Time management is one of the main areas where leaders exercise poor stewardship in their congregations. The sad thing is that we often time find ways to justify the dreadful job we are doing at being such poor managers of our time. Time, though precious, is either abused or squandered.
The management of time is relevant to all of us, leaders or not. Pastors for example have a great deal of freedom in how they use their time. Pastors decide what they do on any given day. Effective management of time is critical to the pastor. It determines how well (s)he is able to carry out ministry responsibilities.
Given all of that, pastors are among the most frustrated persons when it comes to managing time. I know. Juggling family commitments, church ministry demands, community activities, sermon preparation, bible studies, counselling sessions, meetings and visiting the sick and homebound is the perfect recipe for madness. We are never the brightest in realizing that we are trying to accomplish the impossible.
Very often family and personal life end up being badly neglected. In fact, I have heard some very unwise boastings by some male colleagues that they have never taken a vacation since they have been in ministry. What did I tell you about madness! I’ll leave that for another time.
The fact is too many church leaders are in control of their time. As such, we are not able to have a sense of where we are really at. We are either feeling out-of-control, overwhelmed, or on the edge of burnout. Time for assessment is rare.
Well if you paused to read this, then take some more time to look at the two things I now share with you.
RescueTime - is free time management software particularly for those who spend a lot (ok way too much time) online. This one is my favourite. I am always hitting my head and going “Oh no, I can’t believe I spent so much time doing that…”. If you’ve uttered that a few times then RescueTime is definitely for you.
Then a friend sent me this link as his indirect way of commenting on my ‘things-to-do-list’ that I shared with him. It was a timely reminder and I’ve started the little exercise as well.
Let me know how you are making out with them.
Marvia
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I think that for the most part the problem of not managing time wisely lies in thinking that it belongs to us, when in fact God is the sole owner of it…
Indeed, if we would but spend more time thinking about God in this way, we would likely not waste so much of His time trying to be in command of things that are out of our control, as if to give the impression that we are sitting on His throne. Thus, we would accomplish all that God would have us to, and still find time to regain our strength by resting in the Spirit.
Thanks for sharing this thought!
God bless you,
–Chris
Chris,
Thank you for visiting.
You are right of course. We do need to exercise better stewardship of God’s gift of time. It makes a world of difference when we keep things in proper perspective.
Peace,
Marvia
Hello Marvia,
I really like your take on technology and the church. It is an interesting period of transition for many congregations. With that in mind, I know that a big problem for many communities is document storage. You end up with years of church records and walls filled with file cabinets. I just wanted to let you know about a new, Web-based document storage and security service. It is made specifically for small businesses and entrepreneurs. You can get a free account for up to 256 MB and it is only $9 for the first GB. Please check it out at http://www.doclanding.com if you are interested.
Thanks and keep up the great writing.
Will
Will,
Thanks for visiting and for leaving that helpful storage resource link. I’ve looked at it and it does seem quite handy.
Peace!
In a growing church, if the time spent on the pulpit is not properly managed with optimum repect for the time of the congregation, it tends to keep only the matured christians in church while it sends the new birth right to where they came from.
Thanks for visiting Tunji,
You are so right! It is a controversial issue of course. Pastors so often claim 'the Spirit' has taken over so they go on for ever. And for some it's ok. However it causes problems for even some of the mature.
This past Sunday I was at a worship service which went on for 21/2 hours because it was a United Worship, with communion and several additional selections and presentations. I was conscious of the time because I was left for last and doing the sermon. So being conscious of the time I had to do a rush job. I didn't feel too happy with that but the people were pleased with what they got. I was grumpy about the time of the service and I was vindicated for feeling a little vexed about how long we went on. Why? Because an elderly lady was brought to sit beside me during lunch and she was seating profusely. When I asked what happened to her, I was told she was diabetic.
When she doesn't eat on time that is what happens. So she sat in the service and suffered because she did not want to get up – she was raised not to walk out of church. I've heard that story enough for me to try to restrain myself, and plan worship much better to ensure that we meet the needs of everyone possible. The spirit makes us sensitive and discerning not insensitive and egotistic.
Take care!
Findly your material very helpful.I need help on how to manage time.What effects are there on having for a long time in a sermon.
I was saying I have found your material to be very helpful and would like to be equiped with more info on how to get the best out of your time.Say when it comes to preaching,keeping people for a long time what effects are there etc.