Neutralize the Issues That Neutralize You

Advancing your aims in any working environment is a challenge today and it certainly is in the practice of ministry. I once participated in a citywide survey that asked me to list the essential factors in a pastor’s life that contribute to fruitfulness and effectiveness. I listed a number of items such as growing faith, personal initiative, vision, and people skills. Afterwards, I felt quite proud of my answers until I read that a friend in the same city had replied, “Able to handle all the stuff that comes at you!”

I thought, “He’s right! What was I thinking?”

While I was indeed thinking about qualities that make a big difference in ministry effectiveness for any of us, my friend was correct also. Ministry - and even life itself today – has a lot of things coming at you. So, how do you combine our two winning answers?

To move forward with new ideas and fresh initiative we must neutralize the factors that work to neutralize us!

• The pressure of present demand.  I suspect if you began this day without a “to do list,” no specific list of things to accomplish, you would find yourself busy all day. The phone will ring, someone will drop by wanting to talk, you will remember some deadline is past due, you hear the ping of a new email every few minutes, and so on.  You could go to work every day with no plan in mind and stay busy the whole day just reacting to what comes at you.  This is typical for most people in our culture. 

• The comfort of present demand. The truth is while there may be an uninterrupted flow of people and task demands on your life, you probably like it. You are accustomed to it and would not know what to do with your day without it. All of us get into routines that may or may not be particularly fruitful beyond the busyness of the moment. The routine itself becomes so comfortable that we lose the spark that initiates new vision and new ideas.

• The anxiety a new vision may produce. Ministry – indeed all of life – frequently presents us with the simple choice to move forward accomplishing a new vision, dream, or idea or hold back due to the anxiety that the new vision creates. You may need to phone a person with a request but the idea of the making the call makes you nervous. You may have to follow up with people who are so wrapped up in their own worlds that they aren’t getting back to you. Hence, the thought of constantly knocking on their doors puts you off, so you don’t do it. When you yield to the anxiety of bringing a new vision into reality, your motion is neutralized.

• Fatigue. As I travel around the country and ask the simple question, “How are you?" 

        The most common answer is, “Tired!”  

People are pushing it. For some it comes of the desire to do more or make more. For others, the difficulties of our economy mean new increased levels of coping. It is irrational to speak of transformational vision and considering new initiatives, concepts, and methods when you are so wiped out that the very idea of generating fresh initiative makes you nauseous.  

• Social Media. Social media like Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and interactive websites, as well as texting and email are here to stay. Whether you enjoy using them or not, if you want to communicate with people you will have to make the jump to one or more of these forms. At the same time it is easy to find yourself checking Facebook or your email every hour or every few minutes.

For an interesting experience of one person who took a break from social media, check out http://news.yahoo.com/90-days-without-cell-phone-email-social-media-015300257.html.

What to do? The factors that may limit our fruitfulness, what is called “productivity” in the business world, are only going to grow in their intensity. Finding ways to manage them will move us from being neutralized to increasingly fruitful in our Lord’s vineyard.

• Perform a self-audit. All of us have different ways of handling these five issues that may neutralize our fruitfulness. Think through each of the issues in regard to the realities of your own life being as brutally honest as you can be. For instance, focus on taking care of yourself.  Get enough rest.  Take the weekly Sabbath to be with your Lord, family, and friends.  Work smarter, not harder.

Or, make social media a part of your day like mealtime.  Set a time, perhaps in early and late morning and late afternoon, and set a time limit.  As it has been said, “If you don’t control your calendar, your calendar will control you.”

Unlike New Year’s Resolutions that are often casually expressed and typically unaddressed, choose one of these issues and seek to rise above it.   

• Spend time with centering friends. It really helps to be supported and stimulated by a few others who are people of imagination, initiative, and loyalty. The Quakers speak of “centering down” as we re-center our lives around our Lord. Who are the people in your life who help you re-center – not only in your relationship with your Lord but in the ways you handle the issues that threaten to neutralize your capacity and that of your ministry to engage in new endeavor? Their primary role is to function as a backboard with whom you may bounce ideas and chew over problems. The idea is for you both to join together as a team in actual leadership.  They ask questions such as “Why not?” and “What if?” while encouraging you and helping you to bring a vision into reality. 

• Stay close to the Lord who loves you. The concept of Sabbath is a centering practice we see for God’s people throughout scripture. The core issue is simple. The demands of life today – and frankly the demands of life at any time in history – will always seek to crowd out the intimacy of our friendship with God. Yet it is that very friendship that has the greatest capacity to help us handle the pressure of present demand, to rise above it, overcome our anxieties, get the rest we need, and manage the social conventions of our day.

With Joy -

E. Stanley Ott