Tuesday, October 19, 2010

my five keys to productivity, success, and effective catsitting


looks like a full on double rainbow across the sky to me!
 
okay, so I'm not going to write about catsitting today, though if you would like to hear what I've recently learned about and from it I'd be more than happy to share. For what it's worth, I think my wife and I actually make pretty good catsitters. 

I wanted to just briefly hit on a few things. First, I've been looking at my website's stats, and I've found that a good deal of this blog's audience is probably fellow pastors. If that's you, WELCOME! Although I started this blog for the members of my ministry, I have a heart for other pastors and ministries and am glad to connect with you. 

SPECIAL PASTORS' "INSIDER" EXCLUSIVE SECTION: 
(I'd hide this behind a special pay wall if I knew how...jk)
- Question to everyone in the ministry: are you able to take a Sabbath? If so, what have you found to be the ideal schedule for your given day of rest?
- Related to the above question: what are some things that you find help your productivity throughout the week?(One thing I'm trying out is moving away from electronic to do lists, and back to pen and paper. I'm finding it to be strangely more effective. I made the switch because of a post not unlike the following: http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/want-to-get-things-done-write-it-down/. 


BACK TO THE REGULAR, "PRIESTHOOD OF ALL BELIEVERS" SECTION: 
Just wanted to mention a couple of things today...

- ...Rick Enloe had a ton of good things to share, but maybe the one that is sticking with me the most is, and I mentioned this in the previous post, how much Christians should be defined by curiosity about the lives of others. It makes so much sense! 
  • First, there's the command to love others as ourselves. Obviously this means being interested in what's going on their lives, even people we've never met before...even OUR ENEMIES! Shocking, counter-cultural stuff. 
  • Second, there's the fact that in our day and age, people are very sensitive to spin and "catches" (i.e. "What's the catch?"). So many types of evangelism are actually counter-effective today because they come across as sales pitches or double-talk. The truth, though, is that Christians never have to resort to this (take a look at 2nd Corinthians 4!). Having faith that God knows what he's doing, we can leave "results" up to Him and instead focus on being faithful to the basic calling to love others as ourselves. In short, we truly can be interested in someone's else's life without expecting something out of them. Of course we hope that they meet Jesus Christ and begin following Him, but that is not up to us, nor does it determine whether we should continue to love them or not. Of course we must continue to love and be interested in their lives! 
 - I also wanted to mention that our brothers Brian and James have returned from the streets of Seattle. Their blog is still up at bjarbjar.blogspot.com. Please join me in thanking God for returning them to us.

Brian, James, if you guys are reading this, I'm waiting for your reflection piece! Don't delay too long...

1 comment:

jonathankang said...

good insight. great application.

now, if only there were a flowchart we could adhere to...