Taking personal responsibility

On our recent flight to Austin, Texas to visit our son I read John Maxwell's book High Road Leadership. This is a book I would strongly recommend to anyone in a leadership position. The principles found in this book are pertinent to anyone in a leadership position whether that be in a church, a business, a non-profit or even a family. In one section of the book Maxwell writes about the importance of each person taking responsibility for themselves.

So many want to play the "blame game" and try to focus all their shortcomings onto others. A large section of our population see themselves as victims and spend enormous amounts of time feeling sorry for themselves and waiting for someone to come along and rescue them from their problems. Maxwell had the good fortune to have been raised by parents much like mine. Countless times growing up my parents reminded me that society owed me nothing. If I was to have anything, be anything or accomplish anything it would come because I earned it. It sounds like his parents taught him the same values.

He lists several areas of his life for which he had taken responsibility. Because he has taken personal responsibility in these areas he has enjoyed tremendous success as a speaker, a writer and a leader. I am convinced that anyone who assumes responsibility in these areas will also enjoy far more success in life than those who wait on someone to come in riding a white horse to rescue them. I share them here.

Attitude - Although we cannot control all the events of our lives, we can control our attitude. A positive attitude will defeat a negative one every day.

Time - Each of us are limited to the same number of hours each day. We must be responsible for how we use those hours and avoid distractions by lesser demands on our time.

Priorities - One way to maximize our time is to work as much as possible on the things we have identified as the most important every day. We cannot allow others to determine our priorities.

Potential - Only one person is responsible for your personal growth, and that is you. If you are not growing as an individual it's no one's fault but your own.

Passion - I have attended and benefitted from a number of motivational seminars, but motivation is an inside job. No one can truly motivate another person. The best they can do is to create a climate in which you can motivate yourself. It's up to us to maintain the passion we feel.

Calling - Each of us have unique gifts that are to be used to fulfill the calling God has on our lives. While it is appropriate to seek godly counsel regarding calling, this is something each person must decide for themselves. When we work in the areas for God has created us, we will enjoy much more success.

While the list is Maxwell's, the commentary following each item is mine. Taking responsibility for each of these areas every day is not easy. There are always going to be people who will try to take that responsibility from you. We cannot allow that to happen if we want to be people in leadership.

Now is the Time

 Many of us live in a wonderful land of Someday Isle. How many times have you said, "Someday I'll....?" You can fill in the blank yourself. We've all been there and done that. Faced with opportunities and choices we often choose to put them off until a more convenient time. We come up with dozens of reasons why this isn't the right time to do .... Ah, but someday I'll get around to doing that.

Then a funny thing happens. One day we realize that time has passed us by and there isn't time to do that thing. When this realization hits something happens inside us. A dream dies, and a little bit of us dies as well.

Who among us has not wished we could go back and relive our lives, or at least part of it. I doubt anyone wants to go back to when we were being potty trained, but there are many times in my life I wish I had made different decisions. I would love to have the opportunity to revisit those times and make a different decision than the one I made at the time.

Even though I've been blessed with opportunities to do many things in my life, there's probably 101 other things I would have liked to have done. Many of the things I did do I wish I had done differently.

Probably my two biggest regrets is that I wish I had become a Christian sooner than I did, and I wish I had gone into the ministry sooner. Out of all the things I've done in my life, apart from my family, nothing has been more rewarding that the ministry to which God called me.

Since we cannot turn back time I want to encourage you to make the best of every minute. Focus on the things that are most important to you and give them the time and commitment they deserve. Live every moment. Live life to the fullest. Determine what God has called you to do and pour yourself into that.

Now is the time to read that book, take that vacation, develop a savings and investment strategy, or further your education. Now is the time to spend more time with your family and create memories that will outlast you. Now is the time to clear away the clutter in your life so you can more easily focus on the things that are truly important. And, now is the time to invite Jesus Christ into your life if you've not already done that. The Bible says that "Today is the day of salvation."

Don't put off the most important things in life until tomorrow because none of us are promised tomorrow. Now is the time to do the things you've always wanted to do.

Where does the time go?

 The great Baptist preacher Vance Havner wrote 

A South Carolina friend told me about meeting a typical old Southern gentleman who said, "I used to come over to your town quite often in the old days. It was a day's round trip by horse and buggy. I can do it in an hour now but I don't have time!" That just about sums up the tempo - and the tragedy - of these hurried times. I noticed recently that one of our church hymnals now no longer carries the precious song, "Take Time to be Holy." Who has time to be holy? We've got a program we must put over!"

Wow! Truer words have not been written. At one time people were concerned with computers and all the other "time-saver devices" that people's biggest problem would be boredom, but I haven't found that to be a problem. Neither have most people. In fact, it's just the opposite. It seems the more time we save, the busier we are and the less time we have. 

Holiness does take time. So does relationships. I can remember growing up on the farm and spending many evenings sitting on the front porch with family or visiting neighbors. Few of us even know our neighbors today. I remember one evening coming home from a PTA meeting with Mom (do they even have those anymore?) and seeing Dad sitting on the front porch talking to a neighbor. He had come over close to dark, went back to our lake and caught a feed sack full of bull frogs. He was going to take them home to get a mess of frog legs for future meals after visiting for awhile.

Some talk about the good old days, but I doubt that many really want to go back to dirt roads, outhouses, kerosene lamps or three channels on our TV sets. What they probably mean is that they wish we again had time to build relationships with one another, spend time with our families, have time to actually sit down to think and meditate on truly important things, take long walks down country roads and spend quiet time with God.

The same is true for churches. Some of us spend so much time trying to find ways to make our churches bigger that we fail to make them deeper. Like our relationships, many churches are a mile wide and an inch deep. Too many people's faith lacks substance and depth. Even if they sing "Take Time to be Holy" a look at their lives would find little holiness.

