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    Soul Reset: Breakdown, Breakthrough, and the Journey to Wholeness
    Soul Reset: Breakdown, Breakthrough, and the Journey to Wholeness
    Soul Reset: Breakdown, Breakthrough, and the Journey to Wholeness
    Ebook119 pages1 hour

    Soul Reset: Breakdown, Breakthrough, and the Journey to Wholeness

    By Junius B. Dotson

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    About this ebook

    Everything was going fine … until it wasn't. For Reverend Junius B. Dotson it took an actual breakdown during a funeral for him to realize he needed a reset. As he recalls his own journey through grief, depression, burnout, and emotional breakdown, Dotson is passionate about calling for a Soul Reset for pastors, church leaders, and all disciples of Jesus Christ.

    This is a 6-week churchwide study for everyone who moves at breakneck speed through their daily lives, often relying only on their own strength to bring God's kingdom on earth. Jesus shows us a different way, an easier, unforced rhythm of what kingdom work looks like. It's a balance of work, rest, play, worship, exercise, and eating well—spiritual practices that keep our souls hydrated and healthy as we do the work of the church in the world. Soul Reset: Breakdown, Breakthrough, and the Journey to Wholeness includes a book; a DVD; downloadable video segments; age-level discussion guides for children, youth, and adults; sermon starters; and more.

    Soul Reset is a call for the church and all of Jesus' disciples to reset and reorder their lives around spiritual practices, to learn to walk through our difficult seasons with our souls connected to the source of Living Water so that we don't burn out or break down. And if we do burn out or break down, we learn to lift one another up and point one another back to Jesus.

    • Introduction
    • Chapter 1: Watch How I Do It – Jesus
    • Chapter 2: Knocking on God's Door – David
    • Chapter 3: It's Not All on Me – Mary and Martha
    • Chapter 4: Eat Something – Elijah
    • Chapter 5: Life in Crisis – Job
    • Chapter 6: Living in the Light – Judas and Peter
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherUpper Room Books
    Release dateSep 1, 2019
    ISBN9780835818988
    Soul Reset: Breakdown, Breakthrough, and the Journey to Wholeness
    Author

    Junius B. Dotson

    A nationally recognized leader, speaker, and author on evangelism and church revitalization, the Rev. Junius B. Dotson is the general secretary (CEO) of Discipleship Ministries, an international agency of the United Methodist Church. Prior to his present position, Rev. Dotson was senior pastor of Saint Mark United Methodist Church in Wichita, Kansas, where he was instrumental in transforming the 3,500-member church into a multicampus congregation.

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      Book preview

      Soul Reset - Junius B. Dotson

      INTRODUCTION

      Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.

      —Matthew 11:30, The Message

      It was the most embarrassing moment of my life. Within the first minute, I knew something was off. I had preached a thousand sermons before and some while feeling under the weather. This time, at a funeral no less, something was different, something was off. I woke up not feeling well that morning, but a pastor doesn’t get to fall ill when he or she has to minister to a grieving family. As I prepared for the day, I knew I was feeling tired, fatigued, like this was another thing I would just have to power through.

      I remember clearly, I was preaching from Psalm 23, talking about valley experiences. The irony, although I didn’t realize it at the time, is that I was approaching a valley of my own. I preached that the Lord provides quiet places and is our shepherd, he leads us by quiet streams and restores our souls. Words of comfort came out of my mouth, but my mind was reeling and fighting to stay present. This grieving family was looking to me for support, much like in my life as a spiritual leader week-in and week-out, and all I wanted to do was be a help to people in need. I stood in the pulpit, looked at the congregation gathered, and I quickly realized I was not going to make it through the sermon. As I hurried my way through it, looking at this grieving family, in mid-sentence I felt light-headed and disoriented, and then, I went down. The next thing I knew, paramedics were putting me into an ambulance.

      On my way to the hospital, I felt embarrassed and ashamed, like a failure. I had let down a family and a community that was depending on me. For a long time, whenever I saw that family, the humiliation I felt about that experience would wash over me. What kind of pastor passes out while preaching a funeral? What could be so wrong with me that it would come to such an extreme example of breakdown? When I got to the hospital, the doctors examined me and gave me a diagnosis I had never heard of: I had extreme fatigue.

      Extreme fatigue. From all outward appearances, things were fine. My new church start, Genesis United Methodist Church, was growing at a rapid pace. We were adding staff to accomplish all the work and ministry to be done. Some of the innovative things our ministry was doing were featured on local news channels. Newspapers were writing about us. We were featured on a segment of the nationally syndicated radio show The Osgood File. Because of all the outward appearances of success of my new church, you would think that I was living on a mountaintop. I was telling everyone who would listen about the great things that were going on at Genesis.

      But the news didn’t tell the story of the pressure I had put on myself to keep the ministry going. I didn’t realize it, but I had set such a high standard and expectation for myself that there would be no way to maintain that pace of work. I didn’t take time off. I preached every Sunday. I was the spiritual CEO. I was the decision-maker. I was leading this ministry, and that meant 24/7 availability. Outwardly it looked like I was on a mountaintop, and I felt like I was on a mountaintop—for a short while. But then there I was, lying in the back of an ambulance with extreme fatigue. Sadly, what should have been a red light I treated as a yellow light, slowing down only to assess the situation but going right back to work at the same pace that would not be sustainable for me or for any one person.

      Mountains and Valleys

      The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing.

      He makes me lie down in green pastures,

      he leads me beside quiet waters,

      he refreshes my soul.

      He guides me along the right paths

      for his name’s sake.

      Even though I walk

      through the darkest valley,

      I will fear no evil,

      for you are with me;

      your rod and your staff,

      they comfort me.

      You prepare a table before me

      in the presence of my enemies.

      You anoint my head with oil;

      my cup overflows.

      Surely your goodness and love will follow me

      all the days of my life,

      and I will dwell in the house of the LORD

      forever. (Ps. 23)

      Psalm 23 became a metaphor for the type of shift I would need to make in my own life. I was on a mountaintop, but I was quickly headed toward the valley. At the beginning of Psalm 23 David describes God, telling us who God is. The Lord is my shepherd. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He refreshes me. He guides me. David is talking about God. But when he gets to his valley, David changes from talking about God and starts talking to God. You are with me. Your rod and staff comfort me. You prepare a table for me. You anoint my head. Your goodness and love will follow me. On the mountaintop, it’s easier to talk about God, isn’t it? We shout out that the Lord is good. The Lord has done this for me! But when we find ourselves in the valley, we come face-to-face with God, and our language shifts. We need an intimacy with God deeper than we’ve known before. We need to rehearse to ourselves and say out loud to God, You are with me, God. You comfort me, God. You defend me, God. You bless me, God. This is how we take each step through the valley. I had to stop talking about God and start talking right to

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