We had several folks from Crossroads go to Catalyst last week. It is always an amazing conference. There are so many ideas, and so much high octane inspiration, it is hard for me to digest it all.
Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, offered some great challenges to us. After polling the audience to see that nearly everyone makes a “to do” list, he then asked a related question. Do you have a “stop doing” list? Uh, no. His point is that for everything we do, we have to stop doing something. It could be to stop watching so much TV or to stop sleeping late. But there are also many things we need to delegate to others. By the way, you can find lots of free stuff on his Web site, jimcollins.com.
Christian leaders always need to build up other leaders. That’s just part of discipleship. So I realize that there are things I need to hand off to someone else. I’m not sure why that’s so hard for me. There is plenty of administrative stuff that takes up my time and drains me.
Meanwhile, I really want to stay on the cutting edge of ministry. At Catalyst I kept hearing about books I want to read, Web sites I want to explore, service opportunities I want to try. I need to make time to do this stuff. If I stop doing some things, then I can free up time to serve God where he has gifted me. And I can do it without going crazy.
That brings me to one more thing that Collins suggested: white space days. These are days when we plan to do nothing but think. It sounds a lot like Sabbath. I could use a few of those days. It is really a matter of obedience, if we take seriously what Jesus says. Ouch.
