Encouraging Words from Cary Schmidt » productivity

When We’re Too Busy

caryschmidt — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 04:30:15 +0000

Life is busy. Honestly, in a given week or day, there is more stuff flowing at us (in the form of information and opportunities) than we can possibly comprehend, much less accept. Doing the right things in life means saying “no” to a lot more than you could ever say “yes” to. The challenge of the 21st century is saying “yes” to the right things, and accepting the built in limitations of the human condition. We just can’t do it all—though we often wish we could.

I’ve noticed something. Busyness is like a snowball. It’s size and magnitude grows simply by the motion of life, and it sort of sneaks up on you. We don’t realize we’re TOO busy until something starts to breakdown—and even then, we don’t always connect the symptoms with the real cause. For instance, fractured and stressed relationships sometimes have nothing to do with the heart or intent of the individuals, and everything to do with their schedules or level of fatigue.

Most everybody I know has a tendency to become too busy over time. And busyness is cyclical and seasonal—once you get everything back in balance, it seems it’s only a matter of time before your calendar is filled once again. Bad stuff happens when we get too busy and over-extended. Here’s a short list:

Our Walk with God Diminishes—it’s easy to negotiate this way— “I’m so busy doing things for God, that He will just have to understand why I don’t have much time to be with Him.” Somehow, I don’t think He’s holding a gun to our head either way. Yes, He desires that we serve Him with our lives. But He also desires that we walk with Him personally. Being too busy too walk with God is like poking a hole in your gas tank—you’re journey will be MUCH shorter for certain!

Our Physical Fatigue Increases—I know—DUH! Yet, I love the quote from Vince Lombardi: ““I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is the moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle – victorious” In fact, for a long time I had that quote hanging on my office wall. But I also love another quote from Lombardi: “Fatigue makes cowards of us all!” Funny that these both came from the same man, and they usually happen in that order! Sure—exhaust yourself in a good cause, but then catch up, rest, and restore. Don’t live in an extended state of fatigue unless you want to make some really bad decisions and have some very damaged relationships.

Our Relationships are Stretched—I really believe that the vast majority of marital/family stress and distress that Dana and I have ever experienced was more related to our schedules and fatigue than anything else. Now, before you get too “Utopian” on me—some stretching is simply unavoidable and even necessary—growth oriented. A young family, a growing ministry, and the regular pressures of a normal life bring with it a tension that stretches a marriage and forces needful growth on many levels. These are good things. Hard things, yes, but still very good and needful for long term strength and blessing.

But there is a line that can be crossed, and being TOO busy for TOO long only increases family frustration and emotional edginess exponentially. And it’s not only family relationships that are impacted. Co-laborers, friends, and ministry relationships can be hurt too. It’s simple. Being too busy means I’m mentally and emotionally “on thin ice”—edgy, tense, and stretched to my limits. It’s hard to have compassion, patience, and sensitivity towards people when my own emotional and spiritual “condition” is so fragile. Everybody pays when I’m too busy—especially those closest to me.

Our Health Suffers—When nearing the end of chemo, I asked my doctor what he would recommend I change about my life regarding the possible recurrence of cancer. While he couldn’t give me a “cause” or a “prevention,” he did say, “This cancer is an immune system illness. So do whatever it takes not to stress out your immune system. Eat well, rest properly, and recover when you’re sick.” Cancer taught me a lot, but one HUGE lesson was that I’m expendable in pretty much every area of my life, except to my wife and kids. The ministry doesn’t need me—I need the ministry. God’s work went along just perfectly without me. (Bummer.) Honestly, that wasn’t news, but it was a very real reminder that serving God is a privilege.

The other day my wife was asking me to “hurry” for some reason. I looked at her and jokingly said, “You’re stressing out my lymph nodes.” We both laughed. Simply put, nothing is more restorative to your health and productivity than rest, and nothing will enable you to have a long and fruitful family life and ministry more than being healthy—well rested and able to function optimally. It is possible to push yourself to a point where, for short-term gain, you ultimately cheat your family and ministry of long-term contribution.

Our Long-Term Viability is Threatened—We’ve all heard too many stories of people, who in short-term, low moments—moments of temptation, depletion, fatigue, or spiritual fog—made decisions that wrecked their family and ministry for the long term. Call it burn out, call it mid-life crisis, call is depression—there are a thousand causes and a thousand terms to describe or define conditions that bring us to poor decision-making. Over extending my life to get ahead for the short-term only threatens my effectiveness for the long-term. Some refer to this as “sustainable pace.” In other words, knowing that I must possibly faithfully run this race for forty more years, I’d better set a pace that will keep me running that long. You’ve heard it before—the Christian life is a marathon, not a sprint. If you’re sprinting, you are not setting a sustainable pace, and it will eventually catch up with you—unless you are Superman. You are trading your long-term viability for short-term gain. Bad trade.

In my experience in life and ministry, the things worth doing take time—a lot of time—in other words, patience. Pushing myself to “get it all done now” is a dead end—there’s always more to do, and what was done “faster” wasn’t usually done well. Doing less and doing it well requires patience and persistence. Someone working more and faster than you may get more done this week, but working with sustainable pace will accomplish much more over time. It’s like the difference between a sparkler and a slow, deep-burning bed of coals. One is more impressive, but the other burns hotter for a lot longer.

Being too busy tends to feeds pride and ego—it feels valuable. Being rushed and in a constant state of urgency can be validating in our search for significance.

Being balanced feeds your heart for God, helps you nurture healthy relationships, and makes you stronger and more effective on every level of life.

Being too busy, you may get more done this week and people may applaud you for it. But being balanced, you will get more done in your life time, and God will applaud you for it.

Funny thing is—what I’ve said in 1,200 words, God said seventeen— “Better is an handful with quietness, than both the hands full with travail and vexation of spirit.” (Ecc. 4:6)

Now it’s your turn to choose. How will you live this year—busy or balanced?

