Welcome to the For the Gospel podcast, where we are all about sound doctrine for everyday people. I'm your host, Kosti Hinn, and on today's episode, I am joined by my dear friend and brother. And fun fact, not a lot of people know, Reagan Rose actually helped us start for the gospel. He was our first ever, I guess second ever, but first like official website builder and so much more. Reagan, you are a godly brother. You're so faithful. The Lord has uh continued to grow your ministry, redeeming productivity. You have been incredibly productive as a friend to us, and we're excited about all that God is doing in your life. Welcome to the For the Gospel podcast, brother.
SPEAKER_00Thanks. It's good to be here. I'm excited to sit down and get to chat with you a little bit about these important topics.
SPEAKER_04Love it. Well, we are right now in a multi-week series on spiritual disciplines, and I wanted to have you on. Week one was about prayer. Week two was about how to study and retain the Bible, and week three with you is titled How to Kill Laziness and Thrive. The reason I had you on is because I have in my hands right now a copy of your book. It is the book Redeeming Productivity: Getting More Done for the Glory of God. You are not just some guy who talks about productivity, although you do and you do it well. You're not just some guy who helps people succeed more in their daily disciplines and being organized and structured in life, although that is definitely something you do well. I love your material because all of it is viewed through the lens of the gospel. All of it is geared towards the glory of God. That's why we want to be productive. And so I wanted to have you on to help people kill laziness and help them thrive. Would you speak to your passion, your ministry, uh, your book, and then I want to get into one of your top weapons, if you will, for people to kill laziness? Let's go.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you know, I this is a subject near and dear to my heart because I was and I'm still, you know, fight with it sometimes, lazy. Like I'm given to laziness. I know I am. And even as a young man, very much I was I was addicted to video games. I kind of did anything to avoid responsibilities. And so when the Lord really got a hold of my heart uh as a young adult, and I started to understand just um how important how the gospel touches every area of life, that it really gives you a mission, that there is a purpose beyond just you get saved and you wait for heaven, that God's given us work here to do. It really lit my heart on fire, this expansive vision of living a life that is totally dedicated to God's glory. And so I started reading about productivity because you know, you quickly, I think a lot of people get into this, they they start to realize, yes, Christ is my Lord, I want to serve him, and then they run into this problem. I don't know how to manage my time. I don't know how to get myself to do the things that I want to do. They're gonna help me to grow, they're gonna help me to serve him. And so that's why I've really dug deep into the topic of productivity because I need it, and then the more I've gotten into it, uh the more I've realized so many of the secular resources on this topic that can be helpful. There's some common grace wisdom, but really there is a biblical foundation, and there are some truths that fundamentally alter the way that Christians think about time management and productivity, and we really have to take those to heart if we're going to uh live lives that that are focused on glorifying God in every aspect.
SPEAKER_04So good. I want to just highlight as well, we have done an episode together, we had you on previously to talk actually about video games. And so if you heard what Reagan just said, you go, oh man, that's me. Or I know someone who I love and care about, and I want to kind of talk to them about balance in this area. Go and search our podcast history on Apple or Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. And I had Reagan on, and the whole focus was video games. But here now, we want to talk about killing laziness and thriving as believers. Reagan, could you for a moment? I think we're kind of in this generation, but Gen Gen Z slash millennials, but even dipping back into Gen Z a little bit, these generations now that are raised on screens, as well as a generation that may not be as blue-collar, in the sense that, not saying people don't work hard, but people are getting rich fast through YouTube and people are taking shortcuts. And also now, if you could uh make videos and post and you're good at social media, you could literally have no college degree and make a ton of money. So a lot of young people are looking for this fast track. At the same time, I think of issues of fatherlessness in our culture. I think of the destruction or the assault on the nuclear family, and it seems that a lot of blue-collar hard work values are out the door, and more and more employers, and even in the church, we're having to be very patient with a generation that wants to learn, but they just don't know how to be a grinder, you know, how to work hard, how to wake up early and how to get after it. Could you speak to some of those challenges and really your heart, and then we can jump into uh how to jumpstart your day and how to get started on being productive?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. You know, I I totally resonate with that, that this idea that so many things in life in modern times can come really, really fast. You could like you said, you can make money really fast if you are proficient online, and most anything we do, like I I literally ordered something last night on Amazon and it was here this morning when I woke up. Like you start to apply that thinking to everything in life, but there are some things that can't come quickly. One of those things is spiritual growth. There are no shortcuts, really. It's it's long, slow grind. Same thing with wisdom. You can learn things from other people, but you really have to develop discipline to get the things that are most important, most high quality in life. There's even, I can't remember the proverb right now, but it's something alongs along the lines of wealth gained hastily will go hastily. The idea was that the people who acquire money