Evangelist and Distinguished Professor of Religion at Anderson University, Clayton King knows something about the demands full-time ministry can place on a person. He has spoken to over three million people since 1987 and has traveled to 31 countries and 45 states challenging people to true discipleship. He speaks more than 250 days per year. That’s why he spoke Feb. 27 with a group of pastors from all over South Carolina, challenging them to strike a balance between ministry, family, rest and spiritual recharging or face unwanted consequences.
“The call (of God) is taxing, tiring, and challenging,” he told members of the Young Leaders Network, an organization founded by AU Campus Ministries as a resource for pastors. “During more than two decades in ministry, I’ve seen many friends that have either burned out or disqualified themselves from ministry. Ministry will chew you up and spit you out if you’re not careful.”
With that chilling admonition, King began to lay out a recipe for more balance in life in his presentation Learning to Look: Balancing Life and Work.
The full time evangelist expressed his sincere desire that those present would not “just burn bright for a short season, but burn deep for life.” One important first step, he told the group, is to learn to say “no.”
“If you’re wanting to refine your focus, you have to learn to say ‘no’ to some good things. That’s the only way you will find time to say ‘yes’ to great things… the best things.”
King is a frequent visitor to the Anderson University campus, and he spoke to a packed Henderson Auditorium crowd on discipleship prior to his meeting with the Young Leaders Network. In the past three years, the YLN has brought such Christian luminaries as Mark Batterson, Haddon Robinson, the late Calvin Miller, and Rick Warren to the Anderson campus, allowing pastors to spend time in an informal setting, gaining insights into more effective ministry.