An Effective Staff Member Grows

caryschmidt — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 20:00:55 +0000

This is part two of a series on an effective staff member. You can read the first article here. The big question we’re answering is simply this: What qualities make an effective staff member? What characteristics produce winning teams? If God has placed you “in the middle” of the organization chart somewhere—welcome! Many of us are called of God to serve on a team.

In the first post we discussed commitment—an effective staff member fully commits to the Lord and to the team. Let’s move on to a second quality (and these are in no particular order):

An effective staff member grows!

One of the saddest places to be in your Christian life is the place where your spirit ceases to be teachable—the place where you have stopped longing for growth. Weariness, depletion, arrogance, experience, disillusionment, and even suffering—these things can cause us to stop thinking, to stop moving forward and growing in God’s grace.

The moment you stop growing—the moment you begin to believe you know it all and understand it all, is the moment you begin to become increasingly less effective. The longer I serve the Lord, the more keenly aware I become of how little I really know, and how much more there is to learn. I knew a lot more when I was younger!

In our quest to be effective staff team members, I believe a quest for growth and a healthy dissatisfaction with “status quo” is key. Here are a few areas an effective staff member is always seeking to grow:

Grow in Spiritual Life—nothing is more valuable than your understanding of biblical truth and your ability to transfer it and apply it to the lives of others. When you hit a “growth plateau” this is where to go first—renew your passion to grow in God’s grace and spend more time in His Word. But be ready—some times the tools God uses to create growth are painful. Some times they involve trials. Spiritual growth is often painful and uncomfortable. Do you want spiritual growth enough to endure the pain that might be involved?

Grow in Skill and Competence—this is about growing in your understanding of your role and the skills involved in fulfilling your job description. David Gibbs once said to our staff, “Nobody’s competence is static. You are always either becoming less competent or more competent.” What have you done recently to increase your practical skills for ministry? I have found that every hour I give to growing in competence—learning new software, developing a new administrative system, reading a book, attending training—every hour gives me back multiplied hours in the months to follow!

Grow in Gracious Leadership and People Skills—good staff members love people and love to help other people to grow and succeed. Therefore, an effective staff member will seek to grow in leadership—learning to compassionately nurture people. The ministry is no place for abrasive personality, harsh spirit, or caustic leadership. Leaders after God’s heart seek to be shepherds—to lovingly nurture people and to constantly express abundant grace toward them as God’s heritage.

I appreciate serving with a pastor and ministry team that has allowed me the opportunity to grow. As much and as often as I have failed, I’m thankful that every failure produced growth, and continues to do so.

Are you growing? Are you walking with God consistently? Are you reading, studying, and expanding your knowledge-base and skills? Are you seeking to become a more Christ-like individual in working with people?

Here’s the test: What intentional steps have you taken in the last thirty days to grow personally?

An effective staff member keeps growing. Stay tuned for part three.

You’re Too Busy If…

Cary Schmidt — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 17:44:56 +0000

Do you ever have the feeling that you’re so busy, major values and priorities in your life are slipping? This is a sinking feeling—and bailing water doesn’t help. Time to plug the holes in the boat!

Here’s a short list that might help you evaluate priorities and return to that which is most important in your life. Not all of these things always indicate busyness. Sometimes they indicate a lack of discipline or planning. Sometimes they indicate distraction by lesser things. But if you’re so busy that these things are falling through the cracks of life—you’re just too busy.

You’re too busy if…

1. You aren’t walking with God faithfully and personally. This is when you read His Word and walk with Him in prayer—and there is no replacement. In fact, if you’re not doing this, you are absolutely more stressed and frustrated in life than God intends. Your walk with Him changes everything—it provides stability and perspective that nothing else can. If you’re too busy to walk with God, something must change right away. Develop your walk—develop variety, different spaces, good music, good books, and creative ways to spend time with God and converse with Him. Whatever you do, make sure it doesn’t become mundane, routine, and boring. If it does, you probably won’t do it faithfully. Keep it fresh and you will want to come back to it often!

2. You haven’t shared the Gospel with someone recently. This is why we are here—to be ambassadors. When we go long periods of time without sharing Christ, we miss our central purpose, and our hearts begin to grow cold towards the heart of Christ. It may be during an organized outreach time, it may be handing someone a tract or a book during your week, or it may be an ongoing relationship that you are developing around the Gospel. Don’t stop looking for opportunities in your day to be an ambassador for Christ.

3. You haven’t taken your spouse on a date recently. Whether it’s once a week, once every ten days, or once every two weeks—do you pull aside as a couple and regularly nurture your marriage and rekindle your connection. The more frequent, the better. Is it possible to spend “too much time together” as a married couple? I doubt it. But let’s face it, for most people that problem isn’t even a possibility. Strong, healthy, romantic, passionate marriages are made of people who will fight all the forces of earth to protect and maintain quantity time together. Don’t let busyness rob you of the joy of marriage. After all, when you fell in love, you didn’t marry that person with the intent to never see them…

4. Your spouse is unhappy with the time and attention your are giving to your marriage. This is a simple test—just ask. Don’t get defensive or irritated. Just honestly look at your spouse and say, “Are you getting enough time and love from me?” Be ready to take corrective action if the answer is “no.” Perhaps a good follow up question would be, “How can I do better?” If this is a difficult conversation for you to have, then there’s already trouble in the mix. Swallow your pride and decide to meet your spouse’s needs—as they are felt by your spouse, not as you feel they should be. Don’t try to tell your spouse to expect or need less. Accept the needs as your spouse has them—acknowledge them as legitimate and reasonable—and then get to it! Meet them!

5. Your kids have gotten use to not spending time with you. Are your kids content to just hang with their friends, occupy themselves in their room, or go days without meaningful interaction with you? This is not a good sign. It’s time to make some changes that allow you to deeply and relationally engage with their hearts through personal time together. If your kids still enjoy spending time with you, jump on that, thank God for it, and keep that relationship alive and well. Schedule time one on one with them as often as possible!

