Balancing act

A member and I meet once a week to read the Bible together. He had read the People's Bible on Revelation and he thought it would be good to read Revelation again together. I agreed. It's nice to tackle the book of Revelation with someone who's already digested it in recent memory.

Anyways, we were reading the 7 letters to the 7 churches, and while there is a lot to take in from what Jesus says to His church, it struck me this time that what's important to Him was that His church hold on to the Word. He doesn't speak highly of blending His Word with false doctrine nor blending His Word with the world. There's tension between "becoming all things to all men" and "Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent."

Productivity

While I know my boss does not view productivity the way the world does, it is hard to let go of that sometimes. For example, my boss thinks that spending time with Him is very important because of the job. However,it doesn't look so good "on paper." "What's your schedule during the week, Pastor?" is often answered in terms of output than input. "I crank out a sermon, I visited so many people, I made so many phone calls, etc. etc."

It's just part of the gig, I guess. How to spend your time making sure you "neglect everything equally" (a phrase I heard at a Pastor Circuit Study once) and at the same time making sure to take care of your soul?

I was talking with a brother pastor yesterday, and he shared with me a phrase "do one big thing a day." With all the busy things pastors do in a day, if you got one big thing accomplished, you've had a good day. I don't remember coming across such a philosophy of ministry in the Bible. However, God did do one big thing called light and then called it a day... *cue audience laughter*

Well, yesterday I was spent most of the day analyzing Luther's Deutsche Messe and putting it together for my rural churches. A good day. Today I made an important phone call and a visit, both of which I had filled my sinful heart with unwarranted anxiety. a good day. Not that I want to scale back to doing just one thing a day, but a positive viewpoint helps.