In this interview, Pastor Rick Warren explains how he safeguards himself from burnout by observing a weekly Sabbath on Mondays, completely disconnecting from work, family, and digital communication. He recounts the intense early years of his ministry, moving his church 79 times in 13 years, and how disciplined rest kept him from collapsing under that pressure. Host Evan Carmichael shares his own work‑first disposition, describing how he feels restless when he rests too much and prefers productive downtime over vacation escapism. He argues that frequent vacations often mask deeper dissatisfaction, urging viewers to audit how they spend spare time—distinguishing between escapist activities (reality TV, mindless scrolling) and growth‑oriented pursuits (reading, learning). Carmichael also discusses balancing his roles as entrepreneur, husband, and father, emphasizing listening to one’s body and tailoring rest to personal needs. The conversation closes with a call for the audience to reflect on their own rest habits and share their thoughts.
Good morning, Believe Nation. Today's message is rest. Over to you, Rick Warren.
I wake up every morning, espresso keeps me going. I wake up every morning. Now I take Monday off. Monday is my Sabbath. I don't like taking Monday off because I don't like feeling that bad on my day off. But I find that I need to to recharge. And on Mondays, I am dead to the world. I do not take calls. I do not read email. I do not take text messages. I sleep in. I get up. I play around the house. I go to lunch with my wife. We relax in the afternoon. And Monday evenings, we do family night with our families, who I now have grandkids that are involved. And we've kept that religiously. We've kept that faithfully over the years. And it has kept me from burning out under enormous pressure. How would you like to pastor a church where you move the church building 79 times in the first 13 years?
I did.
Because land was so expensive, we used 79 different facilities in the first 13 years. Some weeks I'd be in 5 different buildings. Laguna Hills High School for Sunday morning, El Toro High School Sunday evening, a bank building for Wednesday, another one on Thursday, a Saturday night service at another school, and on and on. We said, we're the church, if you can figure out where we are this week, you get to come. We said, we only want our church for really intelligent people, so we keep changing the location. But that was a lot of frustration. And I can tell you, I have learned to handle enormous amounts of stress. An enormous amount of tension. But I could not do it if I didn't rest my body, if I didn't take my day off, if I didn't— and don't call it your day off, call it your Sabbath. Call it your day off, you'll fill it with your honey-do list, all stuff I couldn't get done. You try to use it to catch up on other stuff. No, it is a day of rest, relaxation, relationships, restoration emotionally. So you need to rest your body.
So this is a really interesting one for me because my default is to work. I like to work. Like, I, I gain calm and clarity in my work. Sometimes when I rest too much, like if I go on a beachy vacation, I get really antsy and frustrated. I want to work. I hate just sitting down and being on a beach for a week. I can handle like one day, but after that I want to do something. You know, if Nina's away for whatever reason, my default is to work. I'm gonna go back and work on projects because it fills me up and makes me happy. So this is a harder one for me to answer. I think the best thing that I can give you guys as my advice is to listen to your body, where some days you may need to rest more. You know, if you're feeling sick or life is overwhelming, maybe you need to rest more. And other days you're able to work more, you're able to grind it out, you're able to hustle. I'm in the camp that believes that if you are itching for a vacation, if you like can't wait to get away to get on that vacation, then something is wrong in your life. Vacations can add a lot. The travel can give you lots of great ideas, can help you grow, and that's a different thing. But if you're itching to get away, to escape, to just relax and wind down, I feel like there's something wrong in your life. That's my belief. And instead of once or twice a year escaping from your life to go do something else, make your life better. That's my view. If you think about how you're spending your spare time or your free time, are you spending it in escapism? Are you spending it watching Big Brother 18 or some reality TV show or stupid cats fighting each other or whatever it is? Like, that's escapism. That's super easy. That's what most people do. They come home and sit on the couch and plop down and just escape from their life by, you know, being entertained or watching the misery of other people's lives, which makes them feel better about themselves. Is that how you're spending your time? Escapism? Or are you spending your time trying to grow and get better? Like, are you spending time watching videos? Are you spending time reading a book? Are you spending time learning techniques about your industry? Are you spending time learning and growing? If you are unhappy with your life, audit how you're spending your extra time. Are you spending your time escaping the life that you hate, or are you spending your time growing and building so that you can build a better life for yourself? And for me, a lot of times vacation, most of the time, falls into that category of escapism. It's like, I hate my life, I hate what I'm doing, so I need to get away from it, and then I gotta— I'll come back and I'll suffer some more until my next vacation. That sucks. Most people live for the evenings and weekends and vacations as opposed to actually enjoying and being fulfilled in the work that you're doing every day. And so the rest one is a little bit harder for me again because I default to work, and maybe that'll change when I'm older. Maybe I'll feel like I need to rest more, but I also feel like I need to spend time with my wife, I need to spend time with my son, I need to spend time with my family. And things are always kind of fighting against each other. I need to balance my schedule to make it work because I'm not just an entrepreneur and only focus on business. I also want to be a successful father and a successful husband, a successful family man. And so part of what I do daily is look at my goals of those categories of family man, leader, and then my own personal health and making sure I'm spending time on all three of those every day. So I don't know that my advice would be to rest once a week. But I would say listen to your body and do what's right for you. The question of the day today then is, how important is rest for you? I'm curious. How much do you rest? Is it important? Give me some advice. Share with Believe Nation. I'm super curious to hear what you have to say. Leave it down in the comments below and we'll join in the discussion. I also want to give a quick shout out to Dutch Martin. Dutch, thank you so much for picking up a copy of my book, Year One Word. It really, really, really, really means a lot to me, and I hope you're enjoying it. Thank you guys so much for watching. I believe in you. I hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever your one word is. And I'll see you again tomorrow morning for another shot of espresso.
