Efficiency: One Preeminent Key in Building a More Healthy Church Leader

Efficiency.  It’s one of those words we hear dropped so freely.  It’s one of those words we often give lip service to, but often struggle to practice.  How many church leaders actually examine efficiencies (or the lack thereof) in our congregations?

We all know that if we want more fruitful ministries, we need to leverage our resources effectively. One of the most precious resources in churches is people’s time. If only making more time was an option!  Unfortunately, we can’t make more time.  So, we must learn how to do things using less time!  So what are some of those top time eaters in our churches?

Eliminating the E-Mail Trap. Although e-mail serves a great purpose, many people do not use it effectively or efficiently. Use e-mail for ministry purposes only. If you choose to receive advertising or links to personal and unrelated ministry offerings or receive emails from family and friends, use a separate e-mail address for those types of e-mails and read them during your personal time. Unsubscribe from senders who do not bring value to you and your ministry. People can lose up to two hours each day reading junk e-mail!  

Only check e-mail a couple of times a day. Resist continuously monitoring your e-mail. It is much more efficient to only check your e-mail once or twice a day. Starting and stopping your current task to read an e-mail interrupts your concentration and flow. Turn your email chime off and stay on task.

Keep your in-box cleaned out each day. Treat your in-box like a loading dock. In order for things to flow and transition smoothly, keep your in-box primarily as “white space.”  Respond immediately if it will take less than a minute or two. File for reference immediately if no action is required on your part. Delete if it is trash or irrelevant. If the e-mail needs your attention, treat it as a project and plan time to work on that project. You could move it into a file named, “Projects Pending.”

Creating and Observing Boundaries. It is so easy to get swept into the minutia of the day. Hours can be sucked up only to realize you did not accomplish anything today that you needed to or intended. Busyness does not always equal effectiveness or efficiency. Setting and adhering to healthy boundaries is a healthy and necessary practice for leaders. Block off your sabbath day and set up an autoresponder on your email reminding senders of such. Block times on your calendar for nurturing relationships with family and friends. It is okay to let others know you are not available for requested meetings and appointments and not offer an explanation. Just because someone wants to meet with you does not mean you have to meet with everyone. If possible, have an admin screen and prioritize meeting and call requests. There may be a better and more efficient way to handle the situation (i.e. delegate, combine with another meeting/interaction, different time, limited time slot, call instead of a meeting, etc.). Creating and observing healthy boundaries is not only a best practice for you, but doing so also models this healthy practice for staff and congregants.

Hanging Out With Your Congregants.  Most of you are thinking I must be nuts. If they are a congregant (or staff member), why wouldn’t you hang out with them? We like to hang out where it’s comfortable, right? The problem lies when we hang out there too much. That congregant is already a part of the church. Certainly keep in touch with that congregant (or staff member), but don’t just hang out there in your comfort zone. Give them the same attention you would any congregant, but don’t waste too much of your time with one person or group. Get out there and build new relationships with new people outside your congregation and staff. This will provide sermon content and model this healthy behavior for your staff and congregants.

Having No Goals.  This is another one of those things we frequently talk about, but isn’t necessarily action-oriented. Some churches may have annual growth goals. However, do you know what you have to do on a monthly, weekly, or daily basis to reach that goal?  Have you developed strategies to accomplish those goals? How are you aligning your priorities and time to align with those goals? How are you aligning the activities of the ministry teams to intentionally plan, implement, and contribute to those church goals? How are you evaluating what activities and programs need to expand and which need to be eliminated to reach the goals? Break the annual goals down into very bite-size pieces to help you (and others) stay focused and on track on a daily and weekly basis. The bottom line is if you have no goals, you have no idea what the priorities are each day. And without focusing and prioritizing activities that lead to goal attainment, the church will not be able to live into God’s preferred future.

Efficiency is not something you look at once every year or two.  Efficiency is an on-going, daily process.  With each task you perform, always ask yourself whether you are the right person for the job, if it is the best use of your time, and whether this task is getting you closer to the goals ministry and church.