Pastor's Priority

Life has many choices. Thousands of times a day we are faced with making a choice -- clothes to wear, books to read, calls to take or ignore. The efficiency of our day is predicated on the skill at which we make these choices. By choosing actions that are aligned with our goals, we experience productivity and feelings of accomplishment. To select otherwise, results in feeling overwhelmed and off-center.

In a recent survey of pastors conducted by Transform Ministries, prioritizing daily actions was listed as one of their greatest challenges. Understandably, pastors are faced with more opportunities in a day than they can hope to accomplish. Pastors serve a unique and difficult role in the church that compounds the difficulty of prioritization.

In my 25 years of executive leadership positions in for-profit and non-profit organizations, as well as providing leadership coaching to pastors, I have concluded that by far, one of the most difficult organizations to lead is the church. Primarily fueled by “volunteer” efforts and an individualistic spirit, the church is a complex organization that is often plagued by mis-alignment of intent which fuels the difficulty pastors find in prioritizing. Every member has a unique perception as to how the pastor should spend their time, and frequently, members of the congregation use the “democratic” platform that they believe the church should offer to them, to convey their beliefs.

As difficult as it may be, there are still some basic guidelines that pastors can use to prioritize their efforts and those of their congregation. Humans act like humans regardless the setting, making leadership principles a bit more generic than many leaders recognize.

The ability to effectively set priorities is in its basic form a question of alignment. Alignment simply means that all efforts in the organization are focused on agreed upon goals with everyone working in concert toward those accomplishments. Once purpose is established and agreed upon by the organization, prioritizing becomes much easier. The equation becomes:

Urgent Purpose + Focused Communication + Aligned Efforts = Success

Prioritization occurs as we select tasks based upon their support of the above three areas. If an activity does not support the urgent purpose of our church, then it should not be a priority. If a meeting is not used to communicate the urgent purpose or organize an aligned effort, it is not a high priority of our time or the time of others in our church. If an activity is not aligned with the urgent purpose, it will be wasted time at best or counter-productive to our goals in the worse sense.

Of course, simple equations often attempt to overlay simple answers on complex issues, but they can serve as an effective “screen” to determine the impact of a considered choice. In general, the mis-alignment of church efforts toward an undefined purpose, has caused considerable disruption among the congregation and frustration with the pastor’s calling.

Step back and ask yourself if you have appropriately completed the success equation for your church. It will become your effective tool for prioritization.

For additional insight into the connection between alignment and accountability, click here to read an additional article at http://www.rodbrace.com/

Convergence welcomes your comments, questions and advice for our readers.