Task/Project/Time Management and the Pastor

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I recently had the opportunity to gather together with a small group of DOXOLOGY alumni to discuss ways of improving the DOXOLOGY program, how to reach more pastors, and the like.  One of the topics which came to mind was the question of time management.  I thought y’all might appreciate some of my thoughts on the topic, so here goes:

The reason I got into thinking about task management as it pertains to the Office is because of my own background with stress and clinical depression.  One of my ongoing symptoms that leads to and flows from depression is the overwhelming nature of all of the “stuff” that comes at me as a pastor.  The usual pastoral duties, the left-hand kingdom duties of being the only full time staff, being the unofficial volunteer coordinator and all around cheerleader, and more generally “managing” all of the different kinds of information that come at me.  Some people communicate by email.  Others by meetings.  Phone. Notes.  Letters.  Text messages.  Facebook.  The list could go on and on.

With all of these different ways that information comes at me, it is very easy to become overwhelmed in trying to figure out how to hold onto all of these bits and pieces in a way that won’t make me insane.

Furthermore, I as a pastor really don’t want to be defined by task management.  Being a pastor is not about checking things off of a list so that I feel that I have accomplished something.  The things that I “do” must always serve the members of my flock, my family, and the others that have crossed my path.  I am very conscious of the fact that as a pastor, if I appear “busy” to people, that translates into “he doesn’t have time for me and my piddly problems.”

On top of all of that, there are all of my obligations as a husband and father which cannot be given the back burner, either.

Pastors above all really are what David Allen would call “knowledge workers”.  We don’t make a product.  There aren’t quotas to uphold or sales goals to reach.  We receive and give.  We receive God’s Word and give it to our flock.  We receive our people’s sins and give them to God.  As a pastor, that shapes how I think about who I am and what I do.

So what I want and need is a way so that all of the “stuff” doesn’t control me or define me.  I want to be able to focus on ideas and people, not things and juggling.

Enter David Allen.  David Allen is the author of a book called, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress Free Productivity.  I suppose in some ways it is similar to Stephen R. Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.  I think it is far more helpful, and actually fits in with the life of the Lutheran pastor quite well.  He has several basic premises that resonate with me.  Here are some of them:

  • Your brain is for creating ideas, not storing them.
  • One of the biggest reasons people get overwhelmed or stuck is because they haven’t figured out what is the next action they need to take on something.
  • If you know everything that involves action on your part is kept in a secure system, you don’t worry as much about what you’re supposed to be doing.
I think this is enough for first thoughts.  This is a bit stream of consciousness, but that’s okay.

So what are your thoughts?  If you are a pastor, does the knowledge overload overwhelm you?

 

 

Exaudi 2011

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2011 Exaudi

Exaudi 2011

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord, Jesus Christ. Our text for this morning is taken from the Gospel just read, as well as the epistle text from 1 Peter.

Peter in his epistle gives us the right perspective when it comes to the times we live in on this side of the Ascension.  “The end of all things is at hand” (1 Peter 4:7 ESV), he says.  Now this shouldn’t evoke some picture of a guy carrying a sign around with THE END IS NEAR on it.  We did get a bit of that with the whole Harold Camping thing a few weeks ago.  The end is near, but not in the way that he thought.  We often miss the simple reality that Jesus has ascended into heaven, and that He promises to return in the same way that He went up.

So what does Jesus’ ascension really mean for us as God’s people?  More often than not we act like teenagers when they’re parents are out of town for the weekend.  We know He’s coming back, we think we know when, and so we act as if there are no rules, no boundaries, and nothing is off limits for the next 48 hours.  Throw a party, watch TV until 5 in the morning even if you have to work, whatever it is that gets you going.  There is a great temptation when the authority in your life is hidden or not so obvious to just let it all go.

Now I suppose the opposite extreme is also possible.  I remember once seeing the bumper sticker: “Jesus is coming back: everyone look busy.”  There is be a very real sense that we think we are supposed to just be busy.  As long as I’m busy, as long as I can scurry around like a little mouse, then that must mean I am doing what I’m supposed to be doing.  Right?

But Peter has much more specific plans and requests for us.  Let’s hear some more of the context to his words:

“The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.” (1 Peter 4:7–9 ESV)

What Peter holds up for us is that because Christ is returning soon, we should love one another earnestly, and show hospitality to one another without complaining.  What’s the connection?  What’s the relationship between Jesus’ return, love and hospitality?

