Historic Examination - Be Punctual and Be Diligent

Question: Will you observe the following directions?
a.) Be diligent. Never be unemployed. Never be triflingly employed. Never trifle away time; neither spent any more time at any one place than is strictly necessary.
b.) Be punctual. Do everything exactly at the time. And do not mend our rules, but keep them; not for wrath, but for conscience' sake.
Answer: Yes.

I call these the practical ministry questions of the historical examination. Essentially will you do what you say you are going to do with integrity.

Once again, however, these questions can be abused. I know pastors that feel like they have to fill every moment of every day or they are trifling away time, which leaves them feeling exhausted and after a period of time, resentful about their ministry. Here are the wonderful instructions my DS has given me about time: In addition to your Sabbath, you need one day a week off (whenever possible) simply to run errands and do what you need to do. Divide your day up into three sections - morning, afternoon, and evening - and don't work all three sections. In the event that something gets canceled, don't rush to fill in that time, but instead see it as a good gift from God to rest. Don't work every evening during your work week. You need free evenings once in a while to simply be, spending time with family and resting.

Friends, we are called to hard but wonderful work, but often we make it even harder because we insist that we need to do everything and be on the go all the time. No. This is not what we are being asked to do, either by the denomination or by God.

Being punctual is also about being practical. I was sharing with a few colleagues at annual conference that I was much later than I anticipated in picking up my lay delegate because I got held up at a visitation where the gentleman was very chatty with concerns that were weighing on him. My lay delegate completely understood, even though I wasn't punctual in that instance. One of my colleagues shared how he was firmly addressed by his PPRC for being 1 minute late to a meeting. I share with him that for me, my lay delegate understood that a.) being late is completely out of character for me - I am usually the person who shows up early b.) I give approximate times I will be at places knowing that I need to leave room for travel and things running a bit late and c.) sometimes things are beyond your control and you need to live into the ministry moment God is blessing you with.

Let's be practical, friends, in how we approach ministry so that we can run this race with endurance.

This concludes our series on the United Methodist Historical Examination.