I thought we’d wrap up this series sharing a few tips for navigating life as thiner:

Define Your Wins. I don’t get caught up in the rat race of tracking my hours. I know what I need to get done and what it looks like to win. I know that I put in a sufficient amount of time and that’s what matters. As long as I’m winning I don’t let the amount of time I’m spending or not spending affect my feelings of productivity and accomplishment at the end of the day.

Find a Schedule that Works for You. I personally allow myself a more flexible schedule, but I have friends in similar jobs who need more rigid schedule. I have several blocks of time in my week that I fit into that flowing schedule including:

• A couple of hours working on my next sermon. I’m usually 4-6 weeks ahead on sermons so the sermon I week on I may not preach for another month.
• A couple of hours working on the next series
• An hour to review and practice the sermon for Sunday. Chances are I haven’t seen that sermon for a couple of weeks so I spend some time praying over it and refining it.
• Several hours preparing and having meetings with staff. As the lead pastor I am responsible for being forward thinking and keeping us on vision as a church. I block out time to set meeting agendas, think through the conversations, etc.
• Several hours dedicated to communication. This includes communication with my church through emails, training videos for leaders, writing thank you notes and posts on The City. I also spend time communicating with people not in our church through notes, emails, and text messages.

Schedule Time to Fill Up. As you can see from above a great deal of my time is spend pouring out, whether that be through writing, preaching, counseling, leading a meeting, etc. When you spend a great deal of time outputting it’s important to block off time to fill up. I schedule time to do things like read, take a walk, listen to a podcast or anything else that will feed me emotionally, spiritually, and physically.

See a counselor. I have a counselor I see regularly. Because I spend so much time thinking and helping other people process, I need someone who can help me think and process. I also have a trusted group of pastor friends that have a group text message conversation we check into regularly to celebrate wins together and encourage one another through the tougher times.

Do you have any tips you would add that help you navigate life as a thinker? 

White collar workers punch in at 8 o’clock and punch out at 5. In between they have a routine set of responsibilities, most of which revolve around managing people who are responsible for tasks.

Blue collar workers are also punching the clock but spend their days producing very tangible results that directly correlate to the amount of time they put in.

This new thinking creative class falls somewhere in the middle. Oftentimes they still produce something, like the blue collar folks. And they also spend time managing people like white collar workers. But, the majority of their time is spent on thought.

Designers deliver you a beautiful poster that required 3 hours of work in Photoshop but only after 3 hours of thinking about colors and fonts, brainstorming ideas, and doing some research for inspiration. Consultants spend a great deal of time thinking about what is effective for their industry before they ever step foot into an evaluation to consult for a client. Writers spend a great deal of time thinking about ideas, doing research, and having conversations about their next book before they ever write a word.

In this new thinking class of work, the time invested doesn’t directly correlate to the amount of “product” at the end of the day. Nor is the time spent an accurate indicator of energy spent. An hour spent brainstorming ideas for a new sermon series is not equivalent in terms of energy to an hour spent approving expense reports and returning some simple emails.

The dilemma becomes: how do you measure the “productivity” of your time if you’re judging it simply on the number of hours you log in any given day? How do you measure thinking? And how do you justify feeling exhausted after time spent thinking even though you haven’t produced anything tangible from it?

If you consider yourself part of this new in between group of workers, how do you measure the productivity of your day? 

I had two conversations recently that caused me to consider a question: Are pastors blue collar workers or are pastors white collar workers? 

The question first came in a conversation with a mentee who was concerned maybe he doesn’t put in enough “time” at his job. As I was talking to him I figured out that he gets everything that is expected of him done, and more. Outside of his job responsibilities, he contributes a great deal to his tribe, and doing a great job at all of it. However, it’s difficult for him to add up the hours to get 40 hours in a week or 60 hours in a week. He may be working 80 hours and doesn’t realize it because a lot of what he produces is thinking.

I asked that same question myself in speaking with a mentor. I oftentimes get to the end of a day and I’m exhausted but if I add up the hours it wasn’t that many full on meeting hours or conversation hours, but must of my time was spent planning, thinking and writing.

Processing that with my mentor, I realized that the activity of thinking can be mentally and emotional zapping. We think we shouldn’t be exhausted because we didn’t produce something that we can tangibly see, but producing thinking is equally exhausting.

I believe there is a new working class that doesn’t fall into white collar or blue collar. And it‘s not just pastors. It includes any job that dedicates a great deal of time to thinking – it’s the rapidly growing creative class. 

This new class is neither management driven nor task driven but is a mix of the two. Our churches are full of this type of leader, many who wrestle with feeling like they’re not putting in enough time because they’re not outputting enough tangible “products.” I want to spend some time this week talking about how we can navigate this new thinking class in a healthy way.

As you think about your job, which class would you typically say you fall into? 

I hope you’ve seen this week that summer truly doesn’t have to mean shutdown. The natural change in rhythm that happens this time of year is a great opportunity to develop new leaders and recruit volunteers.

