Listening to a sermon should involve more than just staying awake. Christopher Ash, in his little booklet Listen Up! A Practical Guide to Listening to Sermons, lists 7 ingredients found in healthy sermon listening.
1. Expect God to Speak
2. Admit God knows better than you.
3. Check to see if the preacher says what the Bible passage says.
4. Hear the sermon in church.
5. Be there week by week.
6. Do what the Bible says.
7. Do what the Bible says – and rejoice.
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God calls us to be abundant in doing good, but you don’t have to run to the hills and leave the world to do this good.
-Matt Perman in What’s Best Next.
Jesus said in His Sermon on the Mount that we are “the light of the world.” Therefore, we should “let our light shine before others, that they may see our good deeds and glorify our Father in Heaven” (Mt 5:14-16).
As Christ followers, we are to go about doing good. But where and when do we perform good works? Is it only on Sundays or when we volunteer at a soup kitchen? Matt Perman, in the beginning of his book What’s Best Next, seeks to answer these questions. He writes that “we tend to have a very narrow view of good works. We think that they are rare and special things that we do every once in a while, like going to Africa on a mission trip” (p. 76).
Understanding good works as only those special things we do every now and then is dangerous. It leads to living “disconnected lives.” As a result, we don’t see our everyday lives as venues for good deeds. One of the main reasons Perman wrote What’s Best Next was to help us to see everything in a “new light so that [we] can become an agent for good, right where [we] are, to the glory of God” (p. 80).
When we answer email, go to meetings, cook dinner, pick up kids from school, etc…, these activities are “not just things we are doing.” According to Perman, they are good works as they provide us with an opportunity to “make a contribution” and to leave “things better than [we] found them” (80).
“Good works,” writes Perman, “are not just spiritual things we do, or hard and rare endeavors.” Whatever “we do in faith, which includes the mundane activities of everyday life like raising kids, going to work, and even tying our shoes” can be considered good works (p. 78).
Perman helped me to see that the ordinary activities of my day might not be so ordinary after all. Returning a phone call might lead to an opportunity to encourage. Smiling at the check out clerk at the local store and sincerely asking about his or her day could be the first caring words he or she has heard all day. And organizing your schedule, your desk, and your to do lists, as mundane as these things may seem, are really the things that, if organized well, will result in freeing up more of your time to serve those around you.
So today, if you really begin to think about doing good, but you feel overwhelmed with the mundane tasks of work, remember that they may not be as mundane as you think. However, you still might need to think about getting organized and this is where What’s Best Next by Matt Perman can be of help. It has some practical tips that will help you in becoming a bit more ordered.
Remember that planning and organizing your days, weeks, and months are not ends within themselves. Doing these things matters, but they do so in that they lead you to more profitable work. And becoming more profitable and productive ultimately means you being “light in the world”–the doing of good to those around you.
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I am giving away 2 copies of Matt Perman’s new book What’s Best Next: How The Gospel Transforms The Way You Get Things Done. Enter your info below and I’ll draw a couple of names early tomorrow morning.
Also, I will send a free sample chapter of Perman’s book to all who enter their info.
Today, Matt Perman’s book What’s Bext Next: How The Gospel Transforms The Way You Get Things Done is being released. Should you get a copy? Personally, I think you should as it will challenge the way you think about being productive. Below is a simple synopsis of the book. I will be writing more specifically about it in my next couple of posts.
If you scan the list of leadership/management books being published today, chances are Matt Perman has read them. As a result of such research, along with Perman’s own personal leadership and management experiences, What’s Best Next is a book that needs to be consulted by future leaders, current leaders, and anyone else who seeks to do things for the glory of God.
The aim of What’s Best Next is…
To help you live the life that God has called you to live, and to live it with maximum effectiveness and meaning. If you are an executive, I want to help you be a better executive. If you are a homemaker, to be a better homemaker. If you are a pastor, to be a better pastor. If you are a creative professional, to be a better creative professional. If you are a missionary, to be a better missionary. And if you don’t know what life God has called you to live, I want to help you find it (p. 20).
Perman encourages his readers throughout this book to be people who care about personal productivity. He argues that because the gospel changes everything, then all areas of our life–“the workplace, business, the arts, culture, serving the poor, everything,” including how we get things done, should be affected by the gospel (p. 71).
It is Perman’s understanding of what it means to be productive that is most helpful. He concludes from the study of Scripture that to be productive is “to do good for others, to the glory of God” (p. 74). This others-centeredness is why Perman gives us practical instructions in how to develop a good weekly schedule, how to create project plans, how to manage workflow, and how to get your email box to zero everyday. He writes, “if you become more efficient with things (workflow system, etc…), you will have more time to give to being effective with people without feeling you are always behind on your tasks” (p. 49).
Understanding what it means to be productive is imperative. It is the key to knowing how and why to manage your workload. Therefore, Perman’s first chapters lay the foundation for productivity by helping us understand our calling. And for Perman, everyone has a calling. Whether you are a teacher or business person, you have a mission and purpose which is revealed to you in the pages of Scripture. If you do not understand this mission and purpose to which you are called, that is, that you are called to give God glory by serving others, then how you structure your calendar will be to no avail.
Perman brings What’s Best Next to a powerful conclusion as he helps us to see the relationship between our daily routine and the mission of God. He mentions that “making the most of our time right where we are transforms the world” (p. 317). The reason this is most significant is that many times, I don’t think workers in the secular arena (whatever that means) realize the impact they can have upon the world around them. Perman writes, “whatever your job is, wherever you are, it is both meaningful in itself and a means of advancing the gospel. It is through your work that God changes the world” (p. 319).
For more info about this book click here.
Purchase on amazon.
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