CHAPTER 9 THE LIFESTYLE OF THE EVANGELIST

CHAPTER 9 THE LIFESTYLE OF THE EVANGELIST:

LIFE ON THE ROAD

The most dangerous problems of the evangelist come from life on the road. These problems are mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual exhaustion. These can result in mental or emotional breakdowns. It is likely that physical illness may overtake a man, and the devil is just waiting for a man to get into a weakened condition so that he can attack him. There are some cases of immorality that come from being away from the family. An old saying in the South goes this way, "There is no sickness, like homesickness." Certainly the days, years, and months away from home take a great toll on any man.

During the first years of an evangelist's ministry, he will preach and work himself into exhaustion. During my first year, I preached Sunday mornings through Friday nights. It was not uncommon for me to drive all night long on Friday to my next preaching assignment. Often, I would drive up to the church, get out of my car at 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. on Saturday morning, go into the bathroom of the church where the revival was to begin on Sunday morning, and splash water on my face and comb my hair. The purpose of this was to wake up enough to teach a 10:00 a.m. Witness Clinic that I held on Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. until noon. At noon we would all take a short break and eat a meal, then we would go soul winning for two hours. Then, about 2:30 p.m., I would leave the church and go to a bed that I had never slept on before, usually in someone's home. The strange noises, dogs, and children would make sleeping or even resting extremely difficult. Normally, each new place meant a new schedule. All this would be enhanced with two meals out a day and a large meal after each evening service. Occasionally, I would have 7:00 a.m. or 10:00 a.m. Morning services as well. This would only add to my exhaustion. About every third revival week, the pastor would add to this already hectic schedule, early morning hospital visitation, plus afternoon visitation where we would make many other visits to people who had been neglected since the last revival. Combine all of the above, with the fact that I always seem to stay awake the night before I leave for a new place, just like a child, excited over new people and a new work, and you can begin to imagine the physical and mental fatigue which I was experiencing. Also, when it was time for me to return home, I would always stay awake the night before, thrilled with the anticipation of a warm reunion with my family. When I finally arrived home, I would often collapse. No one, not even my wife, could understand the condition of my body and emotions. Anyone can drive all night Friday night, stay up all day Saturday, go into a strange bed and keep up that schedule from one to three weeks without much difficulty, but about the fourth week, a great exhaustion sets in. By the eighth week a man gets his second wind. Then on the twelfth week of continuous revivals he says, "Push my button when it's time for me to preach."

About my fifth year of evangelism, I began to preach Sunday morning through Wednesday or Thursday night meetings. By that time, I had discovered that preaching nineteen or twenty weeks in a row would put a man in grave emotional danger. He will be out of touch with reality. One night after a string of some sixteen revivals, I drove into Forest Park at 2:00 a.m. in the morning. I drove around Forest Park for nearly forty five minutes. I simply could not remember where I lived. I pulled over to the side of the road and prayed, "Dear Lord Jesus, please help me find my house." I put the gear in drive and went straight home. For nine years my wife met me at the door whether I came home at 2:45 a.m. or 5:00 a.m. She would stay up all night to greet me at the door.

While I was away from home, often homesickness would overwhelm me. I would long to get home as quickly as possible to see my wife and daughter. I never stayed at a church field over night after the last night of a revival; I went straight home. After four or five years of homesickness, I began to drive home every night whenever possible, often up to two and one-half hours each way.

Many weeks it was not possible to drive home because of distance or because I had to be in the public schools with Homer the dummy early the next day. When my daughter was three or four years old, my grandmother died. All that Angela could understand was that Grandmother was not with us anymore; Grandmother was dead and we could not see her again on this earth. A few weeks later, the spring revival schedule began. I left home and called my wife on that Sunday night, as was my daily custom. I asked my wife to put Angela on the phone. My wife said, "Come talk to Daddy. He's on the phone." My daughter said loudly enough so that I could hear her, "That's not Daddy! He's dead!" All that Angela knew was that Daddy, like Grandmother, was gone. I wanted to go home so badly that I could hardly stand it. In fact, I tried to figure out if I had enough hours to drive to Atlanta and make it back in time for the school assembly on that Monday morning with Homer. It would have been impossible. I went to bed broken hearted.

Many times during that first nine years, I would sit down in the floor of the room where I was staying and want to cry. Often pastors would say, "You are not with your family much, but when you are at home, you have quality time with them." I would try to agree with them, but I was lying. When you come home for one day, completely exhausted, unload the car, tell your wife to unpack, wash and repack so you can leave again, that cannot be quality time. The more years a man is in evangelism, the more demanding his schedule becomes.

For the first nine years of evangelism, I tried to keep secret the effects of exhaustion in my life. Many times I would come home and sleep twenty four to thirty six hours without stirring. I would go through periods where I would sleep every possible minute that I could. Then I would go through periods of insomnia where I would stay awake for seventy two hours. I often stayed up until four or five o'clock in the morning; I was so wound up from preaching and excited over God's work of saving souls that I couldn't sleep. During revival, I would, occasionally, stay up talking with a pastor until two, three, or even four o'clock. More than once I participated in all night prayer meetings. The alternate feelings of not being able to rest enough, and then not being able to sleep for more than a day would come and go. Finally, after nine years of evangelism I began to talk with other evangelists. I discovered that they would have the same difficulty. I was not insane; I was reacting to road life. Furthermore, I thought I was the only person who could count on getting sick at Christmas every year. When I would come in off the road in December, the sickness I had fought off for months seemed to catch up. This does not happen to every evangelist, but many have the same testimony.

