These Inefficient Mountains
At a pastor’s gathering in the heart of downtown Atlanta a few months back, a friend of mine had come through our area en route to the gathering. Chuckling, he commented, “Mountains are so inefficient.” I get it. And . . . his comment triggered some thoughts.
Roads are relentlessly curvy. Cell calls are dropped frequently. Emergency services are limited. No one goes back to town after they go home for the evening. Four wheel drive is, many times, necessary. Your GPS route says 15 miles equals 40 minutes. Mountains are inefficient if you are attempting efficiency.
What is efficiency? One definition is “maximizing productivity with minimum waste of effort or expense.” Ministering within many contexts (maybe all contexts?), like the mountains, means embracing the inefficiency.
Twenty-first century church planting seems to accentuate efficiency. In the denomination in which I serve, a common practice I have witnessed is that a church planter is given three years of partial finances (the rest is raised by the church planter) before their core group should be self-sufficient and able to support a pastor and ministry budget. There is pressure to be producing and to be efficient.
This race to procure a fast return on investment, I believe, encourages re-gathering Christians from other churches and communities to start the church. When this occurs, the pastor and church become more about indulging the past re-gathered Christian’s experience with church offerings for their children, women, and men than about building relations with those who do not know Christ, introducing them to Jesus and His Church, and discipling them toward growth in grace. Often, the “maximizing productivity with minimum waste of effort and expense” becomes, simply, “maximizing productivity.” No expense of time, energy, or resources is spared as the church becomes ingrown and the pastor worn out as soon as it is up and running.
In this mountain context there is a forced slow-down. This snail’s pace has been a welcome and beneficial mode of operation for ministry. I’m finding that the inefficiency has actually provided mental space and heart space to learn the culture and people in a deeper and more reflective way than I have previously experienced. Drive-time has forced me to pray more and dream more about ways to serve these communities. I’m having more and longer conversations with people over coffee, in parking lots, and in driveways.
When did pastors lose the time, space, and ability to be present without the pressure of producing quick results and more “ministry programs?”
It has not been easy to adjust. I find myself trying to hurry and get to . . . whatever I feel like I need to get to (usually imaginary) . . . and drop whatever conversation I’m in. It has taken a conscience effort to tell myself, “What’s the hurry?” and live in the current conversation and relationship.
What does inefficiency produce? It depends on our definition of productivity. If it means quickly gathering people together, then maybe the ministry isn’t very productive. But if the definition is building wider, deeper, relationships built on trust, shared experiences, and conversations then the answer is the ministry is absolutely productive.
The produce of inefficiency means that my consistent weekly breakfast spot over the past year sees a single mom and server trust me enough to ask if I can sit with her young daughter until her grandmother arrives to pick her up. The sitter fell through and the breakfast rush is at a high. Inefficiency means a retiree sips a beer and tells me he’s agnostic but insists he’ll be praying a lot on his death bed. It means another single mother confides that much of her thought life is consumed with what her purpose for living is. It is having neighbors invite you into their homes and gatherings. Inefficiency is having a contractor confess his struggles to me and long for renewal. It is a local pastor inviting his deacons to be a part of a class I’m offering after months of earning the pastor’s trust.
If I am going to be an effective pastor in a parish of people who do not believe in Jesus and of those who do, I need to learn the benefit and beauty of inefficiency. I need to listen to the voice of the communities. I need to hear their stories and be a person they know can handle the weight of their stories without shame or guilt.
The Lord hears us. He is patient with us. He is long suffering toward us. Maybe our ministry needs some inefficiency to communicate His character through us.