Pseudo-Productivity

When I worked for the City of McAllen, there was an unspoken rule that claimed our office: we could not leave our desk earlier than 5:00 p.m. On most days, my co-worker would stop by my office around 4:15 p.m. to chat about upcoming projects and current programs that we ran within Parks and Recreation. On occasion, our director would drop by and ask, “what are you boys talking about?” We’d share an ambiguous idea with our intention being to speak long enough until the clock struck 5:00 p.m.

Oddly, for my co-worker and I, even though 5:00 p.m. was the official “quitting” time we still had responsibilities at our facilities in the evening! If we didn’t, during the slow seasons such as the winter breaks, we normally accomplished our work shortly after lunch. But 5:00…

I digress.

These conversations were simply water-cooler chats, exchanges meant to pass the time and give the appearance of productivity. We both knew what we were doing. We “worked” for the sake of activity, not productivity.

PASTORAL MINISTRY
Now, after ten years of pastoral ministry, and up until recently, I’ve learned that I carried some of this ethic into my current responsibilities. Earlier this summer, I read Cal Newport’s book, Slow Productivity, and his opening chapters begin with the tale of what he calls pseudo-productivity which he defines as “using visible activity as a crude proxy for actual productivity.”

I’ve learned that on one hand, there’s a self-imposed pressure that I place on myself to be working all day because of personal guilt. I think to myself that if those in my congregation who work 9-5 jobs or work in trades can’t have afternoons free then neither can I. My guilt tells me that even though my evenings are booked by counseling sessions or discipleship opportunities, I need to work just as long, if not longer, than everyone else.

Then, on the other hand, I have this preconceived notion where I think my congregation is thinking that I should be working around the clock — not simply for the sake of availability, but hustling unhealthily. And yet, as I’ve shared these thoughts with members in my congregation, none of them feel that way. They care about whether or not I’m healthy so that I can continue to preach/teach, pastor, and develop leaders in the church.

The result of these two self-imposed pressures the experience of spiritual and mental exhaustion — not quite burnout, but the symptoms are similar: frustration, cynicism and apathy.

THIS ISN’T UNIQUE
I’m not the only pastor or ministry leader who experiences this. I’ve met with several pastors who shared similar experiences and similar pressures, but do not know who to share it with for fear of being misunderstood and having poor ethic.

The truth is, ministry is simply different and when we fold previous ethics and expectations (apart from personal ones) into our current ministry then the possibility of spiritual exhaustion increases. In short, ministry requires us to work differently and because of this, there is much more freedom than we think. The challenge is embracing some of that freedom.

FAITHFULLY PRESENT & PRODUCTIVE
It’s not uncommon to wear multiple hats in a ministry context. Therefore, our approach towards work may look different from many. However, that does not mean nor does it imply that pastors and ministry leaders work less diligently — far from it. We must understand that ministry is a work of faithful presence and productivity.

In his book, Newport provides three principles for what he calls Slow Productivity. Here, I’ve adapted them in a way that may be more suitable for those in ministry to consider:

1. Think Deeply
   One of the great gifts of pastoral ministry is thinking deeply on the word of God; reading sound theology for a deeper understanding of the Scriptures and your own formation; communion with God; and prayer over your church. This methodical work benefits your personal spiritual formation and that of your congregation. Whether it’s an entire day or time blocking your schedule, think deeply on the things of God.

2. Work at a Natural Pace
   If you’re a solo pastor or are a part of a small staff team at your church, you cannot get to everyone all of the time. In fact, to do so would be irresponsible because that could imply that you’re not protecting precious time that you could be spending with your family, friends, or at work in something else that gives you life (that’s right, I said it). While this entry isn’t so much about guarding your time, you should still consider to work at a more natural pace when it comes to meeting with leaders, staff, and members in your congregation. This does not mean there will not be moments or seasons of intensity, emergencies, and tragedy. This does not undervalue the significance and weight of pastoral care either, but we need our shepherds to be healthy and whole as they carry the burden and blessing of this call in our local churches.

