Getting There From Here Part 3: Margins are for People

I don’t know about you, but all this talk about building margins seems like a lot of work. How can we possibly fit all this stuff into life?

The point is not to.

Which is wildly counter-intuitive.

As I said before, and will probably say again, the point of efficiency (at least in ministry) is to create time to do the things that matter. We all have busy-work that needs to get done – paperwork, planning sessions, reading, etc. But busy-work isn’t all that important. What is important is people.

Jesus seemed to have three groups of people who he considered important.

1) The people he was ministering to. Jesus always seemed to find time to be with the people he was called to minister to (Luke 4: 16-21). He was easily interrupted, because he loved the people who were interrupting him. Everything else stopped when they were around.

2) The people he was ministering with. Whenever Jesus was engaging in ministry, his disciples were either with him or nearby. That didn’t happen just because he was teaching them. It was because he genuinely cared about them. He even gave them nicknames (John 1: 35-50). You don’t give nicknames to just anyone.

3) The people who supported his ministry. In case you didn’t know, Jesus relied on financial giving to support his ministry (Luke 8: 1-3). It’s not much of a suprise that he spent time with this group. They travelled with him, and he stayed in their homes. (Luke 10: 38-42)

So, the question is, how are you creating time for being with and talking with these groups of people in your life? Are you caught up in the logistics of ministering to people instead of actually being with them? Are you doing ministry along side of a group of people? Are you spending time with the people who are supporting your work?

If you’re feeling like there’s this sudden pressure to come up with new activities to fill up the gaps in your life, stop. The point of building margins is to release the pressure of activities so that you can spend time with people – because people are what life is all about.