I use GTD to manage the craziness that is my life (www.davidco.com). I get a mixture of responses when people know I have these lists: "Are you crazy?", "That's depressing!", "What?" and "Cool! - how do I learn to do that?".
Some might even think I'm some kind of freak and live only to check things off my lists so that I can feel fulfilled as a human being. Yah, right!
I use this system (with its context lists) because I have really important things God is asking me to do with my life. I can't fool around wasting time trying to remember if I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing or whether or not I have my mind cluttered with stupid stuff like, "Did I buy milk for supper?" or "Now, who was it I was supposed to call before I leave the office?"
So I keep lists because they hold all the things I have to do so my mind can be free to concentrate on the really important things when I'm supposed to be concentrating on those important things.
I don't live to check things off my lists (although it's good to get things done!). I live to glorify God by the way I use my life and using context lists helps me to use my life more effectively and get the things I'm passionate about completed so I can hear The Master say, "Well done, good and faithful servant. You captured, clarified, organized, reflected and did what I called you to do!"
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Something Worth Saving
"If we are to renew, it is because we have a vision of something worth saving or doing." (John Gardner)
My early morning thinking is focused upon the need for organizational change if the church (not Church) is going to survive the present storm of decline.
I don't want to change - really - because like everyone else, I'd rather leadership be easy or at least predictable. But it is neither and I am not one to settle down to a "normal" life, so change is called for and to be welcomed.
We need no longer to bugle the necessity for change; we must go about spending our resources leading the necessary changes required to see our churches renewed in the Spirit for community transformation.
A church the size of ours demands tremendous effort just to get the mundane done, say nothing of keeping focused on the actions required to see change that will bring us to a new place of systemic growth and spiritual vitality. I suffer with a three-pronged tension:
1. God's view on His Church, and the way the church that meets in our facility really is, and how to close the gap between the two.
2. The manifold expectations of the people I lead to either go back to the past, or zip ahead to the fast lane of a yet-to-be-determined "exciting" future, and the subtle pressure that quietly asks for things to stay the same, thus avoiding the pain change will inevitably bring (futile).
3. And, my own expectations/perceptions and how to process them in a way that can be communicated to those whom I lead and thus realizing a new, fresh, bold, invigorated church that will attract people from all walks of life to the New Life found in Jesus Christ.
I know we have something worth saving here and there is something we all can do to to help save it. Now to figure out what all that is and get about doing it!
My early morning thinking is focused upon the need for organizational change if the church (not Church) is going to survive the present storm of decline.
I don't want to change - really - because like everyone else, I'd rather leadership be easy or at least predictable. But it is neither and I am not one to settle down to a "normal" life, so change is called for and to be welcomed.
We need no longer to bugle the necessity for change; we must go about spending our resources leading the necessary changes required to see our churches renewed in the Spirit for community transformation.
A church the size of ours demands tremendous effort just to get the mundane done, say nothing of keeping focused on the actions required to see change that will bring us to a new place of systemic growth and spiritual vitality. I suffer with a three-pronged tension:
1. God's view on His Church, and the way the church that meets in our facility really is, and how to close the gap between the two.
2. The manifold expectations of the people I lead to either go back to the past, or zip ahead to the fast lane of a yet-to-be-determined "exciting" future, and the subtle pressure that quietly asks for things to stay the same, thus avoiding the pain change will inevitably bring (futile).
3. And, my own expectations/perceptions and how to process them in a way that can be communicated to those whom I lead and thus realizing a new, fresh, bold, invigorated church that will attract people from all walks of life to the New Life found in Jesus Christ.
I know we have something worth saving here and there is something we all can do to to help save it. Now to figure out what all that is and get about doing it!
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