time

Time may be a church board’s most valuable commodity. There are limited opportunities for a board to gather together and when the collective hours of each person are considered, we realize just how high the stakes are to use this time wisely. 

You are likely aware of the ways that time can be poorly used during church board meetings. We know that time is sucked up when rabbit trails are blazed and when irrelevant questions are asked. We understand the inefficiencies of starting late and having members “contribute” when they haven’t prepared. But there are other ways that boards waste time even though they may seem like essential elements. Here are three ways your board can stop wasting time during your meetings: 

Use Your Agenda as a Tripwire  

Your board’s agenda is a powerful way to manage your meeting time. Make sure to sequence the most important items first. All too often, critical elements are listed at the end when time is running out and the board’s capacity to reach a decision has already expired. 

In his book called Governance and Ministry, Dan Hotchkiss recommends asking two questions before a meeting begins: “When will we go home?” and “What will we accomplish before we go?” This strategy will force your chairperson to set a deadline and work backwards when the agenda is being created. When this is done, you’ll find that the unimportant items will be left to the end which is where they rightly belong. Hotchkiss explains that the goal is not to end on time, but to use your time well. A properly prepared agenda will help you stick to your priorities and be faithful to what’s critical. 

You may find it helpful to include time limits for each agenda item. Doing so will give your chairperson the permission to stop the discussion and ask if the board is ready to reach a decision. