One of my biggest struggles as a pastor is to distinguish between the important and the urgent.
Things that are important have more of a long term value: strategic planning, creative brainstorming, sermon writing, staff development and mentoring. All those take time.
Things that are urgent press in on me and other pastors today: visiting the sick, addressing conflict, counseling people in crisis. All those take even more time.
The urgent will often keep you from the important. I have decided that in my line of work, maybe that’s OK.
Other pastors of churches that are the same size as Good Shepherd might give a different answer. But I’m wired in such a way — maybe called in such a way — that people and their needs & crises take priority.
The urgent and the important. What’s it like in your life and your organization?
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I think you have the right approach. Urgent things should be the priority. Important things should fill the holes that are left in your schedule. While I have not bothered you in quite some time, I was very impressed that anytime I needed to talked to you, you made the time. Thanks.
I read years ago something about the “Tyrrany of the urgent”- and a point being made that we (especially women) let the “urgent” take priority over what’s important. I didn’t fully agree.
The truth is we are confronted daily with urgent needs that ARE important. I understand, as a mom, the benefit of long term planning and having goals to enrich the lives of my kids, but there are often urgent situations that arrive with a host of valuable and teachable moments.
I think when we become inflexible (choosing one thing to focus on- and that one thing only) we limit our spiritual visibility, which means we limit what we’ll answer to when “God calls”. (for example, deciding not to write to an elderly member who really needs to be comforted in favor of working on the budget. )
I appreciate a Pastor who invests in the long term vision of the church by being faithful to work on his sermons, and pray about direction and such…but it’s invaluable to me to find someone who also cares enough to pick up the phone and say, “I heard you were sick…I’m praying for you.”
It’s a difficult balance- and my hat’s off to you in trying to find the one that works for you and your congregation.