I wonder what would happen if we slowed our lives down a little and focused more on the really important things in life and less on what others think is urgent. What if we spent more time in the Word of God and less in the things of the world? How would our lives be different? What if we spent less of our time on lesser things and began investing our time in more important things? 

Using your time wisely

Jonathan Edwards once wrote in his diary, "Resolved, never to lose one moment of time, but to improve it in the most profitable way I possibly can." Edwards is considered one of America's  leading theologians. He was a pastor whose preaching led to the Great Awakening, a prolific author, and for a brief period the president of what would later be Princeton University. One could say he made good use of every moment of his life.

As I look back over my life I realize I can't always say that. There have been many wasted hours doing things that were not profitable. Most of us could say the same thing. We get caught up in trivial matters, chasing the latest fads and pursuing things of limited value. We forget how quickly time marches on until we notice that much of our lives are behind us and we haven't done the things we most wanted to do with our lives.

Scripture teaches us to redeem the time, to make the best use of every possible minute. It's easy to say that we'll get to it tomorrow only for tomorrow to never come. We are to live in the moment, As one former colleague said to me, "The most important place I am is where I am today, and the most important person I can be with is the person I'm with right now." He refused to feel rushed to run to and fro but lived in each moment making the best use of that time right then.

Please don't misunderstand. This doesn't mean we have to spend every moment working. Making the best use of our time includes sitting on the deck with your spouse enjoying a cup of coffee and spending time with one another. It includes taking an afternoon to play golf with your friends. It includes taking a walk through a park or garden. It includes making time for self-care. When I had a motorcycle I would sometimes take a two-hour ride because I just needed the air.

I wonder how many are using their time wisely during this pandemic when many of us are asked to stay at home. Are we binge-watching Netflix or doing those things that we've been wanting to do for a long time? Right now, many of us have plenty of time to complete some tasks we've been putting off. Are we glued to the TV listening to people telling us how bad things are, or are we spending extra time in the Word of God learning more about God's will for our lives?

Are we taking a moment to send an encouraging email or text (or even going old-school and sending a card) to someone just to let them know we are thinking about them? One pastor said he divided his congregation into a prayer list so he could pray for each one individually. When he completed his time of prayer he would send a note to those he had prayed for that day to let them know he had prayed for them.

Are we spending time growing in our walk with God, maybe digging deeper into His Word to determine what a particular passage might be saying to us? Are we taking time to think about what the church may look like post-pandemic?

If we do even some of these things, this pandemic shutdown may prove to be profitable for us. We have this time available; use it wisely.

Use this time wisely

It's been a long time since the nation, and the world, has slowed down like it is right now. Most of us have been told to stay in place, and with few places to go to, there's not much reason to go out anyway. My wife and I are in the "high risk" category, so we've been staying at home with the rare trip to the supermarket or to grab something to eat. We are seldom eating out much right now, but I will occasionally go out primarily to help some of the local businesses have some money coming in.

A lot of people are growing frustrated with the limitations that have been placed on us. Rather than getting upset over something we have no control over, it would be far better to determine how to best use this time that is given to us. The Bible tells us in Ephesians 5 to "redeem the time." That means that we are to use our time wisely.

Rather than spending your days laying on the couch binge watching Netflex or Hulu, spend this time reading good books, reading the Bible, praying, and listening to what God might be saying to you. It's possible He's been trying to get your attention for some time, but you've been too busy to listen. Well, you're not too busy now, so spend some time with Him. You can also listen to good podcasts and live feeds that encourage and bless you. They were be more profitable that listening to 24-hour news channels that have nothing positive to tell us.

I began the year reading through the New Testament for my morning devotional. During this downtime in everyone's life I finished that and started studying the book of Ephesians for my devotional time. In addition, I've read 24 other books this year. My wife is ready to buy stock in Amazon or cut off my membership! I'm trying to find a publisher for a book I've completed, and I'm working on another book. With the nicer weather my wife and I spend some time on the back deck enjoying the sunshine and one another. If it gets too hot, or we've been in the sun long enough, we move to the front, shaded porch. Most days I call or text 2-3 people to ask if they are doing OK and if they need anything. We go for walks.

Because the libraries are closed in our area I downloaded Libby, an app that lets people check books out of their library. The app is free and works great. You can check out up to ten books at a time for 14 days, and you're able to renew them. They also carry audiobooks which some people prefer. This app has helped me not have to pay for all the books I've read this year!

Have you been wanting to research some topic of interest? This is a great time to go deeper into some subject you find interesting. Several of the books I've read this year were purchased for research for the one I'm writing.  Of course, the Internet can provide a lot of useful information you can use in your research, and this downtime gives you extra time to look for that information.

Most of us assume that church (and life) will look different after this is over. Now is the time to reflect on what that might look like. I know of at least one live streaming event that will address this coming up soon. Earlier this week I had a conversation with a pastor who is asking what the future holds for the church as we move past this crisis. He and his staff are spending some time trying to figure out what that future might be and how they can prepare for it.

This can also be a great time to declutter your office, closets, garages and basements. These are things we usually say we want to do when we get to them. I don't know of another time when you can better get to them.

When this is over, and it will be, you don't want your greatest accomplishment for this time to be that you saw every episode of The Office. Use this time wisely. Spend time with God and with your family. Invest in yourself and your interests. Allow yourself to relax and refresh.

Unique challenges for bivocational ministers

In my book The Art and Practice of Bivocational Ministry: A Pastor's Guide I discuss some of the unique challenges many bivocational ministers face. The number one challenge is that of time constraints. While every minister struggles with finding the time to do everything he or she needs to accomplish, bivocational ministers face the added problem of working another job. This may be a full-time or part-time job, but for those hours worked he or she cannot do any of the other things that may need to be done. It is always a challenge for a bivocational minister to balance the five primary areas of life we must address: our time with God, our time with family, our ministry, our other job and our own personal self-care.

