MIM Ezine, October 01, 2008

-- Book Review: "The Church of the Perfect Storm," by Leonard Sweet, reviewed by Tom Hanover.

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Susan was frustrated. It seemed like every week she would start with the good intentions of writing her sermon by the middle of the week. Here it was, Friday afternoon, and she was just starting. She was tired and wrung out. She had no energy or creativity. She was not in the frame of mind to think about preaching.

What she really wanted to do was to escape from all the people who had been tugging at her shirtsleeve all week. There were hospital visits and that unexpected funeral. One of the youth broke his arm at youth group. Aunt Sarah was upset that Thanksgiving was on the Thursday this year that interfered with the set up for the bazaar. (Wasn’t Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of every November?)

Susan didn’t expect ministry to be like this. Of course, there would be weeks of interruptions. Ministry happens, but she did not anticipate that every week would be like this. Preaching was important. It should be a priority. Her congregation had confirmed that many times. Why, then, was she preparing her sermon with the leftover time and energy of the week? Susan needed an IPOD.

Every ministry leader is making kazillions of decisions every day about how to use their time, which is their most valuable resource, and to what and with whom will they give their attention and effort.

Those decisions create a picture of what the pastor’s priorities really are. Susan would like to make her sermon preparation time a high priority. But her choices to let other distractions interrupt or delay her prep time reveals that there are other priorities.

Those other priorities may not be her priorities. And if the leader does not have a disciplined plan by which to use or spend his or her time, other people will plan it for him or her. They will do it by the impulse of their daily rhythms.

Unfortunately, Susan’s problem is herself. Fortunately, Susan’s solution also lies within her power. Susan needs an IPOD.

An IPOD is a plan for Intentional Pay Off Decisions. Not every activity of the ministry leader is equally important, valuable, or productive in light of the mission and vision of the ministry. Some moments are critical and others are trivial. Some experts project that as much as 80% of one’s productivity comes from as little as 20% of one’s effort. If Susan were clear what 20% was most important and could focus on that, she would increase her effectiveness as a leader and likely enjoy her work even more.

After a couple of phone calls to a long time mentor and coach, Susan recorded her activities in 15-minute increments for a whole week. It was time consuming to do this. Her coach convinced her that before she could make a plan to invest her time, she had to know where her time was being spent.

At the end of the week, Susan observed three things about her schedule. One, she had no significant blocks of time set aside for important preparation like sermons and Bible studies. Sometimes her sermon prep was in 15-minute segments between interruptions or before a meeting. By the time she wrapped her brain around her key point, it was time to stop.

Secondly, she observed that she was working on her most important priorities at the times of her day that were the least productive. Susan had always been a morning person and always awakened early because she just could not sleep in.

On the other hand, late afternoon was her worst energy time. Her creativity was on break. Her attention span was short. And sometimes her patience wore thin. But she often found a second wind for her evening activities.

Thirdly, she learned she was often losing her day off in order to catch up on all the priority tasks she had put off during the week or follow up on all the pastoral care needs she heard about from people at Sunday’s events. As a result, she never took Monday off, but for the most part, she loved her work.

On the other hand, she liked to take Friday off. If Saturday was light, it made it possible to visit family out of town. On those weeks when she did complete her sermon early, she could really relax and enjoy time in her garden or biking or one of her many other interests.

Susan’s coach instructed her to use a highlighter to color code her recorded activities. Green indicated the time was essential and critical to the mission and vision of the church. Susan noted the preaching preparation, the planning for the new outreach program, and the training session for the congregational care team.

Susan highlighted in yellow the time slots where the activity was supportive of the mission and vision, but not critical. Some of these times were relational. She had a 20-minute phone call with Uncle Frank about his grandchildren. It is important to nurture personal relationships, and after all, ministry is all about relationships.

