At the beginning of the
biblical productivity series, I stated that busyness is no sign of diligence, faithfulness, or fruitfulness. And that is because busyness does not indicate that we are devoting ourselves to the most important things. We can become busy with everything under the sun except fulfilling the roles God has assigned for us. And no matter how busy I appear, if I am neglecting one of my primary roles, I am a procrastinator, spinning in unproductive circles.
To this point in the series we have focused on how to identify roles, create goals, and block out our schedule to make sure our time is focused on what is most important.
My preference is to retreat to Starbucks on Monday morning (a day off for me). That’s when two very important things take place: (1) I carefully study the
Washington Post sports page. (2) I consider my roles, create goals, and transfer them into my schedule for the coming week.
But no matter how hard we try, it is impossible to plan every detail of our week. Interruptions arise, an unanticipated phone call requires an immediate decision and possible time investment, a new email from a friend requests our help, and a new counseling situation arises that will require the pastor’s immediate attention. The list of possible surprises in our carefully planned weeks is seemingly endless.
So what do we do with the requests we didn’t see coming?
First, it is important to understand our roles, goals, and schedules before we discuss responding to unanticipated requests. Often the procrastinator fails to work from biblical roles to establish his schedule, and is therefore vulnerable to the urgent. So he defaults to the most recent—or easiest—request. He neglects the important tasks and is governed by the urgent and the easy. He is busy, busy, busy, but he is not diligent, faithful, or fruitful.
On the other hand, the one who has been diligent, understands his roles, and has created goals can respond to unanticipated requests with discernment, aware of the time he has available. He can make appropriate scheduling decisions. He has planned for the upcoming week, informed by biblical roles, and can now evaluate requests and everyday surprises wisely.
Each day, both requests and opportunities to serve exceed our capacity and our time. Saying “no” is really a humble response acknowledging our limitations. But if we have not determined in advance who we are to serve, and how we are to serve, we will not be able to say “no” when appropriate.
If you cannot say “no,” you will be governed by the urgent requests of others and distracted from what is most important. Eventually you will become overextended and frustrated.
Evaluating Requests
So how do we evaluate the many requests and opportunities we encounter each day? This is not science, but I personally work from a rough framework when evaluating requests as they arrive. I approach the requests through a workflow that can be divided into three primary questions.
(1) Does the request fit my roles?
First, does this particular request reflect my God-ordained roles? Does it reflect my role as a Christian, or my roles as a husband, father, grandfather, ministry leader, or my commitment to the local church? If so, it automatically moves on to the second question that we will get to in one minute.
But if the request is not consistent with my roles, I ask a further question: Can I complete this in less than two minutes? Sometimes small opportunities to bless others arise but do not fit into our specific roles. If that’s the case, go for it.” If not—if this is a large request that would require a block of time in my schedule and does not fit into my roles—I must decide to delegate, decline, or delete the request (basic David Allen stuff).
(2) Does the request fit my goals?
So the request is consistent with your roles. Good. And in previous posts we have begun considering our goals, which are really sub-priorities within each role.
So does the specific request meet my personal goals? Perhaps not. Or at least not at this time. These requests must go into a folder where they can be prayed about, submitted to the counsel of others, and possibly postponed for later consideration.
If the request is consistent with my roles and goals, then it needs to be done. Time to proceed to the third question.
(3) Can I accomplish the request in under two minutes?
This is a simple question that can help as you put requests on your schedule.
Can the request be accomplished in two minutes or less? If you can complete the request that quickly then it’s really a no-brainer—complete it immediately. There is no reason to wait, no need to schedule a block of time.
But if the request requires more than two minutes of your time, it will require a place in the schedule.
So that is my process for evaluating requests. If we put this entire process together, it may look something like this flow chart:
Conclusion
It’s not possible to schedule all of our lives (nor should we try). And so there is no misunderstanding: I’m not dependent upon my schedule. My dependence rests upon God himself.
The unexpected will arise each day, needs will emerge that we did not anticipate, and situations that we could not foresee will require our attention.
We should not be surprised by apparent interruptions to our schedule. These are part of God’s purpose and plan for our lives. As C.S. Lewis so wisely noted:
The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one’s “own,” or “real” life. The truth is of course that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one’s real life—the life God is sending one day by day; what one calls one’s “real life” is a phantom of one’s own imagination. This at least is what I see at moments of insight: but it’s hard to remember it all the time.*
So true.