3. Obsess Over Quality
   Learn your strengths and make them stronger. You and your congregation will benefit greatly from this. It’s not that weaknesses or areas of improvement are unimportant. It’s that you are not gifted at everything and that’s okay. While this could be for another post, a side note would be to recruit and develop other leaders to help where you are weak (Ephesians 4:11-13). For now, where you are strong, grow stronger. When I replanted our church, I knew that I was gifted in teaching, but wanted learn more and grow to be a good and faithful preacher. Since then, there hasn’t been a season of ministry where I wasn’t in a preaching cohort, had a pastoral coach, read books and asked questions, or went to preaching workshops to learn from other godly and gifted men. I thank my church for allowing me these opportunities and not only have I grown as a preacher, but my church has been blessed from it.

What kind of pressures do you place on yourself that keep you from being faithfully present and productive? What kind of unnecessary burden do you carry that is keeping you from growing as a healthy and whole disciple of Jesus?

RECOMMENDED READING
1. The Solo Pastor: Understanding and Overcoming the Challenges of Leading a Church Alone by Gary L. McInTosh

2. Slow Productivity by Cal Newport

3. The Shepherd Leader: Achieving Effective Shepherding in Your Church by Timothy Witmer

Preparing For Sunday

Every December, my staff and I set aside a day to pray, plan, and reflect. I tried thinking of another word that started with the letter “p,” but I’m not that creative and I feel as though it would come across as too baptistic. During our day of PPR, we discuss and share some of the things we have seen God do in and through our church and we also lay out some of our frustrations over the last year.

One of the frustrations that we all have in common was the commotion of Sunday mornings. And I’m sure we are not the only ones who share in this frustration. When it comes to Sunday, we realized that on paper we are placing a great emphasis on the gathering and communion of the saints while welcoming new visitors to our church, but practically it looks like we are governed and formed by our tasks and responsibilities rather than formed by the gospel itself.

To be clear, Sunday mornings have a lot of moving pieces, tasks, and involve a great deal of volunteers so we can’t just get rid of the tasks at hand and hope that organically things would simply come together; that would be a case of poor stewardship and a great misunderstanding of the word “organic.” So, how does we best approach the Sunday gathering, execute our tasks and responsibilities, and come alongside the saints in worship?

Here are three areas that I think would help address the Sunday morning commotion.

1. SATURDAY
One thing we have to get right before diving into anything else is that the preparation for Sunday begins on Saturday. Whether you’re a pastor, ministry leader, or volunteer it should not be a surprise that Sunday mornings can sometimes have its own surprises for you or that needs with immediate decisions are going to present themselves to you. Therefore, the Sunday morning prep begins on Saturday night.

One of the encouragements that I walked our staff through was setting aside intentional time for prayer on Saturday evening. It doesn’t have to be this entire coffee and the word moment, but it does have to matter. I think that part of the reason that our hearts are so frazzled by Sunday mornings is because of a lack of prayer on Saturday nights. And yes, this means that it may carve into your evening plans, but by setting aside a time of prayer and devotion, we are able to take stock of the condition of our hearts, pray for our ministry teams, pray for those who are attending, and remember that everything is geared toward pointing others to Jesus. Everything.

2. PEOPLE ARE NOT PROJECTS
I get it. On Sunday mornings, many of us who are task-oriented want to get the job done. To be fair, that’s a good thing because the work matters AND that isn’t a sufficient reason for neglecting or using people. Everything that we do on Sunday mornings aims at promoting and presenting Jesus—whether word or deed (Colossians 3:17). And when we use people for the benefit of finishing a task, we are preaching a sermon that says Jesus uses His church rather than faithfully discipling her.

I have heard it from many people who say “I’m a Martha more than I am a Mary.” And while that may be true, in my experience that’s a cop-out to neglect or use people in an effort to complete a task. This doesn’t mean that the job shouldn’t be done or left. Jesus worked as a carpenter which mean he had projects to finish, deadlines to meet, and work that needed to get done. This line of work transferred over into his ministry, but he didn’t neglect or use people, rather he gave them his attention.

