Administration for the Pastor

As always, your current position or responsibility is unknown to me. Many time the suggestions that are given can be adapted to your particular situation. If you find that you can't do that feel free to ask a question in the COMMENTS section and we will see what we can do.

Today let's be a pastor. It is your first workday after the weekend - for some that is Monday and for others it might be Tuesday. We will pass on the "at home stuff" for now. You arrive at your office or the place you do your "pastor" work. What has to happen between now and the next weekend?

Let's try and create a list. This is a one pastor office.

• teaching preparation (study, writing, thinking, praying)
• financial review (How is the income vs. expenses going? Do we need to cut some expenses?)
• pastoral meetings (marriage counseling, mentoring, discipling, meetings with various leaders)
• elders' meeting planning (agenda, resources)
• Christmas Service planning (children's program, choir, musicians, gifts, etc)
• Emails (reading and answering)
• Facebook (reading and responding where appropriate - some use Facebook instead of email)
• Write missionaries (often this is overlooked)
• review curriculum (Sunday school at all levels)
• Find a new usher (John just quit. Can I ask Luke?)
• Answer phone calls (listen to answering machine and return necessary calls)
• Visit hospital (hopefully this isn't necessary but...)
• Developmental reading (your own development as a pastor and leader needs to be nourished)
• Men's Bible Study (this is a group you lead on a weekly basis)
• Prayer (start you day in the office with this and take some prayer breaks through the day)
• Review various ministries of the church (What do they need? Where are the strengths and weaknesses? Are they doing OK?)
• Update Blog (only if you started one - should be done regularly to be effective)
• Follow-up on past meetings - do my action list from those meetings (What was it I had to do after the last elders' meeting? Leaders' team meeting?...more later)

This only a small part of what you need to do in your ministry but it is enough to get us panicked and/or overwhelmed. How do I begin?

This is the first day of your week. Pray first. Take several minutes just to lift up the planning you need to do. 

You should have a CALENDAR and LIST with you. Whether the CALENDAR is paper or digital makes no difference - IT DOES NEED TO BE THE SAME CALENDAR EACH TIME. The LIST may be considered a TO DO LIST or not. I like to call it MY LIST. It can be on paper or on a computer BUT as with the CALENDAR it is the same LIST you used last time and will use next time.

Enough for today. If you want an assignment, make up your own list of what you need to do in your ministry similar to the one I just listed. That is a key important part of administration - know what you have to do. 

Be sure to add any thoughts to the COMMENTS.