On the other hand, not all conversations are urgent or critical. In Uncle Frank’s case, the call would have achieved the same effect if it had only lasted 8 minutes. Furthermore, it would have been just as productive at 4:00 pm as it was at 10:00 am when Susan should have been working on her Bible study.

Susan chose a hot pink highlighter for those moments when the time was merely wasted. That week she spent 30 minutes cleaning out the pulpit. There were used tissues, burned wicks and matches, left over candy, and parts of bulletins that went back 6 years.

That was a task she did not have to do. She could have asked someone else to do it instead. Or she could have done it in the late afternoon during her low energy time. She also could have asked someone she needed to build a relationship with to help her and accomplish two goals at the same time.

Next, her coach instructed her to create the basics of what a good week would look like. Susan had fun with this. She blocked out every Friday for her day off, and she set up every Monday morning for planning details. Tuesday and Thursday mornings were set aside for sermon prep. And Wednesday morning was set aside to prepare for Bible study and administrative mtgs.

That left the afternoons for visits, phone calls, correspondence, email, and even showing up at one of her youth’s soccer games. She made sure she had one evening each week free.

As she began making blank schedules for each week, Susan discovered that the first week of the month was always the fullest. There were extra administrative meetings that week that did not happen the rest of the month. She also realized that some events took more than just one week to plan. Advent activities needed preparation in September and October. The annual stewardship emphasis needed some attention every month.

Consequently, Susan set aside some time in her 3^rd and 4^th weeks for advance planning. She found by making a couple of phone calls or sending out an email ahead of time resulted in a better response from some of her volunteer leaders. They now had time to prepare and offer their incredible gifts of leadership.

One of her teens volunteered to write the materials for lighting the Advent Candle in September. Because in November Susan was thinking out loud about a sermon series in Lent, the high school drama teacher offered to recruit a group of people to use dramatic monologues to lead into her message each week.

Suddenly, Susan discovered she was doing less by herself and more of the critical, missional leadership with others, who, she discovered, were stepping forward in ways they did not have the opportunity to do so before. She was more relaxed and felt better prepared. And she was enjoying her work more.

There were speed bumps - ministry happens - and some weeks were just a mess. But due to her planning ahead, the consequences were less and less damaging. Some people felt that if Susan had come to serve the church that meant she was a personal chaplain available for their personal use. Susan stopped talking about “serving” the church and began to talk about “leading” the church. From that posture of leadership, she had the opportunity and obligation to allocate her time according to her plan of Intentional Pay Off Decisions. Would an IPOD help you?

--Tom Hanover is Advertising and Promo Director of MIM ezine. He has served in a variety of pastoral leadership roles for more than 30 years, the last seven as a District Superintendent supervising the ministries of more than 100 pastors and churches in southern Ohio. He has a BA (cum laude) from Taylor University, and the MDIV and DMIN degrees from United Theological Seminary in Dayton. You can contact Tom at hanover@dbmim.net.

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The back-to-school ritual in my household when I grew up always began with a trip to the discount department store, where my mom's mission was to outfit me in the most embarrassing clothes possible. Between the dressing room and the cash register, I'm sure my pants lost roughly six inches of length. You might be thinking that I'm referring to the phenomenon known as "high-waters" but you would be mistaken. High-waters are pants that show about two or three inches of your socks. The pants I had showed about two or three inches of my leg right above my white athletic socks.

After my new school clothes were in the cart, my mom headed over to the school-supplies section of the store. Hint: if you're buying your clothes, school supplies, and auto parts at the same store, you're probably not the most fashion-forward kid at school.

The first item on the school supply list was a pencil, but not a regular-sized No. 2 pencil. No siree. We had to get super-sized, gigundo pencils that were about the size of telephone poles. The size of these pencils was supposed to make it easier for teeny little hands to manage, but try writing your name with a tree trunk and then come back and tell me if that makes any sense.

The next item on the list was an eraser the size of an electric razor that would have lasted for the rest of my life had I kept up with it. Unfortunately, there was absolutely no use for it, since there was already an eraser the size of a cantaloupe on the end of my telephone-pole pencil.