3. PEOPLE MATTER
Whether it’s a person on your ministry team or a new visitor, people matter. For many, Sunday’s are going to be one of the best times to follow up with you because of hindered schedules during the week or other things that come up and if you can’t stop for a moment or set aside a few minutes to listen to someone who is seeking you, then you may want to consider serving elsewhere.

Sunday’s matter because it’s the communion of the saints and in addition to the gospel being heralded, it is a time of fellowship where we disciple and encourage one another. Don’t forget that.

PREPARE FOR SUNDAY

I’m sure there are other things that can be said; things that carry a greater influence. But as of now, that’s what I have for you. And personally, I think the most important principle for you to walk away with is how you prepare yourself on Saturday night. In my opinion, that’s the greatest indicator of how well or poorly you will execute Sunday morning.

When you lay it all out before the Lord on Saturday morning, you will have primed and prepped your heart for both the experience and preached word of the gospel so that when things don’t go exactly according to plan, it’s because they simply didn’t go accordingly to plan. Address it, make a decision, and follow-through. At the end of the day, all of this is for His glory and not yours.

In our second installment of Lessons in Discipleship, we're going to be looking at humility; a characteristic that implies not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less. Before we jump in, let's have ourselves a quick review from last week: compassion. 

Compassion, as we saw, means to suffer with someone or others during a time of need; more so, it's usually at the most inconvenient time though we saw how Jesus responded in Mark 6. 

I think many look at discipleship as a wonderful opportunity to teach others what it means to follow Jesus and while this line of thought is true, in my experience, we are quick to forget that discipleship also establishes reciprocity. In other words, if I am teaching someone what it means to follow Jesus in everyday life and because the same Holy Spirit dwells in me, I am and should be convicted of the same teaching points.

So, let's talk about it. 

HUMILITY: THINKING OF YOURSELF LESS

Paul writes and sets up the standard for humility in Philippians 2:3 writing, "do nothing out of rivalry or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves." 

When we consider others more important and not expect a "thank you" or some sort of praise, we follow in the example of Jesus. The leadership style of Jesus was that of placing yourself last and not because you're awesome, but because you "consider others as more important" than yourself. It means serving others and being a reflection of the person and work of Jesus not ourselves. 

The difficulty of humility in discipleship, in my experience, has been thinking I am pretty good at this Christian life when, in fact, I'm far from it.  When we teach others what it means to follow Jesus, this includes showing them our need for Jesus in the midst of our sin. Repentance is a great teacher because it's an opportunity to show our need for Jesus and an opportunity for growth and transformation.

If discipleship is merely coffee talk once a week, then we're missing our objective. If we are to teach everything we have observed (Matthew 28), then I'm practically sure that it infers the context of life: the place(s) where we know our sin will be exposed; a place where humility could best be observed, taught, and shown.

In humility, we make much of Christ, pointing others to Him. That's the whole point of discipleship, isn't it? It's in the context of life and meeting people where they're at and taking them to where Jesus wants them to be.

Questions for the week: 
• Where, in your life do you need to repent of pride?
• Have you demonstrated/modeled (not just talked/taught about) repentance to those you disciple?
• What does it mean to "consider others as more important than ourselves"? 
• How do Christ's actions demonstrate humility and a concern for others?

The Bible teaches and leads to several significant occasions on the importance of discipleship: Moses and Joshua, the ministry of Jesus with His disciples, Jesus' final command to make disciples in Matthew 28, Paul's words to the church in Thessalonica on sharing his life with them, and many more. Discipleship is integral and difficult and just as black coffee will sprout hair on your chest, discipleship will sprout character in you. 

Though I am still learning and do not consider myself an expert in discipleship, I have come across two conclusions: I am passionate about discipling younger men so they may surrender everything in pursuit of Christ and I am learning to do the same. 

I thought about 3 concepts or learning curves that I've experienced in discipling others. All of these points can be lengthy so we will split this up into a 3-part blog over the next few weeks. I hope you find them helpful and that they would help you to see the fruit of discipleship particularly when it's not the most convenient.