really, really quickly lose it really, really quickly. And I think that that there's a principle there that can be expanded beyond money as well. A lot of things that we gain quickly go away just as quickly as they come. And so learning those skills of discipline allows you to build a life that that's much higher quality, much denser in terms of the skills you've acquired and the way in which you appreciate what you have. So all that to say, discipline is incredibly helpful, and it has to be something that we appreciate as Christians if we want to live God-honoring lives. And so, as I mentioned, the idea of spiritual growth, for example, you cannot fast forward that. You can't fast forward that. You know, you might go and have um weekends that where you quickly grow a lot because you've heard some great speakers and the Lord's working in your life. Certainly those leaps and bounds happen. But on the whole, you are going in five years, you're gonna be the product of your faithfulness in reading the word, in praying, in being in fellowship with the saints, week after week, day after day, on the grind, seven days a week. And it doesn't look glamorous, it's not flashy, but you cannot shortcut that. You can't shortcut that. And so you gotta put in the hours today and the time today to have the the results of spiritual maturity then. It's a lot like exercise, right? You you can't, you know, people try crash diets and then they crash. Um, but you can't build spiritual muscle um without discipline, it's just not possible.
SPEAKER_04So good. Okay, I want to peel back the layers here really quick because people won't know this yet, or maybe some of them do. Tell everyone listening or watching right now where you went to seminary, how long you went to seminary for, and what set the stage for the published author with Moody, the Reagan Rose we all know now, the Reagan Rose that came and helped us, you know, get for the gospel founded and started and built out. Um now you have your own ministry, you live in Michigan with your wife Kim, your two kids. I mean, did you just kind of fast track it, decide to wake up one day, you watch some YouTube videos, and now here you are? What made the man Reagan Rose who he is today?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you know, um I hesitate to hold myself up as any kind of an example, but I can I can share how I got to where I am now. And it it was a slow process and lots of bumps along the road. It's not something that you can plan out either. Um I I went to the Master's Seminary where you're doing uh your doctoral work right now, I know, as well. And uh I went there for three years back in 2014. That in and of itself, anybody who knows, it's a big sacrifice. I moved from Michigan to California with my wife, and we grinded it out for three years, served there, served with grace to you, John MacArthur's ministry, doing digital platforms, um, working on online ministry stuff. And then all the while studying and reading, not just the word of God, but studying per what is what does it mean to be productive? What the what is the theology of our vocation? What how do these things fit together in a way that that makes sense for Christians? And so what I'm doing now with with the book and um with my ministry is really just a product of at least a decade of focused attention to studying God's word and studying personal productivity and making the little videos and podcasts and all that, that's just that's just the distribution mechanism. The the the quality to whatever degree there's quality there is in the information and that is hard one through deep study and a lot of reflection.
SPEAKER_04Wow. So if I were to even boil that down into a basic point, if we said, you know, how do you kill laziness and thrive? Start taking the marathon approach, take the long road, have a delayed gratification mindset. Laziness is usually looking for a fast track, it's sloth, it's looking for quick, ill-gotten gains. And so I think that's so helpful and such a good point. I know you don't put yourself up as some sort of you know pedestal example, but just as a friend and as a ministry partner and a guy who who knows you a bit and has watched you all the way back, kind of knowing you in seminary and seeing you in the basement there and saying hello, there has been uh a progression. And it is about 10 years. I mean, most guys, doesn't matter who you are. I think back to my life 10 years ago, and some of our team and people in our church, and I think, wow, yeah, the Lord over the course of those 10 years has been building slowly into us the maturity, the knowledge, the wisdom, and then even still, leaders are learners, and so we're constantly learning, but it's never, ever a fast process. And so, you who are watching this or listening to it, don't get this idea that we jump on social media and just do this or that and write books, and it's all just an influencer game. The Lord takes your life and he shapes it. You don't always know where you're going or what he's doing, you're just trying to be faithful in that particular moment. Like Jim Elliott once said, wherever you are, be all there. And that's what we do every single day. So, Reagan, on that note, if you could pick one thing to focus in on for the rest of this episode, what would be a game changer for people if you could say, let's start here? How to kill laziness and thrive. Where would you send them or what would you offer them?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Now I I love to match the why with the what. That's one of my big things. I love to think about the why of productivity. Why are we doing this for God's glory? How does how do we think about it? Because that's important. But I love the what too. I love the practical stuff. And I always say, whenever anyone asks me, what's like the one thing I can do to start being more productive, start um being less lazy, start fighting back against procrastination. And the thing I always say, because this was literally transformed my life, is start having a morning routine. And it sounds so simple. And if you go on YouTube and Google morning routines, you're gonna get like billionaire mindset morning routine, like the cringiest stuff you can imagine. Um, you know, wake up at 3 a.m. and drink a thing of green sludge and then work out for six hours.
