Godward Toil

Four books in four weeks? Reflections on Piper Productivity

John Piper is just back from a four-week writing leave, during which he wrote four books.  "It was more productive than I thought it would be," he said.   Yes, I'll say.  Praise the Lord.

What can we learn from this about biblical productivity?

1.  We must avoid comparisons or exalt one person over another because of his visible productivity.  God has given all of us different functions in the church, different gifts, and different measures of faith.   We are not all supposed to be productive in the way:

 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith;  if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness. (Romans 12:4-8)

So we have to fight the temptation to look at ourselves when we hear about some else's fruitfulness.  I'm sad to say that my fallen heart went first in that direction..."How does he do that?  I'll never be that productive."   That kind of self-focus is wicked pride. 

2.  That said, we can and should pray to be as fruitful in our gifts and ministries as John Piper is in his.   May God be pleased to give me the ability and grace to do much in and through me--show me my equivalent of four book in four weeks and be my hands as I do it!

3.  Our life, work, and ministry experience should make us more productive with age.  Piper can write more books per week now than he could 30 years ago because he has preached 30 years worth of sermons, and lived 30 years worth of life with the Lord.   He did not sit down and come up with four books ex nihilo.  He wrote from sermon manuscripts and notes, which he had prepared and prayed over before.  God has given him a ministry that builds grace upon grace, and blesses more people as it goes.  The corresponding questions I can ask myself are, "Am I becoming more fruitful over time?"  "Am I leveraging the experiences and resources God has given me in the past toward greater Kingdom productivity in the present and future?"
4. I want to have the kind of discipline that can take advantage of windows of opportunity.  What would happen if I had a four-week unscheduled leave?  Would I know what to do with it?  Thanks be to God, I feel more equipped than I was a few years ago, but I still fear that I would waste valuable time.   This question is more than theoretical for me right now because I am in the midst of a job transition that will give me more unscheduled time.  Pray that God will be pleased with how I use it.

I can't wait to read the books Piper wrote during his recent leave.  I have listened to many of the sermons that formed the backbone for the books, and I'm so grateful that Bethlehem chooses to give their pastor time to put all of those Bible-saturated messages on printed page to bless and inspire many more people.

What will I be found doing when He comes?: Productivity reflections on 1 Thesssalonians

2 Thes 1:5-10 refers to the judgment and joy that Christ will bring when "the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels."   Paul draws a stark and frightening contrast between the suffering that "those who do not know God and those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus" will experience, and the glory and marveling that his saints will enjoy.   As I read this passage, I asked myself, "What will I be found doing when He comes?"   

This question can be (and has been for me at various times) a deterrent from obvious moral transgression.  It is a frightful thing to imagine being found rejecting God and willfully engaging in sin.  But it seems just as important to consider the more subtle aspects and implications of this question.   "What will I be found thinking about, focused on, working on, resting from?"    Productivity is so much about what has your attention.    It doesn't mean we need to be "doing" all of the time--the most productive thing at any given moment might be rest or meditation.  It will be a marvelous thing to be found sitting quietly--or even taking a break in a day of hard work and diligence.   But I do not want to be found wasting time with things that either numb me to God's designs or focus me on myself.  Almost anything can be a candidate:  shopping, overeating, web surfing, worrying, social networking.  I also do not want to be found wasting time for lack of planning, like spending 2 hours looking for a lost document in a pile of un-filed papers, or bouncing from task to task without completing any because I don't know what to do next.

Only God knows when he will come (e.g. 1 Thes 5:2).   And when He does, those who are truly his sheep will forget everything we were doing or not doing when we hear His voice.  In the meantime, faith is staying with Him, peacefully and diligently walking in the good works he has prepared beforehand for us to.

Hyatt: Don’t Leave God Out of Your Plans

Michael Hyatt is CEO and President of Thomas Nelson, a large Christian book publishing company.  I have linked to him in the past, and yesterday he wrote an excellent post that gets at the relationship between our work and God's, which I have explored here in the past. 

Weekly review, the heart, and Satan

Many, many, many people have written about the importance of having a time each week when you review your commitments, calendar, and next actions toward goals.  Right now I have fallen out of the practice in a terrible way, and I'm seeing the consequences...I'm forgetting things, missing needed actions, slipping on my commitments to people, and frittering away time unproductively.   Why does this happen?  If I know that setting aside a couple of hours each week will make me more Kingdom effective ,and save time in the long run, why is it so hard to do it consistently?

With regard to sin, the apostle Paul, in his letter to the Romans, said this:  "For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate."  His idea is that his heart does not follow what his head knows to be good, true, and right.  The prophet Jeremiah said it this way, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick.  Who can understand it?"  (Jer 17:9)  A colleague told me this week that there is a Korean saying that there is no greater distance than that which is between the head and the heart.   

Paul and Jeremiah are most directly talking about the way that pride works to undermine our judgment and lead us to sin.   Not having a weekly review is not "sin" in and of itself, but it is a neglect of a discipline that can lead (and does in my life) to poor stewardship of time, lack of diligence, lack of fruit and good works, failure to honor commitments (integrity), and poor leadership in my family.

When I look at this list of outcomes, I wonder what role Satan plays in stealing my weekly review.  The devil is prowls, seeking someone to devour (1 Pet 5:8) and he wants to render me ineffective--wants me to forget that phone call to a brother in need who I promised to call.  I do not pray against Satan nearly enough--and hardly ever about things like weekly reviews!   But I need to take a stand in prayer for my disciplines. 

