In the offices of the ministers at a church that I served, we all had a silver frame with the letters “PML.”   The “P” was tiny, the “M” was bigger and the “L” dominated the threesome by its size.

 The letters stand for “Production,” “Management,” and “Leadership.”  We found PML in Stephen Covey’s book First Things First (p 249).  The frame with the three letters was a reminder about our ministry. 

 P.  All people need to be involved in “production.”  We reasoned that teaching Sunday school, preparing a dish for a shut in, setting up chairs in the fellowship hall, and writing sermons were all good ways to be productive in God’s work.

 M.   We had another saying among our staff that we should “administer so others could minister.”  By doing the planning work on a mission trip, or organizing a work day or getting folks to set up the fellowship hall chairs others came and plugged into substantive labor for God.  As staff we did that work so that many could serve.  Ministers also manage.

 L.   Teaching and dreaming play a significant role in church life.  God calls us to be more than we are, to do more than we thought we could do, and to be available as his tools in our world.  Another one of our sayings was “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.”   That’s the role of leaders.   They keep God’s will and God’s dreams alive.  Ministers lead.

 Yet while ministers play all three of these roles, they are not all equal.  All must be producers.   Many have the quality to manage.  Others are gifted as leaders.   

Yet our tendency is to spend all our time on producing, less time on management and little time on leadership.  By the size of the letters we reminded ourselves that the reverse needed attention.  If there are no managers appropriately organizing a ministry, then the production work becomes more difficult.  As it becomes more difficult, fewer people want to do it, and those who remain are overwhelmed with production.  Better management means more production.

 Yet managers can lose focus, get weary, or miss the big picture.   When they do production suffers.  Leaders help them stay on track.  Leaders motivate all to be involved.   If the mangers lose sight of the vision, then organization turns to chaos.  When that happens people drop out of doing productive work.  In the end, the one who might have cast the vision ends up doing most of the management and the bulk of the production.

 The three letters reminded us to feel good up setting up chairs or preparing a lesson.  Production pleases God.  We also had to allow time to be managers so that others could come alongside us as producers.   God calls us to involve folks in ministry.  But the real point kept us focused on being leaders so that the managers managed and the producers produced.

 Make yourself a frame with the three letters.  Or better yet make a call to organize the project so others can help out.  Best of all pass on the word to keep the vision alive.

Once you hear it, it makes sense.  We lose our focus.  We get distracted.  We major on minors.  We need to get back on track.

But I have one additional problem.  I forget the line.  I forget that the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.  When I remember it, I know what to do.

So consider this “What’s the Point?” today’s reminder to remember that the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.

Psalm 127:2:   It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives sleep to his beloved.

What’s the Point?

Many of us overwork.  We work all day and sometimes late into the night.  With our hand-held technology, our work goes with us.  Yet many of us experience work the same way as the Psalmist.  Working all the time is like living on a diet of anxiety and long hours.  It makes your spirit puny.

The end of the line hints at another option. The “he” is God.  No matter how hard you work, all rest and rejuvenation comes from outside.  Significance is generally not found in work, but in the one who renews our spirits and restores our soul.

It is not that we quit working, but that we quit looking to our toil for significance and renewal.  That comes only from above.  The first line of the Psalm reveals a critical life truth: “Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.”

 What’s the point?

Are you looking for a gift for the person who seems to have everything money can buy?  Give Isaiah 41:10.  The prophet writes to people filled with despair who are about ready to give it all up.  They don’t think they can go on.  Bible scholars call this a salvation oracle.  It is a recurring form in the Old Testament where the writer offers assurance that God is on our side.

 You don’t have to be afraid.   God is there.  

 If you are facing a tough life, Dr. Isaiah says, read this passage three times a day.  Use it until the despair goes away.