Joe Stengele, leadership development manager at Mars Hill Seattle, recently interviewed me on What’s Best Next.
The interview posted today at The Resurgence, and I can say this is I think my favorite interview so far. Joe asked absolutely fantastic questions. This interview gets to the heart of the book and helps bring together in one short spot both the theological and practical messages I’m trying to convey.
Zondervan has an incredible sale going on right now for the Kindle version of What’s Best Next. It’s only $6 through tomorrow (Sunday).
While you’re at it, I’d suggest getting the hard cover as well. I find that even when I have the Kindle version, some books are best to have in hard copy as well because that makes it easier to interact with them and refer back to them.
I wrote What’s Best Next with the aim that it would be of enduring usefulness to people, and hope that everyone who has picked it up so far has found it to be just that kind of book!
Jen Pollock Michel takes me to task on that over at Christianity Today’s her.meneutics blog, which provides news and analysis from the perspective of evangelical women.
But the thing is: she’s right. And, she’s very gracious. She understands the book, enjoyed it, and found it helpful. The whole review is excellent and I highly commend it to you.
She isn’t saying that the book totally misses it on a woman’s perspective. Not at all. But she points to some important correctives. She argues that the first half of the book, where I give a theology of productivity, is right on. Her point is that when I enter into the second, more practical half, I tend to leave behind issues that are most specifically relevant to women. She summarizes this very well:
The first half of What’s Best Next demonstrates clearly that Matt Perman values all work. “Good works are not simply the rare, special, extraordinary, or super spiritual things we do. Rather, they are anything that we do in faith.” I only wish the second half of the book had made more mention of so-called women’s work. (In fact, upon closer examination of the book, I realize how “male” the book really is, not only in terms of its conception of time and work, but in its consultation. All 12 endorsers are male, and of the 20 books in the recommended reading list, only two are written by women.)
Thank you, Jen. You make very good points, and I appreciate that you pointed this out to me in such a gracious way. This is exactly the type of push-back that helps all of us grow — and we especially need it in areas like this, which is something that honestly was not on my radar at all (which is why I am especially thankful for her critique).
I will do better in the future, and will seek to think about productivity in a more holistic way that doesn’t end up narrowing in on things in such a way that areas that are especially important to a woman’s perspective are left out. And, I agree that it would have been better if more of the books I recommended and interacted with had been by women. I will try to broaden my perspective there as well.
This also raises a larger issue. I do think that women have traditionally been under-represented in Christian writing and leadership. And I think that, as men, we share significant responsibility for that because of being too narrowly focused on ourselves and own perspectives. I actually do try to do something about that (though I could do better); I make a special effort to learn when women speak up in the church, not out of some strange affirmative action thinking but because I consistently find it helpful. Everyone is better off when both men and women are encouraged to make all the contributions they are capable of.
The good news is that things are changing. Some of the most helpful and engaging books on leadership and the Christian life right now are more and more being written by women. As a few examples on the Christian life and productivity side, let me commend to you Jen’s own upcoming book Teach Us to Want: Longing, Ambition, and the Life of Faith, which looks fantastic and much-needed; Gloria Furman’s new book Treasuring Christ When Your Hands Are Full: Gospel Meditations for Busy Moms; Aimee Bird’s recent Housewife Theologian: How the Gospel Transforms the Ordinary; Melissa McDonald’s excellent blog The Cross and the Kitchen Sink, with its great tagline “because the cross changes everything but including the kitchen sink”; and, of course, Christianity Today’s her.meneutics blog where you can find more of Jen’s writings along with contributions from many other excellent writers looking at faith and news from the perspective of evangelical women.
And specifically on the leadership side, Jenni Catron is one of the best thinkers on leadership in the church right now, and I highly commend her new book Clout: Unleash Your God-Given Potential, with a foreword by Patrick Lencioni, one of the greatest management thinkers of our day.
So women are making an incredible contribution in the church today to Christian thought. That is an excellent thing that we need to celebrate. And Jen’s review of What’s Best Next shows how someone like me still needs to grow in this, and how easy it is to not even realize how often we unconsciously overlook the need to, as Jen puts it in her post, “understand a women’s perspective in the time management conversation” — or whatever else we are writing on.
So, thanks again, Jen, for your review.
Here is an absolutely fantastic and helpful review of What’s Best Next by David Leonard, assistant professor of philosophy and apologetics at Luther Rice University.
David first nails the essence of the book in the opening paragraph: how productivity is about putting the needs of others first. This is not something we often think of when we think of productivity, but it is both biblical and the way to become most productive and make the highest impact.
Then he gets into the specific angle of the review: how What’s Best Next is applicable to scholars and students. He relates it to Andreas Köstenberger’s incredible book Excellence: The Character of God and the Pursuit of Scholarly Virtue, writing:
Whereas Andreas Köstenberger, for example, has challenged scholars to pursue their work with excellence, in terms of demonstrating boldness amidst the pressures of “academic respectability” and displaying integrity in their scholarly activities, Perman highlights for readers the practical steps that might be taken to clear the way for such excellence to be achieved.
To put it differently, if an excellence is roughly identical to a virtue, then it seems the aim of What’s Best Next is to enable Christians to be virtuous stewards of their time and resources, a theme which overlaps nicely with Köstenberger’s emphasis. Christian scholars, no doubt, would do well to reflect on these connections.
This connection to Kostenberger’s book is right on. Kostenberger shows the importance of excellence; What’s Best Next gives some practical steps for making excellence happen in every area of life. And, as Leonard shows, this has great application for scholars and students, as well as those in the marketplace, leading churches, leading non-profits, and leading in their communities.
