Tag: Productivity

Crazy Busy: A (Mercifully) Short Book About A (Really) Big Problem by Kevin DeYoung

Most people I know live busy lives.

I live a busy life. I suspect you live a busy life.

When people ask how I’m doing I try to avoid saying, “I’m busy”.

Everyone is busy.

Everyone says they’re busy.

It’s part of life.

I could have added ‘these days’ to the end of that last sentence but I don’t think we’re living in an especially busy era. People of every age have been busy, it’s just a different type of busy. And that’s humbling. To know we’re not alone in our busyness, either in this era or another, makes us no different to anyone else. We’re ordinary, ordinarily busy.

In light of life’s busyness Kevin DeYoung has written another neat little book; this time describing his busyness journey while looking at this theme-at-large.

Crazy_Busy_Kevin_DeYoung_

In many ways he has written it for himself, and anyone else who will read it. It’s not a 10-point plan on how to get rid of busyness, but it is a 10-chapter book helping us understand more broadly why we’re busy and how to think about it.

There was a period of time there where I’d be chasing the latest productivity tool or app that would make me more effective in life and work. I think that is similar to others I know. But really, when you consider all the time wasted in fiddling around with these tools you begin to wonder whether it’s worthwhile.

I’ve found they’ve made me feel more busy that perhaps I really am.

And that’s a problem.

We sometimes believe we’re so busy when actually it is the case of having information overload and always being on the go. If we cut a couple of things out and didn’t input into our heads so much then we might find we’re not as busy as we thought.

But it’s the things that need to be cut that are the issue.

What do we prioritise? What’s important? What can’t go? What has to be prioritised?

These questions, and many more, including the issue of sleep, are thought through by DeYoung.

The final chapters really push home the point from a Christian perspective. The number one priority is our walk with the Lord.

Using the story of Mary and Martha the author outlines the main point; resting in God and at the feet of Jesus is the priority and from there our work and busyness is to flow.

He’s not being legalistic or prescriptive in how this is done. But, he certainly emphasises the good point that spending time with Jesus is important and has consequences now and in the future.

I’d highly recommend this book, particularly to anyone who finds themselves feeling busy (read: everyone). Again, it’s not a book that outlines a plan for how to get out of your busyness. It gives a broad framework for thinking through and understanding the topic and some good wisdom for stepping into that. This is one of the best parts of the book, it leaves me to make my own decisions about how to avoid over-busyness.

Here’s some quotes:

“Busyness does not mean you are a faithful or fruitful Christian. It only means you are busy, just like everyone else.” (p32)

“Jesus understood his mission. He was not driven by the needs of others, though he often stopped to help hurting people. He was not driven by the approval of others, though he cared deeply for the lost and the broken. Ultimately, Jesus was driven by the Spirit. He was driven by his God-given mission. He knew his priorities and did not let the many temptations of a busy life deter him from his task. For Jesus that meant itinerant preaching, with devoted times of prayer, on his way to the cross.” (p56)

“The person who never sets priorities is the person who does not believe in his own finitude.” (p57)

“Peter Kreeft is right: “We want to complexify our lives. We don’t have to, we want to. We want to be harried and hassled and busy. Unconsciously, we want the very things we complain about. For if we had leisure, we would look at ourselves and listen to our hearts and see the great gaping hole in our hearts and be terrified, because that hole is so big that nothing but God can fill it.” (p83)

“The antidote to busyness of soul is not sloth and indifference. The antidote is rest, rhythm, death to pride, acceptance of our own finitude, and trust in the providence of God.” (p102)

Youth Ministry With The Headphones Off

As I drive on my commute, when I’m at the gym lifting iron, and often as I am falling asleep after a long day, I’m wearing headphones.

I listen to a variety of podcasts and audiobooks, trying to learn something new or enjoy a good story while being productive in other ways.

At the gym I’m focussed on two things. First, to do the exercises I’d like to do for the day at an intensity that will improve my health. And second, to listen to whatever is coming through my headphones.

As I look around the gym I notice everyone else doing the same. Everyone has headphones in their ears, listening to something they enjoy while working out.

