Crisis vs. Important

I’m not a huge fan of the “fruit” analogy, but the substance of this post by Deepak Reju over at IX Marks is worth reading:

In it, he talks about investing in future church leaders—rather than allowing your day to be filled with the “urgent” and the “crises” of church life. Specifically:

“One of the ideas I’ve learned on our staff is to be strategic about the men I disciple and invest in. One of our staff pastors has often talked about being deliberate in investing in low-hanging fruit—men who show a lot of potential, who demonstrate a teachable heart and desire to grow, and with a little investment will themselves be able to invest in others. These low-hanging fruit quickly become disciple-making disciples!

The nature of pastoral ministry is that you get all types of requests for help—bad marriages needing attention, wives struggling with depression, young men and women sorting through who to marry and what to do with their life, physical sickness and hospitalizations, etc. Pastors tend to spend most of their time investing in high-hanging fruit–those situations which take a lot of time, energy, prayer, love, and investment, and often reap very little fruit. Without trying, you’ll get plenty of these situations come across your door.

Don’t get me wrong—to be a pastor is to be a shepherd. A fundamental part of your job is to care for the sheep, both through their good and bad days. Yet, what often happens is that a pastor’s schedule can get over-run with high-hanging fruit, and we rarely take the time to deliberately invest in the low-hanging fruit. We spend our days investing in that which reaps very little harvest, without spending any time picking the low-hanging fruit.

So, here’s my question for pastors: How deliberate are you at investing in the low-hanging fruit?”

Great questions and not just for pastors. (MBAs and lawyers ask such questions “out in the business world” all the time.)

But here’s a thought for we laypeople too: How much time do we spend investing in relationships for the purpose of building up another person and encouraging them in the use of their gifts so that they, in turn, can invest in others?

Women might call it by other terms (“spiritual mothering”, “Titus 2 Ministry,” etc.). Back in the day, I wonder if this was just called “real life” because the nature of our little agrarian towns and community-based lives required us to overlap and apprentice more, simply for life skills.

Whatever the case, I know that I have been the blessed recipient of help throughout the 39 years of my life. (And especially since becoming a Christian as a teenager.)

Not that help, real help, is always pleasant. In fact? It rarely is. Who wants to be confronted? Who finds it enjoyable to see huge areas of ignorance and lack of skill revealed?

And yet, I thank God for so many people who took the time to rebuke, teach, exhort, confront, engage, encourage, pray for, bless, love me over the years. Sure, some people just took one look, got defensive against my Tara-ness, rejected my Tara-ness, stood at a distance and said, “BAD Tara-ness.”

Others, did not. (And do not, even to this day—because oh my STARS the longer I live, the more weaknesses I see in myself. So obviously, I still need lots o’ help.)

Reading this article by Deepak was a kick in the pants for me, though, to think about my relationships:

– Am I self-focused in my friendships? Do I just want to be around people who are “functional” / mature / godly / wise / ENJOYABLE?

– Do I actively seek out some relationships where I just get to SERVE? Or does everything have to be about ME?

– How might I be responding to the crises around me rather than strategically thinking about (and taking advantage of) the important opportunities in this day / week / month / year?

Oh, and reading this article reminded me how very grateful I am that our pastors invest in our men and work hard to train them to lead and shepherd the flock well. So wise. So very, very wise.

Hope your Thursday is a blessed one!

Yours,
Tara B.