Time Management for Pastors
Key points for living a balanced, productive life and avoiding burnout.
by John R. Throop

Many church members see their pastor for only one hour a week. They might be shocked to discover that pastors live in a 24/7 career. While legitimate and urgent needs do occur at all times, some people feel they can call on a pastor at any time for any need. To make matters even worse, some pastors feel the need to be "indispensable," and over-schedule their lives to minister in any and every situation.

Some people seem to thrive on chaos, but the truth is that an unplanned, overly-responsive schedule often leads to unmanaged stress, health problems, and burn out. While it is difficult to say "no" to seemingly valid requests, pastors owe themselves and their congregations an effective and efficient ministry. And the key to an effective and efficient ministry is time management.

Time management is a discipline—one that is rarely addressed in ministry preparation. That the pastor's schedule should be based upon the needs of church leaders and members is a myth. The pastor's schedule should be based on four key priorities—two that are personal, and two that are public.

Priorities—Personal and Public
The pastor's first personal priority is his specific, personal call to ministry. He must use time as a tool to pursue God's specific purpose for his life. His second personal priority is to schedule time based on his own personality and spiritual giftedness. He must avoid filling his schedule with tasks that can be assigned to others who are more capable of performing them.

The first public priority for a pastor is the church's or ministry's vision and mission. Time must be reserved for activities that advance these public ministries. The second public priority is the church's or ministry's corporate schedule. The pastor must be responsive to the expectations of others in the church or ministry who are also charged with leadership responsibilities. After all, there is work to be done, and the pastor is part of a team.

These personal and public priorities must be clearly defined and understood by the pastor and the church, or else the parties will spend time in unhealthy ways. Time traps that pastors can fall into include:

�?Pastors feel the need to satisfy every ministry need, neglecting their personal priorities.

�?Pastors spend too much time pursuing their personal priorities.

�?Pastors think only short term, ignoring both personal and public long-term goals.

�?Pastors spend too much time "majoring in the minors," such as checking the furnace or monitoring office e-mail—things that others could do just as well.

Likewise, without clear definition of priorities, church leaders and members can put too much pressure on a pastor to spend time in areas that might not be priorities in advancing the ministry, such as:

�?Church members emphasize having access to the pastor at all times.

�?Church leaders think only of their own convenience when scheduling church meetings.

�?Church leaders judge a pastor by how busy he appears because that demonstrates indispensability.

All of these situations decrease long-term effectiveness of the ministry.

Five Keys
In First Things First: To Live, to Love, to Learn, and to Leave a Legacy, Stephen Covey and other authors present five elements of effective time management.

Manage time backwards. Covey says we must begin with the end in mind. A church and a pastor need to have a sense of vision, mission, and strategy—a map of progress and development to influence and change people's lives. To achieve the larger goals and objectives, time management starts with at least an annual perspective. Then it shifts to a set of quarterly tasks, which translate to monthly, weekly, and daily activities—in that order.

The problem is that most people manage time forward, which gets them into trouble. They begin with what has to happen today, or this week, or this month, always reacting to other people's agendas, expectations, and schedules—lurching from crisis to crisis. Essential things get delayed, or never reach satisfactory completion. The best time management happens by planning long term and managing backwards.

Deal with what is important. Covey teaches that a schedule should be divided into four quadrants: routine tasks, relational issues, important work, and the urgent. When the first three are addressed properly and proactively, the fourth (the urgent) becomes less of a factor, and demands less of our time. When we neglect the first three, we become captive to the tyranny of the urgent. For example, if finances are not managed well, then a crisis can develop. If the needs of a person or group are not addressed, then major problems can occur. If key long-term issues are not addressed, then an opportunity can be lost.

When managing time, a pastor needs to think through what is truly significant in light of personal and public priorities. To stay on track, pastors must develop a calendar that lists the important work to be done, and provide deadlines for progress points and completion. Electronic calendaring systems are excellent tools that can flag important activities or steps that require specific amounts of time—together with everything else that needs to be done in a day, week, or month.

Factor in the entire work process. It's one thing to say, "We need to embark on a church growth program in the next year," and another thing to map out a plan to make it happen. Ambitious goals can be set. People can be called into the goal. But the growth program may fail because specific steps were not defined. As a result, six months may pass before it occurs to those with important responsibilities, "What is it we're supposed to do?"

One critical element of time management, then, is to think through all the steps. What has to be done? Who will do it? How long will it take? What additional resources are needed? Pastors need to hold others accountable for their responsibilities, just as they hold the pastor accountable for key steps. The pastor and leaders must avoid the time management trap of allowing the pastor to be held responsible for the entire project and its success.

Plan for three key components of time management. Any complex goal will involve tasks, training, and relationship building. It's a mistake to schedule time only for tasks, neglecting the other two areas. Remember, it's people that do the work. It's important to plan sufficient time for relationship building so people feel valued, and training so they feel ready and competent to carry out the Lord's work.

Include margin in the schedule. Margin is time reserved for unexpected challenges and opportunities. This component is very often left out of schedules. Activities, even important ones, sometimes need to be placed on hold to deal with a sudden crisis. Tasks can take longer than planned. On the positive side, pastors and churches might be presented with an immediate opportunity that, although helpful and beneficial, will delay current plans if pursued. Richard Swenson, author of Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives, notes that when pastors do not build margin into both their professional and personal lives, tremendous damage can occur.

For a pastor, annual planning must anticipate time for vacation, continuing education, conferences, and training activities. It's important that margin be built into the schedule in every quarter, month, week, and day for a pastor to be able to work from his strength.

Order Brings Freedom
Time management is a tool for bringing greater balance to a pastor's life. Some pastors embrace concepts of time management. They like the orderliness and direction of a planned schedule, but can sometimes be too rigid. For them, the freedom to plan unstructured time allows greater flexibility to engage in important or urgent issues as they arise.

Other pastors find time management distasteful. They thrive on spontaneity and personal interaction, but sometimes neglect routine or necessary items. For them, the order and direction of effective time management results in a more consistent ministry, while preserving time for unstructured activity.

God created days, nights, and seasons. We created calendars and clocks. Good time management for pastors (and all of us) recognizes that time is a wonderful gift from God and needs good management and stewardship. Let us make the best use of time while we have time to use.

John Throop ([email protected]) is executive director of the Association for Volunteer Administration, Richmond, Virginia, and an Episcopal clergyman.

Copyright © 2005 by the author or Christianity Today, Inc./Your Church magazine.
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September/October 2005, Vol. 51, No. 5, Page 64