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*
The Quotable Lewis (Wheaton, IL.: Tyndale House Publishers, 1989), 335.
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Want to share a comment or question with C.J.? We invite you to email your suggestions or questions to blog AT sovgracemin DOT org. We cannot promise a personal email response, but we can promise your words will be read and taken into consideration. Thanks for reading! – Tony Reinke
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Biblical Productivity: This post is part of a longer series. Find the complete index of series posts
here.
Meet Jerry Bridges.
Jerry Bridges is 79 years old and has served faithfully on staff at The Navigators for over 50 years. And he continues to serve there within the Collegiate Mission where he is involved primarily in staff development, and speaks at various student events. Mr. Bridges also teaches on the gospel around the country.
Mr. Bridges is the author of numerous excellent cross-centered books like:
- The Discipline of Grace
- The Gospel for Real Life
- The Pursuit of Holiness
- Respectable Sins: Confronting the Sins We Tolerate
- The Great Exchange: My Sin for His Righteousness
- The Bookends of the Christian Life (March 2009)
But you probably know all this already.
So who is Jerry Bridges? What is he presently reading? How does he structure his devotional time? What is his favorite book on the gospel? Let’s find out.
Thanks for your time, Mr. Bridges! Please describe your morning devotions. What time do you wake up in the morning? How much time do you spend reading, meditating, praying, etc.? What are you presently reading?
On a normal day, I get up at 5:00 a.m.
I spend from 5:30 – 7:00 a.m. reading and meditating on Scripture and spending time in prayer. I begin with what I have tried to teach others to do, which is to preach the Gospel to myself. My usual practice is to read through the Bible simply starting with Genesis and going through Revelation.
I am currently in the book of Numbers. For my prayer time, I start with thanksgiving and move to petition. I always start with the first petition of the Lord’s Prayer, “Hallowed be Thy name.” Over a six-day period (Monday-Saturday), I pray for the progress of the Gospel around the world. I pray for my family, my organization and their leaders, and my own personal growth. I have about eight ongoing special prayer requests for friends who have acute needs.
What book(s) are you currently reading in these three categories: (a) for your soul, (b) for pastoral ministry, or (c) for personal enjoyment?
(a) The Existence and Attributes of God by the Puritan, Stephen Charnock. I’m actually not reading the entire two-volume set but am focusing on two chapters, “The Holiness of God” and “The Goodness of God.”
(b) For my ministry (not pastoral but The Navigators) I have just finished reading Why We’re Not Emergent (By Two Guys Who Should Be) by Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck because I need to keep up with all the “bad stuff” that students are apt to read.
(c) For personal enjoyment, I have been reading John Calvin: A Heart for Devotion, Doctrine, and Doxology. I have to confess when I’m really mentally tired I read a murder mystery by Agatha Christie.
Apart from Scripture, what book do you most frequently re-read and why?
The Apostles’ Doctrine of the Atonement by George Smeaton because it is the best book on the Gospel that I have ever read.
When you finish a book, what system have you developed in order to remember and reference that book in the future?
I don’t have a very good system but I note page numbers on the inside cover of the book with the key thought I want to go back to.
If you could study under any theologian in church history (excluding those men in Scripture), who would it be and why?
John Calvin, hands down, because he not only was a brilliant theologian but had a heart of devotion for God.
What single piece of counsel (or constructive criticism) has most improved your preaching?
Years ago I took the Dale Carnegie public speaking course. In it I learned three things that I try to practice: 1) Know your subject thoroughly. 2) Be convinced your audience needs to hear your message. 3) Have a strong passion to deliver the message. Though these principles were applied in the context of secular speeches, I found them very helpful for my message preparation and delivery.
What books on preaching, or examples of it, have you found most influential in your own preaching?
Christ-Centered Preaching by Bryan Chapell, particularly chapters 10 and 11, and John Stott’s Between Two Worlds.
What single bit of counsel has made the most significant difference in your effective use of time?
Arrange your “do list” in order of priority and work progressively through, starting with number one. You can’t get them all done but this way you get the most important things done. I have modified this advice by realizing that the morning hours from breakfast to noon are my most effective, creative hours, and as much as possible I dedicate those hours to study, writing and message preparation.
What single bit of counsel has made the most significant difference in your leadership?
This question is not applicable to me since I have not been leading or managing anyone for about 15 years.
Where in ministry are you most regularly tempted to discouragement?
Too often, after preaching a message, I feel like I have not done a good job.