6. Your family isn’t enjoying a regular family night or two every week. Is every night of your week filled with extra curricular things? While there’s nothing wrong with sports practices, recitals, night classes, and other such activities—when combined, they can eat up every single night. Each week, look ahead seven days and ask, “When will we be home, together, this week? What can we do as a family to make that time special?” There are always exceptions, but don’t stop fighting for weeks where the whole family is home and enjoying each other for at least one or two evenings—or more. Again, the more the better!

7. You haven’t taught your children a Bible principle recently. Whether through regular family devotions, bed time prayer, or in the flow of daily life and conversations—are you regularly bringing God’s principles to play in the circumstances and dynamics that your children are facing? Our kids bear burdens—child-size burdens, but huge to them. And those burdens are made lighter—those problems are resolved when our kids open up to us and we provide biblical counsel and insight. When your daughter is wrestling with her friends or appearance, when your son is wrestling with issues about girls or grades—your parental wisdom provides a landing place for their emotions. Bring God’s Word into their world and help them respond with truth.

8. You aren’t taking a regular day off just to rest and restore—physically, emotionally, and spiritually. If five days isn’t enough to get it all done, what makes you think six or seven days will really make difference? Let’s face it, whether you take a day off or not, there’s always more work to be done than you can possibly do. There’s nothing noble about being a self-proclaimed work martyr. In truth, you will get more done, work better, work smarter, and work more efficiently if you take your day off to truly rest and restore. And on top of that, your day off will help you keep all your other relationships in balance and healthy—which makes you all that much better an employee! If God worked six days and rested the seventh—well, that’s enough of an example for me. He certainly didn’t need the rest. Something tells me He did that as a model for us.

9. You haven’t read a great book recently. We find time to do so many things—watch a movie, catch up on news, see part of a football game. We find time to Facebook and Twitter. But rarely do people find time to immerse into a good book that will challenge them spiritually and strengthen their understanding of God’s Word. It has been said, “People who don’t read are no better off than people who can’t read.” What life challenging book have you read recently? Decide to read a book a month—and then dive in. You will be shocked at how God will change you through great biblical reads!

10. You haven’t cultivated close friendships recently. Dana and I just spent five days with some close friends. One of the most convicting aspects of our time together was that it was the first time we did so in our 25 year friendship. Life often gets so busy that we fail to appreciate and benefit from time with godly friends who sharpen, challenge, and strengthen us in all the right values of life. Fellowship is a biblical principle—and God desires for us to benefit mutually from strong friendships. Do you have people in your life that greatly encourage you and who you can encourage? Don’t take that gift for granted. Get it done—make the phone call, schedule dinner, make it happen. Cultivate closeness that honors Christ and blesses the heart.

So, there are ten things that may indicate you’re too busy—if you think of more, add them below! Now do the courageous thing—the tough thing. Make the changes necessary to make it happen. God bless as you do your best to live with Christ-like priorities!

A Collection of Posts About Annual Planning

caryschmidt — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 03:28:15 +0000

Perhaps you’ve come across this blog in the past 12 months. If so, this post is for you. Over the past few years, I’ve written a number of articles about creating an annual planner for life and ministry and about personal productivity. I thought it might be helpful to re-post these with titles, summaries, and links to the original articles. The planner articles also offered a sample planner, which I will be happy to email you. Just shoot me an email and let me know you would like to have a copy.

This is a great time of year to look ahead at the next 12 months and truly seek the Lord and His guidance for what He would accomplish through you. Here are the articles that may help equip you and prepare your for God’s best in the new year:

Thoughts on Planning a New Year—This post was actually written in 2008 and shares 6 compelling reasons to plan ahead.

Contents of a New Year Planner—This post breaks down 9 things you might consider placing into a new year planner.

More on Developing a New Year Planner—This post delves a bit deeper into the thinking behind a planner and how to approach it.

Implementing Your New Year Plan—This post gives some practical thoughts on how to put your plan into practice on a daily basis once it’s created.

7 Ideas for Your Personal Planner System—This post shares some tools that you may find helpful in using your planner system. Since writing it I’ve moved from a leather binder to an iPad, which I wrote about in the post listed below.

iPad, iPhone, Apps and Ideas—This post highlights apps and ideas I’ve found helpful in implementing technology into the flow of daily life.

Three Huge Principles for Personal Productivity—This post shares three big values that I wish I had known much earlier in my ministry life.

Three More Principles for Personal Productivity—More of the same… three more big things of which I constantly need to be reminded.

Making Good Intentions Happen—This post covers the 4 biggest reasons we fail to accomplish our goals.

Making the Busiest Time of Year the Best Time of Year—if December is already getting the best of you, take a look at a few thoughts that help me and Dana keep our sanity during December.

We have just a few weeks before 2011! Hard to believe! Sometimes God radically changes our plans—but that’s an even better reason to look ahead and make sure your direction and desires are set according to God’s will! God bless your new year!

iPad, iPhone, Apps, and Ideas…

caryschmidt — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 00:22:42 +0000

(This one’s just for fun…)

When iPad was introduced, nearly every blog and media outlet had an article about it. Some were sceptical, some critical, some more analytical, and some prophetic. Six months into using an iPad, and a couple years for the iPhone, I wanted to share how these devices have impacted my ministry and life. Just as I benefit from the ideas of others in these areas, perhaps these ideas will prove helpful to you. Here’s why the iPad and iPhone have been worth the investment:

1. Reading, Reading, and More Reading—if you buy books, an iPad (or a Kindle) would eventually pay for itself. Before iPad, I had no intention of turning to digital books. Since the iPad, my first thought is, “Can I purchase this book for Kindle software?” Most of the time the answer is “yes” and books cost a lot less digitally.

Reading on the iPad is a great experience, therefore I find myself doing a lot more of it. There’s a lot of great reading material for the Kindle, and a lot of it is free. One final thought—Amazon has made Kindle software for multiple devices which means your library is truly portable.

