Guarding the time of others

If I wrote the previous post on Guarding Your Time  for any reason in particular it would probably be so that I could have a little foundation off of which to post this. I believe guarding your personal time is of great importance, and as I become more adept in the art I will no doubt fill you in on tips and tricks of the trade.

But as much as I believe in guarding my own time I believe even more in guarding the time of others. I believe this principle is of utmost importance to those of us engaged in ministry.

Once you get into the habit of guarding your time it will open you to the possibility of guarding the time of others.

You can look at this in a number of ways, but to share what I feel is one of the most important aspects of guarding the time of others I want to share my thoughts on guarding your Pastor’s time. If you’re not ministry focused it may still behoove you to peruse this article and apply what concepts you can to other relationships.

If this post is directed to anyone it is directed to Student Pastors.

My fellow Student Pastors understand the stress of not having enough time. You have Bible studies to develop, lessons to teach, ball games to attend, fights to break up, and break ups to help your students through. You may take on a few more roles at your church as well. On top of that you have your own spiritual health to worry about and relationships (Wife. Friends. Roommates) to cultivate.

Still I can guarantee you that your stresses, while real and numerous, are not the same stresses your pastor has on his shoulders. He has trusted you with a small segment of his flock to help alleviate that stress and to help build stronger congregation, but he still has the spiritual health of the entire congregation weighing on him.

You may be coping with a teenagers first break-up, but he is dealing with a marriage of 20 years that is crashing and burning.

Two students may have gotten into a fight after your last Bible study on Proverbs 18:6, but your pastor is dealing with an overzealous heretic staging a coo.

Now your stress may win out when a student decides to reenact an Old Testament sacrifice after your 3 month series on Leviticus, but then again that’s your own fault for providing a mock altar and knives… (I know it looked cool, and you saw Rob Bell do it, but you’re not Rob Bell.)

The bottom line: Your pastors time is precious.

It’s very easy to ignore that fact and think “Well he gets payed to be the pastor. That’s his job to be available 24/7.” And that may very well be the case, but what I propose is that while he may make himself available to the church 24/7/365 he is not available to you in that same capacity.

Now certainly he cares about you as a leader in the church. He wants you to be healthy. To make wise decisions spiritually, financially and relationally. And he certainly wants you to check with him before you decide to take your students to do missions work in Haiti.

But your Lead Pastor does not need to be bothered with the minute details of your life and ministry.

For starters…. He trusts you. When he asked you to fulfill a ministry role he was placing trust and confidence in you. Trusting that you have your spiritual affairs largely in order (we aren’t talking perfection. we’re talking sound doctrine and Biblically founded teaching principles) and that you are responsible enough to handle making decisions on your own.

Your Spiritual life

Your pastor is very interested in your spiritual life. He doesn’t want to only be your boss (He is) but he wants to be your pastor as well. Your pastor prays for you. He desires for you to grow in your relationship with Christ and in your ministry.
Let him be your pastor.
But please do not burden him with every spiritual epiphany you have (Something I have done) and with every time you think you see a spook in the corner of your bedroom (I’ve done this too.)
As a student pastor you are responsible for a segment of his flock. So your spiritual health is of particular interest to him. But again he trusts that you have spiritual disciplines in place. I can not stress how important it is that you have personal spiritual disciplines in place.
Are you accountable? Not only to your pastor, but to a trusted minister outside of your church.
Do you have daily habits of prayer and Bible study? I know it seems obvious, but we all know the danger of doing things for God without ever taking time for Him.

Having your spiritual affairs in order helps to take pressure off of your pastor so that you are not coming to him with every problem you have.

Your ministry life

The business side of things.
Planning a youth series.
Deciding between a carwash or bake sale for fundraiser.
The new and exciting ministry book that revolutionized your life and ministry that you think everyone should read.

The minute details need not be gone over with. Of course different pastors have different leadership styles. Your pastor may want and need frequent updates. Perhaps he is a micro-manager. Or maybe he is completely hands off. Find the balance that works.

For me I communicate with my pastor via e-mail. We are far from a some mega-church with multiple sites and tons of staff. In fact we have no staff. But e-mail is quick and easy. It allows my pastor the opportunity to respond to a question or idea at his convenience. Still don’t overload him with e-mails. Stick with the essentials. Short and sweet.

(As a rule of thumb for e-mails I recommend the http://five.sentenc.es/ philosophy)

Again… Your pastor trusts you. Communicate with him.
Be open.
Don’t do anything too stupid.
If your pastor is anything like mine he often times allows me enough rope to hang myself, but trusts that I won’t.

Other tips for guarding the time of others…

Schedule times to meet. Be on time. Do not overstay.

Have an agenda for what you would like to discuss. Do not stray from it unless you are invited to.

Inform them about what you would like to talk about during the meeting beforehand.

If the question can be answered in a text or e-mail then don’t ask it over lunch. Text it.

A guarantee I can make is that if you will make the effort to guard your pastor’s time you will not regret it. You will release your pastor to be more effective in his ministry and prevent him from being bogged down in the tiniest of details.

And if you practice the art of guarding his time he will take your time more seriously.

This principle can be applied to any relationship. I speak from a ministry perspective, but this could quite easily apply to supervisors and bosses.

There is much more to be said, and I have hardly done the topic justice, but it’s a start.

Is this something you practice in your life?
What does it look like in your context?

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