you’ll permit me a short hiatus, dear reader, to enter a conversation that is important to me. tomorrow, i will return to the biography of my brother, gary. time permitting.
i’ve got nothing but love for craig groeschel. i’ve met him on a few occasions and he seems totally human (as if i expected sasquatch?). my buddy, kevin, bought me a copy of “it” and i am enjoying it (the book, i mean). he is obviously charting new territory in the church world. nevertheless. i must take issue with a position he holds in his current series on swerve.lifechurch.tv.
groeschel’s current topic is called “unusual time saving tips.“ in setting forth his premise he writes, “Most pastors could easily fill dozens of extra hours a week with productive ministry—if they simply had more time.” many times in many places, i’ve read this little piece of wisdom: “god didn’t call us to be productive…he called us to be faithful.” now, before you accuse me of splitting theological hairs, follow my thought process.
in part two, groeschel suggests we have lunch at our desks. let me share his words:
If someone invites you to lunch, you might suggest they join you in your office. If you have an assistant, he or she can grab lunch for you; or you can order-in for delivery. You can spend 45 minutes or an hour of quality time with someone without leaving your office.
here’s my question: what could i possibly have to do that is more important than spending time with someone? as i carefully examine jesus’ life and ministry in the gospels, i am amazed at how he was so easily distracted by opportunities for human interaction. he never lost sight of the father’s timing, and he could not escape the inexorable compulsion driving him to jerusalem. still, he regularly turned aside to chat or party or share a meal or raise the dead.
i have a fundamental fear of what we call “business principles” (aka: most contemporary church leadership ideas). in business, advancement comes when you distinguish yourself (i.e.: you’re promoted if you win, you make more if you sell more than the other guy, you increase market share when you distance yourself from your competitors). that’s just not the way the church was designed to function. in the kingdom, advancement comes when you lower yourself. you succeed by serving. you win by losing (try pitching that idea to a publisher).
you might say, “but craig says ‘you can spend…an hour of quality time with someone without leaving your office.’ isn’t that enough for you?” i can trace the most spiritually significant moments of my life back to an unhurried afternoon of conversation in a coffee shop with a mentor. or a morning spent on the golf course with a cherished colleague. what if they had said to me, “i’ve only got 45 minutes…can you come to my office?” i can tell you i would not be what i am today. nothing against brother groeschel. i just happen to disagree with his counsel.
i’ll never be invited to speak at a church-growth conference, but i think i’ll try to emulate jesus.
Filed under: christianity, church, leadership, religion, spiritual
I’ve been reading this week’s series and have been following Craig’s blog for about six months now. It is a fascinating window into the mind of a ’successful’ megachurch pastor. He has some principles that appear to work for him, and — in the spirit of Bill Hybels — wants to share these leadership concepts with anyone interested in learning from him.
A lot of what he writes is just good common sense. In the case you mention, obviously the stewardship of our time is a major issue for the pastors and leaders who make up the bulk of his blog followers. With a little thought, any of us can put strategic factors into play so that we don’t “waste” our days.
But as citizens of another kingdom, we are often called to live differently than this world does. There is an entirely opposite way to approach life and ministry. There are people who live their lives according to the beat of a different drummer, and find that it also bears much fruit. Maybe more.
I will keep reading Craig to see where future blogging takes him and us. But in this case, Randy, I think you nailed a very important distinction: I don’t want to be successful, I want to be effective. I know what it’s like to be wide; I want to be deep.
To me this is just another indicator of the abyss (not a small gap) of difference between the CLA model and the Mega model. The mega model can ONLY RUN LIKE A BUSINESS. It won’t work any other way. They can’t do small. They can’t become personal.
Money is calling most of the shots at most mega churches in my opinion. Once you have created a $10,000,000 beast, It takes much marketing and effort to feed it.
Remember this. Fish brought Jesus money.
I learned a long time ago that interruptions are my ministry.