I'm not one of those pastors who takes Mondays off. Never have been. I tried it back in my "full-time" days, but all I ever got out of it was anxiety, that nagging feeling that I was behind for the week.
Monday is the day I get organized. I make sure my preaching outlines/sermons/studies are ready to go. Most weeks I do at least three new ones. I make sure the staff I serve with knows what I'm doing. I don't want to hinder them in any way as they plan and prepare. By Monday night I want Brad, our worship leader, to know the text and topics that I will share the following Sunday.
Not that I finish on Monday. Rarely does that occur. Most of the time I work on the Wednesday study until Wednesday. The Sunday messages are usually finished by Thursday, but I revisit them over the weekend as I have opportunity and sometimes tweak them a bit. You never know when the weekend will provide some good illustration material.
Friday is the day I like to take as an "off" day. And I've found that Fridays go a lot better if everything for Sunday is finished by Thursday. Come to think of it, Saturdays go better too.
Just a reminder, I am a bivocational pastor. I work 40 hours a week at my "other job." Typically I work four ten hour days, Monday to Thursday. I do a lot of prayer/study time early in the morning and late in the evening. But by Friday I am ready to enjoy the weekend, that would be Friday and Saturday by my reckoning, with my family.
I don't know if I'm a typical bivocational pastor or not? But I've found a pattern that works. I study when I can during the first four days of the work week. I make hospital visits after work or on Saturdays, just like other church members do. Occasionally I take leave time so I can be at a funeral. Sometimes I have to let things go undone.
Busy is my normal. Some weeks don't work out as efficiently as I've described, but most of the time I work four intense days as a bivocational pastor then enjoy the next three with as much rest, reflection, and worship as I can.
1 comment:
I like it. You always have been
the organized one. Perhaps someday I will be as efficient.
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