Episode 635: The physical health of a church planter directly affects his spiritual health – and both are critically intertwined with the work God has called him to do. Host Clint Clifton and Noah Oldham, NAMB’s senior director of church planting deployment, discuss their own fitness journeys and how the lack of fitness may point to deeper, unresolved spiritual issues in a person’s life.­­

Usually when I see a friend that loses weight, or when I’ve lost weight myself, I’m very skeptical about how long it’s going to last. @ClintJClifton

Health for a church planter, both spiritually and physically, is critically intertwined in the work we do. @ClintJClifton

I found a personal trainer who works with pastors and he set me on a trajectory. I’ve not looked back. @NoahOldham

Something just clicked in my soul. Something has to change, and it has to be now. It’s never going to get easier. @NoahOldham

It’s not about changing your diet and exercise. You have to change your discipline. @NoahOldham

It really became a labor of love – one of the ways I unplug from the rest of the stuff I’m doing, to walk in discipleship with other men, to help them find the kind of freedom I found. @NoahOldham

In 2 Timothy, Paul says that in the last days, people will be without “self-control.” That word often is translated as “incontinent.” I realized that either I don’t care or I can’t control myself. @NoahOldham

We need the literal, the miraculous grace of God to do a work in us, and that’s what I saw happen in my life. The grace of God trained me to say no to myself and yes to the new paths he had for me. @NoahOldham

You’ve got to peel back some of the layers and deal with the heartache underneath this stuff. @NoahOldham

Often the physical is just a manifestation of another area of our life that’s probably just as messy, just as sloppy, just as unmonitored. We’re monitoring so many other things that we don’t look at this one until too late. @NoahOldham

One thing I saw was that I loved satisfaction and instantgratification more than I thought I did. @NoahOldham

When we start talking about looking to the marketplace to raise up pastors, we’re reaching into this pool of men who may say, “He’s the kind of guy I want to be.” @NoahOldham

We’re doing one another, as brothers, as pastors, a disservice, because if we’re both struggling with our health, we should be able to come to each other and say, “How do we do this together? How do we lock arms for one another?” @NoahOldham

The biggest challenge is that you have to come to the point where you say, “I’m not this kind of person anymore.” @NoahOldham

If I want to attract disciplined, ready, capable, sacrificial men, I got to show myself to be that. And there was an area of my life I wasn’t showing that. @NoahOldham

As pastors who don’t go to the bottle when we have problems, food is a ready escape for us. @ClintJClifton

There’s a culture that thinks people who exercise and care about their physical health is something weird people do. We think, “Everybody’s a little overweight, and that’s the way it is and it’s OK.” @ClintJClifton

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