Okay? Stay as long as you need to stay until you start getting positive.

  Okay? Yes, you need to deal with your stuff. There's a lot of anger, resentment, all of that we know about ministry. But that's not all that makes up ministry. Okay? If that's all you focus on, then that's all you see. But that's not all there is to ministry. People tell me all the time, say, "Man, I wouldn't do what you do."

  And I tell them, "You don't get to see what I see." Okay? Stay until you start having the ability to dream again.

  Here's what I'd like to see. Here's what I believe could [00:15:00] happen. Write those down, and write down whatever action steps you need to take.

  Okay? There's a difference between wishing and wanting. Some of you've heard this story before. I learned this playing golf with the son of the golf pro in Edgefield, South Carolina. Edgefield is right across the river from Augusta, Georgia. Golf is huge in Edgefield County. Okay? So I hit my ball, Alex looks at me and laughs, which is rude in golf etiquette.

  "What are you laughing at?" "I'm laughing at you." I said, "That's not... You don't do that. You say, 'Oh, tough shot,' or, 'I think we can find it.' You know, something positive." Right? Okay. Alex was laughing. I said, "Alex, why are you laughing?" He said, "I'm laughing at you." I said, "Why are you laughing at me?" He said, "Because you don't do anything in your golf swing to make the ball go where you want it to go."

  He said, "You just kind of stand up here and wish."[00:16:00] 

  That's when I learned there's a difference between wishing and wanting. Wishing means I'd like for it to happen, but I'm not going to do anything to make it happen. Wanting means I'd like for this to happen, and I'm taking the necessary steps. Okay? I'd like to go to med school. What is your GPA? 1.9.

  You're wishing. Okay? I'd like to have a deeper marriage. What are you gonna do? I will ask my wife out once a week. We will have a date night.

  I'll do these kind of things to surprise her. I'll give her this amount of my attention every day. S- credible action steps. The difference between wishing and wanting is wanting means you will do what is [00:17:00] necessary to make it happen. Close your day with worship.

  Close your day with worship. The cure for burnout isn't sleep, it's worship. Worship is when you remember it all counts on God, not on you. Sun came up this morning, didn't ask you. Will go down this evening, will not report in to you. That's good news. Okay? That is good news. Okay? Now, strange thing about pastors is- We teach about worship.

  We'll talk about worship. We'll grade our worship leaders. We won't worship. Remember, it comes out of the [00:18:00] overflow. So for the next 25, 30 minutes, I want to give you the gift of worship. Jim Hammerly, longtime friend of mine. Jim is a producer, arranger, writer, pianist, accompanist, which means he lives in Nashville.

  So, love Jim, love his heart, have followed him in worship a lot. He's going to play and sing and worship. We don't expect anything of you. Okay? You don't have to sing. I know sometimes you're in the sanctuary on Sunday morning and you're singing. Why? Because everybody in this stinking building is looking at me right now.

  And I don't feel like that, okay? We don't want any of that. Okay? This is just a gift to you. And if you want to sit there and just say amen, do that. If you want to sing along, that's fine. Absolutely no [00:19:00] pressure. Take a deep breath. You're in the presence of the one who loves you more than all the ink in the ocean can tell us.

  So Jim, lead us now in worship. Pass me not, O gentle Savior. Hear

  my humble cry. While on others Thou art calling.