Busy, Busy, Busy

We all, I believe, wish to live lives of significance. We want our lives to count for something. I am a real believe in the concept that instead of pursuing success, we need to pursue significance. When Nancy puts my ashes in a jar and puts me up on the mantle, I want my life to have had meaning.

Somehow, we seem to come to believe that if we are busy, we are significant. With a great deal of pride we announce to each other, with a great deal of regularity, that we are busy. When responding to an invitation to dinner or a social event or to serve in a church ministry, we dutifully reference our calendars, (Paper or electronic) and inform everyone within earshot that we are very busy. It seems that we believe that if our calendar is full we must be important; our lives must be meaningful. All that really means is that we are busy. Significance comes when we are busy doing things of significance.

I read recently an author’s observation that the church is the busiest place he has ever been but seems to accomplish very little. I sat in a church meeting not long ago where absolutely nothing of any significance was discussed and out of which issued no helpful results. As we left, several of the participants mentioned what a great meeting we had. Really? If the bottom line of the church is “Changed Lives” and the purpose of the church is to “Make Disciples”, we who participated in that meeting missed the mark and didn’t even approach the bottom line. There wasn’t any discussion or even a mention of changed lives or what the church could be doing to encourage spiritual growth and discipleship. That is not what I would call a productive meeting.

Several years ago a pastor friend shared with me a conversation he had with one of his church leaders.

Here is his story. “The elder I am telling you about was responding to my challenge to the Elders to become a part of a Life (Small) Group.  His response to my encouragement was, ‘Getting to know God is admirable, but we do have lives outside of church you know.’ I do understand the frustration behind the response.  At my church there are four different boards and there are subcommittees of each of the boards. There is a two hour board meeting or committee meeting of some type at least once every week (that is not an exaggeration). At my church we do congregational right; we vote on something just about every week whether we need to or not.”

Along the same lines I read an interesting article in a church newsletter. It had to do with the resignation of one of the church’s Elders. The Elder was resigning for some, to me, rather curious reasons. The Elder stated, in his letter of resignation, that he was leaving the Elder Board to free up more of his time so he could lead a Bible study and invest time in mentoring some of the younger men in the church. From my perspective it sounded like he was resigning from being an Elder so he could have the time to be an Elder. What, I wonder, do Elders do in that church? Okay, I have been around church for a few years. I know. They go to meetings, listen to people complain and try to “fix” things, keep the pastor in line and try to make sure everyone is happy. They and the pastor spend a majority of their time and effort in putting out the fires caused by unhappy parishioners. It is a big, time consuming job. But it is not a ministry. No wonder they don’t have time to do any real ministry. When we begin thinking maintaining the status quo is ministry, we have lost sight of what church is all about.

When and how did doing church replace being Christian? Since when did knowing God become confined to activities in the church? How do “church” and “life” become compartmentalized and separate from each other? When did being Christian become something you do instead of something you are? How in the world does a church get to the point that it is more involved in doing church than it is committed to facilitating its members growing as children of God?

I know. And I will tell you. It happens little by little, step by step, decision by decision. Since it seems to be so common to North American churches, it must be normal, natural – the easy way to drift. I believe every church, and probably every organization, will, if left without strong, focused leadership, drift into this self-serving, self-destructive behavior.

Churches I have been a part of were constantly working to find ways to “do church” better. We were relentlessly vigilant in checking our motivation, attitudes, actions and outcomes when it comes to doing church. That approach is both exciting and challenging. Frankly, it is easier for me to just let it go… let it drift… quit being such a pain in the butt by constantly reminding folks to get back on task. If I could let it go, my life would be easier and people would like me more. I could just ride this church thing out until retirement and have a great party where everyone gets up and says what a swell fellow I was. And, frankly, that is what most pastors I know seem to working toward. Spread the good news that God has shown His love to this dark and dying world through His Son Jesus or make sure I am popular and nobody is mad at me? Let’s see, which sounds more appealing? Hum.

As contrary to what we observe this statement may be, it is still the truth. Maintaining the status quo is not the calling of the church. We are not called to be comfortable. We are not called to be popular. We are not even called to be happy. We are called to share the good news about God showing himself to us through His Son Jesus and offering us a relationship. We are called to GO into the world. Get up and GO. We are called to make disciples – fully functioning followers of Christ – mature Christians who are more concerned about serving than being served.

A key to our approach is focusing on what we are attempting to produce (Mature Christians) and trying to figure out how to do what we are attempting to do, better. To address our culture; to connect with our culture; to speak life into our culture; we must understand our culture. We exist in a culture that is fragmented and frantic. We seem to find it difficult to be present in the moment and to make decisions based on life priorities. Our lives are full but generally lack focus and planning. We are very busy going and doing but not very good at being. I do lots of things, but I struggle with being a father, husband, pastor, friend, Christian. Somehow we have come to believe that the busier we are, the more important we are – the more meaningful our lives are. A full calendar equals significance.

Instead of being busy, as a church, we need to be working at being focused. We must try to, instead of doing more, do what we are doing to good effect. Believing we are in the business of changed lives, we work with the end in mind. Are the things we are doing productive in helping people having their lives changed? Do we see church members growing in deepening relationships with God; are they reaching out to the people around them to share the love, grace healing and forgiveness God has given them?

To do these things, and to do them well, we must remain ever vigilant. We cannot afford to let things slide. If we do, it won’t take long before we become too busy doing church to be the Church. And I never want to go back there.

Copyright © 2013, William T. McConnell, All Rights Reserved