1. “Fisherman's Robe” –The Original Concept
The heart and primary focus of this organization will be ministering to Christian leaders who are in varied stages of burnout. One of the most common reasons for burnout among clergy and Christian leaders is a generally inadequate understanding of “the Priesthood of all believers,” manifesting itself in an “us” vs. “them” view of clergy/laity. Pastors in this bondage either see themselves as “the chosen and trained leader” or are placed into that position by their uninformed flock. They are usually either given or take on the whole responsibility to do all of the “spiritual work” of the church while the flock just graze and get fatter. To lessen the blame for this error a bit, the pastor has usually been trained to hold this view by seminary and an unchallenged view of historical Christianity.
2. Historical Foundation
This faulty view of church leadership, while not all that Biblical, has a long history that seems to give it a great deal of historical precedent. The Emperor Constantine, after his conversion to Christianity, declared his whole empire to be Christian, and at that point, it became necessary to quickly organize some kind of mega structure to handle the influx of new church members. While Constantine had been converted by the witness of faithful believers, his zeal in declaring Christianity the new Religion of State did not allow the faithful believers to prepare for or recover from this new explosion of church members with no idea of the real standards or meaning of their new State Religion.
The premier foundational concepts behind this
ministry are hospitality, radical biblical hospitality and Biblical
Christian Community. Another guiding principle from which we begin
is that the Christian faith is simple. It isn’t easy, it
isn’t shallow, but it is, and must be,
simple. (top)
4. Our Ministry Task
Within the realm of Fisherman's Robe, we will be working to retrain, recharge, and restore men and women of God who have been called to parish and para-church ministry. Our hope is that with guidance, love, and better information, these pastors can recognize that their primary job is to “train and equip the saints for the work of ministry” (Eph. 4:11)
5. Burnout: Other causes and results
Several of the other major reasons for burnout generally come from a combination of a lack of Sabbath rest, and some kind of habitual sin that has crept into the life of that pastor and remained unconfessed and even unrecognized. Other fruit of burnout starts with the family, which is often neglected in favor of “more important” church work, failed marriages, broken friendships and relationships, virtual lack of personal devotional life, workaholism, and general personal and moral failure. The process, like everything else in life, is not generally the same for any two people, and the onset is not obvious, especially to the pastor who is beginning to experience it. There is a tendency for the fruit and the cause to intertwine and become a downward spiral, and what might seem like simple fatigue or even exhaustion, quickly becomes a career threatening, if not life threatening problem.
The primary setting for ministry would most likely be a fairly secluded, wooded, retreat center with access to all that we need, including being near an airport, but which has space for farming, ranching and plenty of recreational space.
7. Future Goals and Ideas
Once the ministry (Fisherman's Robe) is established and functioning on a very consistent level, one thing we hope to be able to do is to send someone from our ministry to work in the place of the pastor or leader, temporarily, and only with the full consent of the governing body to that church/ministry. Our ‘field rep’ will be working in the parish/ministry to keep life going, but also to retrain and refit the congregation/organization so that the pastor/leader will not have to come back and attempt to begin the change, but should be able to walk back into the situation in process with new fire and understanding.
Other parts of the ministry that we have been envisioning to happen within the scope of Fisherman's Robe include:
a conference ministry for either pre-burnout restoration and/or worship;