With Steve Jobs you were only toast if you thought he was wrong but didnāt dare to say so. But Iāve seen pastors act as if disagreeing was an act of treachery.
Author: Chris Green
The idea of the Pastors’ Book Group is that we all read the same book, and then meet up to discuss it over lunch. so what are we reading next, I hear you ask…
I had spent a day being presented with a series of issues on which I was being asked to make decisions…
We usually take āself-controlā in a negative sense.Ā Not losing your temper, or not watching porn.Ā That’ s a vital spiritual standard, and we need it. But unless we add in the positive kind of self-control, it’s static.
Theologically, the healthy and wide spectrum resonates with grace, but one end tips into being motivated by guilt, and the other end tips into inertia. One denies the gospel, and the other takes the gospel for granted.
There are six questions for me to ask myself, with bite to them, which help me to focus as I prepare.Ā Theyāre a test. If I canāt answer them simply, then I need to do some more work.
As Peter Drucker pointed out the first question anyone who wants to become an effective leader has to answer is, where did my time go?
Like you, your heroes are average at almost everything they do – youāve just shone a light onto the brilliant bit.
If you want people to focus and contribute, you need to help them keep in the game.Ā And that gets harder as the clock keeps moving.
Hereās a snapshot of what turned out to be a really frustrating morning. At the beginning, I had around eight emails to answer. Each one I answered generated a reply.Ā So did the next wave of replies I sent. I also had around five I needed to send. Same pattern. And – spoiler alert –
Iāve updated my review of Michael Hyattās Full Focus Planner, as itās now in its third edition.Ā Summary: Itās even better, and nothing else comes close.Ā Here
For pastors, Christmas never really goes away.Ā It sits there in our diaries, all year round, making a slight dent.
One of the great gifts that teaching at seminary gave me, was that I was forced to say out loud, in a copyable manner, the route I take from text to sermon.Ā In fine detail. It forced me to become conscious of what I knew and did.
If this bible hasnāt been opened, I havenāt exposed my heart to God for myself that day, however much Iāve opened the bible for and before others.
The committee was stuck in the mud, revving its wheels like a stranded Land Rover.
Why shouldn’t we be in dread of the Last Trumpet? Wonāt we leap to our feet, heart in mouth, when we hear it? Shouldnāt we tremble in deathās presence, and thrill at its defeat? Shouldn’t we preachers use all our skill too, to help people see God’s awesome glory?
If I write in my diary, āSermon prep,ā and block in 2 hrs,Ā I make progress, but it feels vague. I donāt really know how I’m doing, as I move towards Sunday.
Itās not hard for our folk to be fed by superb bible teaching from around the planet. Then they come to church on Sunday, and itās plain old us.
When I started out in ministry, running full-pelt, I didnāt a weekly review because I thought it was a luxury.Ā Fill the diary, keep your eyes on the road ahead, drive fast and hard. But itās the old effectiveness/busyness issue, isnāt it?
Itās the old adage: if theyāre not actually learning, then Iām not teaching – whatever else I think Iām doing.Ā