A second common problem has to do with self-esteem issues. I can still remember when some people would look at me as a second-class minister since I wasn't fully-funded. It's very easy to allow yourself to start questioning yourself when others are questioning your commitment to God and to ministry. It's easy to repeat the mantra that we are only called to be faithful where we are, but it's also human to wonder why we are where we are. I still remember the day someone asked if I was full-time or part-time and I responded that I was a full-time bivocational minister.

One of the issues I often hear from bivocational ministers is the lack of support they feel from their denominations. I was coaching a bivocational pastor who voiced this complaint. We were discussing a problem in the church when I asked if he had contacted his denomination for help with it. He said no one from the denominational office was willing to work with his church because it was too small. I challenged him to call to confirm that, and at our next coaching session he said their judicatory representative was meeting with him and the church the following week. I never felt that I was not supported by our judicatory leaders as the bivocational pastor of a small, rural church, but I also know that many do feel that way, and in fact, are not well supported.

In a survey I conducted a few years ago with bivocational ministers in my denomination I found that their educational level ran the gamut from high school to holding a PhD. However, for the majority of them, their college and post-graduate degrees were not related to ministry but were in other fields of study. Many of them lacked basic ministerial and theological training. Those of you who know my story know that I began my pastoral ministry with only a high school education. It's tough to do quality ministry like that, but it's also difficult to pursue theological education while working, supporting a family and leading a church.

To compound the problem, it's also difficult to attend any type of continuing education opportunities. Most of them, unfortunately, are still held during the day when many bivocational ministers are working. Many of things that are presented in these training sessions apply more to larger churches than the traditional bivocational church so the pastors of these churches are reluctant to give up a vacation day in order to attend them. This makes it difficult for bivocational ministers to be aware of recent trends in ministry.

In the book I try to respond to these challenges. The book contains the stories of ten ministers I coached who faced most of these challenges and how they addressed them. If you are struggling with any of these challenges in your own ministry, you might find these stories helpful.

Plan your preaching in advance

Each year about this time I post an article recommending that ministers need to plan their preaching in advance. This is especially true for bivocational ministers. It's another way of controlling your time, a topic I covered in yesterday's post.

When I was a pastor I began my preparations in the fall of the year for the next year. The process I used was very simple. I took a legal pad and wrote down every Sunday's date. Because we had evening services each date had two lines, one for the AM service and one for the PM service.Using two lines allowed me to have enough room to record the Sermon title and text for one quarter of the year for each message. I would then go through the calendar and note any special days such as Mother's Day or Easter.

I would then prayerfully consider what needed to be addressed in the upcoming year. On the Sundays between Mother's Day and Father's Day I would normally do a series of sermons on family life. During the summer I would do a series through a book of the Bible or a major section of the Bible such as the Sermon on the Mount. By planning in the fall of the year this gave me a lot of time to get any research material or books I might need for my sermon preparation. Once I filled in major blocks I could begin to look for opportunities for shorter sermon series or individual sermons. Possible titles and text would be written on my sheet of paper in pencil. I always wanted to be able to make a change if circumstances required. My goal was always to prepare at least one quarter in advance.

There are so many advantages to planning your preaching schedule.

1. When you plan ahead you can focus on sermon preparation instead of trying to decide what you are going to preach on the next Sunday.
2. You avoid the "Saturday night specials" which usually are not that special.
3. You allow your worship teams to also plan in advance. During a recent stint as a Transitional Pastor the worship leaders in both services voiced their appreciation for knowing my sermons a month in advance so they could develop a worship service that flowed around the message.
4. You are prepared for those times when you have an extremely busy week with people in the hospital, funerals, and other situations that would make preparing your sermon difficult.
5. You will have a more balanced approach to your preaching because you will have more time to prepare messages on the more challenging topics that require more study.

I always began this preparation in the fall because I found that time was a little slower for me, especially the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas when many families were involved in their own activities.

Some question whether such preparation takes away the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. I've always believed the Holy Spirit can lead us in preparing a quarter in advance just as well as He can lead our preparation a week at a time. That's not to say that I never changed my message from what I had scheduled. Certainly, the Sunday after 9/11 I did not preach the message I had prepared for that Sunday but preached one more pertinent to that event. There were other times I switched messages around, but these were few and far between.

If you have not prepared your messages in advance I encourage you to try it in 2019. I think you'll be happy with the results.

Bivocational ministry and time

Without exception, in every bivocational ministry conference I've led, the number one challenge those attending voiced was how to properly manage their time. Many bivocational ministers feel overwhelmed by the expectations that are placed upon them by their families, their employers and their churches. I used to joke that I often waved at myself when I passed me on the road, but I'm not the only one who feels that way.

There is a simple reason we so often feel overwhelmed. It's because we are. It's not easy trying to meet everyone's expectations. There are only so many hours in a day, and many of those days contain a lot more things to do than time in which to do them. I offer a workshop on Time Management for Ministers so let me share some of the information I give those who attend this workshop.

• You have to set priorities for what is important to you. Bivocational ministers will have at least these five.

1. God
2. Family
3. Church
4. Other Employment
5. Self-care

• Once you have determined your priorities you have to own and control your calendar. Begin to write in your calendar what you need to accomplish in each of these five area to remain healthy and live a more balanced life. Certain things are a given such as if you work a 40 hour week those hours are probably not optional.
• If you want a date night with your spouse you need to put it in the calendar. (I'll help you with this one...you do want a date night.) Put it in your calendar as an important appointment and keep it.
• Make sure there is time for your own self-care. You need time to exercise, to enjoy a hobby, or to just rest.
• Do not fill your calendar with things to do. Build margin in your life so when true emergencies happen you will have available time to respond to them. A full calendar isn't impressive; it just reflects a life that is too busy and out of control.
• Do not allow others to rob you of your time. You may have noticed that people who have nothing to do want to do it with you! That's because you let them.