Do you exercise? If so, what do you do? If not, why not?
My main exercise is walking either outdoors or on the treadmill. I had a practice of minor weight lifting (no more than 25 lbs) but that practice got dropped in the busyness of life and I am trying to re-start it.
Currently, what sport do you like to play and/or watch?
I don’t play any sport at my age and seldom watch any on television. However, my main sport of interest is football and my favorite teams in order are: University of Oklahoma (I’m an alumnus), the Air Force Academy and the Denver Broncos.
What do you do for leisure?
Read something that is outside of my ministry. I like history, biographies and older (19th or early 20th century) novels.
If you were not in ministry, what occupational path would you have chosen?
Teaching.
Thank you, Mr. Bridges, for taking the time to answer my questions!
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Related: Last November, C.J. interviewed Mr. Bridges in the Sovereign Grace recording studio on the topic of cross-centered living (with some sports talk at the end). The interview can be found here.
After a short break, today we return to the biblical productivity series.
In the previous post in this series, I explained the personal goals that flow from my most important relationship: my relationship with God. Because that relationship is a priority, my goal is to practice the spiritual disciplines as a way of communing with God and acknowledging my dependence upon him. This goal shows up in my schedule as I protect my morning devotional time.
Today we begin to explore biblical productivity in my relationships with others, particularly in my roles as husband, father, and grandfather.
Serve and Surprise
As I explained earlier, in my relationships with others I work from two biblical categories. Broadly speaking, my goals are twofold:
- Serve (How can I serve?)
- Surprise (How can I surprise?)
Obviously, I don’t think these are the only categories you may work from, but thinking in terms of serving and surprising has helped clarify my goals and scheduling week after week over the years.
Connect my roles to my goals and you begin to see the basic framework that informs my schedule. If I were to draw this out, it might look something like this (click for larger):
Studying
I can hear you asking, But C.J., how do I serve and surprise my wife? How do I serve and surprise my son? What exactly am I to do? Give me specifics.
Actually, at this point the most effective way I can serve you is to not give you specifics on how I serve and surprise my wife, son, and grandchildren. Here’s why: Those you are called to serve and surprise are unique. This means the specific ways you serve and surprise your wife may look very different from the ways I serve and surprise my wife.
Study Your Wife
For example, let’s look at my role as husband to Carolyn. As I plan how to serve and surprise my wife, I think about a number of categories. Here are my two lists. You can probably add to them.
Do you know how to surprise and delight your wife in specific ways in each of these areas?
- clothing sizes, styles, and stores
- jewelry
- health
- exercise
- books and magazines
- movies
- the arts
- sports
- food
- music
- entertainment
- places to visit
- intellectual interests
- hobbies
- vacations/getaways
- and, of course, sex
Do you know how your wife is faring in each of these areas?
-
theological knowledge
- practice of the spiritual disciplines
- growth in godliness
- spiritual gifts that can be used to serve others
- involvement in the local church
- relationships with children
- relationships with parents
- relationships with in-laws
- relationships with friends
- personal retreats
- fears
- hopes
- dreams
- disappointments
- temptations
Once I have considered these categories, I can put specific ways to serve and surprise my wife on my weekly and monthly schedule.
Conclusion
It’s relatively easy to consider our roles and create goals. The greater challenge is to deliver on our good intentions by transferring those goals to our schedules.
Serving and surprising others requires that we study them carefully, learn their particular needs and interests, and take action based on what we learn. And when we do, our wives and children, and all those we serve, will freshly experience our affection, care, and service.
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Want to share a comment or question with C.J.? We invite you to email any suggestions or questions to blog AT sovgracemin DOT org. We cannot promise a personal email response, but we can promise your words will be read and taken into consideration. Thanks for reading! – Tony Reinke
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Biblical Productivity: This post is part of a longer series. Find the complete index of posts here.
Welcome back to the second part of my interview with Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III (read part one here).
Ligon, apart from Scripture, what book do you most frequently re-read and why?
I do not think that I can answer the question, which book I most frequently re-read, since there are a number of them that I have re-read over the years. Some examples of these books would be:
-
Calvin’s Institutes
- Packer’s A Quest for Godliness
- David Wells’ No Place for Truth
- Thomas Brooks’ Precious Remedies against Satan’s Devices
I re-read these books because they are particularly edifying, convicting, timely and instructive.
When you finish a book, what system have you developed in order to remember and reference that book in the future?
