Monday, October 22, 2007

A Day in the Life of a Pastor

On Mondays, I have decided that I am going to do kind of an update on what is taking place in the church and some of the prep that goes into things. Mondays are always planning and meeting type days. Today was pretty typical of what the last month of Mondays have been like.

7:57 a.m.- Walked into my office and did some personal study. Why 7:57? Well I had to finish eating my Nutter Butter bar for breakfast and it just happened that I finished up at 7:57 a.m. On Mondays I like to get going before 8:00 a.m. . Last week I was in my office at 6:45 a.m.

8:25 a.m. - I try to plan out my week and even into the future weeks as well. Every Monday I spend at least 30 minutes thinking through the entire week and creating my weekly to do list. A check list has always helped me track what I need to get done and in what priority. If I don't write it down, it won't get done and will be forgotten. I pretty much go everywhere with my calendar.

9:00 a.m.- Edited my message on Final Cut Pro and began making DVD copies for all of our Children's Workers. We do this for everyone who helps out in Stepping Stones since they aren't able to be in the service.

10:00 a.m. - Headed out to FBC Pickens to return a Handbell I borrowed for a message illustration. Thanks to Bryan Hester for the help with that.

10:45 a.m. - Left FBC and stopped by and visited a few minutes with my friends at Norris Ford.

11:15 a.m. - Stopped by Staples to pick up a new external hard drive to store our video stuff on and picked up some more office supplies.

Lunchtime- Met with Chasen and Casey to discuss this past Sunday's service and look ahead for the next few weeks. This helps Chasen and I to know where we are going with the messages and music so that the service will flow. We also break down the service to see what we can do better. These meetings are really constructive and not destructive. We realize that we are human and we mess up from time to time. Excellence doesn't mean perfection and we always try to keep that in mind. These meetings last about 2 hours and are all productive.

2:00 p.m.- Stopped by the bank and picked up our deposit receipt for the offerings from yesterday.

2:15 p.m. -Stopped by our bookkeepers house and dropped off some receipts and let them know what checks we would need for the upcoming week. Even though we are a new church, I did not want to have the check book, so one of the first things we looked for was someone else to keep the books so that everything is above board financially.

2:30 p.m. - Met with one of our home group leaders.

3:00 p.m. - Arrived home at the office. Currently, the church office is our extra bedroom but as of today we have signed a lease on 4700 square foot of space in the heart of Powdersville. About 1000 sq ft will serve as our church offices and the rest will serve as our youth ministry building. It is going to be awesome. I am excited for our students. They have been really involved in serving and it will be cool to see them have a place of their own. We will also use the area for band rehearsals as well. Our official move in will be the first of December but we will begin painting and building the stage and stuff in the next couple of weeks. We want parents to know that we are serious about reaching students.

3:00-5:30 p.m. Worked on getting my points ready to drop off at Alpha Printing and sent my message points to our media guy. Went over my message for this Sunday and worked on some upcoming messages.

7:09 p.m. - Met up with Chasen and picked up our graphics stuff for the next series "Gravity" and an upcoming flyer that is going out into the community. Why 7:09? Well that is an inside joke between Chasen and I and I choose not to share it.

Throughout the day my phone stayed glued to my ear which was good because a lot of things are happening and I had a lot of people to talk to about upcoming stuff. Keystones our home groups/ life groups are kicking off all over the area in the next couple of weeks. We have groups kicking off in Anderson, Piedmont, Powdersville, and Easley. This is cool because these groups are the backbone of all we do.

That's about all for today. I am watching Monday Night Football waiting to see of my Fantasy Football team is going to win.

Tuesdays I lock myself in my office all day and write upcoming messages. It usually takes a couple of days for it to all to come together but Tuesday is my main study day for that.

No comments: