Resisting Doing (Too Much) More with Less

Beware the era of efficiency

When I began at my current church I inherited a bulletin that haunts me to this day. Mostly, I discovered that the weekly liturgy of the congregation was being saved week after week in the same Word document, whose edit history stretched back to the days of Methuselah. As it can happen with Word documents (please don’t ask me why) this meant that the formatting was deeply weird.¹

Because it was weird, it was very labor intensive. It just took time to type things out and make them look the way they were supposed to be. In additional, there was always a multi-step process of the pastor forwarding the liturgy from a printed book or other document to the secretary. The bulletin genuinely occupied hours and hours and hours of work each week.

Now, our system looks a little different. There’s no longer a secretary, but I manage all the bulletin creation and formatting myself. We have Google Docs for each week stored in place I access anywhere. I often write the liturgy directly into the bulletin. We even did away with our traditional pre-printed bulletin covers sometime during the pandemic, meaning our printing is now more compact on one sheet of paper. In short, I helped the church compact the work of the bulletin in a much simpler and efficient format. I even added a few new things, like emailing out the bulletin and hosting it on our website weekly, but I don’t think that even comes close to being the same amount of time previously spent on this task.

We’re doing more with less. It’s a celebration of technological innovation, sure, but it also makes me worried.

It’s one example among many that I fret about when I think about how I have often made the transition from full-time to part-time ministry invisible in my congregation. I am happy to bring my best self, which often means greater efficiency. But there’s something about it that also just makes me feel like a machine ready to be exploited. See that young pastor over there? She can manage our website, play the piano, and write sermons—all for less money!

It can feel like being penalized for being competent.

As it turns out, this is a stress point for many. You can read about it here or anywhere terms like performance punishment crop up. There’s plenty of reflection of what that looks like in the corporate sphere. I also have found lots of good advice for how to manage this in a larger organization.

But that doesn’t always translate well to my little job in a small church. There’s no CEO calling me up for an annual review. I have to engage with this a little differently. Practically, I do the following:

1. Think of future pastors in my role. Often, making it about some unknown other makes me more likely to choose a more scaled back option than if I’m just making a decision whether or not to do something based on my own capacities.

2. Count lunch breaks. Even in my part-time role, I don’t hesitate to include paid breaks, the same way they would be factored into a more traditional 40 hour work week.

3. Similarly, I make sure to count time reading, going on walks, and even watching videos sometimes as part of my work hours. This one has been tough for me, because it can feel so superfluous. But it’s important educational time. For a season I was making myself a fancy drink and watching lectures from Yale Divinity School on Friday afternoons. Highly recommend.

These aren’t anything too radical. But they exist as a little nudge to make sure that I’m not just maximizing efficiency to the point at which I’ve squeezed a full-time job into part-time hours. That time I gained from revamping the bulletin? The purpose wasn’t to immediately funnel that into the next urgent thing, but instead view it as a gift to steward for the best purposes of my role. And that best purpose can mean adding a little more ease back into my complicated schedule.

What I’m reading

I went back and revisited this article about the success of a 4-day work week experiment in Britain. The takeaway? Switching from a 5 to 4-day work week might actually increase productivity. I think churches should be paying close attention to this, especially as the popularity of 3/4 time positions grows. We often use these 3/4 time jobs as a way to save money because theoretically the pastor is working less. But asking for a little bit less time might actually be a healthier model for full-time pay and employment. To read how this is being encouraged in Maryland read here and for predictions about where this might all be going read here.

You’re invited!

I’m hosting a book launch event for my friend and colleague, Sheryl Johnson for her excellent book “Serving Money Serving God.” I cannot recommend this book highly enough (you can pre-order it now!) For example, this is the type of wisdom the Rev. Dr. Johnson has:

“By trying to “save” our churches through neoliberal and conventional approaches to finance, we are already dead because we have ceased to be the church and to be Christ’s followers. But, if we cease to fear the “death” of the church and turn instead to living by our radical commitments to economic justice, we may well find that we have new life. That “life” may not be full pews and full offering plates, but instead it may be a greater relevance and service to our communities and to our world.”

If you’ve always had that sneaking suspicion that the problem isn’t that churches aren’t fundraising correctly, but actually that we’ve forgotten the radical economic justice that Jesus preached—this is your book. The launch event is a great way to meet Sheryl and even have a chance to win a copy of the book. I hope to see you there!

What life looks like

1. You know that thing that happens when you hit tab and end up four lines down and everything has shifted and changed formatting and you don’t know why? That. As a digital native I wish I could explain this, but only Clippy can help us with that kind of information.