Pastor, Care About Your Diet
Church planting training programs, coaching sessions, and books warn us of the important temptations to avoid as ministry leaders. They cite the usual vices that plague pastors like burnout, pornography, alcohol, and neglecting their families.
But interestingly, not a single one has mentioned diet as a potential pitfall for pastors.
The social acceptability of eating whatever and however we want has filtered into church ministry and has become lost in the shuffle. Unfortunately, how we eat has just as big of an impact on us as anything else possibly could.
What’s worse is the problem is directly under our noses and we don’t see it. Buried under the church potlucks, vision nights, and small group dinners is a growing waist line, leading to a number of diet-induced modern diseases, including diabetes, cancer, hypertension, and heart attacks. According to the latest research from the Center for Disease Control, 39.8% of U.S. adults are affected by obesity.
Why does this matter for pastors and church planters? Shouldn’t we be focused on the mission of God and not what we eat? Can’t we just say, “all things in moderation,” and gladly enjoy food without worry?
The simple answer is no.
YOUR DIET IS A STEWARDSHIP ISSUE
Our body is a gift given from God to enjoy and to utilize to advance God’s mission (1 Cor. 16:19–20). No pastor is willing to say that is untrue, but it’s difficult to discern how seriously we are willing to take that sentiment. Once ministry starts rolling, it’s easy to put nearly everything and everyone before us. We need to serve our staff, our families, and our cities. We hit the gym from time to time and maybe avoid the second piece of Thanksgiving pie. But there is far more to caring for our bodies than getting on the scale every once in a while or hopping on the treadmill a few times a week.
As a caveat, many would wrongly equate focusing on diet with having massive biceps and washboard abs. My argument is not that you need to be “ripped” to be healthy. While you certainly can be healthy looking like that, many people are not. Most bodybuilders and crossfitters aren’t eating for health, mental performance, or longevity. They are eating for that next competition or show. Some are also flirting with dangerous and untested supplements that are hurting their longevity.
But in an attempt to avoid vanity or over obsession with our bodies, pastors and church planters may accidentally discard a careful examining of our eating habits and mistakenly categorize it as a vain pursuit of self-infatuation. Many will say that what’s more important is to pursue “self-forgetfulness” that leads our eyes off of ourselves and onto Jesus. The whole idea of self-forgetfulness is to get our identity, purpose. and meaning from God. If we begin to find any of those other things in body image or health, we miss the point.
“Self-forgetfulness” is to be pursued. On the other hand, eating unhealthy in the name of self-forgetfulness is not self-forgetfulness—it’s poor stewardship. Not knowing where your food is coming from is not self-forgetfulness—it’s poor stewardship. Eating out three times a week at Applebee’s all-you-can-eat wings and two times a week at church bake sales is not self-forgetfulness—it’s gluttony.
Many of us are much closer to gluttony and poor stewardship than we are to self-forgetfulness.
YOUR ABILITY TO RUN THE RACE CAN BE COMPROMISED
Paul tells us to run the race with perseverance (Heb. 12:1–3), but many of us are in danger of bonking during mile three of the marathon. Our poor diet choices may be contributing to a massive slowdown of the pace at which we can run the race. There is great nobility in the task of pastoring, but neglecting our food choices puts additional stresses on us that we could definitely do without while doing ministry. Martyn Lloyd-Jones was a pastor in Britain some years ago, but he was also a health doctor, a unique combination. His unique perspective gives us some insightful analysis on how our spirituality is tied to our body. He says:
Does someone hold the view that as long as you are a Christian it does not matter what the condition of your body is? Well, you will soon be disillusioned if you believe that. . . . There are some in whose cases It’s clear to me that the cause of their depression is mainly physical. On the other hand people who are more physically weak are more prone to attacks of spiritual discouragement and depression. But if you recognize that the physical may be partly responsible for the spiritual condition and make allowances for this, you’ll be better able to deal with the spiritual issues.
Dr. Lloyd-Jones asserts the physical and spiritual nature of man are inextricably tied together. Our American dualistic perspective on our diets is drastically harming not only our physical bodies, but our spiritual walk as well. The Lord Jesus did not create us to run the race at 50%. Carefully examining the quality and quantity of food we consume is paramount to our longevity as ministers, not just for our bodies but for our souls.
BELIEVERS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE DISTINCT
It’s one thing if the rest of the world decides they want to eat themselves into poor health. It’s understandable if non-believers are self-obsessed with looking a certain way or eating whatever they want. But a Christian is someone with a different master. We as believers specifically have an agenda that does not include self-obsession of any kind, whether it be neglect or vanity.
If American society has decided to give incorrect focus on how we treat our bodies, should believers follow suit? That’s never been a mark of Christianity. We should strive to treat our bodies and minds the way God wanted us to treat them, not mirror society blindly.
This means we should do our research. Many of the convenient foods we eat are actually damaging to our bodies. The sugar-filled desserts we snack on or the caffeine-packed Red Bulls we consume are causing much more harm than good. Foods we serve at our churches could be harming the people we love. The meals we cook to be hospitable hosts in our homes could be aiding poor health and providing an environment for sickness.
So we have a decision to make. We can blindly follow conventional, societal norms around food, or we can carefully examine our consumption and eat food that builds us up not tear us down.
SPIRITUAL WARFARE OR BODILY NEGLECT?
A number of years ago I was serving in ministry in a long stretch of back-to-back Sunday preaching sessions. I was also starting a business and caring for a newborn. I remember hitting a wall after a few months, and I wasn’t connecting spiritually with God like I wanted to. During that time, I was thinking, “it must be spiritual warfare,” or “I should pray more to combat the attacks I’m experiencing.”
Looking back, I realized that my physical condition was causing a lot of my mental and spiritual stress. I didn’t sleep well. I ate pizza, chicken wings, and ice cream pretty consistently, and I was eating things I didn’t know my body had adverse reactions to. So was the devil getting after me? Maybe. But more than likely, I needed to stop eating so poorly and sleep better.
The way you treat yourself may affect your mind and spirit. There is a tremendous amount of poor dieting hiding behind our “spiritual warfare.” Poor eating can mimic the effects of what some would consider spiritual depression or attack. Brain fog, depression, fatigue, and irritability are all shared symptoms between poor bodily care and spiritual attack.
If we want to be in this for the long haul, caring for the vessel God has given us should be among our highest priorities. While we cannot control all that happens to our bodies, we must remember that we are God’s workmanship, crafted in his image so that we can do the work of the ministry.
Let us press on in the good fight, beating our bodies so that people might come to know Him, all while carefully stewarding what he has entrusted to us.
Eddie Williams is the lead pastor of Bay City Church in San Francisco. Eddie is a former NFL player and creator of Ex Nihilo Health, a site dedicated to biblical health and wellness. He is married to Sarah, and they have three children. Eddie is a Bay Area native with a passion to better San Francisco. You can follow Eddie on Instagram.