2. No More Leather Planner—for years my primary organizational tool was a leather binder—it had a tab for every area of ministry, major events, teaching outlines, prayer lists, and a calendar. Thanks to Evernote, everything in that binder has been moved into a digital format where it can be accessed from iPad, iPhone, and computer.

3. More Ubiquitous Information—the volume of information instantly accessible from these devices actually presents a new way of thinking. It involves some retraining for your brain. Actually working the possibilities into the flow of daily life requires practice, discovery, and idea-sharing with others.

For instance, two weeks ago I was at Matt Chappell’s wedding and the family needed a “Just Married” sign for his car. Rather than grope through a yellow pages or ask the front desk, iPhone provided a quick solution. I opened the map application, typed in “party supply” and a red pin popped up within walking distance of my location. Two seconds later I was on the phone with the clerk, and five minutes later I was checking out with a “Just Married” sign.

Here’s another use case—during family vacation we visited Gettysburg, York, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. We repeatedly turned to the iPad or iPhone, looking up historical sites and cities in wikipedia. We also saved several hours by being able to view traffic. This type of instant access to information is truly a game-changer in the flow of life.

4. A Better Work Environment than a Phone—for years I’ve wished I could make iPhone bigger when trying to answer emails and text messages, or when trying to read something. I’ve longed for a bigger solution for portable work and reading, and the solution has exceeded my expectations.

5. A More Portable and Simple Work Environment than a Computer—it’s hard to describe or define exactly where the space is between your phone and your computer—but when you begin using the iPad, you find it. I think it’s different with every person, but it’s there. For me it’s turned out to be about ease of use and speed. The phone is about extreme portability. The iPad is about reading, interacting with information, and light work. The computer is about the heavy lifting and extended work.

6. A Huge Battery Life—this is one of the best features of the iPad—you just can’t kill the battery. (With iPhone I’m constantly aware of battery drain.) The only downside is that iPad makes every other device in your life seem to have ridiculously short battery life!

7. Connectivity Everywhere—with the development of cloud computing and services like MobileMe, Dropbox, Evernote, Gmail, Outlook, Google Docs, and a host of others; more and more of our digital lives are stored online and we expect to be able to access them from any device, anywhere, anytime. iPad just takes great advantage of these types of services and brings them to you in a very interactive and fluid way.

8. Presentations in Teaching and Preaching—I didn’t expect this one to be on the list, but doing a keynote presentation from iPad is really awesome. The ease and simplicity makes it irresistible.

9. A Bit of Entertainment as Well—It would be wrong not to admit that using these devices is just plain fun. Whether it’s reading Winnie the Pooh to Haylee, playing “Memory Cards” with our family, or teaching Dana how to play solitaire, we’ve had a good time.

Not long ago, I was being “poked at” by a good friend for liking Apple products and having to “have the newest thing.” He said, “Look at your face, you just find a lot of pleasure in this stuff.” He was actually amused with me. In all seriousness, I said, “It’s really not about mere pleasure. I’m just very pleased with how profoundly these technologies have impacted my life on every level of personal productivity and information management.” That’s the simple truth.

To wrap up this post, here are the apps that I use the most. They are pretty much the same on iPad and iPhone (with a few exceptions):

Built In—Calendar, Email, Contacts, Safari, iPod,

Downloaded Apps—Amazon Kindle, Evernote, iDisk or DropBox, Things, Keynote, Olive Tree Bible Reader, Logos Bible Library, Early Edition or Feedler (RSS Readers), Quick Office, Twitter, USA Today, Fluent News, Wikipanion, Dragon Dictation

iPhone Only—VLingo, Banking, Flight Tracker, Dictionary, Amazon, Ebay, Yelp, Byline, HandiBible, Around Me

Now it’s your turn… comment below and share an idea, an app, or a perspective that might benefit others who are trying to implement good ideas for God’s glory.

Communication on a Winning Team

caryschmidt — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 16:28:28 +0000

Communication is about sharing information with those who need it. But often communication is what is lacking the most on ministry teams. When we don’t communicate, we aren’t working together, and that causes things to break down. Here are seven quick principles that the Lord has challenged me to work at. I pray they will encourage you to be a better communicator on your team:

Don’t Make Your Leader Pull Information—Push it His Direction—Leaders must make informed decisions, and leaders always need more information—they thrive on it. Followers don’t always understand a leader’s need for information. Good communication always gathers information and pushes it to the people who need it. For more on this, see this article: “Why Leaders Needs More Communication.”

Be More Focused on Talking to Someone than about Someone—On struggling teams, people sit around and bite on each other. They are frustrated with others, and they need to air their grievances with sympathetic listeners. But this is destructive! On winning teams, people talk to each other and resolve their grievances. It’s simple, but HUGE!

Be More Focused on Providing Solutions than Pointing Out Problems—Some people are professional “problem-pointer-outers.” They see all the problems, but they never offer a solution, they never take action to be a part of the process of improvement. It’s not that winning teams are blind to the problems, they just view them differently. Rather than see only problems and gripe about them, they see the problems and immediately start working on solutions. This is an easy rut to fall into. Try to make it your goal to never bring up a problem unless you can offer several helpful solutions.

Be More Focused on Taking Responsibility than Fixing Blame—What is our human fixation with having to assign blame? Have you noticed how much attention on the recent oil spill has been spent on fixing blame, and blame-shifting? Winning teams don’t really care who’s to blame because whoever it is, they’ve already owned it! Winning team members take responsibility—they step up, raise their hands, and say, “This one is all my fault… I’m sorry!” This instantly allows the whole team to focus on a solution and recovery. Assigning blame is a diversion. As long as we are trying to find out who’s fault this is, we’re probably not getting a solution into place. Taking responsibility is a rare character quality in today’s culture.

