Video Transcript: Time Allotment

Welcome back to our course developing great commission skills. With this  session, we're moving into skill number four, managing ministry. Time, we're  going to be taking a look at the skill topic, time allotment. Time allotment. You  know, what we need to understand in regard to time is that time is a resource,  and perhaps, perhaps time is our only resource that cannot be replaced. It  cannot be replenished. Time moves from one second to the next to the next,  one minute to another, a day to another. And once time is gone, it's gone, it's  gone forever, and it cannot be replaced. Unlike other resources, if we run low on money, there is the opportunity to perhaps generate funding and replace that  money. If a key person or a group of people end up leaving a project or some  commitment, we can find other people, and we can recruit them. We can  mobilize them any other resource can be replaced, can be replaced, but not  time. Once time passes, it's gone. We can either use it wisely or not. Now there  is an expression we talk about saving time, but time really can't be saved. It can  only be used well or used poorly. Now, managing ministry time is about just that. It's about using the time that is available well. You know, churches have multiple  rhythms. These are just a natural flow of events. There are weekly rhythms that  are largely driven by Sundays. You know, there's a Sunday in every week, every seven day, every seven days that goes by, there's going to be a Sunday, and  that's a rhythm. There are holiday rhythms that we deal with, Thanksgiving,  Christmas, Easter, there are seasonal rhythms somewhat driven by the seasons of the year. You know, in conventional communities, you have, for example, the  fall semester of the school system and the spring semester and in the summer  break. And those have an influence on how we minister. There are monthly  rhythms, quarterly rhythms, even annual rhythms that are associated with, you  know, regional or national affiliations that we might have with, with a  denomination or some other association. So these rhythms are in place, and if  we allow them to, these rhythms can dominate the use of ministry time. Now  here's the bottom line. The bottom line is that using ministry well, using ministry  well, is a disciplined choice. It's up to us to proactively choose to use ministry  well, using time poorly, then is a function of having not made that choice. Now, in my focus on this session is largely aimed at pastors, but this would apply to  leaders. It would apply to whole congregations, and it wouldn't just apply to  ministry. These concepts would apply to the use of time in any any area of life.  So let's talk about time allotment. Pastors tend to be overwhelmed by a time  crunch, and time cannot be replenished. Now here's the challenge, demands  and expectations that are placed on a pastor will continuously expand, but time  will not. So you see, you see the problem. You see the challenge. Demands are  expanding, expectations are expanding. Time is not. Time remains absolutely  fixed, absolutely constant. A second is a second. A minute is a minute, a day is a day. You know how that works. Now, the place to start with managing time is  going to have to do with a couple of things. First of all. We need to quantify the 

amount of time per day or per week that will be devoted to ministry time. Now I  want to I want to emphasize that I'm speaking to ministry time. I'm not speaking  to 24 hours a day, all of the time of your life. That's not the scope of what we're  doing here today. So we're going to be talking about ministry time. We're going  

