One Day A Week

For years it has been a standing joke around the church-world that pastors only work one (1) day a week (i.e. Sunday).

Specifically, I've heard this statement from one man for the last 6 years. It is ussually followed by a cakle. This man is really the only person I know who actually cakles.

Since my father mentioned it in a recent comment (and I know he was joking) I thought I'd address it. Pasadena A/G has little or no time policy for employees. I have grown contemptable with policies anyway as they tend to be: 1. reactionary and thereby stricter than they should be written, 2. constructed by boards and not by people who are doing the jobs the policy inhibits, 3. largely unused. They often get filed away and rewritten when we react to a problem at hand. (I know the value of policy and especially a written record of understanding decisions that have been made. But for the sake of my polemistry...)

In my first year at PAG I asked if Pastor Phil would like a record of my time, but he said it wasn't neccessary. He had already seen my work ethic, and the amount of time I was putting in. And in the following years I've been on a journey of time management study to try and use my time wisely.

The greatest area that I think I still need to learn in is giving my time to my family. At first I was tempted to say investing my time, but that connotates an effort to get something back. I feel less interested in investing than simply giving. I have tracked my time and have approx. 40% of my weeks documented. I did this primarily so that I could see whether I was giving time to my wife and child or not.

I grew up in the home of a workaholic. I don't think this is a surprise to anyone who knows my father, and I'm thankful that in the past couple years I seem to notice a bit more of a refocus for him. Especially since my daughter has been born. He stays at the house longer and longer in the morning in order to see her come over. What? Ben Rainey late to work? (Anybody got ice skates? I just heard about this lake that's freezing over.)

Anyway, my father modeled for me a drive that puts you in the office early, and out of the office late, and whatever the project is, you spend time (whatever amount of time neccessary) to do it to the best of your ability. So for the first 5 years of my carreer my schedule, apart from about 35 office hours over 4 weekdays, went like this: Sunday-services a.m./p.m. Monday- Drama Club, Tuesday- Board Meetings, Wed.- Family Night (Don't be deceived. This is not a night to be with your family, rather a night to all split up from one another at church), Thurs. Date Night (This was my night off to be with Corie), Fri.- Youth group meeting (btw, 8 a.m.-11:00 p.m. no break to go home), Saturday- well, 35% of those had something going on with the church.

I started changing that schedule in 2004 and it has devolved over the last year and a half, to something much better. Everyone gets the same time pie, and what we get done only depends on how we slice it. Now I work about 50-55 hours a week but have Monday, Tuesday and Thursday nights off. Well, that was until I started the Church plant. Those of you who have hosted me on those nights know that my weeks lately have been busy. But...So What.

Well, I started this blog so that you could know me. The questions that drives this blog are, "What if people could really know what their pastor thinks? Could we be more effective together?"

Here's something that you should know about me. My drive for working and overworking is built off a combination of Complusion to acheive and Narcisism that believes I'm the only one who gets it done right. I've done quite a bit of self-study and have concluded that when people say pastor's only work one day a week it simply drives me to work longer and harder. However, I've decided to temper myself against it and simply keep tracking my time. I have not figured out the best use of my time. But something I've noticed is that all the people credited for mastery of time are all much older than I am. I'm going to keep working to make sure I'm giving time to God each day in prayer, bible reading and meditation. I'm going to give time to my family; first to my wife, then to my daughter. I'm going to give time to myself by exercising and motorcycling. And I'll give adequate time to the church, depending less on myself and more on the Lord and those around me to carry the load. I was thinking about it this morning. I see pastoring as spiritual life coaching. I want to coach the people of Christ to fulfill the mission he's given them. My time focuses in pastoring focus on: Prayer, People, Planning, and Projects in that order for now.

Alas, here's my folly. I'm not a good writer. So I can't communicate this without probably sounding like I'm whining, or laying on a Dr.'s couch somewhere. It's entirely too long, and likely meaningless. But it's who I am and what I think about. Oh crap, look at the time...

-- Ben