COMPASSION: TO SUFFER WITH

I wish to begin by saying that discipleship happens in the context of life and not always or simply at a coffee shop once a week for an hour. If that tends to be your only strategy, then you'll have two results: those you're discipling will think they know everything and you will limit their experience in the proclamation and practice of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Moving forward, if discipleship happens in the context of life (and not just my own), then compassion is one of our primary roles. And I've learned that compassion is not only a time to suffer alongside of someone or others, but it is not convenient. Ever. 

Mark 6:33 records "People ran there by land from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. So as He [Jesus] stepped ashore, He saw a huge crowd and had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Then He began to teach them many things." 

To  give you the context of what's happening, Jesus and his disciples are tired. They've been traveling, teaching, and prior to this John the Baptist was beheaded. The people in this story recognize that it was Jesus on a boat, rush to him and the disciples, and are looking to be taught, healed, prayed over, and led. 

The disciples, later, suggest that everyone go back to their homes to rest, but Jesus decides to spend His time with the people right at that moment despite being tired and hungry. He recognized and served them at their most desperate time of need. 

Discipleship and compassion beautifully go together. It is serving during a great time of need and will be inconvenient because it will force you to inject yourself into their life in order to care for them. Compassion will call out when you're getting ready for an important event and your friend's hand gets smashed under his car because it was a tire change gone wrong; or you'll receive a call that your friend's son has just been in a horrifying and fatal accident; or in a time of confession where so many tears are built up that words and emotions will not allow the proper communication. 

Compassion is to suffer alongside of others in their desperate need for Jesus and He has called you to display the same compassion He had towards others in Mark 6. 

As you begin to disciple others, ask yourself these questions: 
• Are you compassionate?
• Where has Jesus displayed compassion in my life? 
• Is your focus so narrow that you're more concerned with the exegesis of a passage at Starbucks rather than hearing the cry of one's heart for change and need in Jesus? 

"The authority once given to Scripture is now ascribed to the appointment calendar." - Eugene Peterson

I have allowed myself to be called a pastor not by the authority of Scripture, but by how busy I have allowed myself to become. I am saddened that as I think through my weeks, they typically begin with an overview of calendared events and meetings. I would love to tell you that my days begin in communion with my Lord; intimacy with the Savior; a broken-ness of my sin that leads me to a place of repentance; bringing me to my knees in worship of who Jesus is and what He has done. But they don't always begin this way. 

Christ, in HIs mercy, has allowed me to be one of the pastors at Logos Community Church and while it continues to be a great honor and humbling experience, it is very easy to fall victim to meetings and schedules. While meetings and schedules are inevitable, I must remind myself that my primary call as pastor is to shepherd the flock the Lord has entrusted me with. 

"Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock that the Holy Spirit has appointed you to as overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which He purchased with His own blood." (Acts 20:28). 

How heavy is that?! My central responsibility is to the flock God has appointed me to, not church wide communication or community group strategy. And while areas like communication and strategy have their place, they should not govern my life; they should not be my initial thoughts for the week. My growth should come from a place where I am filled with "the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding so that I may walk worthy of the Lord." (Colassians 1:9)

My desire is simple: to see people meet Jesus. This desire will only be made possible by making the calendar secondary, if not tertiary. I wish to be a pastor who is busy because the Lord has brought me to my knees in prayer over my sin and the weight of those I have been appointed to. I wish to be a pastor who is utterly in love with God's Word that I am immersed in what God is revealing to me; a pastor who, first, proclaims God's Word. I wish to be a pastor who embraces slowness by being still and knowing that Jesus is Lord.

I think I have communicated my wishful thinking enough, so the question becomes, what do I do? 

The best place to start is with Jesus. He knew what it looked like to be busy, but didn't allow the calendar to lead him, but was intentional about resting to get away in prayer and rest in solitude. Luke 5:16 records that Jesus "often withdrew to deserted places and prayed." If I am to be healthy and brave in order to lead those entrusted to me, then I must begin with intentionality and the worship of Jesus. 

May this be the start of realignment to the care of the flock God has appointed me to shepherd.