Practical Church Newsletter ⛪️

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Want an easy, practical way to go to bed on time and lower your stress as a pastor or church leader?

Turn your phone off before bed.

For a couple of years now, I’ve made it a practice to power off my phone by 9:15 PM on weeknights. I use my Apple Watch (but any basic digital alarm clock will do) to wake up and don’t turn my phone back on until about 45 minutes after I’m up.

As ministry leaders, our phones can feel like lifelines; texts from staff, emails from congregants, social media updates, group chats… the list never ends. But when you’re always available, you’re never truly present or rested.

Turning off your phone helps you:

• Avoid ending (and starting) your day in reactive mode

• Actually unwind with a book, prayer, or conversation

• Stop scrolling late into the night and get more restful sleep

Worried you’ll miss something important? Sure, emergencies happen, but they’re incredibly rare. And in most cases, there’s not much you can do about it at 3 AM anyway.

Don’t let a 0.1% chance of something happening dictate 99.9% of your life.

Try this for a week: turn your phone off 30–45 minutes before bed. You might be surprised how much more peaceful and prepared you feel to lead, preach, and pastor when you’re actually well-rested.

Last week on the Practical Church podcast I shared 6 ways to build trust through church transparency. Not yet subscribed? Do so below so you can get the episodes sent right to you.

To submit a question for a future podcast episode, click here.

One night this week, turn your phone off 30 minutes before bed and just see what happens.

More Resources to help you in ministry 🙌

Here are more ways you can get the help you need:

1. Join the Practical Church Facebook group. Connect with 2,300+ pastors and ministry leaders to get help and feedback from others.

2. Check out Mission Support so you can enjoy being a pastor again.

3. Shave 10 hours off your workweek and get back more time to get everything done. 

Want more from me? You can connect with me online on Twitter/X and Instagram.