A pastor gave me a book with a sermon by the old time evangelist Hyman Appleman. He wrote the following paragraph that expressed my emotions precisely. He calls revival a time of testing and gives the following illustration:

A certain tremendous church wanted me to be their pastor. The pulpit committee met me at the station as I was on my way to New York and said, "We are going to call you Wednesday night." I went into that Pullman thanking God, rejoicing that at last, after all these driving, lonely years, I was going to be with my wife and babies in the pastorate of a church I loved, among people whom I knew and loved. Oh, I was thanking God in gratitude, with tears starting down from my eyes and rolling down my cheeks, when in that Pullman, racing through the night at express speed, I had a visit from Jesus. He said, "Son, why do you want to be a pastor?"

I said, "Lord, I am tired. Lord, I am blue. Lord, my nerves are frayed. My mind is ready to crack. I cannot stand any more. I am just tired. I want to be at home with my wife and children for awhile."

Jesus said, "Son, you have forgotten that I was away from home thirty three years, and I had to die to get back home."

Do you know what I did? I put on my clothes and got out of that berth. When the train stopped at the very next station I sent a telegram to those people and said, "Don't call me; I am not coming. I am just going to keep on with Jesus." It was a time of testing.⁵⁵

I, too, have often wanted to stop my ministry in evangelism, because of exhaustion, but I knew I would be stepping directly out of the will of God. God's grace is sufficient.

Jack Stanton of Southwest College in Bolivar, Missouri, told me that two or three days before he goes off to start his revival campaigns, he would "get as mean as the devil." He was irritable just thinking about having to be away from home. Homesickness, not from one day or one week away from but from months and years away from home, seems to increase until it is almost unbearable. Rev. Jimmy Coleman was asked years ago when he was in evangelism, "Do you cry when you go off in revival?" He would answer, "Yes, for three days." The pastor asked, "Was this the last three days before you went home?" Jimmy replied, "No, for three days before I left the house."

The strain and exhaustion of road life cannot be cured by a three-minute call home every day, nor can sleeping thirty-six hours straight rest a man from eight to twenty weeks of revival on the road. It has been my personal experience that a full three weeks of total rest at home can get a man back in shape mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. If three weeks does not work, a man needs professional help.

Three weeks of complete rest may not be possible for the evangelist until he has been in the work for over two and up to three years. Some evangelists take off one week a month. Others preach Sunday through Sunday and are off the next five days until the next meeting. In order to do this a man needs to have a tremendous evangelistic association or be on the "Home Run Circuit." “(Preaching in super churches with super offerings)”. For the average evangelist, it may take years to get in this situation, and there are many others who never reach that point.

In 1983, under the advice of some godly men, one of which was my pastor, Joey Hancock, I realized that my family needed to travel with me. The years of homesickness and travel weariness had almost overcome me emotionally. I purchased a thirty three foot travel trailer and a 1975 Jeep Wagoneer with a 360 V 8 engine to pull it. Then my family started going with me. I have not regretted that step of faith, and neither has my family. God has richly blessed our travels together.

Every evangelist must realize that when his wife is with him, she is more sensitive to his needs than he is. By being with him, she can know more about him, than he does, and she knows it sooner. When she is not with him every day, it is impossible for her to exercise her God-given help mate abilities. Evangelist, enlist the help of your wife to prevent you from working yourself into a breakdown. She will help you to get balance and harmony into your life.

When an evangelist takes his family with him on the road, he has several options. He can drive or fly and have them stay in a motel with him, but often he has to pay for his family's motel costs and their meals. Another option is that he can purchase a motor home. A motor home is especially good for couples without children, or for music evangelists who do numerous, one night concerts and move almost continuously. One disadvantage of a motor coach is that you must tow a vehicle behind the coach for driving around when you arrive at your location. However, some churches are thoughtful enough to provide a loaned or rental car, but most are not. Remember, too, that a motor coach loses some of its living space due to the driving or steering area. Another alternative is the travel trailer. It allows you to use your tow vehicle as your running around vehicle. However, you must remember that the amount of living space is three feet less than the overall length of the travel trailer, because it is measured from the ball hitch at the front to the back bumper. When you are living in a trailer up to 150 days a year with two children, every foot counts. The third type of vehicle is the fifth wheel travel trailer. Two advantages of this vehicle are that it requires a tow vehicle that can be used as a "running around" vehicle, and the space over the hitch is generally used as a bedroom. For years, we have used a forty foot fifth wheel travel trailer towed by a "gas guzzling" (454 engine) truck. The gas consumption is one of the negatives for choosing this setup. Our truck was a one-ton, four door, dual wheel (four wheels across the back) pick up truck. When purchasing a tow vehicle, remember that it is best not to undercut on power; it is always better to burn a little more gas so that you can get where you are going, than to be broken down on the roadside for many hours each week. Our trailer had two "tip outs" (rooms that hydraulically slide out to give two to three feet of extra width). We have found that the fifth wheel rig was much easier to handle on the road than our former travel trailer and it offers us much more living space upon arrival. As I have aged the extra effort of towing a trailer and setting it up has become too exhausting. At the present time my wife and I travel in a Lincoln Town car or a Minivan unless we fly. It is easier to stay in motels. With our children grown and out of the nest, it is far easier to travel this way.