Make time work for you
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED JULY 6, 2019
A big issue in ministry is the pressure of time. Many volunteer and paid staff I know struggle with deadlines, organizing, and doing work in advance. There just doesn’t seem to be enough time to get it all done, especially in a dynamic environment like church creative arts ministry. We want to get ahead on our work, but then a drummer backs out, a funeral/wedding pops up, an extra song is added to the service…just like that our extra time is gone and we are rushing to beat the clock. It’s actually a situation that is so common, many in ministry don’t know it’s a problem, they just assume it is the nature of the work.
But that doesn’t have to be true. While there is no way to prevent last minute changes or problems, you can anticipate that they will occur. Knowing there will rarely be a week without these kinds of additions, we can make it our goal to complete work in advance whenever possible, in order to free up time for the unexpected. And as it turns out, there is quite a bit of work in creative arts ministry that can be done in advance.
Scheduling, service planning, media preparation, and music charting are some key examples. These staples of creative arts ministry can be accomplished weeks in advance. In my own ministry, we plan services 5 weeks out, schedule 4-6 weeks out, and chart music 3 weeks out.
Pushing these tasks back a few weeks gives us flexibility. If issues arise and we miss a service planning or scheduling deadline, no worries, it’s not the end of the world. We have the time to address the emergencies, big projects or whatever, and make it up in a less busy week. The work evens out this way.
We’re also more creative. Having extra time give us the ability to accomplish creative, time consuming ideas that otherwise would be impossible if we were planning 5-7 days out.
When you start to think about it, there are many small ways to make time work for you. Set the stage up hours or days before your rehearsal so you don’t have to worry about it right before rehearsal begins. When producing a video, shoot earlier than you need to in order to create more editing time. Whatever can be done earlier, do it earlier, and see how that creates openness in your schedule for the unexpected (which, of course you are now actually expecting and planning for!).
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