The relationship is this.  God has given you a new heart and Spirit in the waters of Baptism (Ezekiel 36:26).  He has put His Spirit upon you.  You are God’s people, and He is your God.  This means that God’s character becomes your character by faith.  And God’s character is that of love.  God is love, as St. John reminds us.

Love means self-giving.  Love means sacrifice.  Love means speaking well of the other.  Love means being welcoming and helpful.  I don’t mean this in a get busy sense, or in the sense of everything is a divine ice breaker or potluck, where it means being pushy or sort of excessively happy.  Ugh.  No, this is how Dr. Luther explained it:

When a Christian begins to know Christ as His Lord and Savior, his heart is aglow with a flaming love of God and he desires gladly to help everyone to the same experience. For you know that Christ has redeemed you from death and brought into His kingdom and inheritance. And so you have no greater joy than to possess this treasure and trust Christ. Therefore, a Christian goes out and encourages other people, praising and testifying (in word or deed) to all, praying and yearning that they too enjoy God’s grace. (Blessed Martin Luther)

Now I don’t know about you, but when I read that, I’m thinking, “yeah that’s all fine and good, but he isn’t talking about me.”  He is talking about you, dearly baptized.  But this does not happen from your own work and doing.  Jesus says in our Gospel for today:

““But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.” (John 15:26–27 ESV)

What does this mean for you and I as the baptized children of God?  What it means is this.  The Holy Spirit is called the Helper.  This can also be translated Comforter or Counselor.  But helper really is quite good.

This is God’s job.  By the power of the Holy Spirit, His job is to remake you in His image.  His job is to create you over and over again.  It has been said that the Christian faith is one of new beginnings, and this is true.  The more you fail, the more you mess up, the more you refuse to show love to your neighbor and hospitality to those in need, the greater your need for a Savior becomes.

A fellow pastor friend of mine once described it this way.  The only tools we really have in the church are the towel and the meal.  God forgives us in the meal, and He serves us in our daily needs with the towel.  There is some wisdom to that, and the simplicity of God’s mercy in Jesus Christ is hard to deny.

So we wait for Jesus’ return just as He went up into heaven and was hidden from our sight.  We wait, we gather for the Meal, and we serve one another in love as Christ has served us.  Don’t be afraid of the end of the world, and don’t fear the unknown which is coming.  Christ has ascended into heaven, but that doesn’t mean He’s gone.  Christ’s ascension into heaven means that now He feeds you with His Word and Spirit.  Christ’s ascension means that now we can see and understand that God is at work all around us, serving us and caring for us with all of these people whom He has put in our lives.  “The end of all things is at hand” (1 Peter 4:7 ESV) as Peter said.  So come, live in the grace and peace which only He can give.

Believe it for Jesus’ sake.  Amen.

And now the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith to life everlasting.  Amen.

 

I Have Overcome the World (Rogate 2011)

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Todd A. Peperkorn, STM

Messiah Lutheran Church

Kenosha, Wisconsin

Rogate – Easter 5 (May 29, 2011, rev. from 2003)

John 16:23-30

2011rogate

 

TITLE: “I Have Overcome the World”

 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Our text for today is from the Gospel lesson just read, with focus on Jesus’ words, These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you have peace.  In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. Today we discuss God’s gift of prayer, and how all prayer goes through Jesus Christ in order for God to hear us.

Prayer is not a right or an entitlement.  We often think about it our treat it that way, but it is a great privilege from God our Father.  Now to be sure, it is a right and entitlement as an American citizen.  We have freedom of religion, so that I may worship whichever god I please without government interference.  That is a big part of what this Memorial Day weekend is really all about.  Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. We have the freedom to worship whomever you please whenever you please.  But that is from the government’s point of view.  We thank God for that right.  But that is not God’s point of view.

From God’s point of view, you have no right to pray.  Neither do I.  We are sinners, poor and miserable.  We have transgressed God’s Law, denied His ways and work, we refuse to call upon Him in every trouble, pray, praise and give thanks.  We make a mockery of everything He is and does for us time and time again.  You don’t deserve to come to God in prayer, because you have squandered that gift and tossed it aside so many times.

Prayer is not a right.  It is a gift.  How can prayer be a gift?  Prayer is a gift because when you pray, you are confessing who you are as a sinner and who God is as the one who gives you life.  Prayer is a gift that God gives you by faith in His Word.  The only way you can pray is through Jesus Christ, our Lord.  St. Paul put it this way: For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. Jesus’ death and resurrection for you means that He is your go-between.  He always stands at the right hand of the Father.  And when you go to your Father in prayer, He is the only Way you get there.  As Jesus Himself said, I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life.  No one comes to the Father but through me.