There are a few practical steps you can do to get started:

• Make a list of people of the top 10 people you wish were volunteering but are not currently.
• Invent an event to create an opportunity for those 10 people to serve and then ask them to be involved.
• Ask current leaders to identify their replacement now so that you can start being intentional about investing in those individuals
• Spend 1 on 1 time with 1 leader each month from May through July
• Draw out your leadership pipeline and plot where your current and just below the surface leaders are. Make it a goal to move people along the pipeline over the summer and track that progress.
• As you are planning Vacation Bible School, use it as an opportunity to invite some new friends to the volunteer pool.

What practical steps would you add to take advantage of summertime in recruiting new volunteers?

Many pastors and other staff leaders spend a great deal of their time working in the church, sometimes at the expense of working on the church. Summertime often provides opportunity for sabbaticals from preaching, teaching, or other responsibilities. The result is margin to work on the church.

Working on the church should include coaching and developing volunteer leaders. A more relaxed schedule and all around environment during the summer provides great opportunities to do this.

Typically during our usual schedules we find time to invest in current leaders but may not have the margin to invest in new leaders. The extra margin of summer provides the opportunity to be intentional about coaching new volunteer leaders who are just bubbling up to the surface.

“Pastor, we’re going to be taking 3 vacation trips over the next three months so we’ll need to step down from leading our small group for the summer.”

You may not have heard those exact words but chances are you’ve heard something very similar. If you’re a good leader you’ve also been told, and therefore tell, that good leaders replace themselves.

Vacations can be a great opportunity for current leaders to replace themselves with an apprentice. The next time a leader tells you they are taking a vacation from their role, ask them who the second in command is – who steps up when they don’t?

Then, encourage that leader to invite the second in command to take charge for the duration of their vacation. This is a great opportunity for them to get hands on training and develop as a leader.

Let’s face it, the thought of committing to something long term can scare many of us. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise when we don’t have folks lining up after we ask them to sign up to lead a small group or work in our children’s ministry for the next 6-12 months.

Summertime is a great opportunity for events which can help bring natural leaders to the surface. While many programs may take a bit of a hiatus during the summer we tend to have more events as a church during this season.

Events are a great opportunity to involve new leaders because it’s a short term commitment, a one time gig. Ask someone you’ve been wishing was involved to cook for a BBQ or plan an activity for the kids or to lead a parking team.

Not only is it a short term commitment for them, but it’s a short term commitment for you – you can see where folks are at on the leadership pipeline so you know what type of leadership role they might best fit in longer term.

As you look to plan your next summer family night or church picnic, be intentional about asking volunteers to be involved who don’t typically swim in your volunteer pool.

For many people, summertime means vacation, traveling, relaxed schedules, and a break from the regular routine. For churches this can mean volunteer leaders are taking a break, taking a step back, or just simply not present as often.

Our natural response to this is typically to put programs and activities on “cruise control.” But, summer doesn’t have to mean shutdown. I think it’s a great opportunity to take advantage of the natural rhythms to find natural leaders who are ready to step up.

It’s easy in our typical rhythm to always call on those in our current volunteer pool when we need extra hands. The change in availability due to summer schedules forces us to look outside the current pool and find other leaders who may be bubbling just below the service.

This week I’m going to share a three ways I think summer can be a positive for leadership development and volunteer recruitment. On Friday I’ll also give you a “homework” list of sorts with practical steps and goals for getting started to avoid the tendency to shutdown this summer and instead to help leaders step up.

My friend and Growth Track Coordinator at Freedom Church, Mark Klim, took some great notes from All-Access last week that I am going to share on the blog this week.

Larry Stockstill

• Ephesians 4:11
• Apostle – Spirtual father – fellowship with all, partner with some, build with sons
• Prophet – correctes in the body of Christ -
  • When people don’t feel consequences they never know how to obey God
  • Accountability
• Evangelist – passion for the world
• Pastor/teacher – pastor leads, teacher feeds – gives direction – psalm 23
  • Real Pastor can see frustration
• Deacon -

My friend and Growth Track Coordinator at Freedom Church, Mark Klim, took some great notes from All-Access last week that I am going to share on the blog this week.

Randy Bezet 

Bradenton and Sarasota

Bayside Church

• Church started growing after I learned to be faithful to what I had
• Portable church 7 years
• Economy crashed bank said couldn’t finance
• Mark 5 –  you got to have faith to walk not a situation that’s dead – last verse 42 – I want to live in amazement of what God does

1. Have the right people around you
   1. They will rally you too
   2. Develop other leaders to help carry the vision
   3. Empower other people
   4. Don’t do this alone
2. God uses difficult days to help stretch you
   1. Don’t get comfortable to much… You get Lazy
   2. Stretch and grow – in every area of your life
   3. Blessing of God comes in the stretching and stepping out
   4. Stretch for something new
   5. It starts with you saying I’m willing to step out