I have no system. I’m not a fast reader, but I can usually remember what I read and where I read. So, I largely rely upon my memory, but this does result in some rummaging around to find things from time to time. Of course, if I’m researching something for publication, I keep notes, by author, title, and subject.
If you could study under any theologian in church history (excluding those men in Scripture) who would it be and why?
Calvin or Irenaeus.
I would choose Calvin because he is, in my opinion, the best exegete and possibly the greatest systematic theologian in the history of Christianity. He is certainly one of the five greatest theologians in the history of the Church.
I would choose Irenaeus because he played such a crucial role in the shaping of orthodoxy and because of his close proximity to the apostles. I would love to pepper him with questions about all of that for about two years, eight hours a day, five days a week.
What single piece of counsel (or constructive criticism) has most improved your preaching?
Well, I’m not sure I can claim that it has improved my preaching, but at least Mark Dever’s counsel has been helpful and instructive to me: “if your wife wakes you up at 2 a.m. on Sunday morning to ask you what your sermon is about, and you cannot tell her in one crisp sentence, then that sermon is not ready to preach.” Basically, we must be really clear on what the main thrust, thesis, argument, point, and main application of our sermon is.
What books on preaching, or examples of it, have you found most influential in your own preaching?
I have benefited from Lloyd-Jones’ book Preaching and Preachers, the volume edited by Sam Logan called The Preacher and Preaching, and Broadus, On the Preparation and Delivery of Sermons. But I have gained the most from listening to great preaching. Growing up under the faithful and powerful expository ministries of Gordon Reed and Paul Settle, and listening to Mark Dever, John Piper, C.J. Mahaney, Derek Thomas, Sinclair Ferguson, Eric Alexander, and others, have been most influential on my preaching.
What single bit of counsel has made the most significant difference in your effective use of time?
I do not use my time effectively, but the best advice that I have been given is, “Learn to say, ‘No.’” Unfortunately, I have not taken this advice yet, but am trying.
What single bit of counsel has made the most significant difference in your leadership?
“I have not come to be served, but to serve.” And “if you want to be a servant, you have to be prepared to be treated like one.” (Glen Knecht)
That is humbling counsel. Thank you, Dr. Duncan.
Please join me next time for the third and final part of my interview with Dr. Duncan.
Meet J. Ligon Duncan III.
You guessed it, Dr. Duncan is also scary smart—a graduate of Furman University, Covenant Theological Seminary (M.Div.), and the University of Edinburgh (Ph.D.).
Since 1996 Ligon has served as the Senior Minister of First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, Mississippi. He is also a professor at Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS-Jackson). Dr. Duncan is a one-man seminary, having taught courses on patristics, systematic theology, ethics, apologetics, history of philosophy and Christian thought, covenant theology, evangelism, and the theology of the Westminster Standards.
Dr. Duncan is the President and Chairman of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, the Chairman of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, has previously served as the Moderator of the General Assembly of the PCA, serves on the council of the Gospel Coalition, and is one of four friends who host Together for the Gospel.
But you probably know all this already.
So who is Ligon Duncan? During his ministry, what advice has informed his leadership? Which contemporary preachers does he learn from? What discourages him? How much weight is he trying to lose? If he were to lose the weight, what kind of mad hoops skilz would he display?
These and many other things we will discover in my three-part interview with my good friend J. Ligon Duncan number 3.
Ligon, please describe your morning devotions. What time do you wake up in the morning? How much time do you spend reading, meditating, praying, etc.? What are you presently reading?
I usually wake up between 5-6:15 a.m., depending on the day. I typically do my devotions at the church, since I spend almost my entire time at home in the mornings helping to get the kids ready for and to school. I do have a home office (in addition to my study at the church) and I often do devotional reading there in the mornings (but not for very long) and more often in the evenings.
At present I am reading through 1 Chronicles, both the text and the notes, in the ESV Study Bible. I was going to do one of the ESV read through the Bible in a year plans, but the Chronicles readings at the first of the year captivated me, and I wanted an excuse to read through all the ESV Study Bible notes on that book, and I was enjoying Chronicles so much and desired to know it better that I decided to luxuriate in it.
I probably read fifteen minutes or so. Prayer time is distributed throughout the day, and I haven’t tried to quantify it, so I really don’t know. I carry a prayer list in my Bible and on MS Outlook on my Blackberry and iPhone. I also set aside a special prayer time, early on every Lord’s Day morning, to pray for the ministry of a handful of other pastors.
