“Come away by yourselves to a lonely place and rest a while” (Mark 6:31).

Church members often have no idea what the Lord’s Day is like for pastors. It’s anything but “a day of rest,” believe me.

In some churches, God’s servant preaches three and four sermons a day, and thus leads that many worship services. The pastor will greet scores (hundreds even) of people and has brief, potent conversations with many on the fly. (The next day, several will call to ask, “Pastor, what did you mean by what you said to me in the hallway?”  The poor beleagured preacher doesn’t recall even seeing them.)

The pastor will sit in on committee meetings, often leads them, has quick conferences with key leadership on a vast range of subjects, and may even conduct a funeral in the afternoon.

There have been Sundays so exhausting that as soon as I arrived home, around 1 pm, I went straight to bed and had lunch around 4 o’clock.  Then, had to be back at church for a 5 o’clock meeting of the deacons.

I know numerous pastors who get to church by 4:30 on Sunday mornings to put the finishing touches on the sermon and get themselves mentally and spiritually prepared for the day.

Most people have no idea.

I failed to mention that the pastors don’t sleep much on Saturday night. Which contributes to the fatigue factor.

After a strenuous Sunday with its endless demands, my observation is that pastors could use about a week off.

Nice arrangement, don’t you think? Work one day, take a week off.  Which, come to think of it, is what people think we do.

They have no idea. Okay, we said that already.

What should a pastor do on Monday in order to keep his sanity or restore the portion he invested in hundreds of lives the day before?  Here are my suggestions….

Take Monday off.

Or not. Many pastors repeat the old line “I don’t want to feel that bad on my time” to explain why Monday is not their special day.

You need to laugh and relax.  Do no heavy lifting. Do nothing requiring brain energy.

Protect your calendar from stressful events as much as possible, pastor. You are not at your best then (even if you think you are!).

A regular meeting of preachers–pastors conference, or whatever you choose to call it–can be a good thing, particularly if the coffee is hot, the friendships are genuine,  the fellowship is strong and the preaching is not too burdensome.

I suggest pastors leave off the preaching altogether at these weekly gatherings (except when I’m the guest and am invited to address your conference; that’s different!). Pull your chairs in a circle and have the leader ask, “Who has something on your mind?” and then wait.  What follows will be a cacophony of serious sharing, intense praying, hearty laughing, and harmless teasing.  A pastor friend told me that in one such meeting, someone asked a preacher why the small bandage on his nose. He said, “I’ll give you two choices and you decide.  One, I had a little surgery for skin cancer and the bandage hides the unsightly incision.  Or, two, my wife and I were making passionate love and she bit me there.”  The laughter and teasing that followed still amuse the preachers who were in the room that day.  Such laughter is better than medicine.  (Proverbs 17:22 fits here.)

On Monday, ministers need to close the door on Sunday, whether it was a day filled with great highs and spiritual blessings or a steady barrage of bad news and depressing comments.  Leave it all with the Lord, friend. None of us is a fit judge of anything we did yesterday.

And yet. There is something to be said for sitting down with your worship team and looking at the films of yesterday’s services.  “Looking at the films?”  That’s what NFL teams do on Monday.  They play their hearts out on Sundays, gather back at the training facility on Monday to separate by squads (backfield, wide receivers, linemen, etc., each with their own coaches) and look at the films or tapes of yesterday’s game. They discuss what went wrong and what they did right.  Then, Tuesday is their off day. On Wednesday, they begin planning for next Sunday’s game.  Sounds like a plan, doesn’t it, pastor?

Fatigued pastors need to take a long walk in the park and enjoy the birds as they sing, the ducks on the water, the children in the swings.  If you have a child in your life, take him or her (or them) along. Their laughter is a balm to your soul.

A pastor friend once knew an old preacher who literally “went to the woods” every Monday.  He stayed out of the office and walked the woods, sat on the creek bank, and replenished his spirit in this way.  Every week he did that without fail.  I have no words to describe how I admire that gentleman.

Unclutter the mind, still the spirit, stretch the legs, breathe deeply.  When the mind is exhausted and used up, getting the body fatigued helps us to relax and sleep well.

Entrust your cell phone to someone close–spouse, assistant, or secretary–who will  answer your phone all day.  We have to protect ourselves from the constant stimulation of voices clamoring for this or that.

The tyranny of the urgent can wear us down quicker than anything.  And nothing is more urgent than the ringing of a phone. Try letting someone hold your phone for a day.

That’s hard, I know.  In the early decades of my ministry–that is, before cell phones–pastors could leave the office and be out of reach.  We had no idea at the time what a temporary luxury that would become.  I would often visit the hospitals in order to be incommunicado for an hour or two. After calling on the patients, I’d sit in the back of the cafeteria with my magazine and a cup of coffee.  These days, the cell phones (and all their electronic spin-offs) are ubiquitous.  So, hand yours to someone who will take your calls and know where you are in case of an emergency. (That’s better than simply turning the phone off and checking your messages from time to time. Out of sight, out of mind.)

Do harmless office activity. Answer letters, meet with the janitorial staff, have a devotional with the office force.

Go home early in the afternoon and take a nap.

Take your wife to lunch or to a movie and dinner.

Try not to schedule anything stressful on Mondays if possible.  And keep reminding yourself not even to think of what is on Tuesday’s calendar. (Good luck with that! Anticipatory fatigue is a very real factor. We look at all the things on our calendar for the week ahead and get tired in advance. Try not to do this.)

Have a hobby–carpentry, golf, fishing, ham radio, something completely unrelated to what you do in ministry–and devote several hours on Monday to that.

Work on your yard. Grow flowers. Build a cabinet.

Do not write a blog! That’s too much like sermon-building.

If your wife works and you cannot spend the day together, choose a good novel and lie on the hammock in your back yard and enjoy the quietness.  You’ll soon drift off to sleep, which is how you know your reading is successful.

Why a novel? Because Monday is no day to read theological and ministerial writings.  Give the brain an off day.

Drive to some small town you’ve never explored and walk around, dropping in on stores, eating at the local diner. If the pastor of the local church is someone you know–or you wished you did–call him in advance and ask him to meet you for coffee at his favorite place, and tell you how to get there.

Rereading the above, it’s obvious I’m speaking to pastors who serve full-time.  Bi-vocational pastors rise early on Monday mornings and head to their (ahem) real jobs without a breather. God bless you! This has to be tough.

For some, however, a weekday job can be lifesaving, since it’s so different from what they do on Sunday. But for others, their fatigue only escalates.  Those in the latter group must find ways to rest the body and soul or they will not make it.

(Is that not 120 things?  I didn’t count them. I just thought “120 things for a pastor to do on Monday” had a nice ring to it. Smiley-face goes here.  You’ll come up with enough additional activities to flesh out the entire list. So, let’s consider this an interactive column today, if you don’t mind.  Have fun.)