Seth Godin Nails It

Seth Godin has an excellent post on his blog today. Since today is Labor Day, he writes about the work habits of today compared to those of years past. While this is written more from the business perspective, church pastor/leaders have much to benefit from his thoughts. To wit:

The meaning of hard work in a manual economy is clear. Without the leverage of machines and organizations, working hard meant producing more. Producing more, of course, was the best way to feed your family.

Those days are long gone. Most of us don’t use our bodies as a replacement for a machine — unless we’re paying for the privilege and getting a workout at the gym. These days, 35% of the American workforce sits at a desk. Yes, we sit there a lot of hours, but the only heavy lifting that we’re likely to do is restricted to putting a new water bottle on the cooler. So do you still think that you work hard?

The ways we work change. When I was younger, I was more of the mindset of the manual worker that Godin quotes. Just work harder and the results increase. That may be true in some jobs but not in pastoral ministry. I see many pastors beating themselves up by trying to grind out what they did 20 years ago with more intensity and the people they are trying to reach have changed. Needs haven’t changed. They still need God but the ways in which we reach them HAVE changed. Peter Senge wrote a great book several years ago called “The Fifth Discipline” which again is a business book but speaks of systems thinking. The key in Senge’s book and the crux of Godin’s thinking is that we must be constantly learning from our outside environment (the things that drive people both to and away from church for the purposes of this discussion) and finding ways to learn and adapt to overcome those obstacles. If we are constantly mindful of the changing world around us, we can be successful in reaching people. Again, this is spiritual work so not EVERY aspect of business applies here but why not use the best thinking in that arena to increase the percentages of those we CAN reach. This thought was reinforced by another quote from Godin in the same post:

Robyn Waters, the woman who revolutionized what Target sells — and helped the company trounce Kmart — probably worked fewer hours than you do in an average week.

Notice, he mentioned the success here. Target still lags behind Wal-Mart in retail sales but what it has done is establish itself as a niche retailer. I will shop my local Target stores for this very reason. There are many things I find in a Target store that never show up on Wal-Mart shelves and that’s OK. Wal-Mart claims the lion’s share of my retail dollar because I’m on a budget and have to save money and for the things Wal-Mart does sell, they usually have the best price. Target is competitive because they offer me choices I can’t get at Wal-Mart. I buy clothing, gifts, certain beauty items my wife likes, and other niche items from Target.

To put this in the church perspective, I realize I’m not going to have a church that’s everyone’s cup of tea. In fact, my loyalty to the historic doctrines of my denomination will cause me to say NO to many a good idea if it doesn’t fit within the context of those principles I see as vital to the sucess of the church. That doesn’t mean I can’t have a church that’s constantly learning, growing, and changing to meet the needs of a lost community we need to reach. You can do all of those things while staying true to your principles. It just takes HARD WORK as Godin states. The problem for many pastors I know is that it’s easier to coast and continue doing the routine things they’ve always done rather than embrace a new paradigm and making it work in their church context. Nobody wants the extra work and/or the risk that goes with it. My favorite quote from Godin’s article makes a fitting closing for my thoughts:

Hard work is about risk. It begins when you deal with the things that you’d rather not deal with: fear of failure, fear of standing out, fear of rejection. Hard work is about training yourself to leap over this barrier, tunnel under that barrier, drive through the other barrier. And, after you’ve done that, to do it again the next day.

Isn’t Jesus worth it?