But the kids today don't know how good they have it. I saw some kids getting on the bus yesterday who were wearing shorts. I would have killed to wear shorts to school because my school didn't have any air-conditioning.

Mention air-conditioning back then and almost any adult would instantly poo-poo the idea with a statement like, "What, do you think you're Rockefeller or somethin'? Hey Agnes! The kid thinks he's gotta have air-conditioning in school!"

The thrifty adults of my generation opted instead to invest in a cooling system known as the oscillating fan — one per classroom, lest we all were tempted to think we were Rockefeller or somethin'.

My teachers would set the fan to oscillate so that precisely every 42.5 seconds heaven's door would open and, by golly, you could breathe again and feel what it meant to be human once more. When the fan was swinging back away again, life was miserable and not worth living. The only reason I held on was in hope of recess.

Recess was the mirage of my school day, because I assumed it meant I would get to go outside, breathe some fresh air, cool off, and have a little fun. But that notion was far from reality because (and see if you can follow my logic here) as hot it was inside, it was even hotter out in the sun. And to make things worse, every piece of playground equipment back then was made of metal.

Do you know what happens to metal when it's been sitting out in the sun all day? The only way for the metal equipment to cool off was to be covered with kid sweat. If any piece of the playground equipment could have talked, I'm sure it would have said something like, "Thank God! The kids are here. I can finally get some relief from the sun when they cover me with their sweaty little bodies."

So, school was not eagerly anticipated at my house. The back-to-school sale fliers appearing in my mailbox around the first of August always made me a tad bit queasy. Sometimes I still get that feeling. Not about school, of course, but about other challenges I have to face. During those times I find myself reading verses like Joshua 1:9 over and over again as if my life depends on it.

"... Be strong and courageous, Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." (NIV)

I believe God cares when we face challenges, big or small. But, I believe it's our responsibility to face those challenges head on, knowing that God has our back and will meet our needs as we step out and trust him.

And me, I'll be stepping out to face them wearing my discount department store high-waters. Hey, it's not geeky anymore. It's retro-chic!

© 2008 Charles Marshall. Charles Marshall is a nationally known Christian comedian and author. Visit his Web site at www.charlesmarshallcomedy.com or contact him via e-mail at charles@charlesmarshallcomedy.com.

The phrase perfect storm refers to the simultaneous occurrence of events which, taken individually, would be far less powerful than the result of their chance combination. Such occurrences are rare by their very nature, so that even a slight change in any one event contributing to the perfect storm would lessen its overall impact.

Len Sweet uses the analogy of this perfect combination of events to describe many of the phenomena the church is facing in the world today. The images of hurricanes and tsunamis reflect the danger and the urgency of these cultural trends for the Christian church.

Several distinguished global thinkers contribute chapters to the anthology: Thomas Bandy, Bill Easum, Mark Batterson, Michael Blewett, Greg Glatz, Younglae Kim, and more. All of whom play on the metaphor of the storm to talk about the future challenges of the church.

Many of the writers are sharing their observations about the changes in paradigms that are emerging from premodern to modern to postmodern eras. These cultural shifts are blowing across the global landscape, sometimes leaving ministry leaders bewildered and unaware of the dramatic change they have experienced.

Consequently, this is not a book for the faint of heart or those who prefer fairy tale endings. While the deep faith of these writers quickly emerges in the course of their discussion, it is not a pretty picture for the church. Dangerous storms such as these often create much damage and claim many victims.

However, it is clear that these writers hear a call for bravery and courage in the midst of treacherous times. But these are not times to hunker down and ride out the storm. Quite the opposite; these are times to turn the ship into the storm and head into an adventure only God can lead.

This is a book that can be easily understood by both clergy and lay leader; but will require the heart of a deeply committed disciple to hear its message.

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DBMIM October 01, 2008

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