What book(s) are you currently reading in these three categories: (a) for your soul, (b) for pastoral ministry, or (c) for personal enjoyment?
I am not this well-organized! I don’t have my reading apportioned in three such good categories (but I’m not at all surprised that C.J. Mahaney thinks in these terms!). My categories are less sophisticated: what I have to read and what I want to read. Now, of course, I love to read what I have to read (most of the time), but I don’t always have to read what I want to read, so maybe these categories make sense.
Under the have to read category, (1) I am reading 15-20 commentaries at any given time, depending on what book of the Bible I am preaching through. So, currently I am reading through Luke commentaries (including Phil Ryken’s unpublished manuscript, Wilcock, Hendriksen, Geldenhuys, Ryle, Bock, Calvin, Marshall, Morris, etc). (2) Another major area under the have to read category is related to whatever courses I am teaching at that time. Right now, I am teaching covenant theology at RTS Jackson, and teaching a survey of the Westminster Confession of Faith, so I’m spending some time reading things related to covenant theology and reading commentaries on the Confession too (e.g. Hodge, Shaw, Ward, Warfield, etc). (3) The third area under the have to read category is manuscripts that I am to endorse or review (e.g., I’ve recently read Cornelis Venema’s critique of paedocommunion “Children at the Lord’s Table?” and Todd Rester’s translation of William Ames “Sketch of the Christian’s Catechism”). Or secondary literature related to writing and research projects (e.g., recently did a literature survey of every book and article written on covenant theology since 1985).
Under the want to read category, which sort of corresponds to your “personal enjoyment” category, I am an avid reader of book catalogs and a fervent frequenter of bookstores. So I’m on the hunt for new stuff all the time. I also am usually pulling recommendations from people like Al Mohler, Mark Dever, Derek Thomas, Russell Moore et al. I especially love history and great literature. At present I am reading Grimm’s Fairy Tales.
Join us next time for the second part of my interview with Dr. Duncan.
Meet Thabiti Anyabwile.
Thabiti holds B.A. and M.S. degrees in psychology from North Carolina State University and is the author of three books:
Thabiti is the senior pastor of
First Baptist Church of Grand Cayman (the Cayman Islands). He was previously an assistant pastor at Capitol Hill Baptist Church (Washington, DC).
But you probably know all this already.
So who is Thabiti Anyabwile? What does he read for fun? What discourages him? How does he structure his devotional time? What correction from others has most benefited him? What career path would he have chosen if not ministry?
Thanks for your time, Thabiti! Please describe your morning devotions. What time do you wake up in the morning? How much time do you spend reading, meditating, praying, etc.? What are you presently reading?
My devotions are really pretty simple. I usually wake somewhere between 6:30-7:30am. There’s a brief prayer when I wake. After getting ready for the day, I spend time praying through the day and usually 1-2 pages of the church directory (30 minutes), usually read four chapters from the Scripture (I use Carson’s
For the Love of God, and usually read both the evening and morning readings in the morning), I pray through each chapter I read and note things for meditation/application that day, and I read something edifying outside of Scripture. Right now I’m reading Calvin’s
Institutes with the Ref21 gang as part of my devotional routine.
What book(s) are you currently reading in these three categories: (a) for your soul, (b) for pastoral ministry, or (c) for personal enjoyment?
For my soul: C.J. Mahaney (ed),
Worldliness; Calvin, The
Institutes.
For pastoral ministry: John Stott’s
The Living Church: Convictions of a Lifelong Pastor; J. Ligon Duncan and Susan Hunt,
Women’s Ministry in the Local Church.
For personal enjoyment: Stuart Brown and John Wickham (eds),
The Oxford Book of Caribbean Short Stories; Pierre Berton,
The Invasion of Canada, 1812-1813. These double as reads for pastoral ministry since I’m pastoring a Caribbean congregation with a lot of Canadian members as well.
Apart from Scripture, what book do you most frequently re-read and why?
Two books call out to me once every 18 months to 2 years: J.I. Packer’s
Knowing God and Charles Bridges’
The Christian Ministry. Every time I read those books I’m drawn to some magnificence in God or in the pastoral ministry. Packer’s
Knowing God leaves me more passionate about God. Bridges’
The Christian Ministry leaves me more passionate about the ministry.
When you finish a book, what system have you developed in order to remember and reference that book in the future?
