Seminary is a great training ground for current and future pastors. Providing theological and practical ministry training, seminary training is a requirement for ordination in most churches. But, for many youth workers (including myself), attending seminary full-time is not an option. So how do you juggle full-time ministry (or work) and seminary? (more…)
Posts Tagged ‘Time management’
Juggling Seminary and Ministry
Saturday, July 18th, 2009Meeting with Students on Your Day Off
Tuesday, July 7th, 2009
Imagine this scene: you just got back from a weekend retreat with your Junior High students. On Monday, you decide to take some time off and recuperate from the trip. After school, some Senior High students send you a text, asking if you want to hang out and play Halo. What do you do? (more…)
Things for Mac
Tuesday, June 9th, 2009
Things for the Mac is a great project manager / to-do list. It provides the user to make multiple to-do lists, projects, and even areas of responsibilities. Recurring Tasks can help you schedule and remember bills, appointments, and other repeating tasks.
Since I use Things on my personal laptop, I have a mixture of personal and ministry related areas of responsibilities within the program. I use the Projects List to divide my tasks for certain events. The Today screen shows how many tasks you need to accomplish today.
There are two reasons that I have decided to use Things. First, it has great integration with iCal, my preferred calendar program. Second, Things has an iPhone app. Since I am looking to get an iPhone within the coming months (or at least an iPod touch), having that seamless integration will be awesome.
The series Youth Pastor Toolbox discusses tools of the trade for youth ministry. A new “Youth Pastor Toolbox” will be posted every Tuesday.
Time Management: Office Hours
Thursday, March 19th, 2009
If youth ministry is your job, then you probably have felt some expectations to be in your office for a certain amount of time. Most of the time, these expectations come from external sources, like members of the congregation. But not all aspects of youth ministry can be done from behind a desk; building life-changing relationships with students happens outside the office. Over at MinistryQuestions.com, user Frank Honess posed a question about office hours to the hive mind. Be sure to check out the discussion here: Office Hours?
Personally, I feel like office hours is primarily dependent on your situation and what you feel comfortable with. Some youth workers like to be in a given place at a given time, so that people can easily meet and connect with them (parents, volunteers, students, ministry team). Other youth workers like to be constantly moving, trying to interact and touch many lives. My advice on office hours is that you maximize the effectiveness of your time spent in the office and make sure you spend tons of time with students.
(image by houseofsims)
Time Management: Scheduling
Tuesday, March 17th, 2009
If there is one thing I have learned about time management, it is this: there never seems to be enough of it and everyone is craving it. Your family wants your time spent on them, your elders/deacons want it spent in the office, your students want it spent hanging out on location, and you want it spent on something else. Scheduling your time effectively is essential to using your time wisely.
While in college, I learned a simple yet helpful method to scheduling time in your ministry:
Divide your week into 27 sections. Each day of the week is divided into 3 blocks: Morning (9am – 1pm), Afternoon (1pm – 5pm), and Evening (5pm – 9pm). Make sure to take off 1 block per day, and never work 3 consecutive blocks (i.e. Monday evening and Tuesday morning/afternoon).
Make sure to block off the time in your calendar (on cell phone, laptop, work computer, paper calendar). Communicate these hours with all involved parties (Senior Pastor, receptionist, ministry team). Most importantly, make sure you hold to your time off; don’t cheat and check work emails, head into the office, or schedule meetings.
(image by fabiolarebello)
Time Management
Monday, March 16th, 2009Time. In ministry, as in any other career, you can never have enough time. It is the one thing that you can spend freely, but it is a very finite resource. As a servant of God, you must become a good steward of it, since it is His time. You must successfully divide it between family, work, students, God, and yourself.
By no means do I have ministry time management figured out. I will be the first to admit that often my is less than managed. But for the next week, we will present some helpful suggestions to manage your time more effectively.
(image by fabiolarebello)
Office Organization
Monday, October 13th, 2008
I am currently reading David Allen’s classic Getting Things Done. Last night it was the chapter on collecting. He talks about going through your office and clearing everything and putting it all in your inbox. In ministry (especially youth ministry), the office is typically viewed as a very large inbox, with resources, receipts, skateboards, limbs, and paperwork scattered over every square inch. Personally, I am the definition of disorganized. Even though I just moved into the office in August, there are already drawers full of paper, instructional books, and other junk.I am hoping to finish the book this week and, Lord willing, I will then be going through the office with Allen’s program. I will not just clean, but actually organize. I will post updates. Pray for me!