to be thinking of ministry time as a specific, a specific division of time. So you  need to understand, whatever your calling is, whatever your status as a pastor  is, if you're working as a full time pastor, that's one thing. Part time is another  volunteer pastor, bi vocational pastor, you'll have to determine what is the  amount of time per day or per week that will be devoted to. Ministry that's your  playing field. That's what you have to work with. Now you're also going to need  to quantify the ministry, the ministry that needs to be accomplished in the  amount of time that you have allotted. And so obviously, this is a this is a  function of division. We're going to spread out the expectation, the quantifying of ministry that's to be accomplished, and we're going to assign that to certain time frames within the overall, overall time allotment per day or per week that is being devoted to ministry. Now, you might recall that in previous session or two, we've  talked about a model, a biblical model, of understanding, you know, how God  approaches a particular subject. And I, I use this model that asks the question,  you know, what does God say about this? And what does God mean by what he says about this? So let's take a look at a couple of verses in which the Word of  God is addressing the usage of time. In Ephesians 5, we see this. Look  carefully, then how you walk, not as unwise, but wise, making the most of time  because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the  will of the Lord is. Making the most of the time because the days are evil, you'll  lose time if you're not paying attention. Time will be stolen from you if you're not  disciplined. And again, this is a choice that you can make, how you're going to  use your time. Secondly, from Colossians 4:5, it says, Walk in wisdom toward  outsiders making the best use of time. I'd like to I'd like to suggest that as you  are getting used to this idea of very deliberately, very intentionally using time  periodically, stop throughout the day and ask yourself, Am I making the best use  of my time? Is this last hour or two hours, or this last, this last unit of work that  I've engaged in? Am I making the best use of time? Am I using my time? Well?  Now we're not going to dive into a deep exposition of these verses, but I just  want you to recognize the connection that the Word of God is making between  wisdom and the most or best use of time. So consider these words about  wisdom to be words of wisdom when it comes to using ministry time, when it  comes to managing ministry time well. So here's the question for you, have you  ever considered your use of time to be a spiritual health indicator, one of the  categories that you consider in regard to your spiritual health? Well, try that on  for size. See what you think. So in practical terms, a pastor should quantify all  that's required of them, and quantify all of the available ministry time, and  spread out the expectations, the requirements over the time that you have now, 

chances are you're going to have more things that need to be done than you  actually have time to do them. So now we have to shift into thinking about  priority. We have to shift into thinking about First things first. We have to shift  into thinking about what's truly important, what's not so important. And of course, we have to do all of this with a view toward how to utilize the calendar, how to  utilize the time that we have to work with. So I want to, I want to show you a  model that I think is extremely important. This comes to us from Stephen Covey. Now, Stephen Covey has a book came out really back in the 80s. But you know, what I've noticed is that, you know, if something's true, it's always true. Truth  doesn't tend to change. And back in the 80s is when I first came across this  particular book. It's called The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. And one of the things that Covey covers in this book is what he calls the time  management matrix. So I want you to take a look at that diagram. I'm going to  pause here for just a few seconds and let you, let you take a look at that and  think about it, process what you're seeing there, and then we'll have a few things to say about the time management matrix. All right. So what you see, of course,  is that we have these four quadrants. And on one hand, we're looking at what's  important versus what's unimportant. And the other side of the equation, we're  looking at what's urgent and what is not urgent. And when we you know, when  we play these two against each other in a vertical axis and a horizontal axis, we  come up with the four quadrants of our matrix. So let's take a look at each  quadrant very quickly. Now, quadrant one. These are requirements that are  important, but they're urgent, important and urgent. Now I need to, I need to  explain that the kind of urgency we're talking about here is different than the  urgency that we talked about in looking at John Kotter's book, when Kotter  advised that in order to navigate change, we absolutely must develop a sense of urgency. Well, that's a positive sense of urgency, as in, there's an opportunity,  there's something that's pressing, that's extremely important. We've got to we've got to get our people understanding that there's a need to change, and that  change is an urgent change. So it's a positive sense of urgency that motivates  change. The kind of urgency we're talking about here, though, as it relates to  time management, is a different kind of urgency. It's an urgency that says you  didn't get this done in a timely manner, and now the deadline is here, and so  now you're under pressure to get this done in an urgent, frenzied push, because you've waited to the last minute. And of course, as we've seen before, not only  does that create a lot of pressure, but the quality, the quality is going to drop off.  So it's great that quadrant one is dealing with important matters, but it's  unfortunate that we've allowed those matters to become urgent. Now with that  train of thought, let's move over to quadrant two, important matters again, and  that's great. We want to be spending our time working on what's important, but  there, but they're important and not urgent. Now, what that means is that as we  are considering this important task, requirement, responsibility, project that we're