I cover this, and many other challenges ministers face, in my book The Healthy Pastor: Easing the Pressures of Ministry. Bivocational ministers will always face time pressures, but there are ways to help alleviate them. I've only shared a few of those in this space.

Don't live on autopilot

In yesterday's post I quoted a statement I discovered in a book I am reading. The statement reminded us to not waste our lives living below our potential and outside our calling. That reminded me of another quote from another book I recently completed, Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport. The statement is

We spend much of our day on autopilot - not giving much thought to what we're doing with our time...It's difficult to prevent the trivial from creeping into every corner of your schedule if you don't face, without flinching, your current balance between deep and shallow work, and then adopt the habit of pausing before action and asking, "What makes the most sense right now?"

The strategy the author suggests may sound extreme. He recommends that you schedule every minute of your day, and that you do that every day. While I certainly agree with his emphasis on intentional living, I have two problems with this solution. One, no schedule is going to be accurate. Some things are going to take longer than you anticipated, and some things will go quicker. When that happens the author recommends revising the schedule. I would think we would spend too much time revising schedules!

The second problem I have is that interruptions are going to occur, especially for those of us in ministry. People are going to call and need to speak to us. Interruptions are part of ministry, and there is no way to plan for them. That's why they are called interruptions.

I am a big believer in scheduling our time, but I do so around tasks. There are certain times of each day when I need to accomplish certain tasks. For instance, on Monday morning I go into the church office and prepare my preaching outline for the following Sunday and prepare the PowerPoint presentation that will be used. That presentation is then sent to our office manager so she has the entire week to get it ready for our computer system. On Thursday mornings I go into the church office and prepare my Sunday evening Bible study.

In a couple of weeks I have a large auction scheduled, and I've identified days in my schedule when I need to complete the various tasks associated with conducting an auction. I know what dates I will send in my newspaper ads, the date I will mail out flyers to my regular buyers, when I will begin preparing the items for auction, etc. I don't try to schedule every minute, but I do schedule the various tasks I need to complete for all that I do. Incidentally, the author also recognizes the value of block scheduling for those who are not comfortable with trying to schedule every minute.

Living our lives according to a schedule eliminates the possibility of living on autopilot and ensures we will get done what we need to accomplish. This is critically important for anyone involved in bivocational ministry, but it's also important for anyone who wants to fulfill God's calling on their lives.

Bivocational Ministry for the 21st Century

This past Saturday I had the privilege of leading a seminar for Church of the Nazarene pastors in Michigan. The morning session was "Bivocational Ministry for the 21st Century." That afternoon I spoke on "Time Management for Ministers." These are two of the seminars I offer, and either of them can be a half-day or day-long session. The DS there asked me to present each of them in the half-day session.

We had a great turnout of pastors who were very appreciative of the material we covered. They asked a lot of questions throughout the day including a number of more private questions they asked me during our breaks. Not only were these individuals appreciative of the material, but they were appreciative of their District for hosting this event specifically for the bivocational ministers serving there.

One of the things I try to ensure is that the bivocational ministers who attend these seminars understand how much I appreciate their ministry and that they are not alone in their work. As a bivocational pastor for 20 years I understand how easy it is to feel that you alone are doing this work. It helps to know there are many, many others with this same call on their lives who are faithfully serving their congregations.

In every seminar I've led for bivocational ministers time management has been identified as their greatest challenge. As we ended the morning session on bivocational ministry, it was a very easy lead in to the afternoon session on time management.

As these pastors learned, time management is really life management and priority management. As one identifies his or her priorities in life and ministry it becomes much easier to identify the best uses of one's time. Then it's a matter of getting those things on the calendar and saying no to those things that are not priorities. These are often not easy, but they are essential if you want to better manage your time and ensure you take care of the highest priority items in your life.

This was my last seminar scheduled for 2016. I've traveled to several states and worked with a number of denominational groups this year and enjoyed every one of them. The feedback continues to be strong from both the sponsors and those attending. If you are interested in scheduling me to present one of my seminars to your pastors and church leaders in 2017 please feel free to contact me as early as possible to make sure we can get your event on my calendar. I am currently serving as a transitional pastor so I will be limited on the number of events I can lead in 2017 so it's best to get me on your schedule as soon as possible. In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy being home!

Time management for ministers

This week I received an e-mail from a bivocational pastor telling me he will likely be voted in as pastor of a church this Sunday. This will be his third church, and while he's excited about it he's also concerned. He admitted he has always struggled with time management since entering the ministry. He wanted to know what he should do.

Of course, I suggested he buy two of my books! The Healthy Pastor: Easing the Pressures of Ministry and The Art and Practice of Bivocational Ministry: A Pastor's Guide both address the problem of time management for bivocational and fully-funded pastors.

All pastors struggle with managing their time well. The bivocational pastor has the added pressures of another job that complicates it even more, but the problem certainly isn't limited to bivocational ministers. What are some initial steps we need to take to better manage our time?

1. Determine your priorities. If you don't, others will, and most of the time their priorities for your time will not be what you would have selected. There are five areas of life a bivocational minister must keep in balance: our relationship with God, our relationship with our family, our ministry, our other job, and our own self-care. You must set priorities for each of these.
2. Know your strengths and work in those areas as much as possible. I want to work in areas where I am weak as little as possible. My primary gifts are in preaching, teaching, and leadership. When I work in those areas I am most effective. While it's not always possible to avoid working in areas of weakness, it's best to avoid it as much as possible. Find others who are strong in those areas and delegate.
3. Own your calendar. There are some things that must go on there to pay the rent, but much of your calendar is discretionary. If you do not determine what goes on there, others will. Years ago my wife and I decided to have a Friday evening date every week. I put that on my calendar so if someone asked me to do something on Friday I could honestly tell them I already had an appointment.
4. Learn to delegate. It may be easier to do it yourself, but that doesn't mean you should. As church leaders it's our responsibility to equip the saints to do ministry, not to do all the ministry. Part of the equipping process is letting others actually do the work.
5. Take time off. That's part of the self-care mentioned earlier. The church is not going to fall apart if you take a week's vacation, and if it does you haven't done a very good job as a leader anyway. You and your family need to get away and enjoy life. Ministry is not a sprint; it's a long distance event, and you need to rest and refresh yourself along the way.

