tpofe...
Caught up on my calendar again...I don't think it is as effective on a weekly-catch-up basis as it was on a daily basis...not sure what I got goin' on there but...I like this quote from Thursday...
"To the degree that leaders and managers build cultures around continuous work--whether that means several-hour meetings or long days or the expectation that people will work in the evenings and on weekends--performance is necessarily compromised over time. Cultures that encourage people to seek intermittent renewal not only inspire greater commitment, but also more productivity."
I didn't leave my job because of the "pace". However, I grew increasingly aware of the decreasing space of "downtime" in the events department the last several years. I agree worship should be 24/7 for the lack of a lesser-used phrase, but I was at the point where there was seriously always something going on. Definitely more energy expended than recovered.
I voiced occasionally the friction I felt between scheduling enough to keep people "together" and growing, without adding to their already crazy stupid over-committed lifestyles. I agree with cautioning families to prioritize and place church activities at least in the running, if not at the top of the list of possible passions, but also understand the need to be out and about, salting up the soccer fields & dance studios of the world. [As long as there is in fact some seasoning going on with the hours spent among the "worldly"...] It just felt sometimes like we were just cramming things on the planning board for the sake of having things on the planning board without enough thought given to any recovery time at all. I also wonder if it's easier to mask our imperfections if we keep things moving so quickly no one can take a closer look...
Still, if we lead by example, I was in that building 90% of my waking hours. If the loss of joy from being actively creating and leading corporate worship experiences could be measured, I would wager a guess it has nearly evened out the scales with the measure of joy I have given Kevin just being "here". It's tough to balance. I remember the varied responses shared by staff when an intern asked how to balance between "ministry" and basically, having a life. There were not only varied responses but they were passionately voiced from one end of the spectrum[prioritizing time with family and friends] to the other [qualifying that "work" can be energizing and people are wired differently so what is draining to one may be refueling to another...] It's hard in a staff format sometimes to not feel pressured to perform at equal amounts of energy expended. No one wants to look like a slacker...still I believe we need to make an effort to be still and "recover". That we need to help our families do the same. And that it's okay to stay home once in a while and not be at every event on the planet.
Tell that to my mother- of -three -13 -&- under sister who is just beginning to wade into the deep end of busy...I know it's easier said than done, but I have a daughter who needs that down time once in a while and I can see it in her eyes when she's been expending more than she's recovering. Makes a ton of sense to me. It also confirms that our periodic rubber band fights in the office were actually legitimate creative breaks that led to an outpouring of productive projects and a bit of deserved respite :)
"To the degree that leaders and managers build cultures around continuous work--whether that means several-hour meetings or long days or the expectation that people will work in the evenings and on weekends--performance is necessarily compromised over time. Cultures that encourage people to seek intermittent renewal not only inspire greater commitment, but also more productivity."
I didn't leave my job because of the "pace". However, I grew increasingly aware of the decreasing space of "downtime" in the events department the last several years. I agree worship should be 24/7 for the lack of a lesser-used phrase, but I was at the point where there was seriously always something going on. Definitely more energy expended than recovered.
I voiced occasionally the friction I felt between scheduling enough to keep people "together" and growing, without adding to their already crazy stupid over-committed lifestyles. I agree with cautioning families to prioritize and place church activities at least in the running, if not at the top of the list of possible passions, but also understand the need to be out and about, salting up the soccer fields & dance studios of the world. [As long as there is in fact some seasoning going on with the hours spent among the "worldly"...] It just felt sometimes like we were just cramming things on the planning board for the sake of having things on the planning board without enough thought given to any recovery time at all. I also wonder if it's easier to mask our imperfections if we keep things moving so quickly no one can take a closer look...
Still, if we lead by example, I was in that building 90% of my waking hours. If the loss of joy from being actively creating and leading corporate worship experiences could be measured, I would wager a guess it has nearly evened out the scales with the measure of joy I have given Kevin just being "here". It's tough to balance. I remember the varied responses shared by staff when an intern asked how to balance between "ministry" and basically, having a life. There were not only varied responses but they were passionately voiced from one end of the spectrum[prioritizing time with family and friends] to the other [qualifying that "work" can be energizing and people are wired differently so what is draining to one may be refueling to another...] It's hard in a staff format sometimes to not feel pressured to perform at equal amounts of energy expended. No one wants to look like a slacker...still I believe we need to make an effort to be still and "recover". That we need to help our families do the same. And that it's okay to stay home once in a while and not be at every event on the planet.
Tell that to my mother- of -three -13 -&- under sister who is just beginning to wade into the deep end of busy...I know it's easier said than done, but I have a daughter who needs that down time once in a while and I can see it in her eyes when she's been expending more than she's recovering. Makes a ton of sense to me. It also confirms that our periodic rubber band fights in the office were actually legitimate creative breaks that led to an outpouring of productive projects and a bit of deserved respite :)
posted by ret at 3:01 PM
1 Comments:
Preach on Sister, preach on.
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