Be More Focused On Giving Credit than Getting Credit—Winning teams don’t really care who gets the credit. Credit is pretty lame any way. We all know that ultimately God gets the credit for any good thing. And if He allowed you to be part of a good outcome, there were probably others who helped make it happen. Winning teams share credit and constantly thank others for their contribution to the good.

Be More Focused on Glorifying God than Getting Your Way—Losing teams are very territorial and fractured by personal agenda. When we are territorial we get tunnel visioned—about budgets, about schedules, about facilities—we want to fight for our piece of the pie. This isn’t how winning teams function. Winning teams see the larger perspective and work together for the good of the whole. This means territories and personal agendas have to give way to the larger perspective of giving God glory.

Be More Focused on Helping Others Succeed, and Rejoice When They Do—On losing teams, members step on each other to elevate themselves. Winning teams are focused on helping each other succeed. Winning teams have lots of really great players that are willing to be located in the middle of the flow-chart somewhere. For a winning team, the leader’s success is a win for the whole team.

Are you on a winning team? Ask God today to help you become a more effective team member by communicating in a way that helps the whole team move forward!

The Hidden Values of Preparation

caryschmidt — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 15:06:45 +0000

Have you ever conducted an event that was ill-prepared? Have you ever been disorganized or caught off guard in some ministry environment? There’s nothing worse than being thrown off balance by a lack of preparation.

I could fill the pages of a book with tough lessons learned through a lack of preparation. Even after years of learning the hard way, I still get bit by this at times.

There’s a side of preparation we don’t usually think of—benefits that are not readily apparent. Whether you are leading a church service, a youth activity, or a Sunday School class—your preparation produces something in the group you lead. These are what I would call the “hidden values” of preparation:

Everybody values the event or environment more—when somebody arrives at your environment and finds things ready, their respect and value for what is happening skyrockets. If you want people to value the Bible lesson, then have the room perfectly prepared. If you want someone to respect teen camp, then have the buses filled with gas and ready to go. If you want someone to value the church service, have the outline well-prepared and the music well-rehearsed. Flying by “a wing and a prayer” is always obvious—and it causes people to naturally lower their value of that specific environment.

Everybody has higher expectations—because good preparation raises everybody’s value, it also raises expectations. When people arrive at a well-prepared ministry environment, they naturally expect more, anticipate more, and raise their level of awareness. And when it comes to teaching or preaching, that’s a GREAT thing!

Everybody responds at a higher level—people behave differently in a well-prepared environment than in a poorly prepared one. Put a group in a well-prepared environment and they will more naturally come to order, respond to leadership, listen with the heart, and interact well. Take the same group and place them in a poorly prepared environment and you will have a tough time getting the group to focus and respond. You may even have a tough time bringing the group to order at all.

Everybody benefits from added value—the bottom line, a well-prepared event or environment delivers more. Because of preparation, you put more time into the study, more thought into the decor, more effort into the creative dynamics. Because of early preparation, you had more time to make the whole event or service a better experience. As a result, people walk away with much more!

This works with children at home—children tend to feel more agitated in a home that is disorderly, but they behave better in a well-kept home.

This works with teens—young people intuitively sense if something is well-prepared, so they listen better, expect more, and have higher respect for what’s happening.

This works at work—team members are more productive and better co-laborers when they have decent work environments and the right equipment.

This works at church—an entire congregation is more receptive to teaching and preaching when the rest of the service, including the bulletins and pre-service set up, is well-prepared and in order before they arrive.

This past week I had one of those “well duh!” moments. For years our youth conference has had open seating with the doors opening an hour before service, at which time there’s a mad rush for seats. Some months ago we began wrestling with what to do and decided to reserve seating for every group. It took a lot of logistical work to make it happen, but every conference delegate was assigned a seat at registration. I was shocked by the results.

People arrived at a reasonable time, rather than an hour early. They arrived in a relaxed state of mind, went to their seats, and were able to enjoy the prelims without frenzy or frustration. As a result, the entire congregation was calm, responsive, and orderly throughout the entire week! It was like someone had literally zapped the stress and tension from the room. The excitement was still there, minus the negative experience of scrounging for seats. This one decision of preparation impacted the entire conference!

When you go to the extra effort of preparation, everybody wins!

For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee: (Titus 1:5)

New SL Podcast—Scheduling Your Priorities

caryschmidt — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 01:20:29 +0000

The March Spiritual Leadership Podcast has posted! You can listen to it above or click here for more information and to receive the complimentary outline!

This lesson is entitled Scheduling Your God-Given Priorities. In it, Pastor Chappell gives a practical look at sorting through the chaos of life to actually accomplish that which God would call a priority! If you are constantly looking for fresh reminders about staying in balance and focused in life, this lesson will be a great help!

Be sure to pass it along to a friend who could also benefit. Thanks for listening! Our prayer is that you will be encouraged!

8 Reasons to Follow a Great Leader

Cary Schmidt — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 16:23:26 +0000

Everybody, in some respect is a leader, and everybody is a follower. Few are called to be the key leader. Many more are called to follow and support a key leader. For instance, a family may have many members but should have one father. A team can have many players (and leaders) but only one head-coach. A church can have multiple leaders, but one senior pastor that clarifies the vision and sets the direction.

How about you? Do you have to be the “lead-leader?” Or has God called you, like most, to follow (and lead) from somewhere in the middle of the pack? If He has, then here are some great reasons to love what God has called you to do:

1. To Be Like Jesus—repeatedly Jesus reminded us that He was sent here by the Father and was on mission from Him, under His authority. (John 4:34, “Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.)

2. To Function How God Designed You—God designs some to be visionary and others to implement vision. I’m the latter. That’s not to say that I (or you) are not capable of vision, but simply that I would much rather administrate, strategize, and execute the vision than originate it. For example: Make me think of what should be done—and I’ll flounder in an ocean of endless possibilities, never getting anything done. Tell me what God has put on your heart to accomplish and immediately my mind and heart engage in processing a plan to make it happen.

