Leadership in Context with Keith Tucci
Episode 018
Time Stewardship, part 2
Assigning our days keeps us mentality fresh so we are not always acting and feeling busy, but being productive and fruitful. I never tell people that I’m busy. Busy means that I’m not getting anything done; I’m spending a lot of energy. Instead, I tell people that I’m fruitful, I’m effective, I’m intentional.
Especially in the context of ministry (but it applies to business as well), we have 52 weeks. We have 52 opportunities to influence people for the Gospel and for the Kingdom. It only seems rational that we would build our schedules and strategies around those 52 launching pads. That does not mean that everything happens on Sunday, but Sunday is the launching pad until the next time everyone is back together.
In those 52 weeks, you have Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Easter, Christmas, Veteran’s Day, Memorial Day. That takes you down to 46 weeks. Chances are, you are bringing in 4-8 speakers a year, including a few guys you are trying to raise up from within your church. Now you only have 38 weeks a year that you are preaching as a shepherd. (Even when you are not in the pulpit, that needs to be planned.)
When you go into the office Monday morning, what is the first thing you do? I think the first thing you should do is ask yourself:
How do we improve on this Sunday?
How do we define what happened?
What do we repeat?
What do we fix?
What do we add to?
And then you build your week backwards because that is your strongest suit—you are called to preach. You have to be prepared to do that and have everything that goes along with that:
What do you want to say?
What do you want to do?
Who do you want to do it with?
These are questions that you need to ask. As you build your calendar, you build it based on those 52 Sundays.
Don’t look at just a week, but consider the month, the quarter, the year. This is a master plan. It’s hard to get a master plan for the church when you aren’t building a micro plan for yourself like we talked about last week. By breaking things down into quarters, it helps you see where you want to go. Then you start looking at the weeks and the weekly services. What are the different parts you want to see in that service? Look beyond the function (greeters, nursery, etc.), and determine what the functions should be accomplishing. What you are trying to accomplish should be communicated clearly. Each week, 52 times a year, you have opportunities to improve on something. And those improvements start on that Monday morning when you are reviewing the service you just had.
When we plan ahead, we inspire people. Build in days for baptisms, baby dedications, family days, Thanksgiving, certain celebration days, etc. instead of just saying, “I think I’ll just do this.” This helps get people focused on those things and excited for them. Plan these things ahead of time. This builds equity in people. People are watching you. They are watching you take them, in an organized way, from point A to point B.
Where do you want to be 52 weeks from now?
Where do you want your worship experience to be 52 weeks from now?
Where do you want your follow-up experience to be 52 weeks from now?
Where do you want your hospitality ministry to be 52 weeks from now?
Where do you want your sound and media to be 52 weeks from now?
Do you know where that starts? Not 5 weeks before you have the meeting with them. It starts now. It starts 52 weeks ahead of time—when you are putting these things on your calendar, on your schedule, and meeting with the people you want and need to bring alongside you to make these things happen.
Side note about meetings: When I was pastoring, I felt that leaders came to the meetings I planned because they knew that there was always a reason for the meeting and that I wasn’t going to waste their time. I wasn’t having a meeting to just have a meeting. And I didn’t go into meetings unprepared. If you have that in your culture, it’s a lot easier to get people to your meetings.
Interruptions
You have to discern what is a crisis and what is a ministry need. There may be a crisis that legitimately needs Moses, and you are Moses. Chances are, a lot of things that we view as interruptions are standard shepherding, pastoral care.
Pastoral Care
One of the things to plan in your 52 weeks is: How am I going to multiply myself to have more caring time? When there is a call for someone who needs help, is in the hospital, or has something that has gone awry in the family, there should be someone other than you that can get there when you can’t. Or they can tag-team with you, and then they can follow-up without you.
A lot of this will work more easily if you move pastoral care to the top of the list and develop 4-8 people who will help you in this area. Being willing to be that person all of the time is one thing; being the person is another thing. God has tasked you with things that you need to do that only you can do. Only you can lead. Only you can sound the trumpet as clear as it needs to be sounded. That has to be your first commitment. You can multiply yourself by developing a pastoral care team that can help with the areas that don’t have to have just you.
Begin to look at your 52 weeks now. Where do you want to be 52 weeks from now? Name the categories. What are you going to do about tham? How is the vision going to be cast in the weeks to come? Plan out your Sunday services, rather than just hoping something happens because all we long you’ve just been busy doing things rather than getting things done.
Join us next week as Keith Tucci continues to put leadership truth in the context of the local church. And as always, please like, share, rate/review, and invite others to listen. See you next week!
