The life of a pastor, and especially the volunteer in ministry can be very, very busy. There is your family, your job, your personal time with God, church, meetings, the ministry you serve in, the lunch appointments, the one-on-one meetings, counseling, mentoring, discipleship, planning, more meetings, phone calls, administration, visitations, and still, more meetings. I have tried to fit 100 hours into a 40-hour workweek, and it doesn’t seem to ever work out. Something always gets short-changed.
So in those instances, what is your default short-change? I know for me, it is the things that I do best or come the easiest to me that usually get the least amount of attention. I figure that I can always just throw together a sermon, or just text message someone rather than spend the necessary time studying or really connecting one-on-one with someone that really needs it. I have found out that the things that are usually the first to suffer are the things that are the most important, but are also the things that I enjoy the most.
I try to spend time outside of my gifting far too much. I am not blessed with great administrative skills. So my attempts at being administrative in certain areas normally take me twice the amount of time they should take, and probably even more than that for someone who has the gift of administration. So I end up spending far too much time outside of my gifting, and that takes away from the things that I really enjoy doing. Consequently, I can end up stressed out and irritated.
So the key is to surround yourself with people who aren’t like you! Get people into your circle that can do what you can’t do well. Delegate! Spend your time chasing things that matter and that which God wants you to do. God wants you to do what He has gifted you to do. He would not have given you the gift had He not wanted to use it.
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