Does highlighting count? I highlight a book and write comments in the margin. I’ve tried to start a quote file. And I’ve written personal indexes in the back of a book. But I don’t find that those help me reference a book in the future. I’m just a highlighter kind of guy. And it’s fun for me because I re-read the section with new eyes and distance sometimes. So, I glean new things, or I go away thinking, “Why in the world did I highlight that?” So it becomes a fun interaction between my past and future.
If you could study under any theologian in church history (excluding those men in Scripture), who would it be and why?
Oooohhh…. I’d have two, I think. I’d want to be in Geneva with Calvin. The man knew his Bible, the classics, the Fathers, the languages, and how to train men. Right now I can’t imagine a better person to learn from, speaking purely in terms of his worthiness as a theologian. Plus I’d really like to know what happened with Servetus and provide the once and for all account of what went down!
Second, I’d want to labor alongside Lemuel Haynes, the 18th century pastor in Rutland, VT. I’d want to observe the dynamic between an African-American pastor and an all-white congregation in the late 1700s. And I’d want to sit under his preaching. I love his consistently high view of the church, and that he viewed the ministry with an eschatological urgency.
Join me tomorrow for the second half of my interview with Thabiti.
Meet John Piper.
Dr. Piper is a graduate of Wheaton College, Fuller Theological Seminary (B.D.), and the University of Munich (D.theol.).
Dr. Piper is the Pastor for Preaching & Vision at
Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, the founder of
Desiring God, and the author of more than 30 books including:
But you probably know all this already.
So who is John Piper? What does he read for fun? What discourages him? How does he structure his devotional time? What correction from others has most benefited him? What career path would he have chosen if not ministry?
Thanks for your time, John! Please describe your morning devotions. What time do you wake up in the morning? How much time do you spend reading, meditating, praying, etc.? What are you presently reading?
I get up two mornings at 5:15, four mornings at 6:15 and one morning at 6:00.
I set aside one hour for prayer and Bible reading using the
Discipleship Journal read through the Bible reading plan. That puts me now (February 2009) in Exodus, Psalms, Matthew, and Acts. On the five free days when there are no assignments I focus on memorization.
What book(s) are you currently reading in these three categories: (a) for your soul, (b) for pastoral ministry, or (c) for personal enjoyment?
I am reading
Team of Rivals about Abraham Lincoln,
Gilead by Marilyn Robinson,
Pilgrim’s Progress,
Culture Making by Andy Crouch, and
Reformed Is Not Enough by Doug Wilson.
Apart from Scripture, what book do you most frequently re-read and why?
I don’t re-read books, except to read them to my family (like
Pilgrim’s Progress).
When you finish a book, what system have you developed in order to remember and reference that book in the future?
I index books as I read them, by writing short notes in the front of the book with page numbers beside them. In a good book there may be over a hundred such notes.
If you could study under any theologian in church history (excluding those men in Scripture), who would it be and why?
Jonathan Edwards because he saw the grandeur of God and experienced a great awakening and ran a happy family.
What single piece of counsel (or constructive criticism) has most improved your preaching?
Don’t preach in a way that a Muslim would approve. Preach a divine crucified Christ.
What books on preaching, or examples of it, have you found most influential in your own preaching?
Spurgeon,
Lectures to My Students; Lloyd-Jones,
Preaching and Preachers; John Stott,
Between Two Worlds; Graeme Goldsworthy,
Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture.
What single bit of counsel has made the most significant difference in your effective use of time?
A great tree will fall with many small chops. Pray for daily grace to keep chopping.
What single bit of counsel has made the most significant difference in your leadership?
Lead by helping people see the same truth in the Bible you do so that commonly perceived truth is the fabric that binds together. When truth is not the bond, power moves are inevitable.
Where in ministry are you most regularly tempted to discouragement?
My own recurrent sins are the most discouraging thing in ministry. Next are the sins and sorrows of my family.
Do you exercise? If so, what do you do? If not, why not? (Please be specific.)
I run on the treadmill 30 minutes Monday, Wednesday and Saturday morning followed by a set of back lifts with a Swiss ball, stomach crunches with the ball, and pushups on the floor. I almost always walk to church instead of driving, 600 paces from door to door.
Currently, what sport do you like to play and/or watch?
I enjoy watching gymnastics, soccer, basketball, and football, in that order. If my back weren’t so stiff I would love to play racquetball. When our staff goes away we play volleyball and floor hockey.
What do you do for leisure?
