When was the last time you felt like you had too much to do and not enough time to do it? What was your solution? Was it to “just work harder”? Or maybe you threw your hands up in despair and just walked away from the pile of working sitting on your desk or kitchen … Continue reading Leaders Think Systems
How do we get out of the mess that email has made? Cal Newport, in his book A World Without Email, lays out a few principles that could help individuals and organizations get out of this mess we’ve made. First, Newport argues that organizations must prioritize their worker’s attention. Knowledge work require great depth of … Continue reading A World Without Email | The Specialization Principle
At Centratel, the staff wage scale is 50 to 75 percent higher than our competitors’. How do we measure whether this elevated pay scale is a smart thing to do? That’s an easy question to answer: we don’t measure it because we can’t measure it. Too many variables and too much subjectivity preclude analysis. Instead, … Continue reading Don’t Try to Measure the Unmeasurable
Quotes from Eugene Peterson in The Contemplative Pastor: The word busy is the symptom not of commitment but of betrayal. It is not devotion but defection. The adjective busy set as a modifier to pastor should sound to our ears like adulterous to characterize a wife or embezzling to describe a banker. It is an … Continue reading The Betrayal of Busyness
My wife was the first woman to pray during Sunday morning worship service in the history of our church. It was Mother’s Day 2014 when my wife ascended the steps on the stage during the worship service, walked over to the microphone and prayed for the mothers and the women who desired to be mothers … Continue reading Culture and Leadership: My Story of Coming to Grips with Change
Some Old Testament texts seem harsh, even morally backwards to society today. But if you want people to listen to you on your own terms (and not put words in your mouth), shouldn’t you also extend the same courtesy to others? It’s just the Golden Rule of Listening: listen to others as you want to … Continue reading Why does the Old Testament Prescribe the Death Penalty for “Rebellious” Sons?
No one is keeping track of when you clock into work or clock out. No boss is holding you accountable for how you spend your time. Sound like a fantasy world? Think again. It’s the schedule of a pastor. The schedule of a pastor is almost infinitely flexible with no one really checking up on … Continue reading Overcoming Problems in Pastoral Productivity
If actually doing deep work is meaningful, then we the flipside is true: doing shallow work is not meaningful. So what it to be done? Rule #4 Drain the Shallows If you want to work deeply, then you must drain the shallows. You must attempt to rid your schedule of as much shallow work as possible. … Continue reading Cut It Out…Shallow Work, That Is
Jordan Peterson, a professor of psychology from the University of Toronto, has become very popular, especially among young men. Here are some quotes from the book. #1: The Power of Habit The body, with its various parts, needs to function like a well-rehearsed orchestra. Every system must play its role properly, and at exactly the … Continue reading Thirty Quotes from 12 Rules for Life
It always cost time and money to do justice…And yet there are times when doing justice really costs. These verses talk about a time of trouble–literally, “the day of adversity.” In times of crisis, from recession to government coups, the most vulnerable are most endangered, and to defend them puts you in the way of harm as … Continue reading The Day of Adversity