The Pastor Who Jogged While Mowing His Lawn
Friday, May 20, 2011 at 5:00AM What would you say about a pastor who jogged while he mowed his lawn? He was so committed to ministry that he wanted to spend as little time as possible on non-ministry tasks.
I know such a pastor. He's an example of a pastor who works very hard in ministry. At first glance, it looks like he's redeeming the time.
Is he an example for all of us?
Lazy Pastors
I know that some pastors are lazy. Martin Luther evidently knew some lazy pastors in his day:
Some pastors and preachers are lazy and no good. They do not pray; they do not read; they do not search the Scripture...The call is: watch, study, attend to reading. In truth you cannot read too much in Scriptures; and what you read you cannot read too carefully, and what you read carefully you cannot understand too well, and what you understand well you cannot teach too well, and what you teach well you cannot live too well...the devil...the world...and our flesh are raging and raving against us. Therefore, dear sirs and brothers, pastors and preachers, pray, read, study, be diligent...This evil, shameful time is not the season for being lazy, for sleeping and snoring.
There are so many ways that a pastor can waste time. The pastorate is a great hideout for lazy people. My jogging friend is a reminder that we shouldn't fritter our time away mindlessly.
Another Type of Lazy
I'll never forget reading this paragraph from Eugene Peterson for the first time:
The adjective busy set as a modifier to pastor should sound to our ears like adulterous to characterize a wife or embezzling to describe a banker. It is an outrageous scandal, a blasphemous affront…. [It is] a blasphemous anxiety to do God's work for him.
I am busy because I am vain. I want to appear important. Significant. What better way than to be busy? The incredible hours, the crowded schedule, and the heavy demands on my time are proof to myself — and to all who will notice — that I am important.
How can I lead people into the quiet place beside the still waters if I am in perpetual motion? How can I persuade a person to live by faith and not by works if I have to juggle my schedule constantly to make everything fit into place? (The Contemplative Pastor
)
Busyness, he says, is a form of laziness. "It is doing the easy thing instead of the hard thing. It is filling our time with our own actions instead of paying attention to God's actions. It is taking charge."
I know more pastors like my jogging friend than I do lazy pastors. Pastors face the temptation to overwork. This can come out of a healthy desire to fulfill our ministries with diligence. It can also come out of an unhealthy desire to measure up or to earn approval through the idol of achievement.
Overwork is just as big a danger for pastors as laziness. It may even be the same thing.
We Need the Gospel
This is, again, where we need the gospel. The gospel gives us reason to work hard, and the assurance that our work is not in wasted even when it seems so (1 Corinthians 15:58). At the same time, as Jared Wilson writes, the gospel frees us "to chill the heck out."
Yes, people watch too much TV and play too many video games and spend too much time on the Internet and what-have-you. But the proper response to our media over-saturation is not a rigorous attention to the explicitly "spiritual" in every margin of life. Be a Christian, not an ascetic. Don't be lazy, but realize that Jesus Christ did not die and rise for you so that you would stress out about whether you're being spiritual enough. So take a nap. Watch some television. The gospel frees you to chill the heck out.
No easy answers. We need to learn the rhythms of hard work and rest, and ultimately to find our rest in the One who's accomplished everything that we need and has earned our Father's approval.
Reader Comments (11)
Excellent - and too close.
Convicting to the core!Eugene Peterson's words will stick with me for a while: The adjective busy set as a modifier to pastor should sound to our ears like adulterous to characterize a wife or embezzling to describe a banker. It is an outrageous scandal, a blasphemous affront….
Peterson's quote is silly and foolish - the kind of thing writers do to attract attention to themselves by saying something large and outrageous. "How can I persuade a person to live by faith and not by works if I have to juggle my schedule constantly to make everything fit into place?" While obviously a person can be too busy this false dichotomy between faith and works (read James 2 Mr. Peterson) is ridiculous. Preachers work hard because by doing so - reading deeply, studying deeply, praying hard, contacting people, visiting the sick - they enhance their ministry and make everything they do possible. For Peterson to suggest that somehow a preacher who is "quiet and still" all the time is best suited to lead others to be "quiet and still" reflects a sad ignorance of what preaching is all about and how it is accomplished. If Ezra set his heart to know the Law and teach it (Ezra 7:10) then how dare Mr. Peterson suggest others should do less.