3. To be a Part of a Great Team—One of Pastor Paul Chappell’s favorite statements is, “Teamwork makes the dream work.” Though we have a large team of leaders at LBC and WCBC, we are all very different and all fulfill very different roles. It’s true—together our strengths complement each other. We accomplish much more as a team than we would individually.

4. To be Stretched to Your Potential—Everybody wants to reach their potential, but few want to actually go there. We fail to consider that “reaching potential” is one hair’s breadth away from “total insanity!” For instance—if you stretch a rubber band to it’s full potential, you are one hair away from “SNAP!”—a broken rubberband. Are you sure you want to reach your potential? If so, be prepared to be stretched way out of your comfort zone.

5. To Develop a Vision Bigger than Self—this ties into point #2. Dynamic, visionary leaders attract people who want to partner together for something great. Everybody likes to be on a winning team!

6. To Hear and Pursue the Truth—you can’t hide from a winning team. You can’t really float or coast with a winning team. If you’re not working hard, pulling your weight, and adding value to the team—everybody knows it. The team creates a natural accountability and motivation that keeps you fully engaged, or convicted when you’re not!

7. To See Your Own Weaknesses–A good leader will help you see your weaknesses, help you play to your strengths, and place you on a team that compensates for your weaknesses. Many people are not willing to face their weaknesses, but a great leader will always help you accept and grow through them.

8. To Enjoy a Great Adventure—no doubt, working for a great leader puts you in places, positions, and circumstances that you would have never placed yourself! (Looking at that statement in light of my last 20 years of ministry, it’s seems like to understatement of the century!)

I’m privileged to work for Pastor Paul Chappell—a great leader. Whether you are a church member, a staff member, or a student, if God gives you the joy to partner with a winning team, you are most blessed! Embrace that second position and prepare for a great adventure!

What blessings have you enjoyed by following a great leader? Add your thoughts below.

7 Ideas for Your Personal Planner System

caryschmidt — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 15:21:49 +0000

This fourth and final post on an annual planner is just for ideas. Please contexualize this series properly—I’m certainly not the expert on this stuff. Like you, I just enjoy comparing notes with others and gleaning helpful ideas. Thank you for the positive feedback. If you’re coming in late to the series, previous articles are as follows:

You might also find these articles helpful to this topic:

Throughout this series, I’ve referred to a personal system—the tools you will use to manage information and remind yourself daily of the plans you have made. There are many helpful tools, especially for computer users, but here are the ones I find most helpful and how they are used. Perhaps you’ll find an idea you can use:

1. A Leather Binder—it’s portable, convenient, and never needs recharging. It contains as little as possible (I hate clutter).

First section—personal ministry: information on those I’m reaching, ministering to, following up on, etc.
Second Section—teaching or preaching: notes for any upcoming speaking times.
Third section—my work day: this is the very center of my binder and always has a bookmark so it is easily opened. On the left is a page for today’s notes, on the right is always the most current project list for easy reference and constant perusal (and prayer!). Just behind the project list is a page that lists every priority for that month.
Fourth Section—information by ministry: a tab for each ministry, a flow chart, and any information needed. This section also has a tab for major events like Leadership Conference.
Fifth Section—calendar: printed two months per page, two years worth, primarily for quick reference.

Anything that doesn’t have to be in this binder isn’t. If I can get to it through the phone or some other way, I try to leave it out of the binder. The binder is for things that must be referenced quickly or physically (like teaching notes), and it’s a landing place for items throughout the day—a place to jot notes, store things, and generally process information to other places.

2. iCal Calendar—there are plenty of good calendar solutions. I use iCal which syncs with my iPhone and also is available online from any computer through MobileMe. It’s very ubiquitous, which makes it very functional. If you are not familiar with “cloud computing” and getting your calendar into a subscribable, ubiquitous format, it’s well worth learning about.

3. Things—there are many good solutions for managing projects, tasks, and details, but this one is just awesome. Every task and project ultimately finds its way into this part of my system. This is the heart of point 2 in the last post—where tasks and details are placed on specific dates to be remembered at the right time. Things handles tasks, projects, people, areas of responsibility in a way that’s very fluid and simple. It also syncs with iPhone.

4. iDisk—this is only one of many useful solutions for online document storage and accessibility. All key documents are stored on iDisk, synced to all computers that I use, as well as accessible from iPhone. Many things that used to be in my binder were removed because they can be accessed from iDisk through the phone. Having files on iDisk keeps them backed up, sycned across multiple locations, and accessible from basically anywhere.

On iDisk is a simple folder structure (four to be exact). They are as follows: Ministries (wherein resides a folder for each ministry, more for long-term storage), Current Projects (where anything related to a present project or event rests), Key Docs (a folder containing the documents used most frequently), and Teaching Notes (a folder with all outlines). All other files are archived elsewhere.

5. Evernote—worthy of its own post! Evernote is a free service that allows you to store almost anything: text, files, webclippings, audio, photos, etc. It’s simply incredible! The Evernote team is amazing—having developed a web client, a desktop (Mac or Windows) client, and mobile clients for all the popular platforms. Presently I’m using Evernote for all dictation (which means dictation can be done from anywhere and my secretary has access to it immediately over the web), phone calls (by simply creating a note of all calls that need to be made or returned), trips/itineraries (a place for all information related to any travel), receipts (stored snapshots of any receipt I need to keep), and writing research (notebooks for saved research related to upcoming projects).

To be honest, Evernote is so awesome, I’m barely scratching the surface. It’s like having another memory. I’m still in the mode of trying to retrain my brain to think of new and better ways to use this tool. It’s an incredible resource, and it’s free!

6. Project List—this is a simple, less-than-interesting excel spreadsheet of all open projects. It’s updated and printed for the binder every couple of days and serves as a constant, ever-present course corrector. It also resides on iDisk and can be accessed easily there as well.

7. Current Items Folder—this is a plain manila folder where I throw every material thing that matters. If I can’t get to it online, then it goes in here for later reference or access.