Realize that you may be following a pastor who did not do a good job of setting boundaries around his or her time. As Dr. Phil says, "We teach people how to treat us." You may be in a church that has been taught by previous pastors that it was OK to not respect their private time. In that case, you will have to retrain them about boundaries. You may be their pastor 24/7, but that does not mean you have to jump every time someone calls. You have other responsibilities, such as your family, that you need to consider as you work to balance out the many demands on your time.

Managing our time well is the responsibility of each of us in leadership. No one can do it for us, and if we struggle in this effort it's our fault. Having said that, there will always be a tension between the various demands on our time, and we will constantly be figuring out how to manage that tension. We won't always get it right, but if we begin to get it right more often than not, we will begin to enjoy greater productivity and greater joy in our ministries and our lives.

Bivocational ministry and a balanced life

Virtually all bivocational ministers will struggle occasionally with time issues. For some, it's a constant battle to meet all the demands on their time. How to better manage their time is the most frequently asked question I receive from bivocational ministers.

Time management is really life management. It begins by knowing who you are and your purpose in life. The reality is that none of us will ever meet all the expectations that people have of us, so we have to be able to identify the expectations God has for us and plan our lives accordingly. Once we have a clear God-given vision for our lives we are able to determine the priorities we need to establish that will help us achieve that vision.

For bivocational ministers there are five areas of life we need to balance.

• Our relationship with God
• Our relationship with our families
• Our church ministry
• Our other jobs
• Our own self-care

These are not listed in order of importance because they are all equally important. Unfortunately, what many bivocational ministers have admitted to me is that they struggle most with their relationship with God and self-care. Others tell me their families often receive less attention than is healthy for that relationship.

There needs to be a healthy balance in these five areas of life, and such a balance will not happen unless we plan for it. We must be intentional about each of these areas, setting priorities for each of them, and living into those priorities.

Let's take just a brief look at family. As a bivocational pastor it was important to me to keep my family a high priority in my life. I planned my schedule to coach our son's baseball team when he played Little League. My wife and I had a regular date night each week. The telephone was not answered during meals. We scheduled vacations and took them. We attended school events and other activities our children were involved in. We did many other things as a family, but in order to do them I had to schedule them in my calendar or other things would crowd them out. I had no problem telling someone I had another appointment at a time they wanted to meet when that other appointment was a date with my wife.

The brutal fact is that if a person's life is out of balance, it's their fault. You control your calendar, or at least you should. There will be times when life gets out of control such as during illnesses or other catastrophes that sometimes occur in life, but these will be limited. For most of our lives, we can control our schedules and give priorities to those things that are most important to us.

For more help in this or other ministry challenges you may want to read my book The Healthy Pastor: Easing the Pressures of Ministry.

How to manage your time wisely

A few years ago I heard someone say that we can either spend time or invest time. I had never heard that comparison before, but it made an impression on me. Because time is an expendable commodity it is important that we invest our time wisely.

Last night I was reading How to Get to the Top: Business Lessons Learned at the Dinner Table (Fox Business Library) by Jeffrey Fox. He was writing about bad ROT which is bad return on time. While the book focuses on business the principle is true for those of us in ministry. There are some things that we in church leadership should avoid doing as much as possible because the return we get from that activity will be low.

Fox explains that bad ROT is squandering time solving minor problems. Sometimes it seems as if that is how we spend much of our time, and we need to stop and ask if it is worth it. How long are you willing to stay on hold waiting to talk to a person about a $5.00 charge that you think is excessive? Is it important to respond to every perceived slight or criticism, or might it be better to simply walk away knowing that you'll never please some people.

Another way we get a bad ROT is doing things we're not very good at doing. I can change the spark plugs on a car, but because I am not very mechanical it will take me three times longer, and there is no guarantee the car will run when I'm finished. I get a much better ROT taking my car to the garage and reading a book in the waiting room or getting a loaner car to continue my planned activities while trained mechanics work on my car

Learning to delegate is one important way we will get a better return on our time. Spend more time working in the areas of your strengths and gifts, and you'll accomplish a lot more than if you try to do everything yourself. Pastors are not always good at delegating, but this is something we need to learn if we want to better manage our time.

It's also important to invest your time in the things that will help you achieve your goals and the vision of the church. This is why it is so important to understand your priorities and to set annual goals that will help you achieve those priorities. This helps you stay focused on the most important tasks. Time you spend on these tasks will be an investment of your time on truly important things, but this will not happen if you spend too much time dealing with lesser things.

Behold his glory

For my devotional reading I am now reading Tim Keller's book Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God.  It is one of the best books on prayer that I have ever read.  In my reading today I came across some thoughts on beholding the glory of God in our prayers.  In part of this section he refers to the writing of John Owen, a Puritan theologian.

To behold the glory of Jesus means that we begin to find Christ beautiful for who he is in himself.  It means a kind of prayer in which we are not simply coming to him to get his forgiveness, his help for our needs, his favor and blessing.  Rather, the consideration of his character, words, and work on our behalf becomes inherently satisfying, enjoyable, comforting, and strengthening.  Owen insisted that it was crucial that Christians be enabled to do this.  He reasoned that if the beauty and glory of Christ do not capture our imaginations, dominate our waking thought, and fill our hearts with longing and desire - then something else will.

How much of our prayer life focuses entirely on the character, words, and work of Christ?  I must admit that most of my prayers do not, nor do I hear this in the majority of prayers I hear prayed by others.  Such prayer takes time.  It takes time to read and meditate upon Scripture.  It takes time to get our focus off our needs and desires and upon nothing but the glory of God.  It takes time to still our hearts enough that God's glory bursts through all the noise that makes up so much of our lives.  And who has that kind of time?

