The Call to Excellence


In Today’s Issue:

  • Productivity Workshop
  • How to Do Great Work
  • The Calling to Excellence
  • How Can I Evangelize My Employees?
  • Book Giveaway

Dear steward,

This is your weekly roundup of insights and resources to help you on your journey to becoming a more productive Christian for the glory of God.

No new essay this week. I’ve been focused on the reopening of Redeeming Productivity Academy and preparing for tomorrow's workshop.

Speaking of which, I’d love to have you join us tomorrow at 12 pm Eastern Time for the Post-Summer Productivity Reset.

This time of year, many of us are still reeling from the transition from Summer to Fall and the looming end of the year. It can be quite disorienting. And it's normal to not quite have your feet under you yet.

That's why, in this free webinar, we aim to help you create an actionable plan to tame the chaos and get clarity for these final months of the year.

What we’ll cover in the workshop:

  • Resetting your spiritual disciplines
  • Getting clarity on your projects and goals
  • Prioritizing your commitments so you can focus on what matters most

I’d love to have you join us live tomorrow. Just use this link to register.

But in the meantime, let's jump straight into this week's roundup portion of the newsletter!

Reagan’s Roundup

How to Do Great Work (45 mins)

Paul Graham

Yes, this is an essay that is estimated to take you 45 minutes to read. But believe me, it's worth the time.

It was published in July by Paul Graham, co-founder of the startup accelerator Y Combinator, and I have read it multiple times myself.

Graham has had a unique opportunity to study “great work” as he has walked alongside hundreds of startups and observed the differences between excellence and mediocrity.

Even at nearly 12,000 words, this essay has zero fluff. It’s just gold nugget after gold nugget.

Like this:

Great work usually entails spending what would seem to most people an unreasonable amount of time on a problem. You can't think of this time as a cost, or it will seem too high. You have to find the work sufficiently engaging as it's happening.

And this:

Since there are two senses of starting work — per day and per project — there are also two forms of procrastination. Per-project procrastination is far the more dangerous. You put off starting that ambitious project from year to year because the time isn't quite right. When you're procrastinating in units of years, you can get a lot not done.

And this:

One way to aim high is to try to make something that people will care about in a hundred years. Not because their opinions matter more than your contemporaries', but because something that still seems good in a hundred years is more likely to be genuinely good.

Graham does not claim to be a believer, and there are things Christians would disagree with in the essay and the worldview it comes from. But I share it with you because Christians are indeed called to excellence. And there is wisdom to be gleaned from Graham’s observations of the patterns of excellence he’s seen.

And it pairs quite nicely with the following link...

The Calling to Excellence (16 mins)

R.C. Sproul / Ligonier

I dare you to read this and not get both convicted and inspired.

As Christians who believe in God’s forgiveness, we understand that we’re not going to lose our salvation, that we’re not going to lose the acceptance that we have in the Christian community. But from that we often draw the false conclusion that there’s no point in trying. There’s no point in developing a gift that God has given us to the fullest measure that we can.

Join the Community for Productive Christians

This week, our membership program, Redeeming Productivity Academy, reopened to new members.

  • 20+ Courses & Workshops: Learn productivity from a distinctly Christian worldview
  • Quarterly Goals: Get accountability to set & reach God-glorifying goals
  • Community: Grow alongside 200 other productivity-minded believers

Let's get more done for the glory of God together.

Join today!


How Can I Evangelize My Employees? (4 mins)

Miranda Carls / The Gospel Coalition

We often talk about how to be a light for Christ at work. But when you’re in management, the power dynamic can add a layer of complexity. Miranda provides wise counsel here:

“But speaking about Christ can be tricky to navigate with those we manage. We want to ensure our employees don’t feel pressured or manipulated, even inadvertently, through our attempts to share our faith.”

Her three pieces of advice:

  1. Understand (and fulfill) your responsibilities – i.e., be a good boss. Or, to keep with this week's theme, do your job with excellence.
  2. Identify as a Christian – Hide it under a bushel? No. If the people you work with know you at all, they should know you’re a Christian.
  3. Look for opportunities – And pray for them.
  4. Remain Spirit-led – Relax. It's God's work to save sinners; we just get to participate in the process.

Read this one today if you’re a manager or boss in a secular work environment.

Well Done Book Giveaway

You can win a copy of my newest book!

Aaron Lee of Dive in Dig Deep and the SOLA Network is giving away a signed copy of my latest book, Well Done: A Strategy for Life Stewardship.

Enter to win.

Also, check out Aaron’s review of the book.

Quote of the Week

No work of art is more important than the Christian’s life, and every Christian is called to be an artist in this sense. . . . The Christian’s life is to be a thing of truth and also a thing of beauty in the midst of a lost and despairing world.

Francis Schaeffer

Final Word

We talked a lot about excellence in this issue. And that's my aim with this newsletter. I want to help encourage and equip you to be productive for God's glory.

So, if you ever have any suggestions for resources I should include or ways I can improve the newsletter, know that your feedback is always welcome! Just hit reply.

Thanks for reading.

Hope to see you at tomorrow's workshop!


Reagan Rose

I talk about personal productivity from a Christian perspective. Creator of ​Redeeming Productivity​.


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