Great points. Excessive busyness is essentially a form of procrastination. I think the problem we face though is that there's not really a one-size-fits-all form of busyness.There's an arrogant busyness which is concerned with looking valuable and important. There is a legalistic and moralistic busyness which hopes to earn God's favor. There's a lazy busyness, as this post pointed out so well, where we tackle unimportant and easy tasks to avoid the hard and important ones.There's also a busyness that Paul had: making tents and toiling in ministry for the sake of the gospel.I think it really comes down to an honest assessment of 1) What is my heart condition? Am I doing this for prideful or legalistic reasons? And 2) Am I busy with the truly important things? Am I putting off family, prayer, study, or other important things in order to tackle work?
I think you're missing the aim of both this post and Peterson's paragraphs; certainly he is not suggesting that a pastor be "quiet and still" all the time. In fact, I'm not sure where you could find that in his text: He says, "The incredible hours, the crowded schedule, and the heavy demands on my time are proof to myself--and to all who will notice--that I am important." His point is not that pastors should not work hard, but that they should not pack every moment of every day with some sort of "ministry." To say that pastors should be quiet and still some of the time is hardly the same as saying they should be still and quiet all the time!The life of Jesus is a perfect example: he obviously worked precisely as hard as he ought. Yet he often took time away, in the quiet, time to pray and seek God. And he spent time relaxing with friends--he may have taught when he was at Mary and Martha and Lazarus' home, but he also enjoyed dinner there!
I disagree with Peterson too but he says a lot of things that sound good at first glance yet fail to reflect reality. Perhaps the pastor who jogs while cutting grass has no one to delegate the task too. Grass cutting is a cultural convention, arguably silly, but it doesn't deserve a lot of time. Redeeming the time is wise. In 1 Tim. 5:17 church leaders are identified as those who engage in "hard work" (i.e. toil).
Wow, this post hit me at a really key time. I have been saying all month, "How busy" I am recently. I have never thought about the fact that busyness could be a version of the laziness I so wholeheartedly am trying to avoid in vocational ministry.Thanks you for taking the time to post this!Matt,Orange County, Ca
As some one who likes to be "doing something" I find this really convicting.With the minister who jogs while mowing, the motivation not to waste time is admirable. I wish I had that sort of diligence. I really appreciated the question: "what is our motivation for business?"Am I busy to do more for God, or am I busy to make myself look good, feel good? It's a question of the heart, not the diary.
Maybe he was jogging and praying and mowing the lawn and thinking about the girl next door and listening to his MP3 player and struggling to not think about the girl next door.and writing his next sermon.Let's face it: none of us are busy; we're all busily commenting on a blog!Business and laziness, rest and pleasure, and study and work, they are all good things. That's why they are so dangerous and so likely to become idols. A bit like blogging really...I just wish I loved God the way I love these little creations. Oh God come and give me that love. God I need you to break in and turn my business into faithful service and my laziness into true Sabbath and stop dead the pendulum of binge worshipping either. Oh come Lord Jesus...
[...] Is a lazy pastor one who simply wastes time, or one who chooses the easy approach over the difficult? Darryl Dash shifts the priority emphasis at The Pastor Who Jogged While Mowing His Lawn. [...]
As a person who confessed to and turned from the sin of busyness a few months ago, I attest to the immeasurable richness of sitting still in His presence with His Word in my hands for long uninterrupted times in my day. But the point of the quotes is, I believe, that once enriched and empowered by stilling oneself in Christ's presence, a wisdom comes, and in that wisdom is found the ability to divide the necessary from the futile or fruitless. In stillness comes the strength and discernment so needed in choosing the ministry actions of every day.