As a side note, I think those who are actually working the hardest at the gym are often those who aren’t listening to anything. But I digress.

Often, I notice myself lowering the intensity of my exercise because I’m listening to something I’m interested in. Rather than being focussed, and pushing myself for the set of lifts, I’m more interested in what I’m hearing and so drop my intensity to around 80%. Instead of listening to my body, or pushing myself to achieve more, I have my focus elsewhere.

I wonder whether we do the same when we come to youth ministry?

Youth Ministry With The Headphones Off

Most of the time our connection points with people during the week happens while doing other things. It could be trying to talk to a student when youth group is about to begin. It could be a deep conversation with a young adult but small group has wrapped up and they’re about to be picked up. It could be talking to a parent after church but there are others lining up to speak with you.

In youth ministry there can be plenty of things, either in the moment or during the week, that can distract us from putting our full energies toward the task at hand. Whatever it is, there can be moments when we are distracted or lose focus.

The much overused verse from Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:31 is still true and valid, even for distracted youth leaders.

“…whatever you do, do all for the glory of God.”

This can apply to anything we put our mind to, and is relevant for us as we think about ‘focus’. To actually focus on the tasks at hand, such as, organising an event, having a conversation with a parent, introducing a student to another, creating the actual program, or driving someone home after their parents forgot them, will go a long way in glorifying God through our youth ministry.

This focus is intentionality.

It is about being present.

It is about the moment.

Perhaps it is time to take the headphones off and begin to focus on the youth ministry tasks at hand.

11 Things: Working Better

‘Adulting’ according to Urban Dictionary, is:

“…to do grown up things and hold responsibilities, such as, a 9-5 job, a mortgage or rent, a car payment, or anything else that makes one think of grown-ups.”

When entering youth ministry it is not uncommon to be in our early to mid-20s. In all reality, there is little of life lived and much more of life to come. Some things we aren’t taught in school and one of those things is adulting.

Part of adulting is having a system to deal with all the adulting things we need to do in life and work. Having a system to deal with these things can be learnt and is important in any job, relationship, or area of responsibility you might find yourself in.

With this in mind, I wish I had a better idea of organising my workflow and system when entering youth ministry. I have always considered myself someone who is pretty decent at organising and planning. For example, I have colour-coded calendars that tell me what’s coming up in church and family life. I have a spreadsheet that details every book I’ve read since 2005. I keep my books in categories. I keep notes of conversations I’ve had with people. I used to rename individual photos according to date and place. So, yeah, I think I’m OK at this organising thing…sometimes a bit too much.

But starting out life in my twenties I had no idea. It took me a number of years, through working as a Personal Trainer and Gym Manager, and into missions and ministry, before I felt I had a good system.

This system refers to how one handles their to-do-list and what you do with all the life administration you end up doing. This can include how to deal with email, reminding yourself of the improvements you need to make when running that camp again next year, setting a date to write a report, trying to remember the contact details of a new person at youth group. And so on.

There is a lot to deal with in youth ministry, and in life, so a system to deal with this is always helpful.

If I had my time over again I would begin thinking through this stuff earlier than I did. In many ways this is a learned process but there are plenty of resources to help young Youth Pastors think through the skills they need to improve as part of the job. In youth ministry there can be plenty of things going on in church life and it is hard to keep all the balls in the air at once. If starting out again, I’d think about how to structure my week, how to get my emails down to zero, how to plan the next 12 months and the next 3 years, how to understand the rhythm of the church’s year, how to deal with budgets, and how to plan one-off events.

All this non-people work makes our world turn on its axis.

What’s it called?

That’s right, administration.

The death of many a good Youth Pastor.

In every job there are things that people don’t really wish to do. Some can be delegated but others need to done. This is one of them.

So really, I’d simply encourage you to read two books.

First, Do More Better by Tim Challies, outlines briefly how to approach a working system that is adaptable to your needs and scaleable to your work and life context.

Second, What’s Best Next by Matt Perman is also an excellent resource on how to think about personal productivity and then how to apply it.

