by Bret Capranica | Apr 13, 2010 | Featured Articles, Pastoral Ministry, Time/Life Management
The big picture is where productivity begins, whether for a pastor or really anyone. What’s the biblical rationale for life? What are your biblical values and how are they What roles do you providentially have in life? What does the Bible say about each of them? As you analyze your life circumstances, biblical priorities, and personal giftedness, what do you believe would be the best end product to shoot for in each of these roles you have in your life? That’s where goals come in. Goals will shed light on how you plan each week and evaluate how your doing as time goes on. Weekly planning helps to guide how you think about each day. Overly intentional? Maybe. But I think these are merely practical ways to look at life and ministry and make sure you are aligning life and ministry along a biblical track. So in this post I want to concentrate on identifying and defining biblical values. What are the core principles that govern your thinking and your behavior? Perhaps you could ask yourself, when I die, what do I most want my life to leave behind that were the obvious commitments of my life and ministry? Answer that question with a list of one word responses. Then begin to clarify those words in a short sentence or two. Here’s a few steps to take in defining and clarifying your values: 1. Brainstorm a list of one-word standards, ideals and priorities that are biblically based and very important to you. 2. List each one word value and then write a present-tense, first person affirmation statement about how...
by Bret Capranica | Apr 8, 2010 | Featured Articles, Ordinary Pastor, Pastoral Ministry, Time/Life Management
So what are the potential pitfalls every pastor (really anyone) will face as soon as he is committed to becoming more productive? Here are a few suggestions: Strangling Sovereignty. As one who believes in, values, and enjoys a robust understanding of God’s sovereginty, I understand the tension that can often be felt when trying to become more focused and productive. I understand that God guides every step despite by best intentions. As someone (I can’t remember who) has said, we write our plans in pencil and understand God owns the eraser. Never think that our goals, plans, projects, tasks, and ultimately our productivity is either up to us or accomplished in our own ingenuity. Furthermore, when providence destroys the perfectly planned productive week you sketched out, rejoice! Don’t fret or sweat in frustration. God is sovereign. Our productive desires can never strangle his perfect providential plans. Frustrating Friends. Another pitfall when we aim to be productive is that we will inevitably frustrate some of our friends; especially those not given to our bent for greater productivity. I do this to the best of my friends. I need to be less self-focused and considerate of others. Yet, I can plan my work and work my plan, running right over those I consider ministry partners and friends. Be careful of this. Neither frustrating them by our precise planning, nor succumbing to other’s lack of planning needs to cause us any lack in being effective at what we do. Flexibility is required – but not so flexible that we are useless. Projects Above People. Sometimes this is a false dichotomy. Often times...
by Bret Capranica | Apr 7, 2010 | Featured Articles, Ordinary Pastor, Pastoral Ministry, Time/Life Management
So, this series is all about the negative side of pastoral productivity. Next week, I plan to say more about the more productive side of pastoral productivity – the positive stuff. But, before we move to the positive, let’s be a bit more negative (why do the negative articles always get more press?). Here’s a few thoughts on unproductive approaches in addressing productivity: Goals without Strategy. Goals are great and I have them – I have some for myself, my family, and my ministry. But if you have no practical way to apply them, remind yourself of them, or even hold yourself somewhat accountable to them, goals are useless. Goals without a strategy are a strategic way to become more depressed and obviously unproductive. If you are going to set some goals, you will also need to think through a process by which those goals are continually evaluated, regularly reviewed, and practically applied to how you work week to week. Strategy without Goals. Many people fall into this trap. These are those who are mesmerized by the latest time management tool, whether electronic or paper, or those who are continually looking for a new productivity system. They love to think about how to be productive and are always shifting systems, but their day-to-day functions are never tied to any long-term, higher altitude goals. Strategy without goals is a good way to feel productive, but not necessarily be productive in the long run. Time-Driven Tasks. It really is a myth that you can manage your time. It marches on despite our goals and management plans. I do agree with David...
by Bret Capranica | Apr 6, 2010 | Featured Articles, Pastoral Ministry, Time/Life Management
Busyness is a given and is not unique to pastoral ministry. But make no mistake, busyness is often more of a problem, than more of a sign of effectiveness. I have always wrestled with personal focus, whether practicing my trumpet in high school band, or finishing a paper in college. Procrastination could be my first, middle, and last name. Time and life management has always been a struggle. But it has become a major pursuit as well; one in which I trust I am making progress. Challenges to Productivity Sin. Sin steals time. Whether misplaced conversation, inappropriate activities, or laziness in and of itself, sin steals time. When activities of life that are not faith-founded dominate the schedule, sin is present. Sin is never productive, not in the long run – rarely in the short run, never for things eternal. No real need to get too specific here. Sin steals time. You probably know how that shows up in your life. I am quite well aware of how it shows up in mine. Family. I don’t mean to suggest that productivity is more important than time spent with family. I don’t believe that and would never advocate it. However, I am quite sure that family requests, kid’s desires, and even legitimate, necessary family needs prove challenging to your being productive. Productivity may mean staying up later, or in my case getting up earlier, so that family is not inappropriately neglected. Nonetheless, family responsibilities are always a challenge to being productive in your work. Unintentionality. This may be one of the biggest challenges. Simply having no intentional plan regarding your...
by Bret Capranica | Apr 1, 2010 | Featured Articles, Ordinary Pastor, Pastoral Ministry
Based on my previous post on this subject, here’s a few video’s on my present office/study set-up. I am very blessed. My church graciously provides me a place to use as an office, and I have an extra room at home from where I also work. I use my church office mostly for administrative tasks and meetings. For sermon preparation, significant reading, writing, and thinking projects, I use my home study. My office study contains the majority of my books, while my home study contains the books that I am currently reading or using for various projects. Monday and Tuesday’s are the days I primarily give to ministry administration, shepherding, meetings, etc. Wednesday and Saturday are my primary days for sermon preparation. Thursday I spend half of the day at my home study writing and half of the day at my office study (or out in the community). Here’s the video tour of both my church office and home...
by Bret Capranica | Mar 30, 2010 | Featured Articles, Ordinary Pastor, Pastoral Ministry
Pastors (well, many if not most of them) do love to study, read, write, and pray. The location and set-up of their space for such ministries becomes a fairly important issue, the longer ministries goes on. What goes in to making a pastor’s study an effective place to work? A place that is relatively quiet. I don’t know any ordinary pastors who can have a completely quiet place to study or work, but relative quiet is something essential for considerable thought and consistency of work. I don’t study at my church office because it is rarely quiet and not the best set-up for significant study. You would think that a house of two toddlers and two infants might be more noisy, but in reality, it’s not really all that bad, so at this time my home office is the best place for me to do significant study. My church office is set up and designed more for administration and meetings. My home study, however, was put together with reading and study in mind. The furniture and arrangement are all set up for study. A desk that you can spread out on. I have a desk in my home study that I’ve had for over twenty years. It is very large, allowing me to stack books, spread out papers, and arrange my study tools exactly how I desire them. I use two flat screen computer monitors for my virtual desktop giving me a significant amount of screen surface area. I keep a coaster, a phone connected to my office system (VoIP), and a small lamp. That’s it. The space is...