These things, along with a contact program and a cell phone basically comprise my current system. It changes regularly as life demands. These all boil down to information management—putting information where it is safe, retrievable, reliable, and accessible. In the information age, this is a moving target because we have so much stuff flowing toward us constantly. The more sensibly you can manage information, the more clutter-free and manageable your life will be. I hope these thoughts and this series of articles have encouraged you!

Your turn! What’s in your system that others can benefit from? What questions has this post raised? Add a comment below…

Implementing Your New Year Plan

caryschmidt — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 17:03:34 +0000

The “final article” on the new year planner has become two. First—let’s discuss putting it into practice. In the next article—thoughts on developing an organizational system that works. (Click to read the first and second articles in this series.)

So you’ve spent several hours or days mapping out vision, goals, projects, events, calendar, details, and tasks—now what? Do you hit “save” and close the file, sending it into “Neverland?” Do you print it, bind it, and place it on your bookshelf to collect dust for the next twelve months? What brings the plan into a functioning reality? What will prevent it from merely becoming good intentions that grew older?

Without making it practical and practiced, building a planner means we’ve spent a lot of time accumulating a well-described wish or even a fantasy.

Not only is this final part of the process the most fun (at least for me), it is also what makes stuff happen. So let’s dive in:

1. You Must Have a Daily-Life System—I don’t care if it’s a pad of construction paper and some crayola crayons, or if it’s the latest, greatest techno-gadget that vibrates, beeps, and dresses you in the morning; you must have something that you will live by and look at every day. And this system needs a place for every day of the year—a spot where you can park things reliably and not have to remember them until you need to. Two essential rules about your system: you must look at it every day (or you won’t trust it) and you must not leave anything on yesterday (or you will only increase your stress exponentially). Your system should work for you, that’s all that really matters.

2. Every Project, Task, Detail from Your Planner Should Be Placed into Your System—yes, this is really simple work (sort of mindless) but WOW is it liberating! It might take you a few hours, so find a comfortable spot, make some coffee, build a fire, play some music, and settle in for a while. Start with the first page of your planner and enter every single “pre-planned detail” into your system on the day you want to remember it. Give yourself some lead time! Don’t enter it on the due date. Enter it on the start date. This is very important. Otherwise, you’ll go through the entire year only remembering things on the day they are due! That’s enough to make anyone self-destruct.

3. Live By Your System—If you’ve done your planner correctly, then you know what day you need to purchase your wife’s birthday present, what day you need to line up a guest speaker, and what day you plan to begin preparing a new series of messages. If you’ve given yourself lead time, then the exact day isn’t all that important. Living by your system means you can give yourself permission to forget all those things and focus on right now. Most of the things you need to be reminded of will show up in your system when they need to. Until then, look at today, this week, this month, and press ahead.

Once everything is entered into your system, the actual planner basically becomes a dust-collector. You might read through it periodically. You might reference it for next year’s planner. But now you live the plan by referencing your system on a daily basis. Just remember, if you don’t look at it and live by it every day, or if you leave things behind on yesterday (and the days before) you are merely building a stick to beat yourself with.

And finally, I can’t over-stress the importance of margins—lead-time. In every event, think of how much lead-time you want, need, and how much is reasonable. Too much lead-time means you will be reminded of something too soon and simply disregard it. (ie: “I don’t need to do that anytime soon…”) Too little means you’ll be living in a state of constant urgency with little flexibility. (ie: “Aagghh!”) Just a lovely way to live!

Your turn! Consider sharing this series of articles or posting a helpful comment below…

More on Developing a New Year Planner

caryschmidt — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 19:09:34 +0000

Thank you for responding to the article on the contents of a new year planner! Many of you have emailed and asked for the sample planner mentioned at the end of the article. In finalizing my planner the past couple days, I’ve decided to do two more articles related to planning the new year. This one focuses on some general thoughts about the philosophy of a planner. As you assemble a plan, consider the following:

1. It should reflect a biblical philosophy of life and ministry—Behind your planner should be a very focused philosophy of ministry, and the planner should simply be a tool of making it a reality. For instance, our student ministry is highly personal, highly biblical, and highly integrated into our entire church program. It is not a stand-alone entity. Therefore our student ministry planner reflects one-on-one ministry, plenty of Bible teaching, and student involvement in the whole church program.

2. It should be unique to your life and ministry—Every family and ministry is different. Every pastor has a unique vision. Not everything that works for another church will work for you. Your planner shouldn’t necessarily be a blueprint taken from other ministries. It should be a road-map for your own church.

3. It will not be exhaustive—No matter how hard you try, you just can’t plan many things! Probably more than 50% of ministry cannot be planned because it is in response to the needs of people, or the assignments given to you. Most of ministry is organic and dynamic—about relationships which are alive, growing, and always changing. One primary point of developing a planner is so that the things that can be planned ahead, are, so there’s greater flexibility to respond to things that cannot be planned.

3. It is not an end in itself—A planner must be put into action, or there’s no real sense in making one. Every detail listed in the planner should be placed into a computer program or daily organizer (on the day) and then lived by. (I will detail this in the next article.)

4. It must be flexible—Realistically, not everything you put in your planner will happen. Every year I look back at the previous year’s planner and find things that didn’t get done. Sometimes the plan changed. Sometimes higher priorities took over. Sometimes a project or goal is moved to the following year. And sometimes, even more was done than the planner indicated. The point is, a lot more will get done because you planned ahead. Don’t expect 100% completion, but choose to rejoice in the progress.

5. It should require a team—A good planner contains more than one person can accomplish. Don’t merely focus on planning for yourself. Let God expand your vision so that it requires you to enlist and train a ministry team to help make it happen.