This is an incredible gift from God.  Your life is bound to Christ’s, and His death and resurrection tie you to God in such a way that nothing, nothing can come between you and Him.  His life-giving blood flows in your veins.  His holy waters washed over you in your baptism.  He is yours and you are His.  So when you pray, it is not as a servant or as a stranger.  You pray to God as one of the family.  For Christ is your brother, and when you pray in His name, that is to say, in faith, that prayer is always heard.  It must be heard, for Christ is the very Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.

But prayer is not easy.  If you have ever tried praying with friends or family members who are not Christians, you know what I mean.  In the presence who do not confess Christ, the boldness of our prayer becomes a whisper, and our asking God for everything in His name changes into some vague hope that God is here, somewhere.  Prayer has a way of laying us all bare.  Think of Peter outside of the high priests house.  I do not know the man.  How often do we think and act this way in our prayers?  We speak to God not as a Father who longs to hear our prayers, but rather, if we speak to Him at all, it is more like talking to the clerk at Wal-mart.  Ok, I’ll talk to you, but no more than absolutely necessary.

Now this may all sound like a lot of Law.  I suppose it is.  But hear the kernel of the Gospel that is planted here and grows a hundredfold.  These things I have spoken to you, Jesus says, that in Me you have peace.  In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. This struggle, this trial of faith and unbelief is the tribulation of the world.  That’s what it means to be in the world.  It is a part of the Christian life.

But the Good News is that Christ has overcome the world.  It is not as if we are giving up something good for us by clinging to Christ and His Word of forgiveness alone.  Think of it this way: if a man offers to give you a drink of clear, pure water, and asks to throw away the gross, dirty water you are holding, is he trying to take something from you or give something to you?  Really, it’s both.  He takes what is bad and replaces what is good.

That is what Christ does for you by praying in His name, in faith.  He takes what is yours: your sin, your fears, your hurts and pains, and takes them into Himself.  He then gives to you forgiveness, life, salvation, peace.  Sound like a pretty good trade?  It is.

That is why prayer in Jesus’ name alone and no other is so important.  At the Reformation, everything clung on one little German word, allein.  Alone.  Martin Luther held according to the Scriptures that we are saved by grace through faith alone.  No additives.  Nothing else could be included.  Faith alone saves.  Today I believe that we must confess that same faith by clinging to the truth according to the Scriptures that we pray through Jesus’ name alone, and that there is no other way to pray so that our Father hears us.  By clinging to Christ’s name alone, we receive all the gifts that only God can give.  That is the gift of the Gospel.

But if that isn’t enough, there is still more.  When you are unable to pray, who you are too afraid or uncertain or timid, Christ prays for you and with you.  The Holy Spirit prays for you with groanings beyond words.  It is impossible to pray alone, because Christ is always with you.  You are washed in His name, which means that He has won the victory for you.  Pray, sing, and rejoice!  Christ has overcome the world for you.

Believe it for Jesus’ sake.  Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith, unto life everlasting.  Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

+Pastor Ted+

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My predecessor here at Messiah died in Christ this morning.  Pastor Gundlach (as we formal Fort Wayne types would call him) or Pastor Ted as his flock called him, served here at Messiah for 21 years, from 1978-1999.  Prior to that, he served congregations in Oshkosh, Janesville, and briefly in Watertown.  Prior to that, he was a Lutheran high school teacher for several years.

The first time I met Ted I think was when they stopped by our house (formerly their house) to drop off a bottle of wine and welcome us to Messiah and to Kenosha.  He and Jane were kind and generous to the upstart pastor who (thought he) knew everything.

Pastor Ted with his first confirmation class at Messiah in 1979.

The next time I saw Ted was at my installation.  I will never forget it.  We were vesting in what was then the youth room, and I had just put on my chasuble.  Red brocade, very liturgical, very very colorful.  Ted walked in, took one look at me, and said, “Oh my.”  Oh my, indeed.

They weren’t members of Messiah anymore, but Ted and his wife, Jane, lived in Racine not to far away.  Jane still does.  Over the last twelve years or so, I have increasingly come to respect Ted and his faithfulness as a pastor here at Messiah.  Twenty-one years is a long time of service.  I’m sure he did things I wouldn’t do.  I’m sure I’ve done things he wouldn’t do.  But he always, always, respected me as the pastor and offered nothing but support and encouragement along the way.  He was and is a model for how an elder pastor can remain in a community and continue to be of service to the parish he loves, and others, even after retirement.