SPEAKER_03I've seen that before. The and I'm laughing at it, like if guys do this, it's great, but I've seen the CEO secret morning routine. It's like it get a really nice pair of running shoes. So I did, and then it's like wake up at four, run, then eat oatmeal, and then meditate. I'm like, who do you people have kids? Does anybody and maybe that's why all these business leaders are getting divorced? Like, did you you're in great shape and you're rich, but nobody ever wants to be with you in the family.
SPEAKER_01Um their morning routine takes like 36 hours by itself.
SPEAKER_03It's called selfishness.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. No, so I'm not I'm not talking about that, but there is there is some wisdom in there. There's a reason people successful people, even in um you know earthly terms, they're they always point back to these morning routine things. Because I I think there's wisdom there. What you do when you first wake up sets the tone for the day. Hands down. What you do when you first wake up, do you reach for your phone or do you reach for the word of God? Um, that is going to change how you look at your day. And I I I call this giving God the first fruits of your day. You know, just like in the Old Testament, they would people would give God the first fruits of their harvest as a symbolic gesture to say, it all really belongs to you, but I'm gonna give you the first and the best as an indication of that. And so that's what I'm saying every day. I wake up, I want to have a set routine of a few things I do so that I'm putting God first, but also cultivating some really healthy habits. And the brilliance of this, I I think, is all you have to learn is one habit. You're like bundling a bunch of really good, healthy habits that are gonna help you to grow in multiple areas of life into one habit. I have a little plan, all I have to do is wake up and do that plan. So it doesn't feel so overwhelming, like, oh, I need to learn to when I'm gonna read my Bible, I need to figure out a time and what I'm gonna do when I pray, I need to make time for exercise. Nope. A morning routine basically bundles that all together. So you just have to do one thing. That's what it feels like at least.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, talk to us about it. If I it's one of my favorite parts of your book, and because I'm the practical guy, I'm like, if it's if it's you know memorable and portable, one of these one-liners I've heard before, if it's memorable, it's portable. If it's gonna be portable, it's gotta be memorable. Meaning if you're gonna take it with you. Uh, the power routine, and this by no means gives away the rest of your book, but there's one kind of approach that, man, the power routine in the morning, talk about that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. So I follow this acronym POW, and so the P is for prayer, the O is for organize, W is for Word, as in God's word, E is for exercise, and R, I have to check my notes, is for reading and writing. So I I forget my own acronym. Power. And the idea is that's five distinct things, but each of them taken together, you know, it's like Captain Planet style thing. Now that's that's one that's gonna go over Gen Z head. But like when you combine those two, you've got some serious power to starting your day. The nice uh light blue mullet. That's uh that's a look. Yeah, you remember that? Yeah, I love that show. But the the power acronym, you you basically you make a plan uh for each of these elements. So prayer. Um well let me back up a little bit. First, you make a plan for when you're gonna do these things. Any habit, really, to make it happen, has to start with a when and a where. Right? So when am I going to do this habit and where am I gonna do it? And so our uh for me, I have a little couch in the basement and I do it every morning at the same time. I come down and I have a list of the things I do. I have uh a list of people to pray for, uh so that hits the P. I have the word, the W part, so I have a Bible reading plan I'm using, it's not intense. This is another thing I I'm big on to. I think Bible reading plans are great, but if you can't keep with it, then lower your lower the bar. Do a really short Bible reading plan, build that habit into place. So there's the word, yeah. There is the organize that's planning your day ahead. So the O in power is deciding. So, what are the three big things I'm gonna do today, and when am I gonna do those? You do that as part of your morning routine. Uh, the E is exercise, and people some people have different exercise routines and stuff. I'm not saying you have to do your whole workout in the morning, but just something to get the blood flowing, right? Some push-ups, some jumping jacks, something simple so that you're orienting your whole self towards the day, your mind, your body, your spirit. It's like you're waking yourself up with this routine. And then the last one that that I like to incorporate is reading and writing, the R. And that is I have a few books, I have like a pile of books I'm trying to read through, and I'll just read maybe a chapter. Sometimes it'll only be five, six pages. And