Life is lived at great speed today.  We rush from one activity to another, and if we pray at all we offer up brief snippets asking God to bless whatever is the next item on our agenda.  Scripture does tell us to pray without ceasing, and I find it helpful to pray brief sentence prayers as I go throughout the day. But, it is not enough.  We must also take the time to behold the glory of God.  We must take the time to align our thoughts upon his word and to reflect upon his character.

A shallow faith that gives God one hour on Sunday mornings, when we can spare it, is not sufficient to behold his glory.  A faith that leaves our Bibles in the back seat of our cars so we'll know where to find them next Sunday will not help us behold the glory of God.

I have been a Christian for nearly 40 years, and I feel I am still very much a student of prayer.  I wish I could report that I have mastered this concept of beholding the glory of God through my prayer life, but I cannot.  There are occasional breakthroughs when it seems the heavens open up and I see the Lord "high and lifted up."  Those are holy moments, but they are too rare.

This passage from Keller's book really spoke to me this morning, and I felt it needed to be shared with my readers.  Perhaps God will speak to some of you as powerfully as he spoke to me, and he will use it to enrich your prayer life and your walk with him.

Time wasters

Whether one is a bivocational pastor, a fully-funded pastor, or one who works in another profession, we are all faced with time challenges.  There just doesn't seem to be enough time in the day to do all the things we need to accomplish.  Our to-do list is often longer than the hours available.  We are often forced to make compromises in our use of time, and sometimes those consequences can lead to personal, financial, or relationship issues.

Each year I teach a course in our region's Church Leadership Institute called "Personal and Family Health."  The purpose of the class is to help people better balance the demands between their ministries and their personal lives.  We cover a broad range of topics in the four classes that make up the course, but in the first class we address the time challenges common to everyone.

The student's assignment for the second class is to list on a form I provide everything they do for one week in 15 minute increments.  They are to write a two page report on their findings.  The purpose of the assignment is to help them see that there may be pockets of time that could be used more effectively.  With very few exceptions, students report that they have identified numerous places where they are wasting time that could be better spent somewhere else.

Time management is really life management, and life management is really priority management.  When we set priorities around the major components of our lives and focus on accomplishing those priorities, it becomes much easier to effectively utilize our time.  The reality is that each of us have been given 24 hours a day, and our challenge is to use those 24 hours to their maximum potential.  In order to do that we need to identify the time-wasters that we allow to creep into our lives.  Some of those time-wasters may be

• Unnecessary meetings that have no agenda and no real purpose.
• Procrastination
• Television
• Cluttered work areas
• Handling paper more than once
• Misuse of social media
• Misuse of cell phones
• Doing things that should be delegated to someone else
• Doing things that are not aligned with your personal or organizational vision
• Allowing other people to set your agenda

There are many more items that could be added to this list.  What would you add?  I invite you to do the assignment my students do and list everything you do for one week in 15 minute increments and see if you learn anything about how you spend your time.  If you do, I would love for you to share with me your findings.

Multitasking is a myth

Bivocational ministers are always looking for ways to save time.  Many of us like to multitask in an effort to accomplish as much as possible.  For a long time this was my mindset.  Unfortunately, research now shows that multitasking actually makes both tasks take longer because it is impossible to multitask.  In his excellent book What's Best Next: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done Matt Perman points to research that provided evidence that the human brain cannot effectively do two things at once.

Rather than multitasking Perman writes that we are actually switchtasking, switching back and forth between tasks.  Every time we switch between one task to another there is an interruption, and these interruptions have a cost associated with them.  These costs can add up and cause us to be much less efficient and effective.

Of course, bivocational ministers are not the only ones struggling with having the time to do all the things we are expected to do.  In our busy culture today most of us have that problem.  We need to remember that time is a resource, and like all resources it is limited.  Perman reminds us that "The scarcity of time is the reason we need to do one thing at a time."  We must concentrate on doing the most important thing first and then when that task is completed we can move on to the next task.

It's easy to be tempted to complete a bunch of small tasks early so we can concentrate on the more important stuff later.  I still fall into that temptation occasionally.  But, too often we spend so much time doing the small things that we find there is not enough time to complete the more important tasks that needed to be done.  We are then forced to scramble and sometimes do a poor job at the most important things we should be doing.

Many time management people will tell you that one of the most important things you can do is to take a few minutes each evening to look at the next day's schedule.  What is the most important thing you must do that day?  That becomes your number one priority, and that is where you start.  When you complete that task then you can move on to the next most important thing.  At the end of the day you may not have completed everything on your to-do list, but you will have done the most important tasks.

The ability to multitask would be great if we could do it, but we can't.  It's a myth and it's a costly one to pursue.  It is far better to focus on one thing at a time, stay on it until completion, and then move on to the next most important priority item.  At the end of the day we will have accomplished more and will have done the most important things that needed to be done.  That is how to make the most effective use of your time.  You may want to read more of Perman's book for other great ideas.

Bivocational ministers redeem the time

I recently had a regular reader of this blog send me an e-mail which he has allowed me to share with you.

"I just had lunch with a fellow bivocational pastor and independently we both came to the conclusion that we waste far less time than our friends who are fully funded pastors.  We spend less time interacting on FB about the latest Christian controversies and far less time schmoozing in coffee shops with other pastors for hours on end talking about nothing in particular.  I know this isn't a universal truth and that many fully funded pastors use their time wisely, but having 2 jobs and a family of eight really forces me to redeem the time and shut out the noise.  Do you find this to be the norm?"