Among the many things that I learned from him over the years, probably the one that has been the most helpful to me has been one he didn’t even know he was doing.  It was such a part of his nature.  He didn’t get bent about titles and overwrought about terminology.  When I first arrived at Messiah, it bugged me that people called him “Pastor Ted”.  I thought that was disrespectful of the Office.  But over the years, I’ve learned that it doesn’t really matter what you’re called.  The question is whether people will receive you as their pastor, and allow you to bring Christ’s mercy to them in their time of need.  People letting you into their lives is a rare gift.  Sometimes it’s more than you want to know.  But it doesn’t matter much what they call you.  That is for certain.

Some time ago Pastor Ted was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.  For those of you unfamiliar with it, Parkinson’s has to be one of the most painful and just plain ugly diseases on earth.  I’ve seen many with it, including my former Professor Kurt Marquart, and Dr. Ron Feuerhahn.  Near the end, Ted was a shadow of his former self.  It seemed like this big man was wasting away into nothing right in front of us.  I can only imagine how hard the last six months have been for Ted’s family.

But through feeding tubes and tracheostomies, the “death rattle” in his lungs, lost hearing aids and long nights, through pain and what I can only describe as a lingering death, through it all, Ted confessed Christ and the resurrection of the dead.  He brought comfort as much as He received it.  And He always received it.  I don’t know how many pastors were visiting him.  I wouldn’t blame his family if they got tired of the pastor parade.  But Ted was always kind, somehow, even when he was barely with us at all.

The last time I saw him, Wednesday, he was pretty much unresponsive from my observation.  Maybe there was an eye blink or a little look.  I’m not sure.  We talked about some of the things that had happened in his lifetime, wept, prayed and sang.  Our song for the week here at Christ Lutheran Academy was quite apropos.  It’s what I sang to Pastor Ted, Jane, Sarah, and Daniel.  It’s worth passing along here:

Evening and morning,Sunset and dawning,
Wealth, peace, and gladness,
Comfort in sadness:These are Thy works;
all the glory be Thine!
Times without number,Awake or in slumber,
Thine eye observes us,
From danger preserves us,
Causing Thy mercy upon us to shine.

Father, O hear me,Pardon and spare me;
Calm all my terrors,
Blot out my errors
That by Thine eyes they may no more be scanned.
Order my goings,Direct all my doings;
As it may please Thee,    Retain or release me;
All I commit to Thy fatherly hand.

Ills that still grieve me
Soon are to leave me;
Though billows tower,
And winds gain power,
After the storm the fair sun shows its face.
Joys e’er increasing
And peace never ceasing:
These shall I treasure
And share in full measure
When in His mansions God grants me a place.

To God in heaven
All praise be given!
Come, let us offer
And gladly proffer
To the Creator the gifts He doth prize.
He well receiveth
A heart that believeth;
Hymns that adore Him
Are precious before Him
And to His throne like sweet incense arise. (LSB 726, Paul Gerhardt)

There are other things that I’d like to write about concerning Ted, but they will wait for another time.  Suffice it to say that he was a man who stood as a sinner before God, yet righteous for Jesus’ sake.  Anything that God has used me for here at Messiah may be credited squarely on his shoulders for all of his hard work over so many years.   I will miss him.  I’m sure you will, too.

-Pastor Todd Peperkorn

A Little While (Jubilate 2011)

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Todd A. Peperkorn, STM
Messiah Lutheran Church
Kenosha, Wisconsin
Easter 3 – Jubilate (May 15, 2011, revised from 2004)
John 16:16-22

2011jubilate

TITLE: “A Little While”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text is from the Gospel lesson. We focus on Jesus’ words, A Little While.

In Exodus fifteen we read that as the children of Israel were led by the Lord, they wandered for three days and found no water. But when they finally came to Mara, the water they found was so bitter they couldn’t drink it.

That is still how things are with you and I, the spiritual Israel. Sometimes we have to drink bitter water in the wilderness of this world. Sometimes the cup that the Lord gives us is the cup of cross and tribulation (Ps. 75:9), just as our Lord drank gall and vinegar from the cross (Matthew 27:48). This is, to be sure, one of the most difficult things to understand about the Christian faith. It is sometimes called the theology of the cross; at other times the theology of suffering; but we might simply sum it up and call it life. How is it that in this life we suffer and undergo trials of various sorts? Didn’t Jesus die on the cross and rise again from the dead so that we would not have to suffer?

