One of my favorite songs is “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is,” by Chicago on their first album in the early 1980’s. (Click the URL and listen) I
know, for some readers, the 80s is reaching back before memories began.
Another, more recent, song about time is from the musical Rent “Seasons of Love.” (Click the URL for the Lyrics and song.) It begins with an enumeration of the minutes in a year, Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes How do you
measure, measure a year?
For years I have said my motto is “Today is the first day of
the rest of my life, and today might be the last day of my life. It must be
lived with faithfulness and intensity.” When Jesus was asked about when will
the Son of Man will come? He responded, But
about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the
Son, but only the Father. (Mt 24.36 NRSV)
Today we are never far from a time piece be it a watch, a
clock or our ever present digital devices. In many churches a clock is hung on
the back wall so the time is ever before the minister. I once served a
congregation which wanted the worship service at 11:55 so they could beat the
Methodists to the restaurants. In western Pennsylvania, during football season,
nothing can intrude on the time the Steelers’ game is to begin.
I was recently in a discussion with the participants in the
polity class I am teaching for the Commissioned Ruling Elder program done in
cooperation with Pittsburgh Presbyterian Seminary and the Synod of the Trinity.
The discussion centered on the length of Session meetings. They reminded me
that many elders want the session meeting to be finished in an hour or less.
While I believe many meetings can become too long, I am more
concerned about the content of the meeting than its length. If the Session is
merely a board of directors then a pro
forma meeting might be sufficient. However, if the Session is a gathering
of elders who are concerned not only with the temporal/organizational matters
of the congregation things might take a bit longer.
What if the Session meeting were to include a real
devotional time rather than a brief opening prayer? What if some time were
taken to build upon and support the fellowship among the session members? What
if some time were taken to study and discuss portions of the Book of
Confessions and/or the Book of Order? What if time were taken to study and
discussion issues before the church and/or community? What if the Session were
to trust its committees rather than functioning as a committee of the whole and
reworking every recommendation from its committees?
The drive to get in and get out of a session meeting in an
hour or less may indicate that time is more important to us than faithfully
carrying out our responsibilities as elders. It is the same drive which calls
for Sunday morning worship to last no more than an hour.
We only have the time which God has given us. Each day has
1,440 minutes. What if we were to tithe our time each day? That would be 2.4
hours given in service to God. Service to God does not mean it all has to be
directly related to "church work." We are called to love God and our
neighbors. What difference could we make in our life, in the life of our
family, in the life of our congregation, in the life of our community, in the
world if we were to intentionally use that 2.4 hours intentionally fulfilling
those two prime directives? (Yes that is a Star Trek reference.)
I loved this blog, especially the last paragraph. I wish I had thought of the same thing myself. I spend a lot of time recruiting volunteers for outreach. I think I might put this idea in my arsenal of persuasion.
ReplyDeleteAmen. Very good observation about also considering tithing our time commitment to God. At this point in my life, I consider my time remaining here on earth as a precious gift given to me by God - so it is very appropriate that we give back to God not only that which is commanded, but even more out of our love for him. Thank you for reminding me to also consider my time commitments.
ReplyDelete