Hey Friend - It's Friday morning and I just wrapped up a fantastic time of private devotion. I love talking about the power of the private devotional life. It is part of the Christian tradition spanning throughout time, but I still don't think it gets thought about enough. What I want to share with you today is how I think through spending that time throughout the week. One of the fallacies we can fall into is thinking this takes significant time. I don't think it does. What it does take is deliberateness in focus and a willingness to experiment and think through how we each do this uniquely. I have a couple of assumptions as part of it.
So with those assumptions, let me share with you how I see three different types of devotional time and how they relate to a busy schedule. This works for those in ministry, or those simply following Jesus. The basic/non-negotiable This is a 20-minute process if extremely truncated. Normal Devotions I also try to read a short chapter in classic devotional writing. I like EM Bounds, The Imitation of Christ, or something similar. The normal devotion time takes around 45 minutes. The Long Devotion The long devotion might stretch for a couple of hours. I know this might seem a bit much, and I recognize my life and family rhythms give me time for this. The long devotion for you might look very different. But I think learning to value the devotional life in ways to make sacrifices and decisions to do so. This morning, I read in Augustine about his own ill-focuses in his younger life that moved him away from pursuing God. There are other things we can choose to spend our life on, in pursuit of what we call good...but if we aren't recognizing the call of God on our hearts and pointing ourselves toward a greater experience, are we actually following God? I hope this finds you well as you enter the weekend. And I hope you take a few extra moments to spend with the presence of God. Chad |
I steward Productive Pastor, a podcast and community of ministry leaders focused on how productivity and strategic ministry in the average church. I write about practical approaches to ministry productivity. I also write emails about church stability/development and my own theological musics in our current social moment.
It’s been a long day. I left the house right after 9 to drive 2 hours. For a 1.5 hour meeting. Then 2 hours back home. (I did get to sneak in a great lunch with a long-time friend who is also in the ministry. That was a highlight of the day). I got home around 5:30 and then spent two hours wrangling the dog while prepping for dinner tomorrow night with a few friends. Made a chicken stock. Cut up all the veggies for a massive gumbo. Now I’m at my desk, and it’s time to do the evening office....
Each morning, I make a cup of coffee and sit down with my Book of Common Prayer, journal and Note-taking Bible. I have to do it first thing. Avoid the temptation to get an early AM dopamine hit and see what interesting things happened in my social feeds while I was asleep. Stress over the anxieties of the day. Those items aren't going away, they are still coming, but not yet. I do the same thing. Pray the Daily Office. Read the scriptures. Take notes. Hit up the journal and deal with prayer,...
Hey Friend - This is part 4 of the series on the Vitality Matrix. This email is about how church finances work inside of healthy church systems. If you missed one of the last emails, you can get the archives here. Is my church healthy (Understanding the Vitality Matrix)? | https://bit.ly/40hTSZh How healthy are the relationships in your church? | https://bit.ly/4atjA0g How good are your metrics (and do they really matter)? | https://bit.ly/4hpycAk So finances. First, let me say something a...