Slowing Down

I live in Houston, the fourth most populated city in America. The pace is fast. Time is limited. Nearly every day, I’m getting on airplanes and driving through rush-hour traffic. I don’t see my neighbors much. Sometimes the pace is relentless. Sometimes I wish for the quiet.

When I was a pastor, we were once called the 2nd Most Innovative Church in America. We moved at a break-neck speed. You had to move that fast in order to be innovative and cutting-edge. I loved nearly every day of my work. I reflect on a lot of proud moments. But it also made me very tired. In some ways, I’m still in detox from that season.

In my work now, I work with some very large churches. Just this year, I’ve had the opportunity to work with a church of 20,000 doing amazing work in northern California, another church with 10,000 attendees in southern California, and yet another church with 15,000 attendees and 14 campuses in the midwest. I can’t overstate how much I love working with those churches—and helping them find staff so they can thrive at an even higher level.

But as much as I love those churches, I’m finding great contentment in working with a church of 90 in central Iowa—where I sat with the search team over a classic midwest potluck in a home surrounded by cornfields. I find tremendous satisfaction working in a small 200-year old reformed church in a bedroom community outside New York City where people have attended church for many decades together. I love the chance I have to work with a church in a small village in England where 180 adults are working together to make a difference in a place where only 3% of the population goes to church.

Maybe that’s why this short film spoke so strongly to me. I know most of you don’t have 30 minutes to watch this. But for those who do, I think you might be touched as deeply as I was. Sometimes it is only time that allows us to really listen, to go deep with someone in life, to experience transformation in our selves and in others.

I long for the simple. The quiet. The deep. Where the pace is slow enough to allow for reflection. Where quick judgments don’t happen because nothing is quick. Where you can sit with someone long enough to really listen.

The film is called Godspeed. Enjoy.

If you watch it — I’d love to hear your comments.