In my youth I was a voracious reader. Read everything. A few years ago, I found myself studying all of the time. In other words everything I read was in prepration to preach, miniter, or otherwise do something related to my ministry. I wasn't having any just plain fun without purpose. When should we get away and how much time should we spend. . . say reading fiction? I went back to feading science-fiction, one of my early passions. What about you? Pastor Paris

-- Anonymous, December 27, 2000

Answers

Unfortunately, I think I spend TOO much time recreating. Not useful recreation, like exercise and body-building. Like you, Pastor Paris, I love to read, and usually have about five books in progress at any given time.

This is unfortunate because I have allowed the need to "escape" or relax to impinge on discipline. I commend you on being able to study, and would encourage others to follow suit. Recently Min. Crawford has joined our forum, and has made incisive inroads based on her Word knowledge. This comes by prayer, fasting, and study. When we place recreation above these, I think we starve ourselves spiritually.

The trick is balancing the important needs of ministry with the temporal needs of survival - job, sustentation, family, marriage, and oh yes, recreation. I welcome suggestions for a more effective schedule.

-- Anonymous, December 27, 2000

I still play competitive sports for the majority of my recreational activities [primarily flag football & basketball]. My aim is to regain my old svelte, 2% body-fat, muscular body frame [not to mention my physician's endorsement] :-) Still, when you juggle work, home, kids and time for personal growth time seems to rapidly disappear for recreation. One of the recreational pasttimes I enjoy is walking to the post office. It is about 5 miles roundtrip and the quite and serene time involved allow me to meditate, reflect and refocus on my priorities, family and other pertinent issues in my life. QED

-- Anonymous, December 27, 2000

Pastor Paris, what a great question. Recreation is so important for the body, mind and soul. It relieves stress and when I am relaxed I can hear the voice of God. I head a human rights organization and spend a lot of time traveling and speaking to groups, primarily white organizations about racism, this can be tiring and stressful at times. I am a weight lifter and that is my stress buster. I know it sounds funny, but eight years ago I had two heart attacks and open heart surgery, after my recovery, my cardiologist told me to lift weights, starting with two pounds. I did but I kept going! I compete once a year with other christian weight lifters and it is a blast! I am the oldest woman there, but my time in the gym doing my cardio, is my prayer time, I bring my bible and read while I am on the bike. Also I have a snowshoe club I started three years ago. We are 135 members strong, we go hiking in the forests and Yellowstone National park every weekend. To see God's creation, mountains, rivers, animals is so fullfilling. I have to work out for health reasons, I am type I diabetic so recreation is part of my total health plan. When I was in seminary we had a class on styles of leadership and problems that clergy have. Some interesting facts came out of the class, one of the things that was discussed was a lack of recreation, and a high incidence of alcoholism in our profession. As usual you are very perceptive about the need for recreation. I hope we will focus on healthy recreation. Jesus always took time to rest and pray and be quiet. And to brother Jerryly the Christian body builders in my state are awesome! We are all natural bodybuilders, no drugs, and we pray and wear T-shirts that say, "Jesus lifted the greatest weight of all for me, THE CROSS!" If we do all things to glorify the lord, we will not go to excessive behavior, let our bodies be temples for the lord, but always remember temples come in all shapes and sizes.

-- Anonymous, December 27, 2000

Brother Paris....do you have a pet??? If not I suggest you get one...seriously speaking......I spend much of my time when I am not on the internet ministering the Word of God, in prayer, studying, or going to holy ghost filled prophetic revivals, I usually, am shopping or traveling to conferences or revivals, haha. My whole life is around Jesus. Since being single, I regard first as my husband my date and my companion. There are times, I do come from behind the veil and out of the holies of holies to have fun, but my greatest joy is spending time with the Lord. Sometimes hanging out with carnal folk tend to pull on your spirit, we must guard the anoniting that the entrusted us with. So when we minister, we wont feel bogg down. Dont get it twisted like I said before, I do other form of recreation, however, we as ministers must be mindful the recreation is it pleasing unto the Lord at that hour, maybe he wants to talk to us rather we go deep sea fishing of something crazy like that.

-- Anonymous, December 27, 2000

I think that all of us concluded that recreation is important. Yes, we have dogs, cats, and any strays that happen to come along, plus my two precious children. I asked the question because I found that it it not necessary to qoute scripture, thump the Bible, and be in a "preaching" mode all of the time. When I'm on the golf course, my focus is on golf but often the Lord allows me to minister to my fellow golfers in a way they are receptive and reponsive to. I have been critized by some of my fellow ministers by have no conviction myself. Thank You and Good Preaching Pastor Paris

-- Anonymous, December 29, 2000