Godward Toil Pilot Seminar

Last month, my wife and I hosted three couples at our home to participate in a pilot seminar, "Godward Toil:  Peace, purpose, and productivity when there's too much to do."   I worked on the seminar for many months, so it was a joy to finally share it.

The presentation was 2 hours long.  The first half of the seminar focused on theological foundations--what does it mean to "Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men," (Col 3:23).   We examined scriptures about how God wants us to approach the full lives he has given us.  The second half revolved around methods for honoring God with all that he puts in our lives.   Much of the second part drew from principles of David Allen's Getting Things Done, and applied them in a God-centered way with a Godward focus.  The aim of the Christian Life is to glorify God in all that we do and feel.  That aim influences how one thinks about and implements GTD methodology or any other system.  In future posts, I hope to share of the mindmaps I presented (using MindManager by Mindjet).

It was a stimulating and enjoyable evening for me.  These were dear friends and sincere Christians--all ready and open to focus on what God wants from them "when there's too much to do."  It showed me how hungry God's people are to honor him more in how we handle the stuff of everyday life.

We had a lot to cover in a short time.  I started about 5 minutes late because of a clinical emergency I had to focus on from work.  Then it took me a few minutes to shift mindset and start.  That was both difficult for me, and a wonderful illustration of how God puts things in our lives that we don't expect or plan on.  At 6pm, he gave me a calling I didn't expect when I scheduled the seminar for 7pm!  That's what the seminar was all about.

Our friends had lots of questions, especially about the practical outworking of the principles.  They asked for examples.  I gave a few glimpses into my own system by showing portions of my task list.  I'm not sure if that was helpful or overwhelming.  I'll have to think about that for future discussions.

I requested feedback via Survey Monkey, and got feedback from 4 of the 7 participants.  It's hard to draw conclusions with that response rate, but at least the ones who responded were highly positive about the training.  I asked All would recommend it to a friend, and all wanted to participate in a follow-up.  Interestingly, when I asked people to rank what they most wanted in a follow-up seminar, extensive Q&A was at the top of the list.   I'll be sure to incorporate that feedback.

Overall, I am so thankful about how the evening went.  I felt like I honored God in how I talked about his work in our lives and how I handled the Scriptures.  I enjoyed doing it in that special, inexplicable way that one enjoys working in the Spirit, doing exactly what He wants at a particular moment.   And, I think my friends left with some concrete ways they could honor God more with their lives.