Father, restore me to diligence in my disciplines.  Show me how to find time for weekly review.  Defeat Satan who wishes to render me fruitless, flailing, and purposeless.   Give me every tool to stay focused on you and the good works you've prepared in advance for me to walk in.   Amen.

The Pastor Is Giving Homework

In September, our church began a sermon series about progressive sanctification called Renovate. The pastor of our church, Steve Matson, is a strong leader and a challenging preacher. This series has been excellent so far—calling people to do the hard, Spirit-led work of real change. (.mp3 files of the sermons are available on the church website).

As part of the series, the pastor is assigning written homework. Each week the bulletin comes with a blue sheet of paper with some scripture for the service, and three or four homework questions. The paper has three holes punched in it, which are there to encourage us to put them in the blue folders the pastor makes available in the foyer after the service.

The homework has really good stuff on it. And I see people in the congregation responding to it. However, from the standpoint of my desire to equip myself and other Christians to do kingdom work, I worry that many people don’t have systems in place to keep track of a handout like this, much less for seeing the homework to completion. I think the blue 3-holed folders are there in the foyer to help people with this level of organization, but I wonder if that’s enough. Where people are putting these folders when they get home? Are any of them ending up on a pile of mail and other miscellaneous pieces of paper? Is the homework on a to-do list? If so, will that list lead to action before next Sunday?

I’d have to ask around, but my suspicion is that many people do not have systems for managing in-flow coming from church--whether it’s a verbal suggestion from the pulpit, a prompting of the Spirit in response to the Word,  or more formal homework like Pastor Steve has been assigning. How many times have you heard a pastor make a wise exhortation that you plan to follow, but don’t? (“Just one time this week, try to….” “Next time you’re with your teenage son, ask him….”)  I think what happens is this:

• People feel and sense the wisdom of the exhortation.
• The Spirit convicts them that it is the right thing to do.
• They agree in their hearts they’re going to act.
• The service ends, other inputs continue, the plan languishes.

These failed plans are not just unfortunate, they are dangerous:  "If you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay fulfilling it, for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and you will be guilty of sin." (Duet 23:21)

Sometimes our plans fail because we don't have a true heart to act. However, often it’s because we’re just not equipped to keep track of things! That doesn’t take our hearts out of the equation, of course, but rather stands as a call for greater diligence and planning.   If we fail to pursue such diligence it is very much a heart issue--in a sense we neglect our great salvation (Heb 2).  Likewise, the church and its leadership fails the body if it does not “equip the saints for the work of ministry” (Eph 4:11-12).

I am eager to think more about how to better equip myself and my brothers and sisters in this way. What would it take to have a church full of people who knew exactly how to handle a homework sheet offered by their beloved Pastor—how to get the paper home, store it in a place they’d easily find it, have a plan to complete it, work on it diligently, and have it ready to bring to church the following Sunday? What would it mean to our Pastor to see 300 people walk in the door with the previous week’s little blue sheet all scribbled on and ready to share with others?! Talk about encouraging! 

Diligence using (10+2)*5

We have a lot going on in our family right now, so it's been a struggle to stay focused and diligent at work.  I have several big projects going on that need my full engagement.   Today I began experimenting with what Merlin Mann called the (10 + 2)*10 Procrastination hack.  I downloaded a nifty timer program called Multi-timer, which allows you to program up to ten different timer schemes, name them, and associate a completion message.  (Note: I found the timer, and others that are available on the 43Folders wiki page on timers.) 

I created one 10-minute countdown timing scheme (called "10 min dash complete") and one 2-minute scheme ("2 min rest complete").   To each scheme, I added a message, which flashes on the screen when the timer comes up.   I opted for it to make a sound, as well, since some of my dashes might have me in my office but not looking at the computer.  The sound option can be toggled for each of the ten timer schemes you create.

Here's how it works for me:  When I'm ready to start working, I hit the 10-minute dash timer and then minimize it.  I work on one of my identified projects and callings until the timer appears with a message "10 min dash complete" "Praise the Lord and Rest!"   I thank and praise Him, then hit the "2 minute rest" button.  During that two minutes, I go and get a drink, check personal email, check my RSS feeds, or just close my eyes.  When two minutes is up, the timer appears again:  "2 minute rest complete" "Pray and act in faith."   I haven't yet made it through an entire hour or working like this (the *5 refers to repeating the 10 + 2 minutes cycle 5 times--making a full hour), but when I have used it, it has been effective in helping me engage with actions that I've been putting off.

Now, a note to cynics about the little messages.  I know it sounds hokey to have little messages reminding me to praise God or act in faith.  It makes it seem like leaning on the empowering grace of Holy Spirit or giving thanks to the Lord of the universe is a mechanical activity.  But, although having the reminder does not make it so in my heart, I have found that the reminder makes it more likely that I will engage with my heart, thank Him for sustaining me, and trust God for his grace to do whatever my next action is.  (Incidentally, writing the little message can be a spiritual exercise in itself because the text box only gives you 25 characters in which to communicate with yourself.   So you have the opportunity to examine your heart to figure out what it most needs to hear when starting a work dash or resting from one.)   

When I'm at home, I'm often not near a computer, so I plan to try this with an ordinary kitchen timer, as well.   It won't be as much fun for me as the software program is, but obviously the (10+2)*5 tool can be used with high or low tech configurations.

Here's to supremacy of God in countdown timers and all things!