Fill out forms from fellow pastors. Play scrabble with Noël. Read.
If you were not in ministry, what occupational path would you have chosen?
Teaching literature. Or, if my hands stopped shaking, medicine.
Welcome back for part two of my interview with Dr. Wayne Grudem. Read part one here.
Dr. Grudem, if you could study under any theologian in church history (excluding those men in Scripture), who would it be and why?
Probably John Calvin, because of his remarkable ability to understand each passage of Scripture in the light of the whole Bible and all of God’s purposes for history.
What single piece of counsel (or constructive criticism) has most improved your preaching?
I think it would be my wife Margaret’s willingness to tell me what worked, what connected with the audience, or what was boring or unclear. She has done this for our entire marriage, and it continues to be helpful to me.
What books on preaching, or examples of it, have you found most influential in your own preaching?
The main example was Harold John Ockenga’s preaching Sunday mornings and evenings at Park Street Church in Boston when I was an undergraduate at Harvard. It was just solid, faithful, expository preaching week after week, month after month. It was his example of preaching that God used to persuade me to go to seminary rather than heading toward law school.
What single bit of counsel has made the most significant difference in your effective use of time?
I find the most helpful thing I do regarding use of time is to spend time in prayer each morning bringing my plans and my “to do” list before the Lord and seeking his direction.
As far as human advice and counsel, I have found the system described in Getting Things Done by David Allen to be very helpful—I am just now rereading that to try to get all of my “in box” items back under control again and listed in one place, and then processed. I should add that I find effective use of time to be a continual challenge and I keep making small modifications here and there.
I would also like to say this to you, C.J.: You probably remember that I have talked with you numerous times about how to decide on what things to schedule, how to set priorities, and other questions about wisdom in time management, and your suggestions have always been very helpful!
Several verses of Scripture also have influenced me in this regard. Paul said, “It is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy (or “faithful,” Greek pistos)” (1 Corinthians 4:2) and that has made me seek to be faithful to God in the way I use all of my time.
Join me tomorrow for the third part of my interview with Dr. Grudem.
This series is becoming increasingly practice oriented. As it does, I think it is important to note that my approach is merely a recommendation, one recommendation among so many available today.
It’s not important that you emulate my approach, but you do need some theologically informed approach to time management, a custom-designed approach that incorporates your particular roles and goals into your weekly or monthly schedule.
So let me explain how the specific goals work in relation to each of my five specific roles.
1. My Goals as a Christian
If you are a Christian, you have personally experienced God’s saving act of love. And no other role is more crucial or central than that of “Christian.”
Yet I suspect the role of “Christian” is also the one we’re most likely to assume when we write our schedules. But the relationship with God we’ve been given as a result of the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ for our sin should be our highest priority.
I find it useful to identify two specific goals. As a Christian, my goals are:
- Communion with God.
- Participation in the local church.
Communion with God. It’s possible to view our practice of the spiritual disciplines (study of Scripture, prayer, etc.) as optional additions to our routine when time allows, rather than goals derived from our primary role (Christians). Our communion with God can often remain a vague “should do” in our minds that—if we’re honest with ourselves—often takes less of a priority in our schedules than that important Wednesday lunch meeting with a colleague.
The consequence of neglecting a personal goal is nowhere more serious than when we neglect God and neglect our own souls. Scripture sternly cautions us to enforce all diligence over our hearts: “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life” (Proverbs 4:23, ESV). We must study our hearts. We must monitor the condition of our hearts. We must work by the grace of God to employ the spiritual disciplines to keep our hearts with all vigilance.
And ultimately we must look outward and upward, surveying the wondrous cross and the Savior who died there for us. The Father’s wrath against all our sins has been satisfied. We must never lose sight of Calvary. And the spiritual disciplines help us daily focus our gaze on the Savior.
So we should be careful that this primary role is reflected in our schedules.
In carving out 45–60 minutes of time in the morning, I am seeking to:
- Acknowledge my dependence upon God, affirm my intention to trust in him, and voice skepticism of my own understanding (Proverbs 3:5–6).
- Slowly enter the day, careful to begin with a divine perspective.
- Preach the gospel to myself.
- Get my soul happy before God by meditating on Scripture (a practice I learned from the writings of George Mueller).
Participation in the local church. As those who have been forever changed by the gospel, we have the privilege and joy of serving in the local church.
When we consider how to apply this goal to our schedules, we can ask ourselves three simple questions.
