What Does the Pastor Do All Week?

Wednesday’s Scripture Readings:
OT: Lamentations 3
NT: Philippians 1
W&W: Psalm 109.1-20

Today’s Reflection:

At the Town Hall Meeting, I answered the following questions:

• What are the days and hours of the week you would prefer not to be disturbed?
• What day is your “day off?”

I’m glad you asked that. I have given this a lot of thought in the last several months, and I have come up with an “ideal schedule.” Through prayer, and seeking the help of others, I have come up with a general pattern that I like to follow:

Mornings are my best time, so I need to spend that time – whenever possible – in the highest impact activities. For me that is preaching preparation, prayer, and personal formation. When possible, I try not to schedule appointments in the morning. I need that time with the Lord and to feed my soul. Afternoons are such that I am ready for more personal contact with people: pastoring.

Monday through Thursday, I usually get up between 5 and 5:30 and spend some time in prayer and Bible reading. My goal is to tithe my time, but I find that a hard goal to reach. Lana and I spend about 30-45 minutes together in the morning – on a walk and then breakfast and devotions. I usually arrive at the office at 8:30. On Tuesday mornings I have a meeting with Mark to review the weekend services and prepare the coming service.

I try to have the first draft of my morning sermon done by Tuesday noon. I want to give it to those preparing PowerPoint as early as possible. Sometimes, though, I don’t get it done until Sunday at 11:20! But, usually I’m pretty much done with it by Wednesday and don’t look at it again until Saturday. I try to finish my Sunday night teaching early in the week also.

Starting with lunch, I like to make appointments for pastoral visitation and administrative meetings. I also spend time in administrative tasks during the afternoons. The focus of my time varies depending on the needs present. If needed, my sermon preparation bleeds over into the afternoon.

I like to have everything done for the weekend by Thursday afternoon, because Friday is my day off. For that same reason, I prefer not to schedule meetings on Thursday evenings. (In the same way, I know you wouldn’t want to have meetings at work on Friday evenings.)

Friday I take the whole day off whenever I can, which is usually most weeks.

Saturdays vary depending on the church calendar. I don’t really have a set schedule except that I know I will be reviewing my sermon to add notes to it, re-reading commentaries, etc. If there is nothing pressing, I may not come into the office.

Do I stick with this schedule? Sometimes pretty close, but often I am not able to observe it “religiously.” That bothered me until I remembered what a pastoral coach once told me: “Make your ideal schedule, and if you can get to 50% compliance, you’re doing great.” I would say, by that standard, that I’m doing great.

Summary: I work Sunday through Thursday all day; I’m off on Fridays; and I take it easy on Saturdays as much as possible. I need undisturbed time in the mornings to adequately prepare for preaching and teaching the Word of God and for prayer.

This Week’s Scripture to Memorize:
Let’s put Romans 3.21-25a together: 21But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.