Busyness: One of the Church's Greatest Threats to Discipleship

I must do this! I must do that! They need help here! I must help there! Ever found yourself acting upon such thoughts, saying yes to one more thing for you or your loved ones to be a part of? Extracurricular activities, community involvement, church leadership opportunities, church programs and activities, work projects, and more are out there for us to be a part of. And many of them are good - even great and godly - things to be involved in. But are being involved in so many things really helping us becoming more Christlike? Are they helping us to help others be more Christlike? I dare say in most instances they are not.

Here are a few results of busyness:

• Decreased productivity and effectiveness.
• Worrying and forgetfulness.
• Lack of sleep and rest.
• Increased stress and potential for health problems.
• Pride and bragging about being so busy.
• Wanting others to feel "sorry" for him/her because he/she is so busy.
• Little time to truly enjoy the activities one is involved in.
• Little or no time to get to know others in the activities one is involved in.
• Inability to be free to be used by God as He brings people and ministry opportunities in one's path.
• Busyness (especially in the church) can become equated with godliness.

Being a Christian, or a disciple of Jesus Christ means that we follow Him. Following Him means we must only have on our calendars and in our lives those things which Jesus approves of and leads us to do. Simply put, we will live like Jesus did - act like He acted, talk like He talked, and relate to others the way He related to others. Following Jesus also means we will not attempt to live the Christian life on our own. Thus, we need genuine relationships with other believers who can encourage and challenge us. We are also called to encourage and challenge others as we lead them to follow Him (see the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20), which we can only do through relationships. Relationship is the pipeline for discipleship. Without relationship, discipleship won't happen.


I believe busyness is one of the church's greatest threats to discipleship. It keeps us from being who God wants us to be. It keeps us from doing exactly what He wants us to do, saying exactly what He wants us to say, and going exactly where He wants us to go. It keeps us from genuine relationships. It keeps us blinded and unable to be free for new opportunities to be used by God.


My challenge is for each of us to examine God's Word, seek the Father's heart, search our own, look at the choices we've made & the things we do, think of the people in our families and those we're around day-to-day, and ask God to help us make choices that would please Him. ...choices that would keep us from busyness so that we might follow Him with all that we are and do a better job of leading others to doing the same.


Choose to let God free you from busyness that you might be more like your Savior and King, Jesus Christ!

This post was originally written for the Memorial Baptist Church weekly e-mail update on November 28, 2011