Letting Go of Control

To move forward, you often have to let go of something significant.

Too often, what we hold tightly keeps us from following God’s promptings toward something new.

This week I’ll write about a few things leaders need to let go. We’ll start with control.

Too many leaders try to control too much. Our perceived need to control is one of the greatest limiting factors to what God wants to do.

When we control everything:

• We train people to do what they are told rather than think.
• We build followers instead of leaders.
• We put a lid on our ministries.
• We put our faith in our abilities to manage rather than in God and other people.

What are you controlling that you need to let go of?

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Meetings

If you’ve been around churches for any time at all, chances are you’ve been a part of some inefficient, ineffective, and downright painful meetings.

This week, I’ll share some tips I’ve learned the hard way about how to lead effective meetings.

My first and biggest recommendation is this: Work to keep your meetings small and communication from meetings large.

Too many ministries make the mistake of including too many people in too many meetings. The purpose of the meeting should determine the size of the meeting.

If the purpose of the meeting is to make decisions, keep the meeting as small as possible. Our Directional Leadership Team (the group that runs the church) consists of five people including me. Many have suggested that we make the group larger. I simply won’t budge.

(I also like odd numbers. To me, 3 or 5 is better than 4. For some reason, relationships seem to gel better in odd numbers.)

If you have a board or elders, I would work to keep the group no larger than 12. In my opinion, 9 is better than 12, 7 is better than 9. (We have 11.)

This doesn’t mean you don’t seek tons of outside input. What you’re doing is building a cohesive team that can move quickly.

More to come.

Thoughts?

Tags: meetings

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Unusual Time Saving Tips (5 of 5)

Don’t Take Incoming Calls

On very busy days, you might choose not to immediately receive incoming calls.

When I’m crunched for time, I’ll give my cell phone to my assistant, Sarah. She’ll screen calls for me all day. Generally she can find out what a person needs. When I come out of the office, she might ask me a few quick questions and she can respond to my calls for me.

Instead of handling calls as they come in, you can return them all at once. I like to return calls when I’m traveling in the car making that time more productive.

What suggestions do you have on this subject?

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Unusual Time Saving Tips (4 of 5)

Do Fewer Meetings

Most people in ministry do way too many meetings.

Instead of scheduling a typical 1 or 2 hour meeting, you might try a 15 minute touch-base meeting. You may cover even more in that brief time.

Or better yet, cut the frequency of your meetings in half. Instead of meeting weekly, try meeting every other week. If that is not possible, you might cancel 1 of 4 meetings a month.

Doing fewer meeting forces you to think further ahead and encourages better planning and intentional communication.

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Unusual Time Saving Tips (3 of 5)

Plan for Shorter Appointments

For some reason, when someone schedules an appointment with a pastor, they generally assume it will be a one hour appointment.

Most one hour appointments could be handled in much less time.

Years ago, I shortened my appointments to 45 minutes. We’d explain ahead of time that I have 45 minutes allotted for the meeting. No one complained. We got to the important stuff a lot faster.

After some time, I shortened most meetings to 30 minutes and some to 10 or 15. It is amazing how much important ground you can cover when both parties understand how much time you have to work with and you get right to the important issues.

It also helps to back appointments up to each other. If you have a 1:00 p.m. appointment, you might schedule your next one at 1:45 instead of 2:00. When some people want to go past their time, someone else can politely interrupt and explain that your next appointment is waiting.

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Unusual Time Saving Tips (2 of 5)

Let’s Have Lunch in My Office

Eating out can be a huge time waster. (I’m not saying that having a nice, long lunch isn’t occasionally important, necessary, or enjoyable.) Travel time to many restaurants takes 15 to 30 minutes (or more). Many restaurant meals can take 45 minutes to an hour. A simple lunch can easily eat an hour and a half of your day.

I suggest some other options:

• If you don’t have a lunch appointment, consider bringing lunch from home. Not only can you save money but also time. You can eat in a few minutes in your office and continue working.
• If you don’t have a lunch appointment and didn’t bring your lunch, you might ask another team member to bring you a sandwich if he or she is going out.
• If someone invites you to lunch, you might suggest they join you in your office. If you have an assistant, he or she can grab lunch for you; or you can order-in for delivery. You can spend 45 minutes or an hour of quality time with someone without leaving your office. (If you invite someone to lunch, you’ll probably prefer to honor them and travel to a place that is convenient for them.)

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Our Personal Rhythms

Amy and I have worked hard to find rhythms that work well for us. Here is a summary of our philosophy.

• We assume we’ll have long stretches of grueling ministry. When a long stretch is coming, I’ll let her know. Many of these stretches are planned. Some are not.
• We always plan a non-negotiable break after an extended season of tough ministry. It is amazing what we can endure when we know we have a break coming.
• For us, we try to take breaks out-of-town. When we are in-town, I’m tempted to drop by the office or check emails. Or someone from the staff might need me for just an hour (which turns into three). When we are out of town, we are mostly unavailable.
• We plan at least one extended trip (of two weeks or more) every year. Since my ministry RPMs stay pegged in the red when I’m on, I try to take time for deep rest. It takes me about four or five days away to settle down. Once I start to relax, my whole mood changes. I need the first week’s break to truly enjoy the second week.
• We try hard to guard our day-off. If we don’t protect it, something will come along and steal it. (There are times when I surrender my day off, but those times are rare.)
• We home educate our kids. This is one of the greatest benefits to our family. When I’m off on Friday, the kids are home. When I’m working, they do many of their activities including their homework leaving most evenings for family. When we want to travel, we can even if (or especially if) other kids are in school.
• When I’m writing a book, I write for a couple of hours before work and late into the evening after the kids are in bed. I write a half day on my days off. I always plan a getaway for the family on the back side of a writing project.
• I have learned that taking two weekends off in a row from preaching is huge. Our church needs my leadership more than they need my preaching. I redirect time normally spent on sermon preparation to use for leadership development.
• When I don’t spend time with God, it doesn’t matter what I do or don’t do, I’ll be flirting with burnout in no time at all.

Are any of these new thoughts for you? What do you do that might help me or others?

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Ministry Within the Seasons

Because a pastor’s schedule, role, and duties differ from other professions, the rhythms of life should differ as well.

Your rhythms will vary based on several things including:

• The stage of development of your ministry. For example, starting a ministry or transitioning a ministry might take more effort than other seasons.
• The age of your kids.
• The focus of your ministry.

I’d suggest that you embrace the season that you are in. (Don’t act like it is summer if it is winter).

Here are a few of the ways I’ve embraced the different seasons.

• In the early years of the church, I worked almost non-stop. Some might think I’m exaggerating, but my wife would tell you I’m not. (She understood and embraced that season as best she could with the promise of a new season coming.)
• Once the church was off-the-ground, I intentionally slowed the pace and arranged my schedule to spend much more time at home with our growing family.
• Instead of multiple short breaks from ministry/church, I’m now taking fewer, but longer and more restful breaks.
• During the first ten years of the church, I didn’t write books or speak at conferences. My sole effort was on building the church.
• In this season, I invest way more time in developing leaders than in the past.
• With six children at home, I limit my travel schedule to about one night out a month.
• Once the kids are older, I look forward to much more international travel.

Are you doing anything that is inconsistent with your season of life and ministry? Please share any seasonal rhythms that work well for you.

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