Leonard’s review also interacts with some of the most unique parts of the book as well, such as how allowing people to surf the internet for fun at work makes people more productive, not less.
Hugh Whelchel, executive director of The Institute for Faith, Work, and Economics, has done a great review of What’s Best Next for TGC.
It is a fantastic review with a superb summary of the book. And here’s something especially unique about Hugh’s review: he comments on the final section of the book, where I show how personal productivity connects to the productivity of our organizations and society, and therefore why it is important for us as Christians to understand economics.
That’s a very important section of the book to me. I almost had to cut it out due to length, in fact, but insisted that we keep it (though I still and to cut that section in half). I also show how a concern for the productivity and well being of all of society is not just a modern idea, but is clearly and significantly expressed by even the great 18th-century theologian Jonathan Edwards.
Read Hugh’s whole review of What’s Best Next to see a bit more on the connections between Christian love and a concern for economics.
If you are going to be at Together for the Gospel this week, my friend Alex Chediak and I will be doing an author meet up and we’d love to see you. It will be in the lobby of the Galt House on Tuesday night from 10:00 – 11:00, after the final panel. (Note: the lobby is in the first floor of the Suit Tower.)
It will be very informal. Stop by to say hi and hang out a bit, and we’ll also have a brief Q&A time about our books — so bring your hardest questions. We will also be giving away some free copies of our books.
I love really, really, really hard questions, so the harder the questions, the better. Further, you can ask questions about anything; our books would be the best, but you can ask questions about the sovereignty of God, the Trinity, social justice, leadership, social media, hard passages in the Bible, or anything else. Literally anything and everything.
We’ll give some free books to people who ask the best and most difficult questions. (I recognize, of course, the irony there, because if you are asking questions, you’ve probably read the book and thus don’t need one! but then you’ll have another to give away.)
My book, obviously, is What’s Best Next: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done, which is about how to get things done and be productive in the new economy, in a gospel-centered way. It first gives a biblical vision for understanding our work, productivity, and the things we do every day; then, it gives a practical approach for improving our effectiveness for the glory of God in all areas of life (something which is sorely lacking right now in the church, in my view).
Alex is the author of several books, including Thriving at College and his latest, Preparing Your Teens for College. His books are about far more than college — at root, they are about what it means to be a mature adult and live life in a Gospel-centered way as a self-governing, competent individual. Hence, they are very related to the issue of productivity, as productivity is ultimately rooted in character and competence — which is what both of Alex’s books are ultimately about.
We look forward to seeing you!
In the back of the book, I mention that there is an online toolkit with additional resources. The toolkit is here.
In it, you will find some chapters I didn’t have space to include in the original book (such as on setting God-centered goals and what it really means to work in your strengths), some quick checklists, and a few really short articles on common issues in productivity.
The short articles might be especially interesting since they are quick reads and because I take a perspective contrary to conventional wisdom. For example, I argue that the concept of “workaholism” is often over-used and misused, and that mistakes are not something to fear at all costs.
The other day I was on Connecting Faith, a program here in the Twin Cities on Faith Radio hosted by Neil Stavem, talking about What’s Best Next and what it means to be productive in a God-centered way.
I really enjoyed the time, and you can listen to a highlight or the whole interview on their site (just scroll down and hit play), or right here:
Highlight:
The whole thing:
That’s one of the questions from my interview today on the book with Matt Mitchell.
Matt asked fantastic questions, and I really enjoyed doing the interview. You can read the interview at his blog, where I talk about why the book took so long, how productivity relates to sanctification and Christian discipleship, how it builds on but also differs from GTD, and much more.
And, here’s my answer to the first question, on whether “what’s best next” should be taken as a statement or a question:
1. What does the title, What’s Best Next, mean? Is that a statement or a question or both?
It’s first of all a statement. This book is about that which is best next, which is doing the will of the Lord (Ephesians 5:15-17).
So, what is the will of the Lord? We all know that what Jesus wants from us is love. So that’s what’s best next — love — and that’s the heart of the book. All of our productivity needs to be grounded in love — first, in terms of our motive (the good of the other person) but also in terms of how we make decisions at all.
And that’s what’s often overlooked: love is not just our motive in what we do, but is also supposed to be the guiding principle by which we decide what to do. What is best for the other person? That’s the question love asks, and therefore that’s the guiding principle of productivity. You don’t make choices based on what’s best for yourself next, but you make the welfare of the other person the motive and criterion for deciding what to do.
And so “what’s best next” is, second of all, also a question as well. We have so many things coming our way today. We have almost limitless options and opportunities now, and a massive amount of information to deal with every day. How do we make good decisions in the midst of this age of unlimited options? “What’s best next” is a question we can use to help guide us. The point is: you don’t need to do everything that’s next. You just need to do what’s best next.
The core principle of productivity is to do what’s most important first. So when you have a thousand things to do, stop and ask “what’s best next?” Then do that. Likewise, don’t do what’s easiest next; do what’s best next. This is a question we can continually use to guide us.
The book reached #244 on Amazon Wednesday…and then Amazon sold out! They placed another order on Wednesday, and are showing that they will have the book back in stock on Tuesday (but it will probably be sooner).
However, there are still copies in stock at Barnes & Noble and Westminster Bookstore. And, of course, the Kindle version doesn’t run out of stock and, incredibly, is only $8.99.
Let me say that the guys at Westminster Bookstore are especially great, and I highly commend them to you not only for What’s Best Next, but for your book buying in general when it comes to God-centered, gospel-oriented books.
Update: Sounds like Westminster is sold out as well! But they should be shipping again on Wednesday.
