Reconnecting with God as a Distracted Church Leader | An Interview with John Eldredge

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John Eldredge is an author, counselor, and teacher. He earned his undergraduate degree at Cal Poly and his master’s degree in Counseling from Colorado Christian University. John worked as a counselor in private practice before launching Ransomed Heart—a ministry devoted to helping people discover the heart of God, recover their own hearts in God’s love, and learn to live in God’s Kingdom. John and his wife Stasi live in Colorado Springs.

Highlights

05:50 Where the ministry began 9:30 It isn’t enough for a man to be kind or nice 11:30 Every boy is asking, “Do I have what it takes?” and when they don’t get an answer, they are still searching as an adult 13:20 The mood of the room is set by the leader, and you lead by vulnerability and by inviting them to an adventure: boredom is what is killing men in church 16:00 Group retreats take men into their own hearts and back into their own stories to where they lost heart 19:00 Unplugging and getting away from the distraction is important to getting more out of the program 21:35 Writing his most recent book, Get Your Life Back: Everyday Practices for a World Gone Mad—the pace of life was becoming too much for him so he began to look for ways to get away from the chaos in the midst of living 24:05 Are you giving more of your attention to what’s happening in the world than you are to God? The war in the world is for our attention; this increases stress, which even wears us down physically 26:00 Your attention gets taken away from other things, the things that help you relax and connect with others; put your phone down 27:15 Surrender: Knowledge gives us a sense of control, of safety and security, but God wants to be our security 29:00 Disconnect and become human again: putting away the phone releases us to perform better and to be a human being unplugged from technology and doing real things 30:15 The big lie: technology was going to give us more margin to do the things we love, but instead it has connected us to the chaos of information, fear, and anxiety 32:20 We have a divided attention and a divided affection, but we can learn to create soulful space for a little bit of time each day 35:00 John found he couldn’t even play with his grandchildren for even a few minutes without turning to his phone and checking it 35:55 Our souls are on empathy overload: benevolent detachment is required to disconnect from everything and give it back to God (1 Peter 5) because we are not the Savior 39:00 App: The One Minute Pause 41:00 Transitional spaces: Jesus spent three days—walking—to get from one place to another, and we need to find the downtime and the transitions 44:10 Restating belief: Do you have a confident sense that God is in control of the universe? Write your fundamental beliefs so you can go back to them as an anchor 47:00 Take specific, deliberate steps to get yourself back to being human again—normal things that let your soul calm down and be able to recenter and hear God