Next time you are in a group of preachers, listen to the conversation. Within 5 minutes, the topic of discussion is likely to be how busy each one is. We wear our busyness like a badge of honor; justifying our existence, our ministry and our paychecks by the activity we perform.
When I was a youth pastor (back before fire and the wheel), I would spend a lot of time just hanging out with the teens in the group. We played cards together. I went running with some of them. We went to movies together. I thought that if I was going to be their youth pastor, I had to be part of their lives. I spent a lot of time doing that kind of thing. Then, one day, a young lady who had been visiting our church looked at me and asked me, “Dave, what do you do for a living?” Aargh!
I have been moaning and groaning about busyness recently. This has been a demanding time at my church, and I’m trying not to neglect SBC Voices too egregiously. I am also trying to work on two houses. We are trying to sell my son’s house, which we renovated, and I’ve been renovating the basement of our house as an apartment for him, his wife and their soon-to-be born daughter. Both places need a lot of work. So, I’ve been going, going, going.
So have you. When you are in the ministry, there is this reality – no matter how much work you do, there is always work left undone. If you witness to 100 people today, there are still thousands lost all around you! Never once, in 32 years of full-time ministry have I ever gotten all my work done. Ministry is just a matter of how much of your important work you leave undone each day. No matter how much you do, there is more that you didn’t do.
But here is the problem.
I don’t think that all my busyness makes me a better pastor. In fact, I may be a better servant to my Lord and my people when I have some downtime, time to think, reflect, pray – when I am NOT so busy.
There is balance here, of course. We don’t have to choose between workaholism and laziness. I don’t have time to develop this thought (I’m headed out to power-wash our deck), but I’d just like you to think about this. Something drives us preachers to act as if our busyness somehow justifies our existence. But simply filling our days rushing around from thing to thing may not actually be spiritually productive. I suspect our busyness is driven too much by a desire to please man and be thought well of by our people.
Perhaps we need to slow down a little and seek God, seek wisdom, seek the Word, seek the direction of the Spirit, rather than just filling our days with activity. Perhaps, sometimes, the best thing we can do is slow down a little, delegate, prioritize, and give our minds and hearts to the pursuit of God. Not to even mention time we devote to our families – that’s another post entirely!
Just a quick thought. I’m so busy I don’t have time to say any more about it. See how good a pastor I am?
Isn’t that, in a sense, what the situation in Acts 6 was about? The twelve recognized what they were called to do, and recognized that it would be ‘not right'( I believe that’s the words they used) if they let being busy at solving such church problems crowd out their real calling. In that context, it’s not just a good idea to slow down and make sure you can concentrate on what you’re called to do, it may be ‘not right’ to fail to do so.
an old saying, DAVID:
‘slow down, you’ll get there faster’
This is a place where I actually start to feel guilty, because I am not nearly that busy.
So, I’m not doing enough to pastor my church, because most weeks I don’t run like crazy from one thing to the next.
I’m super-spiritual, because I’m not busy.
Or is it that I’m lazy and using whatever excuse I can find?
From St. Luke’s Chapter 10, perhaps the Words of Christ can apply to both men and women when it comes to bustling about frantically: and worrying about getting things done:
“41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things,
42 but only one thing is needed— Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
For a pastor, the ‘drain’ is heavy on time and energy, and sometimes the weight of carrying others’ burdens must take its toll . . . it is not unreasonable to take time to sit at the Feet of the Lord and spend time with Him . . . regular prayer times throughout the morning, day, and evening can be restorative and nurturing
nor is it wrong to ask for support and help when it seems all is falling on tired shoulders, and no one notices the exhaustion, and no one comes forth to give a helping hand
‘the better way’ is a choice, sacred Scripture tells us . . . what is gained in prayer cannot be ‘taken away’ and may in fact be used to help others in need
My thought: guard your prayer time. That arguably is the most important business a pastor does for his flock. And it very much is NOT busy work. It guards and protects the flock.
You have time to power wash your deck?
Sorry, I’ve been too busy to comment here this weekend!
This is why, no matter what else you say, the rest of us (non-pastors) are really not all that important in the ministry of the Church. The only way to be important is to be self-important. And when in comes down to it, God doesn’t need any of us.
On the other hand, the fact that he chooses to use us at all in all our sinful imperfection is a sign that he made us co-heirs in the Kingdom of Heaven.