Clergyperson, what will you do next week?

One of the potential blessings and pitfalls of clergy life is that to a considerable degree you can organise your own time.

You need to decide how organised you are going to try to be.

You could just go with the flow but sometimes there might only be a trickle and mostly there'll be a flood. You might find the stress and pressure energising but its probably not the best to be always last minute.

It seems to me that you should at least plan to read Sunday's readings on Monday. That will help you know what's the minimum ammount of study you could get by with if the worst comes to the worst. And it will allow the passages to begin to ferment in your mind. Your best sermons are unlikely to be those that are dashed out entirely on Saturday night and Sunday morning. Your sermon prep is not done when you've got something to say for X number of minutes. Your preaching requires some of your best efforts each week.

You need to plan in your day off. It is helpful if your family and perhaps your congregation know when its going to be! You'll want to see something of your family and have a bit of a rest or at least a change if work has been exhausting.

Likewise you need to plan your holidays ahead. In fact, if you are going to do lots of summer weddings and you want a summer holiday, and you're doing a camp, and you're restricted to the school holidays, you probably need to plan about 3 years ahead!

Study is unlikely ever to get done unless it is planned. 

Then you can be intentional about your actual job of prayer, ministry of the word, evangelism, discipleship and ministry training.

But even if you are very given to planning and organisation, you will need to keep some flexibility. Sometimes there will be real pastoral crises that simply must be dealt with that week. A friend of mine had to do 3 funerals in the week before Christmas once. That's a challenge if the time you had expected to be able to use to prepare for the biggest gigs of the year suddenly disappears to nothing.

In planning your week, you would do well to know yourself. For example, can you study for 10 hours a day or are you done in after 8? And if you are, would a visit in the middle have helped or hindered your productivity? Is it energisisng to spend time with people (and with whom for what purposes!) or do you find that exhausting? Are there some things for which you need to preserve your best energy or after which you need to blow off steam or wind down? If your PCC finishes at 10am and you won't get to sleep for another 2 hours, do you want a meeting at 7am the next day? What can you do in the down time which does not require maximum concentration?

Things like funerals and weddings are high wire acts and require lots of focus and attention. You don't want to Commit the wrong person to the flames or marry the bride to an old flame. After a funeral you may want to go for a drive with the car roof down and the stero blairing, and then walk the dog. After a wedding you may need to sit down with a nice cuppa.

Clearly if you're going to plan in any major way you also need to plan some time to plan - though of course you've got to avoid infinite regress, here. If you're a Getting Things Done person you need regular time with your In Bucket, your next actions, waiting for lists and projects. Maybe twice a year you probably want a half day away with your Bible, your diary and a notebook for a bit more of a strategic review and dream!

Plan wisely with an eye to how you can best do your job. And plan to be flexible.

Oh, and maybe those who are into the warm and fuzzies would add something appropriate here about being not just doing. Amen.