working on we're working on it in a timely manner. We're not pressed up against  a deadline that's causing urgency. It's not urgent because we've allowed the  proper amount of time. We've allowed our calendar to breathe a bit so that we  can really focus on this important issue without this sense of urgency, and we  can take our time and do the job well, do the job right now. The wise time  manager spends most of his or her time in quadrant two. This is the bull's eye  that we should be shooting for. Now let's move over to quadrant three. What do  we see there? Well, we have not important issues that are urgent. Now, this is  the worst case scenario. This is the worst possible place to be. We're working on something that's not all that important, but because we haven't worked on it in a  timely way, there's an urgency attached to it. Now, nothing could be more sad in  a ministry context than to be urgently pursuing something that's not important,  that is your proverbial waste of time. And finally, we go to quadrant four, and  what do we see there? Well, we've got issues that are not important, but they're  not urgent, so let's think about that, any any responsibility, any job position,  whether it's a pastor or otherwise, there are certain things that are rather  mundane that just need to be taken care of. They're not all that important. They  just need to get done. Okay, fine. It goes with the territory. But doesn't it make  sense to take care of those things in a way that's not urgent. In other words, we  don't allow time to disappear and force us to have to deal with those issues at  the last minute, creating pressure in regard to things that aren't even important.  That's the worst possible place that we want to be. So I really appreciate the  value of Stephen Covey's time management matrix. In fact, I'm often aware of  this matrix myself as I'm working through various things, I'm thinking to myself,  what quadrant am I working in right now? Am I doing things that are important or unimportant? Am I managing my time well so that I'm not pressed by urgency, or have I let things slide to where I'm pushing after a deadline that's creating a lot  of pressure, and it's compromising the quality of what I'm doing. Being aware of  the time management quadrant can really help you in your ministry. Now, again,  the bottom line here, the bottom line is that you've got more things to do than  you have time, so the more time you spend in quadrant two, the more wisely  you are using your ministry time. So I want to zoom in a bit to your personal  world, your personal ministry, whether you're a full time pastor, part time bi  vocational, a leader in the church, perhaps a leader in a professional pursuit  outside of church. And so let's, let's examine your usage of time now when it  comes to ministry, here's the question, what elements of ministry are the most  important? You see with the time management matrix in view, the two metrics  we're going to be using are the metrics of importance and urgency. So what  elements of ministry are the most important. So the way that you would process  this is you would make a list of your most important ministry elements and then  rank them from most important down to lesser important. So you know, we're  doing a couple things here we're separating the wheat from the chaff. First of all,

we're separating the important things from the unimportant things, and then we  are prioritizing the important things from greater importance down to lesser  importance. Now then we move to the second question, what elements of  ministry are the most urgent at this time? So now we're taking a look at that  metric of urgency. We're looking at the calendar. We're looking at when certain  tasks or projects or assignments need to be completed. And the idea here is to  make a short list of your most urgent ministry elements and rank them from the  most pressing elements down to the lesser pressing elements, from the greater  urgency to the lesser urgency. Now what you've done with this simple exercise  is you've now spread the things that you were doing in ministry out into the four  quadrants. You know, separating important from unimportant, separating urgent  from not urgent, and taking a look at which of these quadrants is carrying the  greater weight. In other words, let's say you've got, I don't know, 15 items that  you've listed. If you've got nine of those items in one quadrant, that's going to tell you something about how you're managing your time. So use this exercise to do that self evaluation. You know, what does this exercise tell you about your own  practice of managing ministry time? Managing ministry time is a function of  allocating time according to all the needs, all that needs to be done and spread  across a designated time frame of activity. We want to make sure that we're  doing the most important things in a timely fashion, so that we are protecting  ourselves from pressure, from a time crunch, and protecting ourselves from  functioning at low quality levels because we're rushed, because we're in a hurry, because there's there's pressure, and we never perform under that kind of  pressure as well as we perform when we can take our time and do things right,  and do things well. Now this completes our video on time allotment, and so I'm  going to wrap this up. And as we look ahead to the next video, we will be  continuing with our skill of managing ministry time, and we're going to be taking  a look at the skill topic, pro active scheduling now Until then, may God bless  your efforts on his behalf in the name of Jesus, amen,