Yes, I do.  Most bivocational ministers struggle to find the time necessary to meet all the demands on their time, and we tend to be pretty careful about what we give time to.  This sometimes leads to criticism from fully funded colleagues and denominational leaders who wonder why we are not more involved in associational and denominational activities.  Even members of our congregations may get upset because we do not give much time to such things as associational men's or women's meetings.  People who have not been bivocational often do not understand how difficult it can be to keep our lives and ministries in balance and how adding an activity that might not be essential can disrupt that balance.

I know one bivocational minister who often receives criticism from other pastors in his association for his lack of involvement in associational activities.  One pastor who sometimes voiced that criticism to me recognized that this bivocational minister's church was one of the few in their association that had experienced significant growth during the past few years.  He recently told me that while the rest of the pastors had spent endless times in meetings, this bivocational pastor spent his available time reaching out into the community and growing the church.  The former critic confessed to me that he wished he had followed the example of the bivocational minister.

I was glad my friend acknowledged that many fully funded pastors also use their time wisely.  I know many fully funded ministers who also struggle to maintain balance in their lives and have to make difficult decisions about how to invest their time and energy.  They often find they are also criticized for not being involved in activities that others deem important.  More than once I've heard someone criticize a fully funded pastor for not supporting some associational activity.  The critics usually have no idea of the demands this minister already has on his or her time.

The ones who do struggle to redeem their time wisely are those serving in what I refer to as "marginally fully-funded" churches.  Over 30 years ago I was asked by a church member of one such church if I would be interested in serving as their pastor.  This church had been served for many years by student pastors and averaged around 90 people in attendance.  They wanted to transition to a fully funded pastor. 

Quite honestly, at that time I had not even heard of bivocational ministry and had never served as a pastor.  For those reasons it probably sounded a little arrogant to the other person when I responded that I did not believe they needed a fully funded pastor.  Their salary package would have been marginal at best, and their work load was not enough to keep a pastor busy.  I told the person, whom I had known for a long time, that if they called a fully funded pastor they would probably find that within a few years he would become more involved in denominational work and his garden would keep getting bigger each year.  Parkinson's Law would go into effect:  Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.  Their pastor would have to find things to do to fill his workday, and in that small community in a church that size they would probably find their pastor doing a lot of things that would add little value to their church.

This church called a fully funded pastor. and within a few years I heard that his garden was one of the largest in the congregation.  Over the years the church had a number of fully funded pastors and yet never grew.  A few years ago they allowed their pastor to become bivocational.  The church continues to be about the same size it was 30 years ago, but the church seems to have less stress.  Although their pastor now has to balance a second job with his church responsibilities, it seems that he is more focused and less stressed today than when he was fully funded.

Many of us in church leadership, including myself, continues to believe that more of these size churches will be transitioning to bivocational ministers in the near future.  Finances are often the reason given, and for some churches it will be a financial decision.  But, many of these churches will also realize that they can enjoy a more productive ministry from a bivocational minister who is able to focus on the truly important things and wisely redeem the time given to ministry.

I should close by adding that some bivocational ministers do not invest their time well.  Perhaps they've not learned how to manage their lives and their time.  They may struggle with effective delegation.  Their priorities may be wrong.  If this is a problem area for you I would recommend my book The Healthy Pastor: Easing the Pressures of Ministry.

The struggles of the smaller church pastor

This past week I've had the opportunity to talk with people who are either pastoring a smaller church or have recently pastored such a church. One group is part of an association that was holding revival services in different churches that week, and they were commenting the attendance was steady but down from last year's event.  Interestingly, most of them admitted they had attended few of the services themselves due to other obligations.  Some of them were bivocational and simply did not have the time to attend a service every evening while others had demands on their time that prevented them from being at the revival meetings every night.  I'm certainly not judging them nor putting them down because I know how demanding bivocational ministry can be.  I also noted in their discussions that they were not complaining about the slightly lower attendance.  They understood the busy schedules people have today.

Another individual was a former bivocational pastor who had resigned his ministry under a tremendous amount of pressure from church members.  I believe he is doing some supply preaching but expressed no interest in returning to pastoral ministry.  It's a shame because he had taken a fairly small church and grew it to a very respectable membership for its location.  Unfortunately for him, he had grown it to a size that was unacceptable to the controllers in that church who feared they would soon lose their ability to control what was happening in their church.  While this pastor tried to withstand the challenges for a season, he eventually gave up and resigned.  The pastor the church called after him encountered the same issues and quickly decided he wasn't going to fight them.  He resigned within months.  The church is now seeking a new pastor.

The issues of time and dealing with church controllers seem to be two of the primary struggles many small church pastors face.  There is never enough time to address everything that seems to demand the pastor's attention.  Unless the pastor has a clear sense of his or her purpose this is a problem that can quickly become unsurmountable.  If I had to guess I would suspect some of the lay folks, especially some who are retired, have complained about the pastors "not supporting this revival" because they weren't there every night.  As a younger leader I would have probably been one of those complaining because I used to be naive enough to think I had to be at everything that was going on related to our church.  That is not the case, and the wise small church pastor needs to realize that as quickly as possible if he or she wants to enjoy ministry and life.

Controllers are another story.  Hebrews 13: 17 says, "Obey your leaders and submit to their authority.  They keep watch over you as men who must give an account.  Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you."  Talk about a verse that needs to be preached from the pulpit!  Ministry is to be a joy, not a burden, but in too many churches it is a burden.  One of the sobering things I often considered as a pastor was that one day I would give an account to God for my ministry and of every person who sat under my ministry.  That is burden enough without having to also deal with the burden of trying to deal with church controllers.

My advice is simple.  Get control of your schedule and make sure it is in alignment with the vision God has given you for ministry, and confront the controllers in your church as soon as they raise their ugly heads.  The advice is much simpler to give than the implementation.  Your best schedule will soon be disrupted by a phone call that requires your attention, and dealing with controllers is like trying to herd cats.  However, until you address these two things you will continue to experience stress in your life and ministry.  If these are issues in your ministry I recommend you read my book The Healthy Pastor: Easing the Pressures of Ministry for some ways to deal with these and many other issues that cause stress in the life of a minister.

