After an introduction describing what it means to be resolved for 2011, I’m sharing a few of my commitments for the new year. They are for the most part mundane – many are not even what you might call “spiritual.” They are simply changes I resolve to make so that, by God’s empowering grace, I might become a more faithful disciple, husband, father, friend, and pastor.
Before I mention the first let me say this: your areas of growth are likely completely different from mine. You don’t need to agree with mine, and you certainly don’t need to copy them. But you do need make a plan for your own growth. Those with no plan for growth will not grow. Maybe you need to:
- work up a plan to read your Bible this year
- give away a chunk of your money because you’re moving toward greed instead of generosity
- begin building Jesus-centered traditions in your family
- resolve to not let technology or media steal meaningful attention from your wife, kids, or friends – maybe fast from or cancel your satellite TV or Facebook or cell phone
- simply stop being a person who is filled with complaints and empty of joy
Anyway, on to my first commitment: Mornings are for creative work.
There’s a term I like called “to-do list creative”: people who have to juggle creative work like writing or devising strategy with logistical work like prompt email replies and meetings. Because of both how God has wired me and my calling as a pastor (whose background is in ministry, education, art, and graphic design), I’m a to-do list creative. I must switch every day between crafting sermons and replying to emails; between thinking hard about new ways to say old, glorious truth and working up agendas for meetings.
As a result, I always feel a tension between my creative work and my logistical responsibilities. I haven’t been a pastor of a church for long, and I’ve learned a lot from those pastors who are far more seasoned than I am (the Acts 29 Network of pastors is especially invaluable to me) as well as other to-do list creatives, whether artists, writers, designers, or entrepreneurs. One of the most important lessons I’m learning is this: creative work first, reactive work second.
I use the word “creative” not to describe the creation of something new, like a writer penning a screenplay, but more like an actor, who immerses himself in the script so that he might proclaim the work of the author with faithfulness and creative passion. Pastors have already been given a script from which all our work must derive. Our creative work, then, involves immersing ourselves in this source material so that we might proclaim its words with both an unwavering faithfulness to the Author and a creative passion that commends it to our hearers.
I consider my creative work to be prayer, study, and writing (which includes writing like this as well as writing sermons week after week). Whether you’re a pastor or not, these are important efforts for every disciple of Jesus (aside from maybe the sermons). And because we generally consider these tasks important but not urgent, we push them off or forget them altogether. I’ll let you in on a secret: pastors are no different. Overflowing inboxes, much needed meetings, left over to-do lists…it’s tempting to want to clear away all the clutter before you start on the most important work. When you’re up-to-date, you tell yourself, your mind will be clear and it will be easier to focus on your Bible or praying.
The trouble with this approach is that you are allowing other people to dictate how you use the time God has given you. You end up spending the best part of the day on other people’s priorities, running their errands and giving them what they need. This can be true for anyone – your schedule might be dictated by clients, by co-workers, or by your kids. By the time you finally settle down to your own work, it could be mid-afternoon, when your energy has waned and it’s hard to focus on anything. In other words, you’ve spent the better part of your day on reactive work instead of creative work.
This leads to my first commitment: I will block out my mornings for creative work.
This goes against many people’s expectations. Pastors, they say, are available at the drop of a hat, will meet with anyone, have limitless office hours, and are always on call. This isn’t a healthy way to view your pastor. It will kill him. I’m just an under-shepherd, not the Great Shepherd. God has not given me the responsibility to take care of everything. When my phone is off, when Saturday (family day) rolls around and I’m off the grid, when I’m simply at my capacity relationally or otherwise, God is limitless. He loves his people, he builds his church, he alone causes growth. I can stop to rest and God still holds it all together.
Now certainly a pastor is called to serve his flock, and this means reactive work can be very important and necessary. Responding to emergencies, counseling a hurting person, talking about Jesus to someone you’ve just met, visiting a family with a new baby – these are all reactive responsibilities. But in our small church these things aren’t happening every day. Most days are marked not by the spectacular but the ordinary. It’s the emails, the phone calls, the meetings, the social media – things that are usually less important – that steal attention away from that which is more important – the creative work of prayer, study, and writing.
I will not spend the best part of the day on other people’s priorities. I am not leading well – myself or others – if I allow other people to dictate my priorities. I don’t want to spend most of my time on reactive work. It’s a hamster wheel that never ends. One of my professors always referred to ministry as a “time sink.” You can pour all your time into it and it’s never full, there’s always more that can be done. I’m a very ordinary man, with limits and capacities in every area. So I must resolve to give my best time and creativity to the handful of things God has called me to and gifted me for. Creative work first, reactive work second.
Two things I need to remember to make this happen:
First, I will set and follow rules for what is not allowed during creative work. Email is off, phone calls go to voicemail (unless it’s my wife or an emergency). I will give my full creative energy to the most important tasks of the day: prayer, study, and writing. The leaders of the first churches said it like this: “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables” – and perhaps we could add check email and balance budgets – “We will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:2,4).
Second, all this means I need to believe the gospel. I won’t meet many people’s expectations (and often not even my own). I tend to get anxious when emails and phone calls pile up but I’ve vowed to give my best time to the most important things first. People complain and call me a bad pastor. I disappoint people. But God loves me. He accepts me because of Jesus. I don’t live any longer to win the approval of men, or to meet every person’s expectations, or to spin my wheels for the illusion of productivity and professionalism. Jesus’ opinion of me is what matters most, and he says I’m good to go. I’m justified even though I’m a sinner. So I can quit worrying about performing for and pleasing everyone else and instead live to be faithful, even in my normal daily schedule, to what God has called me to be and to do.