We all face crosses and trials of various kinds here in this life. They may be physical trials, they may be emotional or personal, they may have to do with family or work. Or the trials you face may be of another sort entirely, that no one else even knows about! The trials of this life can be very painful and grueling, just as that bitter water was so hard to swallow for the children of Israel so many years ago.

But God showed Moses a tree which he was to set down into that bitter water in order to make it sweet. God does the same for you. He sets before you the Tree of Life, that is, Jesus Christ in His Word (Rev. 22:2). As one pastor put it many years ago, “When we sink the Tree into the bitter waters of cross and tribulation, when we ponder Christ’s cross and suffering, also when we seize and take to heart the comfort of His Word, even through that our cross becomes light and sweet” (Johann Gerhard). This is what Jesus is talking about when he says, Come to me, all you who are worn out and overburdened; I will refresh and renew you. Take my yoke upon yourselves-for My yoke is gentle and My burden is light (Mat. 11:28-30).

Our text this morning about the little while of Jesus going and coming teaches us four things about the doctrine of the theology of the cross. First, it teaches us that all true Christians will be subjected to the cross in this life; second, that our reason cannot understand the mystery of the cross; third, it shows why our Lord places us under the cross; and finally, what kind of comfort the Christian may receive by the power of His Word.

First of all, the Scriptures repeatedly teach that the Christian will be under the cross their entire life. Jesus says in Matthew 16:24: If anyone wants to follow Me, let him deny himself and take his cross upon himself and follow me. And Saint Paul says that We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God (Acts 14:22). And St. Paul says again in 2 Timothy 3:6, For those who want to live godly lives in Christ Jesus have to suffer persecutions. And we hear in Hebrews 12:6, For whomever the Lord loves He chastises. And Jesus repeatedly says in reference to His own suffering that this must happen or it is necessary that the Son of Man suffer and the like.

Perhaps the way to think of it is like this. Our Lord wants to make you into living stones that build up the body of Christ. You are His workmanship, His work of art. Now stones, in order to be used in building, must be chiseled and polished and worked until they are just right. God is, in effect, chiseling you out and polishing you for the kingdom of God. He is working away at your unbelief and sin, removing the impediments to faith and building you up into His own image, the image of His only begotten Son.

But this is truly a mystery if there ever was one. This is the second point of our text. The disciples didn’t understand, and neither do we. When we are faced with trials and tribulations in this life, our response is more likely to be one of complaining and murmuring against God, than it is rejoicing that He has made us worthy to be fashioned into His likeness. It is a mystery that only God can reveal to us by His Word.

So why is it that God must lay crosses and tribulations upon us? It works this way: Our rebirth comes through faith, and faith comes from the Word of God, but the Word of God is seldom planted apart from the cross and tribulation. When things are going perfectly in your life, when you are happy and making money, when everything goes right in your life, who needs God? So in order to cultivate the ground of your heart, God sends tribulations and trials, so that you will hear His Word and trust in Him all of your life.

Now perhaps at first glance this seems mean. I suppose that to a young child, when a parent disciplines them, it does appear just mean. But nothing could be farther from the truth. Our heavenly Father chastens us and allows trials and tribulations precisely because He loves us. When cross and trial grieve you, rejoice and be glad! For this is a sign that God has not abandoned you, but rather that He loves you so much that He wishes to fashion you into something even greater.

Jesus’ cross and empty tomb give you a lens for seeing the world and your own life. The devil, the world and your own sinful nature all want you to look at the trials and sufferings of your life, and believe that by them God is proving He has abandoned you. But Jesus in our Gospel today gives you hope. A little while, he says. That doesn’t sound so bad, does it? A little while. That’s how long the suffering and trials of this life will last.

Now while you and I are stuck in the middle of things here on this earth, a little while may seem like a terribly long time. We may cry out with the Psalmist, How long, O Lord, how long? Our little while may seem more like the Israelites four hundred years of slavery in Egypt, or their seventy years exiled in Babylon. But just like the Israelites as they prayed in Psalm one hundred twenty six:

1 When the LORD brought back the captivity of Zion, We were like those who dream.
2Then our mouth was filled with laughter, And our tongue with singing.
Then they said among the nations, “The LORD has done great things for them.”
3The LORD has done great things for us, And we are glad. (Psalm 126:1-3)

Christ our Lord may leave for a little while, as He says in this text, but He returns again and again by Word and Sacrament to give you the strength you need to go on with life. Trust that Christ will take care of you. He who died on the cross and rose again for your salvation will see you through. Believe it for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in true faith, unto life everlasting. Amen.

Some of the ideas behind this sermon are received with thanks from Johann Gerhard’s Church Postils.