We live such busy lives. There is so much to do, and gospel ministry is of such importance that we have to take on more and more.
The only way to do more is to become more efficient in what we undertake. And so we read the books on improving output, and watch the DVDs on organising life better. and end up agreeing with the presupposition that minimising unproductive time is the key to serving Christ better.
I want to question that presupposition.
As one who needs help in this, I agree that tasks must be handled efficiently. It is so easy to spend our time shuffling papers. If we are inefficient in performing tasks we not only waste our time but also the time of others who are affected by our inefficiency. This wasting of their time can frustrate those work alongside us and strain our relationships. So I am all for getting tasks done in the most streamlined of ways.
Relationship are not efficient
But I want to stand against the whole of our lives being conducted like that. Against it because relationships grow through inefficiency and hang time and just "chewing the fat" together.
That is because this is the way modalities operate (see my blog last week for a discussion on modalities). In order for a family to operate properly and for each member to adopt or keep the family "DNA" we need to have time of just being with each other, driven by no agenda other than being with each other. That is because those deep characters and convictions that shape our decisions, and our very being, are learnt not by activity, but obliquely and tacitly by just being with each other. There are family ways of thinking that come not from lectures but by hanging around together. That is what God's people do. As we hear and reflect on God's Word and goodness to us, we mutter, we mumble, we chatter about that. In order to that we need to have time of inefficiency.
Last week I heard the story of a Sydney pastor who always stops work to help all the women with children get their prams out of the car as they attend the play group, and he returns to help when it is time to pack the children and their belongings back into the car. That consumes over an hour of his time each week, and he has done it every week for years!
That is very inefficient indeed. But the outcome has been that many of the mums who begun attending as non Christians have given their lives to Christ because of the example of the minister, and the few words they were able to exchange with him while he was helping.
I think the challenge before us in our busy world is to plan for inefficiency. It is the glue of relationship and the shaper of our characters. The pastor I just mentioned planned for this inefficiency by staying back an hour later one night a week to complete what he had to do.