Administration, it’s not the sexiest topic. But it’s important if you’re wanting to learn more about how to actually do the job of youth ministry in amongst all the caring and events.

It’s something I wish I knew when I started out.

A while ago I wrote a post about what I wished I knew when entering youth ministry. This is part ten of a series dedicated to elaborating each of those eleven points. You can read part one, part two, part three, part four, part five, part six, part seven, part eight and part nine here.

Jesus And My To-Do List

tdlistWhy is it that I often walk out of church on a Sunday morning feeling more guilty and with more on my to-do list than I did walking in?

I’ve had this occur numerous times over the last couple of years. I’m not sure if it says more about me or the church service and preacher. I can’t help wondering whether it’s my expectations of what it is to go to church and worship that leaves me wanting. Nevertheless, I occasionally walk out having that sense of needing to do more in the coming seven days.

I’m a preacher myself, so I know I need to work hard on the application of my sermons. The explanation of the Bible and understanding of the passage can be worked through slowly or quickly but application needs to be there…somewhere. And it is within this application section that I need to know that the burdens I’ve been carrying for the last however long can be lifted. That my cares can be taken care of. That I can hope and know God is in control of all things.

I need to be reassured that I don’t have to do anything more this week to have God love me more. 

I know God. I know God because of my faith in Jesus and his work on the cross. Through that work he has enabled me to have my sin forgiven and be in a relationship with Him.

I understand this will mean I will need to change. Following Jesus means growing as a disciple. This happens over time and with the Lord’s help.

But when I am weary from a week where I know I’ve sinned throughout, where I didn’t read my Bible as much as I’d like, where things haven’t gone right, then I come to church seeking comfort, seeking encouragement, and to be reminded that God still loves me and is taking care of me.

Of course, I may know this at a cognitive level. I may know this at an emotional level. But I need to know that this is the case again this week. Just as it was the last.

This reminder may happen through the Scripture passage, or through the words of the preacher in explaining the text, or through the application part of the sermon.  Whatever way it may be it needs to occur in a way where the application doesn’t mean I walk out with more to-dos this week.

Because guess what?

When Jesus died he didn’t add a single to-do to my list. He took many, many, many to-dos away though. When Jesus died he didn’t add guilt to my burdens, he took them all and dealt with them.

So, preacher (and I speak to myself as much as any other), preach Jesus. Preach Jesus in such a way as to articulate what he’s done without adding more to my week and my to-do list. Please.

10 Evernote Tips for Pastors

FYI: This is a very old article, written in 2011. I no longer use Evernote, but you be you.

I’ve been converted to Evernote. Evernote is a note taking application that enables you to capture and organise everything. It’s available on pretty much all devices that you can think of, from phone to computer and syncs all notes up into the cloud – sounds heavenly doesn’t it!

Anyway, i began to use Evernote around 12 months ago. Within a month i had moved to a premium account which gives me much more space to upload per month, image recognition, and offline notebooks for my phone to name a few.

I have found Evernote has revolutionised the way i store and organise information that comes my way, everything from paper to verbal communication to ideas that pop in to my head. As a Youth & Young Adult Pastor i have found Evernote extremely valuable and so below i have noted 10 ways in which any Pastor would be able to use the application.

1. Create Prayer Lists

With Evernote it is simple to organise items that need prayer. Lists can be made, even with little tick boxes if you so desire, that can continue to be used for prayer. These can be lists of people within my congregation, topics or events that need prayer, and praise points that have occurred over the last couple of weeks/months.

2. Store Contact Details for People or Organisations

I find that almost every person who works within a mission, a church, or some sort of para-church organisation has a business card. Also, websites, music artists and bands as well as community contacts all have details that i need to remember. Evernote gives me a great space to keep all these details. I can simply take a photo with my phone and instantly their details are uploaded which i can access in a number of forms. It certainly saves me mucking around with business card holders and random little bits of paper on my desk

If you were really keen you could also PDF your church’s contact list/directory and store it on Evernote. It then becomes completely searchable and easily accessed wherever you are.