but if you do that, again, it's the compounding effects of habits. If you read a little bit each and every day, you'd be blown away by how many books you can read. And the coolest part of all this, Costi, is when you do this, you feel amazing right afterwards. It's like this uh virtuous cycle, it's self-perpetuating. When you finish your your power morning thing, a lot of people are like, I don't want to wake up early, and and there's some tricks to that too. But you feel incredible because you feel like you just won the day and the day hasn't started yet. So it's an incredible feeling. Instead of starting on your heels where you wake up and you're all like, oh, I'm just gonna rush and go to the bathroom and get get everything ready and take a shower and then rush out the door, and so you're just feeling in a panic. You started with a deliberate plan, and then when you met the rest of the day, you're already right with the Lord. You've already done all the most important things you need to do. Your mind's bot, you're ready, your body's ready. It's just a great feeling.
SPEAKER_04Man, I love that. It's so simple to remember. So you got P, it's prayer. Oh, get organized, kind of make your list, know what you're doing, where we're heading. That maybe could even include like what am I reading today? What am I doing? What am I doing today? And then um read. No, sorry, the word W. Word, E, exercise, R. Reading, writing. You mentioned a little comment there about waking up early and having some tips for that. I am my wife says I'm a morning person. I think I'm a morning person because I've become addicted to being productive in a sense, in a good way, addicted, like waking up and I don't want to waste the day. The Lord's given us time and I want to use that wisely. It's stewardship. I am I am obsessed with stewarding time well, and so uh waking up early, getting after it, because the the feeling is I believe there's a God-given wiring in which we do these things, like you said, and that cycle begins. We're built to to execute habitually, and that can work against us with sin and darkness, but it also works for us with righteousness, light, and seeking the Lord. If someone says, Oh, I'm I'm not a morning person, or I just can't wake up, you know. What are some things that you would begin to ask or even diagnose? And I'd say you have permission to go there, like maybe ask a few hard questions. Like, are you staying up late, Netflix binging? Are you uh not planning out your morning? Are you not even thinking? You're just sort of reacting all the time. Speak to us about all of it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. Um, I was not a morning person myself growing up. It wasn't until I got married, and my wife sleeps an insane amount of time each night. She needs it. It's just it's mind-boggling to me. But we made a commitment when we got married that we would always go to bed at the same time. You know, there's a few exceptions, things going on, one of us out of town or something, but um 99% of the time we go to bed at the same time. Problem, my wife went to bed at nine o'clock. So I I need about seven, seven and a half hours to be productive. And this is how I got into morning routines, actually, is we were going to bed at nine, and I was waking up at 4:30, 5 in the morning and being like, what do I do now? And so for a while, I was going on social media, I was watching TV, I was killing time. And after a while, I realized, wow, Lord, you've given me this huge blessing. Now I have extra time. What I mean, who wouldn't want extra time? And it's focused, nobody's asking me for anything. And that's how I really got into an experimenting. What are the yeah, what are the best things I can cram into this time? Um, but but right in there is one of the solutions. If you want to develop a morning team, this is something you're like, I want to do it, but I struggle to carve out that time. Look, the the math is not that complicated when you think about it. If you want to wake up a little earlier, you gotta go to bed a little earlier. And this is the rub for a lot of people. We stay up too late on our phones, on Netflix, all these different things. Fine thing. It's fine to have some entertainment. It's fine to go on your phone. I'm not poo-pooing that stuff. But if you want to have this extra time in the morning so that you can focus on these things are gonna help you to grow, you're gonna have to make sacrifices. There's no such time there's no such thing as just finding time. You make time, and you make time by sacrificing in other places. And so I I encourage people, if you're looking to do something like this, just start with a 30-minute morning routine and just say, I'm gonna go to bed 30 minutes early. And that means for a lot of people, what they find helpful is setting an alarm on your phone. Not to wake up, but an alarm to go to bed. Because what you don't want to do is just start sleeping less because you're gonna fall out of the habit, you're and it's gonna lead to other problems in your life if you just try to give up sleep. What you need to do is sl is shift your sleep routine a little bit, and that's gonna make the time for it.
