A few weeks ago, I decided to start keeping a journal/time log. I put this document together that chronicles my last week and thought I'd share it. I know that people often wonder what a pastor does. This gives them a snapshot.
Monday, November 29 (Mondays are my official "Day Off")
5:30am - Wake up, Morning Coffee, Prayer Time. I have more energy than usual for a Monday morning, in part because I did not preach yesterday. On Mondays after preaching four services, I am usually more sluggish. Sometimes I will sleep in until 6:00am on Mondays, but I feel good this morning. Made a double shot of Starbucks Espresso and spent some time in prayer.
6:30-7:45am - Workout at the Gym. I try to workout three times per week at Sport and Health in Stafford. I find that if I workout early in the morning I am more likely to stay consistent in my exercise routine, plus the gym is a lot less crowded. I usually just lift weights. Not doing much cardio exercise these days. I walk the dog, so that's good enough. I do have a treadmill in the basement of the house, but I rarely use it. When in the mood for some cardio, I will do P90X at home.
7:45-8:00am - Review Affirmations, Scripture Memory verses. On the drive home from the gym, I review my 3x5 cards of Positive Affirmations (character qualities I want to demonstrate in my life) and scripture memory verses. I think memorizing scripture is a very important spiritual discipline. Many times those memorized verses have blessed me during the day.
8:00-8:45am - Shower, Shave, Breakfast. I always eat a big breakfast. Fuels me up for the day.
8:45-9:30am - Disciple Bible Study Reading. I read several chapters of the Bible per day as part of the Disciple Bible Study Class that I teach on Thursday mornings. Right now, we are studying the Old Testament Kings. I am reminded how wealth and power tends to create pride and arrogance.
9:45-10:45am - Go to Church Office, answer emails. I usually don't go into the office on Mondays, but I was out of town for Thanksgiving and have lots of emails to catch up on. Plus, I have to make plans for a funeral for a Church member who died on Saturday morning.
10:45-11:45am - Meeting with wife and brother of Church member who died on Saturday. We planned the Memorial Service, which will be held at Church on Tuesday evening. I am so thankful that our Church has such a wonderful staff to assist with this service. The office staff printed the worship bulletin, the Multimedia Director used family photos and put together a very touching slide show for the service, our Music Director selected appropriate music, we mobilized volunteers to set up the Gathering Room and serve food for a reception. It is at times like this that I really appreciate our Church and the way we minister to people during times of grief and loss.
11:45am-12:30pm - Lunch at home.
12:30-1:15pm - Finish planning Memorial Service, write Eulogy for service.
1:15-2:00pm - Walk Mak. Mak is our 10-month old golden retriever. I try to walk him twice per day when possible, but at least I get him a good walk once per day. He is a great dog, and one of the true joys in my life.
2:00-2:45pm - Errands
3:00-3:45pm - Plan Orders for Worship for this coming Sunday. Because of our production schedule, we need to have all the items for the upcoming worship bulletin and the multimedia completed by noon on Tuesday. This information gets sent out to our music leaders so they can also prepare.
3:45-4:00pm - Pay Bills. I do online banking, so it doesn't take long to catch up on paying the bills.
4:00-7:00pm - Make dinner, relax, watch TV. On Monday's I usually watch my favorite show, "Pardon the Interruption" with Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon. It is a 30-minute sports talk show on ESPN. By watching one 30-minute sports show, I usually get all caught up on the major sports news.
7:00-8:00pm - Sermon Work. Sunday's coming. I am working on a sermon about the fear of rejection. I wrote the bulk of the manuscript last week, but need to go back and review, edit, make some changes. I am not happy with this sermon yet.
8:00-9:00pm - Read. I am usually reading 3-4 books at a time. Tonight I am reading "50 People Every Christian Should Know" by Warren Wiersbe. A great anthology of the life of some very devoted Christians of the past. I find that reading biographies of great Christians inspires me to a life of deeper devotion.
9:00pm -Bedtime. Yes, I go to bed this early whenever possible.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 30
5:45-6:30am - Coffee and Prayer Time. Praise God for Starbucks Espresso.
6:30-8:30am - Sermon Work. Still not happy with this sermon.
8:30-9:30am - Breakfast, Shower.
9:45-10:30am - Emails. Still catching up from last week. On a typical day, I can get up to 50-60 emails. Some of them are simple questions I can answer in less than a minute, some are more complex and require more time. Some I need to delegate to others. We get lots of prayer requests via email. My goal is to answer emails within 24-48 hours. Some weeks I do better than others.
10:30am-Noon - Sermon work. Right now I would pay $1000 for a good illustration.
Noon-1pm - Lunch, review bulletin for Memorial Service. Review and practice preaching the Eulogy. I always practice sermons and eulogies out loud, because I want to hear how the words sound. People often tell me that I speak well, but I know it takes a lot of work and practice. I really want this memorial service to go well.
1:00-2:00pm - Meet with worship Team. On Tuesday afternoons I meet with Pastor Chris, James Mills and Carolyn Hall to review the previous week's worship service and to discuss the upcoming weekend, just to make sure we are on the same page.
2:00-3:00pm - Emails, Phone calls.