3. Keep Note of Personal and Pastoral Conversations

Being a Pastor requires meeting with many people during the week and talking about a variety of things. Sometimes these may be about particular pastoral issues that are important to keep in touch with, other times it may be about deciding on what’s happening in the coming months regarding some program. Either way, Evernote enables me to take note of these conversations and keep them organised so that i can look back and see what we talked about in preparation for the next catch-up.

Another way of entering this sort of information can be through the voice functionality. Through my phone i can make a verbal note that will be uploaded to Evernote which i can listen to later on. This is also relevant for a number of these tips.

4. Give Space for Creative Ministry Ideas

Through conversations with those who come to the church or perhaps while reading articles and blog posts i quite often find ministry ideas floating around my head. Rather than have heaps of little notes on paper or in different text files i simply enter them into Evernote and tag them with relevant triggers. Even though some of these ministry ideas may not be able to begin now they can be kept for future reference.

5. Write Up Sermon Notes

While the feeling of writing notes in a journal is great Evernote helps in storing all my sermon notes together. When working on a message from a particular passage i can again tag them with relevant references. While reading a commentary i can transcribe notes from it for future reference. I can keep writing and thinking without having to delete the notes later or store them in mucky files on my hard drive. They are all kept together in one note and notebook and are completely searchable using Evernote’s amazing search function. My work on main points, structures and notes from parallel passages or other resources come together in one place. I can even write the whole sermon in a note and then copy and paste it to a document later on for printing.

6. A Place for Sermon Illustrations, Quotes, Links, Blog Posts, etc.

How often do you think of a sermon illustration or see a quote that you like and have nowhere to store it? Evernote is perfect for storing these sorts of little notes, quotes and illustrations that can be used for this week’s sermon or one in the future. They can all be kept in a notebook or be tagged with the appropriate reference. When i find a great quote, read a great article or blog post or find a picture that could be useful i clip it into Evernote and then tag is with the author’s name, the topic or theme and classify it as a ‘quote’ or and ‘illustration’.

Due to my use of Google Reader i find that emailing in blog posts to Evernote an especially good feature. I also find that scanning or taking pictures of illustrations from magazines or newspapers very useful.

7. Organise Events, Programs and Services

So, Christmas is coming up and there are always heaps of ideas about what carols to have, who’s doing the readings, how the children can be involved, and what items are available for the service. If you have a particular program, event or service that is coming up Evernote helps you organise all the information into one place. This could range from what needs to be done in order for the youth group event to go ahead to what topics should be up for discussion at the next deacons meeting.

With this comes the topic of weddings and funerals. Evernote enables notes, thoughts and ideas to be put down in one place that helps in structuring the weekly gathering, a wedding ceremony or a thanksgiving service.

8. Reading Heaps Means Lots of Notes

A Pastor is generally a reader. From commentaries to theologies to dictionaries to Christian living books, Pastors are usually across a variety of books. I find that i can copy down quotes and ideas that are significant in a book and then keep that easily accessible through Evernote. I find that taking a picture or scanning a couple of pages can then be easily searched through Evernote’s OCR capabilities.

9. Clip Links and Other Electronic Information

Evernote allows easy clipping of websites. While having time to search for youth group games or find a few youth ministry websites i come across a lot of information i’d like to keep. By clipping the site and the information into Evernote i have it forever. I can always go back to the site, as it keeps the link, and also search for particular games or information in Evernote. This means Evernote becomes a solid bookmarking application as well as storage for notes.

10. Take Photos of Books, DVDs and Other Resources

I can’t afford all the resources that are available at my local Christian bookstore. Books, DVDs, CDs, music resources and more are quite expensive. However, i do come across some very good resources that i might be able to use in the future. Many times i have taken a picture of the cover of a bible study guide or a DVD series that we might go through and its immediately uploaded to Evernote.

That’s my conversion to Evernote, I’m not sure how you use it, but it’d be great to hear how it helps your ministry too. The more i think about it the more ideas on how Evernote can be integrated into ministry come to me.

If you’d like to read more about Evernote i have also written Evernote Tips for Youth Pastors