The Discipline of Diligence
By David Boyd

Give a children’s leader the job of setting up 150 chairs for a children’s service, and you can tell a lot about that leader. If the leader begrudgingly sets up the chairs, you can tell that he feels the job is beneath him. If he does it slow, he is probably a bit lazy. If he does it haphazardly, he probably doesn’t care as much as he should about a job well done. However, if the children’s leader sets up the chairs quickly and efficiently, leaving the proper amount of space between rows, chances are this leader is a hard worker. Not only is he willing to do the task, he shows that he has done it before. He realizes the importance of this menial task and takes pride in doing it quickly and properly—this shows the discipline of diligence.

Children’s ministry, like many pastoral positions, is a labor-intensive job. Literally, the job is never done. Nearly every time the church doors are open, children’s ministry is involved. Many menial jobs must be accomplished, including setting up rooms for ministry, cleaning up previously used rooms, and cleaning up after use. There are numerous ministries to coordinate, supplies to gather, teams to recruit and train, events to plan, and more. The discipline of diligence is critical for success in children’s ministries.

Recently I heard from a church who utilized six children’s interns for the summer. One of the spare-time projects they gave these interns was to canvass the town. They would walk through the town handing out information about the church. At the end of the summer, the church decided to give one of the interns a big bonus for a job well done—you see, that intern had canvassed as much as the other five put together! That is the discipline of diligence in action. All of these interns had the same amount of time each day. However, the one intern got his work done early, took short lunch breaks, postponed dinner, and managed to carve out several hours each day to work on the town. After 12 weeks it was evident how much work was accomplished. The diligence of that intern will help him to become a great children’s leader someday.

People learn more from who we are than from what we teach. The children’s leader who feels that certain jobs are beneath him will teach others that those jobs are not worth doing. The undiligent, lazy leader creates people like himself. Hard-working people don’t appreciate those who seem to avoid hard work themselves. Thus the leader who lacks diligence has a difficult time raising up a hard-working team. The result—the ministry faces a constant struggle to grow and thrive.

People will follow the leader who works hard. They appreciate the passion with which that individual tackles tasks and opportunities. Often the leader who begins to do the hard task himself will be surprised to see others follow suit. Try this experiment: At the next church banquet or meal you attend, begin to stack up the chairs at the end of the meal or begin to clear the table of the dishes. Some will probably tell you, “That’s the janitor’s job.” But continue anyway. Soon many others will follow suit. In ten minutes a group of people can save a janitor two hours’ work. In the process you are training people to pitch in and get involved. Hard work is best accomplished by many. In the same way, people are more apt to join the team of a leader who isn’t afraid to work hard.

The discipline of diligence is the discipline that allows some people to get far more done in their day than many others. While some are determining the best way to get something done, the diligent worker already has it done. The diligent worker invests in himself—guarding carefully the moments in his life, using them wisely and with balance. This diligent individual usually attracts others to himself. His team grows, and it grows with people who are willing to work hard. Lewis and Cordeiro, in their book, Culture Shift speak of this principle, saying, “Ultimately, you teach what you know, but you reproduce what you are.”

Make it your goal to be an example in your diligence. Often company salesmen aren’t the individuals who speak most pervasively; they are the individuals who pound the pavement and find the most clients. Your children’s ministry may grow more due to your diligence of following up on every visitor and every missing child than it does due to your wonderful services. Be a person of diligence. Now go, make a difference.

Works Cited
Robert Lewis and Wayne Cordeiro, Culture Shift (San Fansisco, Ca.: Jossy-Bass 2005) 92.