The retreat was the best we’ve ever had. But I always find such spiritual excursions away from Seattle bring a subsequent challenge—how do I pick up the pieces of my trashed Seattle ministry schedule? It’s hard to “make it up.”
“Schedule?” you ask. “Don’t ministers just write sermons?” The schedule I keep in Seattle is pretty delicate, actually, and each day and each hour are an investment in the church’s future. Let me illustrate—here’s my typical weekly schedule (with approximate hours in parentheses) here in Seattle:
Monday: (half-day)
- Collaborate with Lynne re any Teen, Staff, or Eastside ideas we have for these ministries/update any problems
- that need solving (1.5 hours)
- Strategic & Creative Thinking for the overall SCC (just me—1.5 hours)
- Lesson Prep for Staff Meeting or Budget Review (1 hr.)
- Staff Meeting Administrative Agenda (1 hr.)
- Email & return phone calls (1 hr.)
Total: about 6 hours
Staff Meeting and/or individual staff training/discipling times (6 hrs.)
Debriefing from my notes of these meetings (thinking through “what next” because of the meeting decisions—1 hr.)
Northwest churches’ phone calls and emails (1 hr.)
Kingdom/International phone calls and emails (1 hr.)
Return local phone calls (1/2 hr.)
Total: about 9-10 hours
Wednesday:
- Weekly organizing with calendar—are my appointments/tasks in alignment with my overall goals? (2 hrs.) \
- Study—Bible, other books, newspapers & articles from the web (5 hrs.)
- Teen Ministry Thinking, memos and meeting preparation (1.5 hrs.)
- Teen Worker Midweek (2 hrs.)
Thursday:
- Teen Ministry follow-up memo (1/2 hr.)
- Writing (web articles, like this one—2 hrs.)
- Sermon Think & Write (2 hrs.)
- Studies with Seekers (4 hrs.)
- Marriage Counseling for SCC members (2 hrs.)
- Email and phone call return (1 hr.)
TOTAL: About 11 hours
Friday:
- UW/Whitakers’ DP Time (1.5 hrs.)
- Studies or UW appointments (2.5 hrs.)
- Eastside Core Group DP Time (2.5 hrs.)
- Email & phone call return (1 hr.)
Total: about 7.5 hours (I take lunch off with my wife on Fridays!)
Saturday: Sermon Editing—about 2 hrs. Rest of day is Off!
Sunday: (half-day)
- Sermon Practice (1 hr.)
- Church—Sermon itself (3 hrs. Just kidding. About 35-40 min.)
- BTL appointments and/or BTL meeting in rotating ministries (2.5 hrs.)
Total: about 4 hours
The Week: around 50 hours.
As you may imagine, it’s tough to “turn the ministry off,” each day. Often phone calls, emergency needs and the like impinge on the evening/family times. That’s okay by me; if doctors can do it, so can I. I don’t consider leading my bible talk “work,” nor my daily devotions, so I don’t include them here.
When the McCunes arrive to lead the Eastside this summer, my schedule will change significantly—more UW appointments and more time for strategic thinking. Lynne and I will be able to “travel” within the greater SCC more—preaching and teaching in the North, City, Eastside, and Tacoma, and hopefully this will have a unifying and inspirational impact on our ministry direction.
The other interesting development will be “becoming an empty-nester” in the next two years, when both my kids will be off to college. That will open up just about every evening to do good ministry work! My work hours will be off the charts but I think this will be energizing, not tiring. Stay tuned…
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