Time Management

Sometimes we say we are “multitasking,” but what we are doing is jumping from task to task doing a bit here and a bit there. Then there are the distractions: the phone, the office ASAP tasks, family matters, a building “emergency. We are trying to put 28 hours into a 24 hour bag. And that is not counting for such necessities such as eating , sleep and other sundry activities nature requires of all.

The time management masters do not seem to come up to looking at the current advantages of a wired, multitasking society. One of the classic time management systems traces back to the 1920s. This .tool recommended to make a list of 6 important tasks the night before. The next day one is to work each task to completion before starting the next task on the list. That evening one is to make another 6 item prioritized list. If you can lock yourself away from time-robbing critical intrusions. this would work.

Instead, one way is to look as time as a resource. (I didn’t want to say “see time as money.” ) In the 1930′s, the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto discovered the Pareto Principle. In time management, this would say that 80% of your efforts only produces 20% of the wanted results. The key to time management is to better spend that 80%!

To better use that 80%, try mindful focus. Make that task list by priority. Instead of working each item to completion, recognize that you will be interrupted. When an interruption occurs, assign it a time value: 5 minutes, 10 minutes, whatever. Get a small quiet timer and set it for the urgency value of the task. Do just enough to get the urgency under control. When the time is up, go back to the task you were working on. It will be hard to break away from the interruption and return. The interruption is exciting and different. The task you were working on does not have that brain chemical rush.

A Prayer for the Walk from the Car to the Door

We rush about and are surrounded by the spirituality that can be found outside the door. Here is how poet e.e. cummings prayed this.

i thank You God for most this amazing

day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday;this is the birth
day of life and love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any–lifted from the no
of all nothing–human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

~.e.e. cummings

Refreshing at the Well

Burned out. Dried up. Running on empty. Going through the motions.

Ministers spend the day pouring out themselves in the ministry of health and wholeness for others. Their inner talents and lives are spent in the service of others. But one’s internal reservoir is not boundless. The spirit can become weary and exhausted.

Growing and nurturing the spirit within taps into the great stream of living water promised by Jesus to the woman at the well and a symbol of re-birth and life in almost all faith traditions and cultures.

Working like a dog? Pause to drink from the Living Water.

What’s Your Spiritual IQ?

Spirituality is that deepest yearning of the human heart to be satiated with love, contentment and profound, quiet joy. It is the awe of that which cannot be grasped or described, however noble the attempt of learned philosopher, anointed clergy or gaunt mystic . It is the “still, small voice” that murmurs within when the mind sheds its cares and the body stops its mad, hurried, daily gyrations. Spirituality is the practice of liberating the spirit within to soar towards the Spirit that holds all in loving embrace. And while in that embrace of prayer, to sing the soul-song of praise, to drink deeply from the Living Water, to sit in the Presence and to listen to the voice of the Beloved.

The call to spirituality is of all those faith traditions that seek the Divine. Its history is recorded in Holy Scriptures and in the living stories of the holy ones throughout the ages.

The Spirit says, “Come.”
The Divine Bridegroom says,”Come.”
Let that within respond,
“Here I am. Speak, LORD, for my spirit is listening.”

Terry Mattingly: Voices of Unbelief — Behind the Pulpit

An interesting article. If I am remembering correctly, even Mother Theresa worked on with her doubts.
May 15, 2010

On Sunday mornings, you will find him leading hymns in one of the independent Church of Christ congregations somewhere in South Carolina.

Call him “Adam.” He is a church administrator, a “worship minister” and a self-proclaimed “atheist agnostic.” That last detail is a secret. After all, his wife and teenage children are devout believers, and he needs to stay employed.

“Here’s how I’m handling my job. … I see it as play-acting. I kind of see myself as taking on a role of a believer in a worship service, and performing,” he said during an interview for the “Preachers who are not Believers” report from the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University.

“I know how to pray publicly. I can lead singing. I love singing. I don’t believe what I’m saying anymore in some of these songs. But I see it as taking on the role and performing. Maybe that’s what it takes for me to get myself through this, but that’s what I’m doing.”

The researchers behind this report do not claim they can document whether this phenomenon is rare or common. What they have right now is anecdotal material drawn from confidential interviews with five male Protestant ministers -— three in liberal denominations and two from flocks that, as a rule, are conservative. An ordained Episcopal Church woman was interviewed but withdrew just before publication.

The authors of the report are philosopher Daniel C. Dennett, an outspoken leader in the movement many call the “New Atheism,” and Linda LaScola, a clinical social worker with years of qualitative-research experience. She is also an atheist, but, until recently, was a regular churchgoer.

“We started with a pilot study because this is very new ground,” said LaScola, who conducted the interviews. “We are planning to do a larger study in the future.”

The key is circulating this early material and then finding more ministers who are willing to be interviewed. The initial participants were found through contacts with the Center For Progressive Christianity and the Freedom from Religion Foundation. As this report candidly states: “Our sample is small and self-selected, and it is not surprising that all of our pastors think that they are the tip of an iceberg, but they are also utterly unable to confirm this belief.”

