*Sections of this post are taken from a chapter in my forthcoming book, Shepherds On Guard.
Every week, pastors have 168 hours at their disposal. A large chunk of this time will be dedicated to pastoral responsibilities that might include sermon prep, leading multiple services, staff meetings, visitation, counseling, and discipleship. Throw in prayer and Bible reading, time with family, sleep, rest, and leisure and those hours quickly disappear. With so much to do and so little time, the need for pastors to guard their time becomes apparent.
Time is a valuable asset for pastors because it’s a resource we can never recoup once it’s spent. With such a precious but limited resource at our disposal, guarding our time requires wisdom on our part. Here are four ways pastors can wisely guard their time.
- Accept that We Have Enough
J. Oswald Sanders helps us, “Our problem is not too little time, but making better use of the time we have. Each of us has as much time as anyone else.”1 You can complain all you want about not having enough time, but complaining won’t suddenly grant you an extra hour a day. Instead, we must follow Moses lead and ask God to “teach us to number our days carefully so that we may develop wisdom in our hearts” (Ps. 90:12; CSB). God has numbered our days and has gifted us all we need to faithfully fulfill the work He has for us without ignoring rest and our family. Wisdom comes after accepting that we have the time that we have. Once we accept this truth, then we can wisely begin to make better use of the time we do have.
- Know How You Use Your Time
If you are like me, you don’t get too excited about schedules. With that being said, over the past two years, keeping tabs on the way I use my time has helped me enormously. For years, I lost so much time over the course of a week because my life had no structure. This precious resource that God gave me was being wasted day after day. Because I avoided a schedule at all costs, I just sort of tackled my ministry responsibilities haphazardly. Some prayer here, a visit on Tuesday morning, two hours of sermon prep on Wednesday night, and an occasional last-second lunch with a church member on Friday. Do you know what I learned when I finally decided to use a schedule? My lack of planning and consistency caused me to procrastinate, neglect some of my pastoral responsibilities, and even ignore quality time with my family. I assumed I was better at guarding my time than I really was, but it wasn’t until I finally started tracking the way my time was spent that I realized how badly I was fooling myself and everyone around me.
There is a big difference between keeping a schedule and being controlled by a schedule. But I hope we would all agree that in order to maximize the way we use our time, we have to utilize some sort of schedule and system of planning. Even the simplest of schedules can guard us from being lazy, overworking, and neglecting our family and ministry.
- Avoid Extremes
There are two especially dangerous extremes that pastors can fall into when it comes to their time: laziness and overworking. If pastors don’t guard their time, they will eventually fall victim to these extremes.
Laziness. Both Proverbs and Ecclesiastes frame laziness in terms of wisdom. In Proverbs 6:6-9, we are invited to consider the work habits of the ant: “Go to the ant, you slacker! Observe its ways and become wise. Without leader, administrator or ruler, it prepares its provisions in summer, it gathers its food during harvest. How long will you stay in bed, you slacker? When will you get up from your sleep?” The Preacher writes in Ecclesiastes, “Because of laziness the roof caves in, and because of negligent hands the house leaks” (Ecc. 10:18). When pastors refuse to work hard and they ignore the responsibilities of ministry, important needs are neglected, or even worse, people are neglected. Whether it be a lack of discipline and/or a lack of accountability, laziness is a trap that pastors can fall into if they are not guarding their time.
Overworking. Because we know kingdom work is eternally important, we will always be tempted to work and work and work with few, if any, measures in place to prevent us from overworking. There is always someone to minister to, another sermon to write, and another meeting to attend. Pressures from outside and within, our love for what we do, and the nature of pastoral ministry all combine to present a real danger for us. But the truth is, overworking is no small matter.
Compared to other failings or struggles, overworking may not seem to warrant too much of our attention, but the consequences are real and alarming. Overworked pastors begin to resent fellow staff and church members, wondering why other aren’t working as hard as they are. Overworked pastors become less effective as they lose their energy and passion. Overworked pastors will trade needed rest and leisure for more work. Overworked pastors lose their joy for God and ministry. Overworked pastors neglect their families. Overworked pastors reach exhaustion and quit.
Pastors must wisely guard their time, avoiding the dangers of laziness and overworking. We must avoid laziness by working hard to fulfill all the responsibilities of pastoral ministry. At the same time, we must guard ourselves against the temptation to overwork, which will lead to exhaustion and neglecting rest, leisure, and our family.
- Follow Jesus’ Example
Jesus’ public ministry lasted only three years. And yet, in such a short amount of time, Jesus leveraged His days to accomplish the Father’s will for His life (John 6:28). When we walk through Jesus’ life in the Gospels, we find that He was neither lazy nor too busy. He served, He healed, He discipled, He preached, and He rested. Despite ministering to large numbers of people, Jesus is never hurried. His ministry is defined by purpose and intentionality.
It might seem cliché to say, “Be like Jesus,” but there’s no better example of how to wisely guard your time in ministry than Him. He doesn’t ignore people for the sake of tasks. Jesus doesn’t heal every single person He comes in contact with. He doesn’t preach to the masses 20 hours a day everywhere He goes while ignoring rest and sleep. Jesus demonstrates for us how to wisely guard our time and fulfill the ministry God sets before us.
Whether God calls us to five years in ministry or five decades, we must learn to guard our time wisely. Time is too precious of a resource for us to throw away, especially when we can never get it back once it’s gone. When we learn to guard our time, we prevent laziness and overworking. Moreover, we will be less prone to ignoring rest, sleep, leisure, and time with our families. If we want to be effective and faithful in ministry, we must learn to guard our time.