SPEAKER_04So good. Okay, last big question. All of this is practical, all of it is so helpful. Why does it glorify God to go to bed early, wake up early, do the power morning routine, and get after it? Why does it glorify God? Aren't you just obsessed with success and productivity? Aren't you just another one of those people that, you know, I'm really just doing all this, it makes me feel good. Well, then it's all about you. You have responses for all of that. Why does all this glorify God?
SPEAKER_01Because you you said it, it's a stewardship. This is not my life. It's not my life. I am bought by the blood of Jesus Christ. And my time, there's no such thing as my time. It's his time. What I do with this life belongs to him. And that is some people hear that, like, oh man, that sounds so oppressive. No, you've been given purpose by God. It's the most wonderful thing in the world. You know why you're here. So many people the world over look around and they say, Why are we here? Why why does this world exist? What's what's the meaning of my life? You know, you were made to glorify God. And I, as a steward of this life, as a steward of this time, however much God's given me, I want to use it well. And and to me, it's it's not it's not a legalistic thing. It's an opportunity. It's it's daily and weekly looking at your life and saying, How can I how can I improve this a little bit? Not so I can get some sort of like temporal success, not so I can be famous or rich or something like that. Whatever. It's because my God deserves more glory. And I want to serve him with every ounce that I have and every moment I have left. And so, yeah, that means your life's gonna look a little bit different. You're gonna look a little weird. You may not be on social media as much as other people, you may not watch as many shows as other people because you're making sacrifices for this. But my goodness, when you look back from eternity, are you gonna regret it? No way, no way, it is 100% worth the sacrifice because man, he sacrificed so much for us.
SPEAKER_04I love that. I am constantly just as you're talking, thinking of the affection of the heart, burning affection for the Lord, a love for him, a love for our God, and a love for his glory. Brother, you embody that, you fire me up, you inspire me, and you educate me. I would encourage you, if you do not have a copy of Reagan Rose's book, Redeeming Productivity, Getting More Done for the Glory of God, you are missing out on having one of the great weapons the Lord has given you. Obviously, it's extra biblical, no one's gonna say it's on par with scripture. I'm just saying as you read the word and then you look for other resources that will drive you towards God's word. You've got to have this one on your bookshelf. The Ford is by Tim Chalice, who is no stranger to productivity and a love for time management. And so thankful for Tim and his ministry. Reagan, thank you for putting in the work. Thank you for waking up early and for going to bed early so that you could produce books like this and dig deep into the well of your affection for Christ and then pour that out into our lives. Thank you so much, brother.
SPEAKER_02Thank you, Costi. Appreciate you so much.
SPEAKER_04Grateful for you. Is there a place where people can go to uh watch some of your videos, your content, uh go to your website or subscribe for your content? You have actually a regular newsletter and re well, not even a newsletter, a regular resource that goes right to people's inboxes, don't you?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, in fact, the the best thing you can do if you're interested in productivity from a Christian worldview, go to my website, it's redeemingproductivity.com. And I actually have a morning routine planner you can download. It's free there. If you go there and you sign up for my newsletter, I'll send you a PDF morning routine planner to help you plan all this stuff out. And you also get on my newsletter where I share resources on personal productivity, a lot of the tools, a lot of the mindset stuff that's gonna help you think biblically about this topic, but also give you the practical tools to help you put it into work in your own life.
SPEAKER_04Awesome. Reagan, thank you for being a friend, a partner. Love you, brother. Grateful for your ministry. Keep going.
SPEAKER_02Thanks, brother. I love you so much. Appreciate you.
SPEAKER_04Love you too, man. Thanks for listening. Thanks for watching. For the gospel is made possible, and we get to put out these free resources because of incredible partners like you. And so thank you again for all your support. For free resources, go to forthegospel.org. And if you're not already, be sure to follow us on all social media platforms so that you can redeem your feed with the amount of filth that is out there. Have some gospel in your day as you scroll through social media. I'll be back next Monday with another episode. For now, keep on living for the gospel.