Somebody said to me recently that the church has the most eloquent speakers in North America.  I’d never thought about that before.

It might be true, though.  If you listen to even a sampling of preaching podcasts and compare them to the speeches made by business leaders or politicians, you could make a strong argument that the church has better orators than the marketplace. 

Which raises a deeper question: why isn’t the church as a whole growing or advancing?  If oratory skills alone wowed people and changed lives, why aren’t most churches growing? And if your church is growing, is it growing for the right reasons?

That got me thinking about my own preaching.  Like most preachers, I want to be the best communicator I can be. So I solicit feedback on my talks: what worked, what didn’t?  I listen to other preachers to grow spiritually and to shape my preaching. Once a month or so (although it’s never a comfortable thing), I’ll watch my own sermons and try to learn and grow. 

But if I’m not careful, what I’ll try to do is to become a better speaker or try to come up with clearer outlines, structure and metaphors.  As I was thinking about this again over the weekend, the irony hit me: that’s not what the Bible says changes lives.

About 1,950 years ago, there was a tension of sorts between two preachers.  One was a brilliant orator.  The second preacher wasn’t much of a public speaker at all.  But the second preacher made the argument that it’s not clever speeches that change lives – it’s Christ and Christ crucified.  The first preacher was named Apollos.  The second we know better as the Apostle Paul.  Paul, a poor public speaker by his own admission and unimpressive to others , said that the real power in preaching comes by the Spirit of God. 

This week, I’m going to be personally reflecting/praying over the power of God as revealed in preaching.  If it’s primarily how God uses preaching, I want to focus more on that.  If I’m not intentional in focusing on that, I’d probably just focus on speaking more clearly and convincingly.  (Not entirely wise.)  I’d love to hear from preachers/communicators on how you approach that.

Second, I’d love to hear from people who have been impacted by preaching.  How did ‘the power of God’ come alive in preaching for you?  In what ways have you experienced the demonstration of God’s power in preaching apart from eloquence?

I know I have blogged about this a few times already in 2008, but I have to sound this trumpet again.  I in a very different place than I have ever been (much more overflow) because I have margin in my life in a way I’ve never had before.

Because I’ve been focused for several years on learning to do less for more, I find myself in the unique place of having more unstructured time than ever before and "doing more" than ever before by doing less.

The benefits?

• My devotions are growing richer.  Reading the Bible and praying are less of a responsibility and more of a time of exploration and discovery.  Not every day, but many.
• I’m home more at night.  Like a lot.  5-6 nights a week.  That was unheard of five years ago.
• I have almost every Saturday off.
• I have more time to write.  I think my messages are better and I can even do stuff like blog. I’m toying with a book.
• I spend a lot more time with key staff and leaders and Connexus.

Don’t get me wrong, I still have time management challenges weekly.  This week for example, I had two evening meetings, a full day staff retreat, regular staff meetings, my small group and five one on one meetings, a ten hour drive to Philadelphia (I leave at noon today) and four talks on the Orange Tour before driving home Saturday afternoon. Plus I blogged a lot and wrote a message for Sunday (back Sunday to teach).  (Oh, and I cleaned out my inbox.)  Margin and doing less for more does not mean you’re lazy, it just means you’re focused on what you’re best at and that there’s enough space in your life that a full enough week like this one is offset by more balance other weeks. Next week for example, I am home four out of seven nights. The following week: six out of seven.

The other upside is that my disposition, my mood, has changed. It’s hard to have overflow when you never sit down, are constantly on the go and feel like you can’t get it all done. Here are some shifts I noticed in my personality because I have more time off and more margin in my life:

• I’m more generous.  I find myself helping out more around the house and in virtually all situations without thinking someone else should have done it.
• I have more patience for hard situations.  When something goes wrong or people go off on me, my fuse is longer and my compassion is greater.
• I have more energy for each day.  I just sat through an eight hour meeting yesterday.  Normally that would have killed me.  I stayed engaged through the entire thing.
• I rush less.  I am naturally an insufferable rusher.  I take more time for people and more time to listen.
• I am more charitable in how I interpret things.  I am more likely to assume the best in others, not the worst or something in between.
• My devotions have become richer.  Busy-ness is the enemy of intimacy (with God).

How much margin do you have in your life?  Is margin related to overflow?  Can you imagine moving into a place of deeper margin? What are your patterns that make you "better" and which ones make you ‘worse"?  What can you do about it?

Most people have a to do list.  But do you have a not to do list? 

If you are going to do less to accomplish more, you need to stop doing things probably more than you need to start doing things. Why?  If the gravitational pull in life is toward complexity, more, saying yes to whatever and being reactive, then it’s going to take intentionality to reverse that.

Here’s why: not all activities are created equal.  Some bring far greater reward for the same amount of effort than others.  Why not focus on those that bring the most reward and eliminate those that don’t?

That’s hard step, but here are some shifts to doing less in order to accomplish more that have helped me in the last few years:

In ministry

1. We cut all mid-week programming except small groups, believing that small groups provided the best opportunity for life-change.  As a result, participation in mid-week ministry went from 35% of weekend attenders participating in mid week ministry to 68% of weekend attenders participating in small groups.  We also do a better job in small group ministry.
2. We cut our most successful non-family children’s venue (Vacation Bible Camp) to do a better job focusing on Sunday mornings and equipping parents to develop their kids spiritually and morally at home.
3. I have focused more of my time on working with the leaders on staff and key leaders in the church. I say no to most outside meetings that are not in some way related to our mission or vision.  Ironically, that has given me more time to hang out with more Connexus people.

In my life, I:

1. Began to turn down almost all speaking engagements except those related to family ministry or leadership development.  Even I hate saying no, but it’s been effective and made me a better leader. Rather than randomly saying yes, I carefully and prayerfully discuss opportunities with my family, our elders and key staff.
2. Decided not to develop a new personal hobby for the next five years and instead focus on opening time to simply be around for my kids.  I’ve found that one of the best way to parent teens is to be around when they are around.  Schedule less…be available more.

There are other shifts I’ve made and we’ve made, but you get the idea.  I think one of the greatest releases for me has been to figure out this truth: we have a role in the Kingdom of God but we are not the Kingdom of God. Other churches can do the things we’re not doing.  Other people will fill roles I can’t fill. 

Most of us assume we have to do everything to be effective.  What if God saw us as most effective at doing one or two things?  There are some things you or your organization does that you are simply great at or could be great at. Michael Phelps is a classic example of this. He’s not the entire Olympics, but he’s an incredible swimmer.  And to become a great swimmer, he had to say no to becoming a great tennis player, an NBA player, a Harvard student or whatever else he might have become.

Not everything you or I do brings equal results. How much time do we spend on things that bring little to no reward, often in the name of being "well rounded"?  Why not stop doing that and start focusing on the few things that bring greatest results?

What scares you about this?  What excites you?