My title may seem a little off-putting, perhaps even negative. Why do I need a guardrail? Or better, what is a guardrail for a pastor? This brings another question, If our church incorporated guardrails, what would they look like—and would they work?
For some pastors, a simple guardrail may be establishing a maximum number of Sundays they are preaching in a year. For others, it might be to commit to fully use a number of vacation days to help ensure needed rest and time away. Still others may benefit from a peer accountability group that they select and commit themselves to.
Defining a Guardrail
In many areas of life, we love guardrails. Think of driving on a road with a steep cliff next to it. While looking at the stunning scenery, we could miss a bend in the road. Guardrails with large bollards and corrugated steel between them can make the difference between a dinged fender and loss of life. If codes for constructing roadways include guardrails, then shouldn’t our pathways at church as well?
Walking down a flight of steps is another instance of needed guardrails. Think of steep stairs with uneven stone steps. One slip and you can take a rough tumble, hitting the stone hard. Again, a guardrail in the form of a handrail gives you extra security. And again, if building codes require rails on stairs, then maybe we should do likewise with church life?
Church Guardrails
There are no federal, state, or local codes for pastoral guardrails. It is up to each church to construct guardrails to enhance pastoral integrity.
Billy Graham had great guardrails. Here’s one: he never entered an elevator alone. He didn’t want to be accused of impropriety if someone entered on another floor and created a scene.
Many churches have the guardrail of windows in office doors. That way, pastors can do one-on-one counseling with the knowledge that at any time, someone could look in. That is a great way to prevent sexual abuse; and remember that an affair with a pastor is sexual abuse. The pastor is in a position of spiritual power, especially in a counseling setting, and an affair will have moral, spiritual, and legal consequences.
A proactive guardrail is the church board setting a policy about rest. Instead of being like a workaholic business that demands working seven days a week, the church should set reasonable expectations about weekly work. A biblical guide is the principle from creation, one day of rest every seven. If rest if good enough for God, then it is good enough for us! Or, are we trying to outwork God by working seven days a week?
Another proactive guardrail involves vacation time. Church boards do well to give adequate time away from work responsibilities, being sensitive to various family schedules.
Dings in the Guardrail
There are some seasons when the pastoral guardrail gets dinged and dented because you banged into them. At Christmas and Easter, a pastor may work seven days in a row. Church construction projects have a way of completely interrupting rest time.
The thing to do is to acknowledge the ding. Look at it and see how deep it is—meaning, how tired am I because I didn’t get my weekly rest? How long has it been since I last had a day off? The guardrail is a safety device that alerts us that we could have crashed. It reminds us that we have principles of wise living that guide us. We hit the rail and have the opportunity to get back on the road to health.
One guardrail ding is not a huge problem. It is merely a ding. However, if we ignore the ding, and careen down the steep mountain road of ministry without making any ongoing changes, we will come to the next bend in the road. At that place, we may crash through the rail, tumbling out of control down a cliff.
Accountability
A good time to ask questions about guardrails is today. Start by asking yourself, Am I hitting any guardrails? Are there areas of my ministry life that are unprotected? Install personal guardrails to ensure your integrity.
Next it is good to have regular conversations with other staff members about their guardrails. A degree of vulnerability is always good, so you could begin the conversation with, Last week was a tough week because of that huge funeral and I didn’t get a day off. Will you ask me later this week if I took a day off?
Normalize the conversation by talking frequently with others about their guardrails in ministry. The more that we talk about good practices—best practices in guardrails—the easier it will be to live within them. Doing so also gives others the opportunity to examine their practices and make course corrections before it is too late.
Review times are good places to continue the guardrail discussion. If your staff are hitting the rails, then set a plan to help them get back on the road to spiritual health.
Minor course corrections are best. When someone crashes completely through a guardrail in ministry, the results are generally disastrous. For example, recovering from the burnout of overwork can take months. Putting your family back together after an affair will be even longer. Some crashes will throw you out of ministry. Make the needed course corrections now and also help others avoid a crash.
Why Invite Trouble?
Whether walking down a flight of stairs or driving down a steep mountain, we expect guardrails to help protect us. We should put safe and sane guardrails in our areas of ministry for the same purpose.
Whether the dangers seem small or big, wise churches will enact policy to help protect the integrity of their pastors.
Learn more about practical, helpful guardrails at Strengthening Integrity, a free online course, co-sponsored by XPastor and ECFA (Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability). See it here.
