What I Do All Day...

"What do you do all day?"

I get that question, in some form or fashion, all the time.  People usually see the senior teaching pastor and other pastors on a church staff at the weekend services, running around and doing their 'thing' for a few hours on Sunday morning.  But what about the other days?  What do we really do?

Circulating on Facebook and elsewhere is this image that I thought really, accurately depicted the various views:

Well, accurate except for the last one.  Mostly.

I keep track of my time so that I can gauge how I'm spending my time, where I'm investing it and how I need to make adjustments.  One new tool a friend recently showed me is Tickspot.  I'm using this now and it's really helpful.

Bill Hybels says that he only does 3 things: Prepare for meetings, do meetings, debrief after meetings.  I think that's a pretty good summary.  I spend a lot of time getting ready for meetings - leadership team meetings, staff meetings, planning meetings, strategic meetings, Weekend Services meetings.  And I spend a lot of time in those meetings, along with pastoral care meetings, counseling meetings, pre-marital meetings.  And I spend a lot of time processing meetings - the 'to-do list' that comes from those meetings.

Writing is the largest chunk of my time.  I spend 15 hours or so every week writing for the weekends, blog posts and announcements or invitations or cards.  But still, I don't write enough, frankly.  I should be blogging 4 times a week, but I'm averaging 3.  I should send more cards.  I should spend more time making touches through social media.  I should be spending more time writing weekend messages and have messages in various stages of preparation.  There's never enough time, though.

I bet it's hard to imagine how a church staff member works 50, 60, 70, 80+ hours a week.  But I assure you it happens...every.single.week.  There's always more to do than can possibly get done.  And this is true of every member of PCC's staff.

But it's also a really fun ride, and most of the time I LOVE what I do.  I think all of our staff members would also make that statement.  The job has some downsides, to be sure, but what job doesn't???  Taken altogether, when you are doing something you know God has called you to, there is nothing I'd rather do with my life!