Bivocational workshops in Michigan

On September 14 I was privileged to lead a couple of workshops at the Church Equipping Conference for the Baptist State Convention of Michigan.  The workshops I presented were "Transitioning Your Church to Be More Effective" and "Time Management for Bivocational Ministers."  Each were presented twice that day.  Jeff Iorg, President of Golden Gate Theological Seminary was the plenary speaker, and following that service we broke up into the various workshops scheduled for the day.  George Fountain, Bivocational Pastoral Consultant for the BSCM, was the person who initially contacted me about coming, and I want to thank him for the opportunity.  I never heard an official total for the event, but during lunch I did overhear someone estimating there were over 400 people attending this conference.  Judging from the attendance in my workshops a number of those persons were bivocational ministers or lay leaders in bivocational churches.  It was truly a great day.

In an event like this there is often not a lot of time available between workshops.  I think there was about a 15 minute gap between sessions which did not give the presenters and attendees much time to interact between sessions.  However, I was struck by some of the comments I heard as people were leaving my workshops and by e-mails I later received.  This was especially true regarding the "Time Management for Bivocational Ministers" workshop.  It became clear to me that this workshop was really needed by some of those who attended it.  At least one was about ready to leave the ministry because of the stress he was feeling as a bivocational minister.  Another thanked me for a personal story I shared in that workshop, and I felt from his words and the look on his face that it spoke to a challenge he was feeling in his own life.

I want to commend the Baptist State Convention of Michigan for recognizing the value bivocational ministers bring to their churches and for ensuring that their conference offered opportunities for those pastors to come together for fellowship and instruction.  I hear from so many bivocational leaders that they feel ignored or abandoned by their regional and denominational leaders.  George Fountain and the other leaders in the BSCM are making sure their pastors do not feel that way.  May their tribe increase!

Bivocational ministry is tough, and those whom God has called to this ministry needs all the support they can receive.  We in denominational leadership must make sure that we provide them with the instruction and encouragement and support they need to fulfill God's call on their lives.  As the numbers of bivocational ministers continue to climb in virtually every denomination, this support will become even more critical in the future.

For those pastors (both bivocational and fully-funded) who feel overwhelmed by all the demands on their lives, you must find ways to bring your life and ministry into a proper balance.  I know that is not easy.  Believe me, I know.  But, your life, your family, and your ministry depends on you doing that.  Find a workshop that will help you do that.  Talk to other pastors who seem to have been able to do that and ask how they've done it.  Read books and articles that address this.  I've written two that can help you get control of your time:  The Healthy Pastor: Easing the Pressures of Ministry and my newest book The Art and Practice of Bivocational Ministry: A Pastor's Guide. I'm not recommending these just to sell books but because I care about your well-being, and I know first-hand what happens when a bivocational minister doesn't practice good self-care.  Let me know if I can be of any help to you.

When you manage your life you will manage your time

Several years ago our region created the Church Leadership Institute to help develop lay leaders and bivocational ministers for our churches.  Nearly each year I teach a class on "Personal and Family Health" that addresses the importance of maintaining balance in our lives and ministries.  The first assignment I give the students is to keep a record of everything they do for one week and write a brief report on what they learned from the exercise.  I provide them with a chart to help them track their activities in 15 minute segments.  The students often complain when the assignment is explained that they won't be able to track their time, but in their reports they usually note that they learned a lot from the exercise.  What many of them learn is that there is a lot of time each week that is used in things that really don't matter very much.  They recognize that instead of complaining they don't have time to do all the things that are expected of them, they really have plenty of time if they just use it wisely.

That is true for many people.  There is no question that time management is one of the most critical issues facing most bivocational ministers.  So many things demand our attention.  If we're not careful we can spend so much time dealing with urgent issues that we have no time left for the things that really matter.  More than one pastor's family has been alienated from the church because of the amount of time church work took away from them.  Several years ago I read the comments of a pastor's wife who said if her husband was having an affair she could fight that, but she wondered how she was supposed to fight when her husband's mistress was the church.  She is not the only pastor's spouse that has asked that question, and similar questions often come from the pastor's children as well.

In my class I stress there are five areas that bivocational ministers must keep in balance: our relationship with God, our relationship with our families, our church work, our other jobs, and our own self-care.  Neglecting any of these can lead to bad results, and focusing too much on one area while only giving an occasional glance at the others will lead to an unbalanced and unhealthy life.  What is needed is for us to set goals in each of these areas to ensure that we maintain a healthy balance.

When my students complain about having to track their time for one week I can usually get them to stop complaining when I tell them I tracked my time every day for four years!  It was part of a goal setting program I got from Zig Ziglar's organization.  Not only did I track everything I did for four years, in the book that was part of that program was an area where I had to mark down whether or not I had done something in eight different areas of life.  Those eight included the five I mentioned above.  Nobody would mark down they had done something in each of those eight areas every day, but at the end of the week it was very obvious that something was out of balance if one or two of those areas had no marks for the entire week.  It just provided me with a quick overview of my week and how well I was able to manage my life and my time.  Did I stay focused on the priorities I had set for myself, or did I allow myself to be pulled away from the things that were most important to me?

It is true that time management is really life management.  One can only manage his or her time if that life is lived with purpose.  Setting priorities and goals help prevent the urgent from taking us away from what is really important in life.  Living life in such a way helps one reach the end of the day feeling as if he or she accomplished something important that day.  It ends the frustration one feels when at the end of the day it is felt that nothing worthwhile was done

You can read more about this in my book The Bivocational Pastor: Two Jobs, One Ministry. One entire chapter is devoted to this topic and it includes some of the information I give my students.  If you're struggling with time issues in your ministry I would certainly recommend you read this book and begin to implement some of the suggestions you'll find there.