What unites these ministers is their isolation from the believers in their pews, their awareness that they cannot honestly discuss their doubts and evolving beliefs. They also struggle with labels such as “atheist” or “agnostic,” often insisting that they remain believers of some kind -— although they reject Christian doctrines or even theism.

This tension, the authors stressed, is “no accident” in these postmodern times.

“The ambiguity about who is a believer and who is a nonbeliever follows inexorably from the pluralism that has been assiduously fostered by many religious leaders for a century and more: God is many different things to different people, and since we can’t know if one of these conceptions is the right one, we should honor them all,” noted Dennett and LaScola. “This counsel of tolerance creates a gentle fog that shrouds the question of belief in God in so much indeterminacy that if asked whether they believed in God, many people could sincerely say that they don’t know what they are being asked.”

More than anything else, the report offers a striking mix of voices and motives.

“Darryl” the Presbyterian still calls himself a “Jesus Follower,” but adds: “I reject the virgin birth. I reject substitutionary atonement. I reject the divinity of Jesus. I reject heaven and hell in the traditional sense, and I am not alone.”

There’s “Wes” the United Methodist: “I think the word ‘God’ can be used very expressively in some of my more meditative modes. I’ve thought of God as a kind of poetry that’s written by human beings.”

“Jack” the Southern Baptist has concluded that the “grand scheme of Christianity, for me, is a bunch of bunk.” Thus, he is quietly planning a new career.

“If somebody said, ‘Here’s $200,000,’ I’d be turning my notice in this week, saying, ‘A month from now is my last Sunday.’ Because then I can pay off everything.”

Terry Mattingly is director of the Washington Journalism Center at the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities and leads the GetReligion.org project to study religion and the news.

Copyright 2010, United Feature Syndicate

The Unseen Side of Ministry

When colleagues  leave ministry ,  they disappear from conversations.  Rarely is the question asked, “I wonder where Pat is doing?”   When ministers go through difficult times either personally, familial , or ministerial, there is a reluctance to seek help.  Ministers are the ones who help.  If  a minister can’t help themselves, what does that say about their overall competency?   If they approach the denomination, what does that say about their ability to perform their office?  If they mention they are weary, the congregation yawns.  After all, ministry is a call and not like the demanding 9 to 5 plus jobs they must go to 5 or more days a week.

The following is a compilation of various surveys done by different denominations.  The numbers point out many ministers and their families are at risk, emotionally, physically and spiritually.

1,500 pastors leave the ministry permanently each month in America.

• 95% of pastors do not regularly pray with their spouses.

• 90% of pastors said their training was inadequate for ministry.
• 90% of pastors said ministry was completely different from what they thought it would be.
• 90% of pastors said the hardest thing about ministry is uncooperative people.

• 85% of pastors report that their biggest problem is dealing with abstinent elders, deacons, worship leaders, worship teams, board members, and associate pastors.

• 80% of seminary graduates who enter ministry will leave the ministry within the first five years.
• 80% of pastors spend under 15 minutes a day in prayer
• 80% of pastors’ spouses feel unappreciated by the congregation.
• 80% of pastors and 85% of their spouses feel discouraged in their roles.
• 80% of the adult children of pastors sought professional help for depression.
• 80% of pastorss’  spouses feel their pastor-spouses are overworked.
• 80% of pastors’ spouses (usually wives.) feel pressured to be someone they are not and do things they are not called to do in the church.

• 70% of pastors continually battle depression
• 70% of pastors do not have a close friend, confidant, or mentor.
• 70% of pastors only study the Bible when preparing a message.
• Only 70% of pastors felt called of God into ministry when they began.
• 70% of pastors are grossly underpaid.

• Only 50% of pastors felt called of God into ministry three years later.
• 50% of pastors are so discouraged they would leave the ministry if they could, but have no other way to make a living.
• Over 50% of pastors’ spouses (usually wives)  feel that their spouses’ entering ministry was the most destructive thing to ever happen to their families..
• 50% of pastors’ marriages end in divorce.

• Nearly 40% of pastors have had an extra-marital sexual affair since entering ministry.

(Source:  Shiloh Place Ministries (shilohplace.org), which drew its information from Focus on the Family, Ministries Today, Charisma Magazine, TNT Ministries, and other respected groups.)

Ministering to Ministers (Sticky post)

The statistics are almost unbelievable.

Today’s ministers are dealing with complex issues that were never covered by a seminary course. They are very isolated when they run into pastoral, family, or personal difficulties . Seeking assistance is taboo. It puts credibility and competence on the line.

Christ told Peter that he would be lead to places he did not want to go. Christ told the followers to shoulder the burden of the cross. I am sure that he did not mean that those called to work in the vineyard to do so without the help of the community of faith. Far too often, ministers find themselves in the position of those sent to into the Master’s vineyard only to be beaten and abused.

You are a gift and blessing to the body. This blog is a place where you discover options for your situations and dialog with others in ministry as virtual mentors.

I lift up my eyes to the hills from whence comes my help.