At least three climbers have died and two more are missing after summiting Mt. Everest this weekend. Overcrowding, difficult conditions, and a late afternoon windstorm are receiving much of the blame for the disastrous weekend on the world’s highest mountain. Everest has taken the lives of a great climbers. The zone about the last camp is referred to as the Death Zone. It’s icy slopes, dangerous weather and high altitude have claimed many lives. The lack of oxygen is such an issue that in many ways, when you enter the death zone you have begun the process of dying. It is only a question of whether or not you will make it to the top and then back down before you complete the process.
Some circumstances are so dangerous and make life so unsustainable that the conclusion of living within these circumstances seems a foregone conclusion. The only real question is can you escape before you die and what will it cost you to live in the death zone?
Many of our lives cross over into the death zone when they get dangerously unbalanced and unhealthy. For some of this the death zone is a physical reality. We have become so physically unhealthy, with what we consume, with our addictions to unhealthy food, with excess weight, and with high blood pressure etc., that the question isn’t whether or not we are killing ourselves, it is just how long until the end. For some of us the death zone is an unsustainable pace of life. Our jobs and commitments are so demanding that we can’t possibly be healthy. Like the oxygen starved air atop Everest, this pace is Spirit deprived and allows no room for God to talk to us. Our souls begin to die and are damaged by our lack of awareness and experience of God’s presence.
I keep thinking about pastors who are in charge of huge churches with massive budgets, tons of programs, large staffs and unbelievable amounts of stress and time commitments. Being the pastor of a megachurch sounds like a death zone job. Some can handle it, because they pack enough oxygen and have great Sherpas, but haven’t we lost enough men of God this way to recognize the unsustainable nature of this task for most people?
For some of us our marriages are the death zone. Starved of affection, quality time, spiritual intimacy, effective communication and a desire to serve one another, our marriages are suffocating and slowly dying. Some of them die out right and end, others die slowly and linger around lifelessly for decades. Regardless, they enter the death zone and the seldom come back out.
The hope we have as Christians, however, is that we worship a God who specializes in resurrection. He is not only big enough to resuscitate that which the death zone has injured, he has conquered death itself. So even when we have a part of our life in the death zone we believe that God can heal us with his breath of life. God can breath life into our marriages once again, no matter how dead they are. God can rescue us and repair the damage an unhealthy life style has brought upon us. Even if our bodies deteriorate God can heal our spirits and has promised us bodily resurrection in the life to come.
The people who have died on Everest have died willingly. They have put themselves intentionally into the death zone out of a passion to achieve the summit. Too often we do the same thing. Our hunger for something has driven us to an unsustainable place and it is killing us. I pray we hear the voice of God in that place and turn back that God might heal us and teach us a better way.
May 22, 2012 at 7:56 am
I like this idea and I think you are onto something. I think it applies to a number of applications in life and ministry, but I would like to challenge you on one of your points. I think your targeting of large church pastors is a bit unfair. I don’t think it is oxygen and sherpas that sustains most pastors I know of large churches. My guess is that those who make it do so out of sheer personal bandwidth.
I would suggest that small church pastors have a much higher rate of burnout than pastors of large churches. I know that small church pastors have a much higher rate of turnover. I bet that a far higher percentage of small-church pastors leave the ministry than pastors of large churches. Those in large churches just leave more publicly.
So I will ask your question back to you: haven’t we lost enough men of God [to small churches] to recognize the unsustainable nature of this task for most people?
May 22, 2012 at 8:23 am
I will accept that my personal biases might have come out in that, but I think the observation of large church pastors is still pretty accurate. The pace of life necessary to run an organization that large is unbelievably difficult to maintain in a healthy and life giving way. It is not impossible, just difficult. I would say that it is this way for the same reasons that Jesus says it is hard for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God.
But small church pastors can be just as unhealthy and just as consumed by their ministry, there is no question there. In general the role of pastor in our modern church is a largely unhealthy one without enough balance, support, or space for God. So this is an easy application to us all.
Thanks Dave.
May 23, 2012 at 8:49 am
Mega church pastors exist in a death zone?! Give me a break.
Church planters live in a death zone.
May 23, 2012 at 8:53 am
Indeed you (plural) do live in a death zone! Praying for you my friend.
May 23, 2012 at 10:39 am
Megachurch pastors need as much sympathy as a corporate CEOs. Please expound on your take cause it seems utterly ridiculous to consider that pack to be living on the brink anything close to being called danger…unless you mean the danger of being egotistical celebrities potentially suffocated by arrogance and pride. Please.
May 23, 2012 at 2:07 pm
I would disagree with your lack of sympathy. Living a life with that much expectation placed upon you, the burden that only supersized budgets, buildings and staffing can create and the weight of needing to be a spiritual leader for such a large congregation is a reason for sympathy indeed. Now that is like feeling bad for CEOs with all their money and power, but then again being responsible for decisions that can cost thousands of people jobs, lose billions of dollars for people and affect the global economy is no small matter.
May 23, 2012 at 3:08 pm
You are free to disagree. They do not need my sympathy. They LOVE the expectations placed upon them. Don’t be fooled.
May 23, 2012 at 3:20 pm
I would also make a great plea for small business owners. These brave souls give their all and then some to embrace a free market to provide a life others. If, in fact, my husband was not diligently work his ass off this church venture would not be in the stage of growth we now find ourselves in today. The imposition of fees and taxes galore make it super hard road for these entrepreneurial souls. Combining their business know how with mission minded folks brings hope to a dying world. Pray for small business owners! Pray for pioneers! Pray for the people bold enough to finance the coming to life of God’s call for new life in the marketplace. These are the ones who get no limelight. They serve from the background…offering sweat and profits to see freedom and abundance break out more fully.