How A Pastor Should Manage Their Schedule And Calendar

Today I had the privilege of attending a C3 Global roundtable in which those in attendance got personal coaching from Ed Young, founding and lead pastor of Fellowship Church in Dallas, TX.  One of the many things he discussed was how a pastor should manage their schedule and calendar.

I felt his thoughts were so interesting I wanted to share them with you.

The following are thoughts on How A Pastor Should Manage Their Schedule And Calendar from Pastor Ed:

1. You dictate your schedule, don’t let your schedule dictate to you.
2. Schedule all your meetings on one day.
3. Creativity is not cramitivity.
4. Build creativity time. What are those things that put wind in your sails?
5. After a relaxing activity, you’ll come out with your most creative ideas.
6. Somewhere we traded dreaming for dogma.  We traded inspiration for memorization.
7. We get most of our creative ideas from creativity and conflict.
8. Put the most offensive energy into sermon prep. And before you do that, you have to spend time with the Lord.  You have to hear His voice.
9. It’s (the sermon) got to connect with the PhD and the person who made all D’s.
10. Don’t go to church too much.
11. Why is Hillsong starting churches where churches are doing great?
12. When you talk to your family, talk positively about the church.
13. If you want to hear the best critique of the church, talk to a pastor’s kid.
14. You can become church obsessive (as a pastor).  There’s a life outside the church.
15. Delegate counseling appointments.
16. Every person I’ve counseled, ever, has left the church.
17. Have a counselor (to do the counseling).
18. Maximize the weekends.
19. My dad turned down meetings with Presidents Bush and Clinton to watch us play sports.
20. Don’t have a reason to go to church every night. Breakfasts, lunches, and dinners are a waste of time.  Have coffee with people in the green room before and in-between services.
21. Know your ‘No’s”.  I say “No” now more than ever.
22. Take breaks or your schedule will break you.
23. You’re going to burn out some.  The ministry is setup for burnout.
24. Dad would just take long breaks.  50 years ago he started doing that.
25. Pastors will over-sex, over-spend, and over-eat when they’re burnt out.
26. Don’t travel with anyone on vacation.  They’ll ruin the whole thing.
27. I would take a break from preaching about every six weeks.  And take off the weeks everyone else takes off.
28. Don’t preach when you’re taking breaks.
29. Take a break a couple of nights a year with your spouse.  Those are true vacations.
30. Thursday nights were date night.
31. Friday was a day off.
32. We cancelled Saturday night services after 20 years.
33. Don’t have people around you giving you negative news on Sunday or Monday.
34. I’ve emotionally given it my all when I preach.  Don’t tell me nothing negative until Tuesday.
35. Make it a priority to make your priorities a priority.
36. Harvard did a study.  Most people had similar priorities.   In another column, they wrote down their commitments.  There was a significant gap between priorities and commitments.
37. A lot of us are overly committed.
38. Manage the maze of meetings. 70% message prep.  15% staff.  15% counseling.  This is a proper use of a pastor’s time. (See the chart above)

What is one thing from Pastor Ed’s comments above which will make you a more emotionally-healthy pastor?