What happens when the life hacks stop working? On this episode of The Shepherding Time podcast, Rush Witt and Joe Keller talk with Tim Challies — pastor, author, and one of the most prolific voices in Christian blogging — about the season roughly a decade ago when his time management fully broke down, and what it took to rebuild it from the ground up.

Tim describes hitting a wall while juggling full-time church staff work, full-time blogging, and family life — and how quick fixes never held. The real change came from going back to foundational questions: why productivity matters biblically, and what's morally at stake when we fail to steward our time well. He and Rush dig into the principle that has shaped his ministry ever since — that we're qualified for ministry only if we're properly caring for our family — and the concrete rhythms that lived it out, like rotating Saturday breakfasts with each of his kids and hard stop times between work and home. Tim also opens up about the new season he and his wife are navigating as recent empty nesters, including a surprising discovery: now that they're free to travel more, they mostly just want to stay home.

About Tim Challies:
Tim Challies is a pastor, author, and blogger at Challies.com, widely regarded as one of the most influential voices in Christian publishing. He wrote the foreword to Shepherding Time: A Pastor's Guide to Time Management.

This episode is a companion to the book Shepherding Time: A Pastor's Guide to Time Management by Rush Witt and Joe Keller (New Growth Press). Get your copy:

New Growth Press
Amazon

Subscribe to The Shepherding Time wherever you listen, and share this episode with a pastor who needs it.

RESOURCES MENTIONED
Challies.com
Matt Perman's writing on productivity
CJ Mahaney's focus on biblical productivity
Shepherding Time: A Pastor's Guide to Time Management — NGP and Amazon links above

What does discipleship look like when most of your work happens alone at a desk? On this episode of The Shepherding Time podcast, Rush Witt and Joe Keller talk with Dr. Ben Gladd, executive director of the Carson Center for Theological Renewal, about how he stays relationally connected while working remotely on some of evangelicalism's biggest publishing projects.

Ben shares two simple, practical habits: sending quick encouraging texts to friends old and new, and intentionally going to lunch with local pastors and professors — including people he doesn't naturally click with, because the awkward relationships are often the ones that need it most. He and Rush unpack the difference between transactional relationships (task in, task out) and transformational ones (caring about who someone is, not just what they do), and Ben explains a small communication habit — a few extra seconds of warmth in every email or Slack message — that has changed how people relate to him over his whole career. He closes with a window into how he manages dozens of writing and editing projects at once, using a filter borrowed from D.A. Carson: only take on work the church needs, or work the church doesn't yet know it needs.

About Ben Gladd:
Dr. Ben Gladd is the executive director of the Carson Center for Theological Renewal and a widely published New Testament scholar and editor, known for his work connecting Scripture across the biblical storyline. He is currently finishing a major commentary on Mark and co-leading an Old Testament companion to his Connecting Scripture project with Michael Morales.

This episode is a companion to the book Shepherding Time: A Pastor's Guide to Time Management by Rush Witt and Joe Keller (New Growth Press). Get your copy:

New Growth Press
Amazon

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Connecting Scripture (New Testament) — Ben Gladd
Old Testament companion to Connecting Scripture — Ben Gladd and Michael Morales
The Gospel Coalition (TGC)
Carson Center for Theological Renewal

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How should a pastor think about time when just being "more efficient" isn't enough? On this episode of The Shepherding Time podcast, hosts Rush Witt and Joe Keller sit down with Reagan Rose — the Bible teacher behind Redeeming Productivity — to talk pastoral time management from a biblical, stewardship-first perspective.

Reagan shares how a seminary classroom full of overwhelmed future pastors first pushed him to write about time management, then walks through two of the highest-leverage habits in his own life: a fifteen-year morning routine built around a simple acronym (POWER: Prayer, Organize, Word, Exercise, Reading) and a growing conviction about Sabbath rest as a spiritual discipline that makes the rest of the week more productive, not less. The conversation turns to a framework Reagan's been developing for pastors who feel the pull to always do more: four kinds of time — Goal time, Grow time, Grit time, and Gift time — and why most time management advice only ever addresses one of them.

If you lead a church, plant a church, or shepherd people day to day, this episode will give you real categories for stewarding your whole life, not just your calendar.

About Reagan Rose:
Reagan Rose is the founder of Redeeming Productivity, where he teaches personal productivity from a Christian worldview through articles, videos, and a growing YouTube channel. Find his work at redeemingproductivity.com or search "Redeeming Productivity" on YouTube.

This episode is a companion to the book Shepherding Time: A Pastor's Guide to Time Management by Rush Witt and Joe Keller (New Growth Press). Get your copy: [order link]

Subscribe to The Shepherding Time wherever you listen, and share this episode with a pastor who needs it.

RESOURCES MENTIONED

• Redeeming Productivity — Youtube
• redeemingproductivity.com
• Deep Work by Cal Newport (referenced)
• Shepherding Time: A Pastor's Guide to Time Management — Available at:
  New Growth Press
  Amazon