Don't fill up on bread - Ministry priorities


In one of my favorite episodes of The Simpsons, Homer takes his family out to a steakhouse where he challenges trucker Red Barclay to a steak eating contest; whoever could finish a 16 pound (7.3kg) steak first wins. As the contest begins, We see Red confidently carve into his steak when the camera pans to a panicky Homer, frantically buttering a bread roll.

No Homer! Don’t fill up on bread! 

I always try to share original insights into the world of ministry when I write, but sometimes the truth about how I’m feeling comes in a deep shade of cliché. I am struggling with how busy ministry is. There is always more I could do, always something I could do better, always more great ideas that I just don’t have time for. This is the downside to the exceptional freedom that most pastors have with their time. Week to week, there are certain responsibilities that are both urgent and important. You can’t not write a sermon if you are preaching this Sunday. You must drop everything to visit a member on their deathbed. But beyond those kinds of things and regularly-scheduled meetings, you have to decide what to do with your time, what you want to prioritize, and what tasks and projects matter the most. 

This makes me uncomfortable. To be sure, there are some ways in which I’ve grown quickly and easily. For example, when I write official church papers/memos, I now know that I can get office staff to do the “prettying up” for me so that I don’t have to waste time messing around with font sizes and bullet point formatting. But beyond that, it’s been a most strenuous journey of professional development for me. 

  • “I’m running a _____ training next week. Do I have time to start thinking about it today?”
  • “I should really catch up with ____. It’s not urgent but he’s a bloke worth watching.”
  • “Wouldn’t it be great if we got a few people together to run a _____ ministry/event/program?”

This challenge is compounded by the fact that I want to do everything better than those who came before me. I feel so much pressure to keep all these promises that I made to myself when I was still in training. 

  • “Most pastors lose their Greek and Hebrew within a couple of years of finishing seminary. I will not allow myself to slack on my biblical languages”
  • “All good preachers maintain a repository of sermon illustrations. I will make sure to set aside time regularly to update mine”
  • “Some pastors are notorious for being bad at admin, taking a long time to answer messages, or writing unclear replies to emails. This can stress out lay leaders. I will make sure to take my time to craft all my text responses, check emails in a timely manner, and make sure that I don’t ask a lay leader for information that I already have access to”
  • “Pastors don’t spend enough time training and supporting their leaders. I will make sure to spend plenty of time with my leaders.”
  • “Pastors too often value their members based on their utility, which causes them to bias spending time with their leaders at the expense of “regular members”. I will make sure to spend plenty of time with non-leaders.”

The most important thing that I will learn this year is not to fill up on bread. But in order to learn that lesson, I need to learn to let go of my need to look and feel productive. And the only way that I’ll be able to do that is if I stop equating productivity with self-worth. 

Before last year ended, I was able to find some time deciding my goals for this year. The overarching theme that I’ve chosen for my year is: “Be a scholarly pastor”. To me, that means believing that I am at my best when I am spending time reading and studying and learning. And I have to learn to be unapologetic in setting aside time to do that when there are so many things to get done at church. There will ALWAYS BE MORE TO DO. If I try to do them all, I will end up an empty husk of a human being with nothing to offer my people. To serve them best, I need to ignore phone calls, let deadlines pass, and read good books. 

In other words, my biggest goal for 2022 is to be committed to what my gifts and strengths are. 


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