Surviving Busy Seasons

It's been a busy month here at A.R.E. We've been on the road quite a bit, helping a number of our clients faciliate revisioning and retooling processes. We've been out working with several potential clients who are trying to sort out what they need exactly; in some ways, that's my favorite part of this work. It's fun to dream with people about what might be possible and watch as they work up the organizational energy to begin making it a reality.

Also, I've been trying to wrap up a writing project that is long overdue. In fact, I finally sent in the final manuscript for "Reclaiming The E Word: Waking Up To Our Evangelical Idenity" at about 5 a.m. this morning after an all-nighter that helped me bust through to the end. It's due out in the spring. And, on top of it all, we've been engaged in our own strategic planning process. We know that we have to expand our team and begin delivering more services online (especially in the area of leadership training), or we won't be able to meet the need that's out there, especially among mainline and progressive church leaders, for the kind of help we offer. And we are committed to meeting that need.

So, you may have noticed that we haven't been blogging much here over the last few weeks.

And you know what? I don't feel the least bit guilty.

There are seasons when you just have to set some things aside in order to do what needs doing.

If you find that you're always in a season like that, something's wrong and you need to do something about it. In fact, if this is the case, you probably need to do one of all of these things: 1) Delegate the things somebody else could do just as well or better than you can. 2) Prioritize so that the important things get done first, rather than just the noisiest. 3) Ruthlessly evaluate what you do every day and stop doing things that are a waste of time.

But if you're in a season like that every once in awhile - if you're in one now! - don't beat yourself up too much for the things you're not getting done.

They'll still be there when you get back.

- Kelly Fryer