3:00-4:00pm - Review the Sermon for Sunday. Surf the internet for a decent opening illustration.
4:00-5:00pm - Practice Eulogy for tonight's Memorial Service.
5:00-6:00pm - Dinner.
6:15-8:30pm - Memorial Service at Church. Much larger crowd than I expected. Everything went well. There was a wonderful reception in the Gathering Room, our volunteers are the best. The family was very appreciative.
9:00pm - Too tired to walk Mak. This is one of those rare days he does not get a walk.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1
5:45-6:15am: Coffee and Prayer Time.
6:30-7:45am - Gym.
7:45-8:00am - Affirmations and Scripture Memory Review.
8:00-9:00am - Breakfast, Shower.
9:15-10:00am - In the Office for emails and phone calls. I find that I do a lot of pastoral care via telephone and emails these days. Every week we have Church members dealing with the death of loved ones, surgeries and tragedies, financial hardship, loss of job, divorce and conflict. Having Pastor Beth on staff really helps, but I still want to be connected to people at these important moments. Sometimes people fall through the cracks or don't feel supported enough. When that happens I feel terrible. But for the most part, we are committed to loving people and supporting people during the challenging periods of life.
10:15am-2:30pm - Meeting with Pastor and Staff from Courthouse Community Church. This is a Methodist Church in Norfolk that asked to come and visit our facility and meet with our staff. For several hours we all met together to discuss the challenges of ministry, handling growth, dealing with financial shortfalls in a difficult economy, trends for the future. The folks from Courthouse Community Church are very interested in how we do things at Ebenezer. Ebenezer Church has a wonderful reputation in our region for being an outstanding Church. Listening to our staff discuss issues makes me realize once again what a great team we have and how blessed I am to be the Senior Pastor here.
2:45-3:15pm - Meeting to discuss Discipleship process. We are revamping our Adult Discipleship process beginning in 2011. I didn't attend the whole meeting, but stayed long enough to get the big picture. Part of my challenge is to know when I need to attend a meeting and when I do not. About halfway through this meeting it occurred to me that my attendance was no longer needed. I slipped out to do other things.
3:15-4:00pm - Emails, Phone calls. Met briefly with Pastor Chris to get an update on an issue related to our preschool. Met briefly with the Chair of our Church Council to discuss various issues related to the Church.
4:00-5:00pm - Finish emails. Yay! I am finally all caught up. Inbox is empty, if only for a short time.
5:15-5:45pm - Walk Mak. My wife Lynn usually walks along with us. This is wonderful "together time" for Lynn and me. Walking the dog together is one of the ways we invest in our marriage and keep the lines of communication going. My advice: if you want a great marriage, get a dog and walk together.
5:45-6:30pm - Dinner.
6:30-7:30pm - House chores.
7:30-9:00pm - Disciple Bible Study Reading. Read Wiersbe book.
9:30pm - Bed.
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 2
5:15-7:45am - Quiet Time, catch up on Disciple Bible Study Reading, Prepare Lesson Plan.
7:45-8:00am - Intercessory Prayer. Each week I pray for 4-5 families in our Church. I work my way through the Church Rolls alphabetically.
8:00-8:45am - Breakfast, shower, get to the office.
8:45-9:15am - Emails, Gather materials for Disciple Bible Study Class
9:30-11:30am - Disciple Bible Study Class. We meet weekly to review the reading, watch a brief video, and discuss what the scriptures have to say about our world and our lives today. Very good class. I wish everyone in our Church would someday take Disciple Bible Study.
11:30-12noon - Power point slides for Sunday Sermon. I usually send an email to James Mills and describe the images I want, and he finds them and puts them together for me. Then I review the slides to make sure it all works. James is very good at this, so I rarely have to make any changes once he puts the images together.
12noon-2pm - Worship Meeting. On the first Thursday of each month, we all meet at Capital Ale House in Fredericksburg for lunch and we discuss worship issues. Allan Paquette, our praise band leader, joins us for this meeting. He works in Fredericksburg, so meeting for lunch in Fredericksburg helps his schedule and it provides us with a chance to enjoy a nice meal.
2:00-3:30pm - Finalize Sermon Manuscript for Sunday. Okay, it's not one of my best, but it will have to do. Sunday is coming.
3:30-4:00pm - Phone First Time Visitors from last Sunday's worship services. First time guests who live locally and provide us with a phone number receive a call from me during the week after they visit.
4:00-4:30pm - Meeting. I met with a leader in our congregation who wants to see how we can increase our ministry to men, especially young fathers. We discussed possibilities and set up a second meeting in January.
4:30-5:00pm - Emails related to a Preschool issue. Our Preschool Director resigned today because of illness in her family. We have the best preschool in Stafford, but every now and then there are issues that come up. Pastor Chris and our Staff Parish Chair have done a wonderful job with this issue, all I need to do is follow up. We will need to set up plans and procedures to interview and hire a new Director as soon as possible.
5:00-7:00pm -Dinner, Walk Mak with Lynn.
7:00-8:15pm - Grocery Shopping, House Chores.
