Ministry's Margin-Less Reality (A Re-Post)

Many of you have been commenting about what a difference some of the Margin stuff we talked about in September has made. So I have re-posted a lot of it here. Also, here is a link to the Conference Call I did last month to talk about Margin Live with a group of about 25 pastors. Click here.

In my opinion, margin in ministry could be one of the most overlooked ideas out there! Too many of us pastors are overworked, stressed out, and living out-of-control schedules and unfortunately, it’s taking it’s toll on us, our families, our marriages and our ministries.

Margin Defined…

     Today I want to give a working definition for the idea or concept of Margin. So here you go…

     The obvious illustration is the margins on a piece of paper. It’s the white space between the edge of the paper and that little red line. I love it. Even paper manufacturers knew that we (as kids) would be prone to push the limits in our lives, so they gave us a bright red line to basically scream:

And yet… even with the wonderful red line, how often did we try and push the limits and write all the way to the edges?!?

      And all the kids in the world look over at our desk and say, “See, another one bites the dust.” And the moral authority of the message we proclaim becomes tainted or dilluted or compromised in some way.

     It doesn’t have to be this way. We gotta get this figured out, & I’m convinced that margin is the answer to the problem.