How is a pastor-leader to spend his or her time each week? It is amazing to me how many of us have no clear answer to this question. Though we complain of being overworked, I believe it  is really more a matter of being scattered and diffused than being over-worked. 

Since my disastrous medical experience of a few years ago I have been forced to limit my work week to less than 40 hours. I have come to realize that I am now accomplishing much much more with a disciplined approach to my work focus than I used to get done previously working way over 80 hours per week. I was taking the shotgun approach. Now I am taking the laser approach. 

Being focused like a laser can have excellent results. Prior to my accident I wrote two books, and writing those two just about killed me.  Since my medical accident I have written with great joy and enthusiasm thirteen additional books. I currently have 9 websites that I maintain, two daily blogs, a weekly article that touches 150,000 readers…the list goes on. When I had my accident I was forced to slow down, I had to become a turtle, instead of a rabbit.

In the old fable, it’s the rabbit that loses time and again, not the turtle. And it is the same way in our daily lives, no matter what our culture screams to us moment after moment.  Here's my goal:  To slow down further and further in order to hear the whispers of the Spirit. He speaks to those who are open to listening at his speed, which is significantly slower than the hph (hour per hour) speed of 90% of Americans in the workplace. 

To serve we must be in sync with the Spirit of God. We must hear the whispers of the Spirit, the "flutterbies", that only come when we have changed our pace. Those who are practiced in the spiritual disciplines set aside regular times of solitude, no internet, no email, no ipod, no radio, no TV, no visitors, no cell phone, alone.

If you have a personality with a short attention span you might have to work up to spending even one hour without the distractions of daily living. I suggest that you do what I do. Hop in the truck for a little drive. I find that as I am cruising down the highway, no particular destination, that my mind begins to slow down. Often when that happens, the Spirit begins to speak in "the still small voice." If you are stuck, you might just ask, "God, give me an idea." But you can count on this, if you remove the static that bombards you, the Holy Spirit will begin to whisper inspiratonal ideas.

One tip: Have something on hand to capture ideas. As you know I am a big fan of the digital recorder that can download your short, dictated recordings of "flutter-bies" for later download to your computer.

We need to begin to experience God's heart for our cities. I do this by wandering around what I call “watering holes,” where people hang out in great numbers – parks, malls, university campuses, piers, you get the idea.  My favorite place is malls. There is always a crowd there.

As I walk the mall, I first purchase a cup of coffee, fill it to the brim with the hot drink so that I have to walk v-e-r-y slowly so as not to spill any.  As I walk at a turtle’s pace, I ask God, God the Holy Spirit, to show me the pain in each person’s heart and life that I pass in the mall.  And indeed, he does. It is a painful experience. In fact, after an hour of this, I can’t take it any longer.  This simple practice is how I “cracked the code” in Cincinnati – the third most unfriendly city in America in 1984 when we showed up on the scene.

Look for the obvious needs

    * those in physical need
    * those asking for help

Look for the not so obvious

    * people looking downcast
    * people depressed

Okay, now we are ready to dig in and serve those in our cities who are in need. We have listened carefully to the Spirit and have seen the needs of those around us. How do we begin to meet those needs? With servant hearts, kindness and generosity. Let the Spirit inspire you with ideas that fit you and your congregation. Enlist the support and help of your closest leaders. Brainstorm and pray together with your team. Ask God!

However, if you are stuck, there is a long list of projects available on my website, ServantEvangelism.Com. We have a special page set aside with ideas for servant evangelism projects, entitled Servant Evangelism Ideas, a matrix of outreach projects.

If you are already involved in meeting the needs of your city through servant evangelism and you want to step up your Serve! factor, then perhaps you need to take a different approach. Pray that God would send you more "workers." You probably have a solid team of committed "servers" who are serving with you.

Gather those that God sends, and then increase the quantity and the quality of your projects. If you are giving away bottled water, instead of 100 bottles, give away 1000. Take whatever you are doing and multiply it by a factor of 10! Get ten times as many people involved and touch ten times as many people, ten times more often! Okay, maybe I am getting carried away here, but you get the idea, don't you?