8:15-9:00pm - Read. Tonight I am reading "Facing Your Giants" by Max Lucado. I highly recommend this book. Max is a great writer. I am a little bit jealous of his talent.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3
5:45-8:00am - Coffee, Prayer Time, Sermon Review. No Gym today, I just don't have time.
8:00- 8:45am - Breakfast, shower.
9:00-9:45am - Practice Preaching Sermon. I go into the Sanctuary and practice out loud. I usually do this 3-4 times prior to Sunday. This week, I have had such a difficult time getting this sermon together, I will only get to practice 1-2 times. Some weeks, the sermon just flows. Other weeks, it is like pulling teeth. This was a "teeth-pulling" sermon. I still could use a good illustration or two.
9:45am-12:45pm - Attend Funeral in Gainesville with Lynn. Lynn's brother's sister-in-law died unexpectedly in her sleep. She was 52. While I did not know this woman very well, Lynn wanted to attend the funeral to support her brother and his family. I agreed to go along to support Lynn.
12:45-2:15pm - Planning. I usually take some time on Friday afternoons to plan the next week. I set up appointments, block out time for sermon preparation and other meetings. I find that if I don't schedule my work in advance, the week quickly gets away from me and I spend the whole time reacting to whatever pops up rather than focusing on what is really important.
2:15-3:00pm - Sticky Group Questions. I put together about 12-15 questions based on the sermon and send those questions to our Lay Leader. She then distributes them to our Small Group (called Sticky Groups) leaders for discussion during the week next week. This way, we have people in small groups reflecting on the sermon from the previous week.
3:00-4:00pm - Sermon practice in the Sanctuary.
4:00-5:00pm - Sermon Schedule for January-April 2011. I put together the preaching schedule for the first quarter of 2011. This schedule determines who preaches on which weekends. Currently, Pastor Chris and I have agreed upon a rotation where I will preach two consecutive weeks, then he will preach one week. Then I will preach two more consecutive weeks, and he will preach one week. We also need to find opportunities to let Pastor Beth preach, as she is gifted in this area and would like to preach occasionally.
5:30-9:00pm - Date Night with Lynn. First we walk Mak, then we go to El Gran Charro for dinner. Then we go to Lowes for a new flashlight and a Christmas Tree. Then we go home to set up the tree and try to train Mak to leave the tree alone. He is such a curious puppy.
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 4
6:30-7:45am - Wake up, Disciple Bible Study Reading, Affirmation and Scripture Memory Review.
7:45-8:30am - Breakfast, Shower. Go to Church.
8:30-11:00am - Coffee with the Pastors. This is our new member orientation class. We have a wonderful team of volunteers who help us out. We had a large turnout this morning. We usually offer this event on Thursday evenings. This is the first time we've tried a Saturday morning, and it seems to fit better with people's schedules. We take pictures of everyone who attends this class, and then I memorize their names so I can call them by name when I see them in Church.
11:30am-5:00pm - Attend Sorority Luncheon at VCU in Richmond. Our daughter, Jessica, is an Alpha Gamma Delta sister at VCU. This is the annual parent's luncheon. Lynn and I missed it last year because I had a wedding to conduct. This year we made it. Jessica was glad to see us and I was reminded of how quickly the kids have grown up.
6:00-7:00pm: Sermon Review. At this point, I convert my sermon manuscript into sermon notes. I find that preaching from notes rather than a manuscript allows me to sound more conversational and natural when I preach. I still write out a manuscript, but I rarely go into the pulpit on Sunday with a manuscript. I usually just have notes.
7:00-7:30pm - Walk Mak. It is really cold outside!!
7:30-8:30pm - Watch TV. Looks like Auburn is going to play for a national championship. They are crushing South Carolina.
8:30-9:30pm - Read Bedtime.
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 5
5:45-6:30am - Review sermon notes.
6:30-7:15am - Breakfast and Shower
7:30am - Leave for Church, but stop by Starbucks (I love their Christmas Blend).
8:00am-12:45pm - Church Services. We had communion today. A good attendance at all the services. The Sermon wasn't great, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.
1pm - Lunch, rest.
2:00-4:00pm - Attend Children & Youth Christmas Program. They do a wonderful job every year. Carolyn, Lara, and all the volunteers work so hard. It wouldn't be Christmas for me without this event.
4:15-5:15pm - Dinner, relax. Watch TV. Glad I missed the Redskin game. But it is fun watching the Raiders beat up on the Chargers. Dallas is beating Indianapolis, you know I am not going to watch that game!
5:15-7:30pm - Church service. Sunday night service is the toughest because I am pretty tired. But the people are wonderful and the praise band did a great job.
7:30-8:15pm - Visit with Church members. A couple invited Lynn and me over to their house for pie after Church. You know I am not going to turn that down!
8:30pm - Relax. Go to bed.
Summary: While I describe this as a "typical week," no week is really "typical." For example, this week we did not have a staff meeting. My Tuesday night small group was cancelled because of the Memorial Service, and I had no hospital visits or pastoral counseling appointments. It is also rare to have two funerals in one week. But at least this gives you an idea of what a week is like in the life of Ebenezer's Senior Pastor. I consider it an honor to be in ministry with you.
--Pastor Mark
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