Make Space for Preaching: 4 Steps to Move Non-Essentials Off Your Plate
This content is excerpted from the “Make Space for Preaching” workshop presented by Lisa Cressman and Shaundra Taylor to The Collective+ earlier this month.
Print the bulletins.
Fix the copier.
Answer the front door.
Replace the toilet paper rolls.
Build a youth program.
It’s not necessarily your job, but if you don’t do it, who will?
While you’re tending to these tasks—that someone else could or should do—you’re not working on your sermon.
Sermon prep gets shoved behind these and other “pressing” needs.
What makes them pressing?
Does the Church cease to exist if these aren’t done?
Probably not.
Often what’s really pressing is avoiding the lesser of evils: fielding parishioners’ complaints when they aren’t done.
We can’t do it all, they don’t understand that you’re overworked and over-functioning, and we don’t want it to appear that the church doesn’t have its act together.
So we do all the things.
And preaching, which deserves and needs our considerable and undivided attention, gets shoved over into our personal time.
Essentially, preaching becomes our volunteer job.
But when preachers delegate effectively, they get out from under the tasks others could do, freeing them to focus on their essential task of preaching.
Step #1: Clarify the Mission
The big picture is the congregation’s mission, preferably distilled into a mission statement.
Here’s the immense benefit to a mission statement: it functions as the ruthless editor to the boundaries of your ministry.
In other words, mission statements define which ministries stay, which never get started, and which get cut—including our “ministry darlings”!
With a clear mission, decision-making is front-loaded, saving time, effort, energy and unnecessary conflict.
For example, if the congregation’s mission focuses on environmental concerns, then you know to focus more of your week’s time, energy, and attention there, and to say no to a request to start an outreach ministry.
If the congregation’s mission is excellence in worship and preaching, then you know that your time and energy will be focused there more than on building a youth program.
With a clear mission, it’s faster and easier to know what to take on and what to turn down.
Tip #1, then, is draft, review, or revise your congregation’s mission statement.
Step #2: Define Essential Tasks
What are the things ONLY you can do?
You were called to this position for a purpose: what is it?
For most preachers, it’s to be a preacher, worship leader, pastor, and teacher, and take your place in the councils of the church.
It’s not to fold bulletins. Or tidy the pews after worship. Or sit on the board of every local nonprofit.
Make a list of the tasks only you can do and write or revise your job description.
Leave it to the parish council to fill in the gaps.
Step #3: Create Workflows
Workflows are especially well-suited to repetitive tasks like tidying pews, executing a worship bulletin, or calling for assistance when the copier breaks down.
An hour spent crafting a detailed workflow will save you hours every time it’s used so that 1) you’re not reinventing wheels and 2) if something happens to the person responsible for the task, someone else can step in and know exactly what to do.
A workflow includes:
Why: Describe the purpose and why this task matters.
What: Describe what it will look like the task is completed.
How: Describe the steps in detail.
Where: Describe the location(s) where the task occurs.
When: Describe when this task is to be completed, including due dates as needed.
Who: Name the person (or title) of the person responsible and the go-to person for questions.
Review: Add a date to review the workflow and made adjustments.
For example, a workflow to tidy the pews might look like:
Why: We want everyone who enters our sanctuary to find a place of serenity, quiet, and beauty. We want it to feel welcoming and a place to settle in to worship God in peace.
What: When this task is complete, the sanctuary will be clean, uncluttered, and tidy with everything in its place.
How:
return worship books to the book holders
straighten pew cushions
replace broken pencils (used for the pew cards) with sharpened ones and place them in the holder
pick up and discard trash; recycle what can be recycled
Where: the sanctuary and entryway
When: after the last Sunday worship service
Who: Members of the Hospitality committee. Go-to person for questions: Parish Council member: [Name, email address, and phone number].
Review: This workflow will be reviewed and updated within two weeks of the annual parish meeting.
Workflows take effort to do well, so don’t try to devise them all on at once.
Start with the tasks that most often interrupt your essential work.
Step #4: Authorize
An important piece of a workflow is to define the amount of authority the person is given to execute the task.
For instance, you may want someone to take over a task completely and let you know when it’s done.
A different task might need your approval for each subtask before they are authorized to continue to the next step.
Worship bulletins might employ all ends of the spectrum.
For example, it might be your task to choose the prayers and hymns.
You hand that information over to your administrative assistant and authorize them to format it in the bulletin template but send it to you to proof before it is printed.
After it is proofed and returned to the admin, they are then authorized to print, fold, put them in the sanctuary, and tell you when it’s done.
Once we have authorized someone to do a task we have to trust them to do their job, which means letting it go when it’s not done exactly the way we might have.
That said, workflows are always a work in progress. If something didn’t go as envisioned, then revise and communicate changes as needed.
The more time put into the workflow, the more space is freed up for your essential work—like preaching.
Want to learn more about delegation and workflows? Join The Collective+!
“Making Space for Preaching” was the topic of the last monthly lecture in The Collective+.
We shared more guiding principles, detailed examples, and workflow templates/handouts attendees have since successfully put into practice.
That recording with all the downloadable tools are available to members.
We’d hate for you to miss out on that practical workshop or other talks that support preachers in their preaching and preaching life.
Enrollment opens Feb. 1-4 and then closes again until summer!
Get on the waitlist to to be notified as soon as enrollment opens!