Ask yourself:
- When and how am I intentionally serving those around me? this year? this week?
- When and how do I care specifically for those closest to me in the church? this year? this week? (For some of you, this will consist of serving those in your small group.)
- When and how do I pray for and support my pastor? this year? this week?
These are questions that flow directly from my goal.
In the coming posts I’ll focus on my personal goals derived from my roles as husband, father, grandfather, and ministry leader.
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Want to share your own personal list of roles and goals with C.J.? We invite you to email your list, and any suggestions or questions, via email (blog AT sovgracemin DOT org). We cannot promise a personal email response, but we can promise your words will be read and taken into consideration. Thanks for reading! – Tony Reinke
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Biblical Productivity: This post is part of a longer series. Find the complete index of series posts here.
January 13, 2009 by C.J. Mahaney
Categories: Busyness | Time Management
Have you ever looked at an empty calendar and asked yourself, “What am I supposed to be doing right now?” Have you looked at a calendar filled to the brim with 25 hours of things to do each day and asked yourself, “What am I supposed to be doing right now?”
By themselves, neither empty schedules nor suffocating schedules help clarify our daily priorities. But identifying our God-ordained roles will. And if you are following along in this blog series, you have hopefully by now developed your own list of God-ordained roles.
More on this in a minute.
Judging from the emails you have sent in, there are at least a few of you who want to make the jump from roles to scheduling. Please don’t jump until you hear me out. Because until we fill in the middle, that often-fuzzy area that connects our roles to our schedules, our calendars will lack purpose and specificity.
So please hang on for one more post before we jump into scheduling.
My Roles
Earlier in this series I listed the five primary roles I currently fill:
- Christian
- Husband
- Father
- Grandfather
- Ministry leader
This looks like a simple and obvious list—and it is—but it does require a little focused time thinking through and prioritizing these roles. The order is important. So I hope you have invested a few moments to define God’s roles for your life and have the list in front of you.
Please write this list out. We are constantly tempted to read about things we may wholeheartedly agree with (like biblical productivity), yet fail to respond with anything more than a head nodding in agreement. So please take time to list these roles on paper.
The 15 minutes you devote to clarifying your roles will quickly repay itself in hours of time-saving clarity and purpose as you determine your goals and finalize your schedule.
My Goals
Okay, now onto my goals. For me, I work from two general categories that work well with most of my roles (especially my relationships with other people). Broadly speaking, my goals are twofold:
- Serve (How can I serve others?)
- Surprise (How can I surprise others?)
Obviously, I don’t think these are the only categories you may work from, but thinking in terms of serving and surprising has helped clarify my goals and scheduling week after week over the years.
Serve and What?
I think most of us understand the priority Scripture places on serving the needs of others. I don’t think I need to convince you of its importance.
But what about surprising others? What’s up with that?
Granted, surprising others is not always distinct from serving them. But while we often think of serving as limited to meeting obvious needs, there is more to it than that. Paul writes, “Outdo one another in showing honor” (Romans 12:10, ESV). The intentionality and the intensity of this statement are hard to miss. God commands a holy competition in showing honor to others.
So do our schedules reflect obedience to this command?
Convicting, isn’t it?
As you can see, I find it helpful to think of these goals—serving and surprising—as separate categories. Roughly speaking, to serve is to effectively provide for legitimate needs. To surprise is to happily and generously honor and bless others!
Both categories should be the effect of the gospel in our hearts and the appropriate expression of love for others. And both categories honor God, and both categories should find their way into our schedules.
Limiting Goals
Now please don’t be running off and setting hundreds of goals in relation to each role! I have too often set too many goals that went unfulfilled and left me discouraged. I recommend just a few goals for any single role. I create no more than three goals per role in a given week.
While we could no doubt develop a long list of goals under each role, our time, energy, and gifts are restricted. Four or more goals are likely more than many of us can handle, and especially if you can identify more than three personal roles.
Please don’t misunderstand. My approach is merely a recommendation for your consideration. There is no need to follow my approach. But you do need to custom-design some approach that incorporates roles and goals into your schedule.
That’s for next time.
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Want to share a comment with C.J.? We invite you to email your suggestions and questions to blog AT sovgracemin DOT org. We cannot promise a personal email response, but we can promise your words will be read and taken into consideration. Thanks for reading! – Tony Reinke
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Biblical Productivity: This post is part of a longer series. Find the complete index of series posts here.