Pastoral Productivity – Challenges

Pastoral Productivity – Challenges

by | Apr 6, 2010 | Featured Articles, Pastoral Ministry, Time/Life Management

Busyness is a given and is not unique to pastoral ministry. But make no mistake, busyness is often more of a problem, than more of a sign of effectiveness. I have always wrestled with personal focus, whether practicing my trumpet in high school band, or finishing a paper in college. Procrastination could be my first, middle, and last name. Time and life management has always been a struggle. But it has become a major pursuit as well; one in which I trust I am making progress. Challenges to Productivity Sin. Sin steals time. Whether misplaced conversation, inappropriate activities, or laziness in and of itself, sin steals time. When activities of life that are not faith-founded dominate the schedule, sin is present. Sin is never productive, not in the long run – rarely in the short run, never for things eternal. No real need to get too specific here. Sin steals time. You probably know how that shows up in your life. I am quite well aware of how it shows up in mine. Family. I don’t mean to suggest that productivity is more important than time spent with family. I don’t believe that and would never advocate it. However, I am quite sure that family requests, kid’s desires, and even legitimate, necessary family needs prove challenging to your being productive. Productivity may mean staying up later, or in my case getting up earlier, so that family is not inappropriately neglected. Nonetheless, family responsibilities are always a challenge to being productive in your work. Unintentionality. This may be one of the biggest challenges. Simply having no intentional plan regarding your...
An Ordinary Pastor’s Study

An Ordinary Pastor’s Study

by | Mar 30, 2010 | Featured Articles, Ordinary Pastor, Pastoral Ministry

Pastors (well, many if not most of them) do love to study, read, write, and pray. The location and set-up of their space for such ministries becomes a fairly important issue, the longer ministries goes on. What goes in to making a pastor’s study an effective place to work? A place that is relatively quiet. I don’t know any ordinary pastors who can have a completely quiet place to study or work, but relative quiet is something essential for considerable thought and consistency of work. I don’t study at my church office because it is rarely quiet and not the best set-up for significant study. You would think that a house of two toddlers and two infants might be more noisy, but in reality, it’s not really all that bad, so at this time my home office is the best place for me to do significant study. My church office is set up and designed more for administration and meetings. My home study, however, was put together with reading and study in mind. The furniture and arrangement are all set up for study. A desk that you can spread out on. I have a desk in my home study that I’ve had for over twenty years. It is very large, allowing me to stack books, spread out papers, and arrange my study tools exactly how I desire them. I use two flat screen computer monitors for my virtual desktop giving me a significant amount of screen surface area. I keep a coaster, a phone connected to my office system (VoIP), and a small lamp. That’s it. The space is...
getting started with GTD

getting started with GTD

by | Nov 29, 2009 | MiniPost

Getting Things Done is David Allen’s excellent book to help  you, well, get things done.  If you are unfamiliar with it, don’t have time to read the book (a sign in and of itself), get the podcasts and begin to transform how you get things done. getting started with GTD | GTD...