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Routines are essential to human functioning. Our household routines help us to get chores out of the way so we can have time for what is truly creative and important. Routines provide an automatic way of dealing with small unpleasant duties without expending huge amounts of energy.
Similarly, in pastoral ministry our week is shaped and expedited by certain routines. These routines need critiquing, freshening, and reviewing from time to time. Are they serving the needs of our ministry and the purposes of Christ? Are we clear about them, and are good routines in place? Do our routines provide the necessary structures so that the principal task Jesus gave us can flourish: preaching, teaching, healing?
PERSONAL ROUTINES TO REVIEW
1. Calendar accuracy and accessibility.
2. Hospital visiting routines.
3. Sermon preparation routines.
4. Pastoral visiting routines.
5. Ways of responding to messages.
6. Time management.
PARISH ROUTINES TO REVIEW
1. Baptismal preparation, marriage preparation, and grief ministry structures.
2. Meetings and sharing information with parish officers and lay leaders.
3. Parish notices.
4. Worship service participation lists.
5. Long term parish calendar planning.
Jesus told us that, "those who are faithful in small things will be faithful in things that are great". Through obedience and diligence in shaping the little routines and disciplines of our ministry, we can free up time for the creativity and energy of what is really important in our lives. So often we try to do things the opposite way around, and life ends up in a tangle.
Item 65
©2005 Ronald C. Ferris
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