6. It should reflect balance—The only way to find balance is to plan it. Without looking ahead and staying focused on the long-term, we get way off balance. One of the best reasons to develop a new year planner is that you can, with God’s help, envision doing the things He calls you to do in a way that is synergistic and effective—balanced! The heat of the battle is not the time to find balance. If you have a busy life, balance must be worked into the calendar before the year begins. This is about the only way to insure both sanity and productivity in the new year. (For more on this read Thoughts On Planning the New Year.)

Up to this point the topic has been simply putting the plan together. The best part of a ministry planner is implementing it into your daily system and routines so that you can maximize your efficiency in life. There are some very specific ways to do that. We will explore this in the next article!

I’m missing something, so that’s where you come in! What are your thoughts about planning the new year? What works for you? Comment below…

Contents of a New Year Planner

caryschmidt — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 16:31:01 +0000

‘Tis the season for new year planning! In support of the recent Spiritual Leadership Podcast on annual planning, I thought it would be appropriate to dissect a ministry planner and give an inside glimpse of what’s included. Perhaps these thoughts will equip you in planning and preparing for a great new year of ministry. So, here goes—the contents of my ministry planner:

1. Last Year in Review—this part is a simple summary of the high points and great moments of the last year of ministry. This always provokes deep gratitude for what God has done, and challenges in areas that need improvement for the next year.

2. Personal Life Section—this section covers family and personal items like walking with the Lord, reading, studying, preparing for writing and teaching/preaching, family nights, vacation, date nights, and get-aways with my wife.

3. Twelve-Month Calendar—one page per month, but each month has been worked on carefully. All of the church events are in place. Each trip, activity, and critical season is mapped out. This ministry and personal calendar drives much of the rest of the planner. Of course much of it changes over the year, but it’s good to start with a twelve-month overview.

4. Months-at-a-Glance Project Lists—this is a one page per month list of the major projects of each particular month. It’s really a summary of the whole planner, by month. Each area of ministry is listed with the primary projects for that month. It’s a help to read this list every few days to make sure things are on track for the month.

5. A Section for Each Area of Ministry—in addition to a personal section, the planner includes a tab for every major area of ministry. For instance, mine includes youth, publications, etc. Each section contains the following: Vision, goals, projects, details. That’s a critical sequence—vision, goals, projects, details—because they flow one to the next.

6. Vision, Goals, Projects, and Details for Each Ministry—start with vision (given by God through time with Him). Then develop goals that realize the vision—make them measurable. Then create projects or events that fulfill the goals. Finally, put details like dates and steps to the projects. For example—a vision for youth ministry might include the transfer of biblical truth. A goal for that vision might be to lead a weekly Bible study time. A project to realize that goal might be to begin a teen Bible study or to teach the Ten Commandments. The details would include the step by step of when and how you will prepare those lessons or launch that new effort.

7. Particular Planning Tools for Each Ministry—for music ministry, this includes twelve months of music schedules. For youth ministry this includes a curriculum plan for what each class is teaching and when. For a radio ministry this would include the broadcast schedule. Each ministry has its own unique planning needs.

8. Flow Charts—each area of ministry usually has a team (even if they are volunteer). This chart shows who does what and how the work and ministry flows.

9. Ministry Budget—each area of ministry or each major event needs a budget—planning out the income and expenditures.

If these thoughts have prompted you to create a ministry planner, I would be happy to send you a sample section from a recent student ministry planner. Just shoot me an email. You might also reference two other articles previously posted about planning for the new year—Thoughts on Planning the New Year and also Making the Busiest Time of Year the Best.

What have you found helpful in planning for the new year?

SL Podcast: Developing an Annual Plan

caryschmidt — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:07:44 +0000

The December edition of the Spiritual Leadership Podcast has just posted!

Originally taught ten years ago, this lesson is entitled “Developing an Annual Plan.” In this session, Pastor Chappell shares thoughts on creating a new year plan for your life and ministry. This is one of the most popular spiritual leadership lessons Dr. Chappell has ever taught, so don’t miss it!

The Spiritual Leadership podcast is a free resource from Striving Together Publications (a ministry of Lancaster Baptist Church and West Coast Baptist College).

You can subscribe to this podcast through iTunes and listen on your computer or iPod. You can also receive the complimentary outline with each lesson. Click here for more information about subscribing to the outline.

Enjoy the lesson as you prepare for a new year of ministry!

Overworked or Under-Appreciated?

caryschmidt — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 01:21:40 +0000

In today’s staff meeting, Dr. Mark Rasmussen shared this humorous and sobering reminder of how good we really have it! I’m not sure of its source, but it’s a great reminder!

If you ever start to feeling overworked, over-regulated, under-leisured, under-benefited—take heart. This notice was found in the ruins of a London office building. It was dated 1852.

1. This firm has reduced the hours of work, and the clerical staff will now only have to be present between the hours of 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. weekdays.

2. Clothing must be of a sober nature. The clerical staff will not disport themselves in raiment of bright colors, nor will they wear hose unless in good repair.

3. Overshoes and topcoats may not be worn in the office, but neck scarves and headwear may be worn in inclement weather.

4. A stove is provided for the benefit of the clerical staff. Coal and wood must be kept in the locker. It is recommended that each member of the clerical staff bring four pounds of coal each day during the cold weather.

5. No member of the clerical staff may leave the room without permission from the supervisor.

6. No talking is allowed during business hours.

7. The craving for tobacco, wine, or spirits is a human weakness, and as such is forbidden to all members of the clerical staff.

8. Now that the hours of business have been drastically reduced, the partaking of food is allowed between 11:30 and noon, but work will not on any account cease.

9. Members of the clerical staff will provide their own pens. A new sharpener is available on application to the supervisor.

10. The supervisor will nominate a senior clerk to be responsible for the cleanliness of the main office and the private office. All boys and juniors will report to him 40 minutes before prayers and will remain after closing hours for similar work. Brushes, brooms, scrubber, and soap are provided by the owners.

11. The owners recognize the generosity of the new labor laws, but will expect a great rise in output of work to compensate for these near Utopian conditions.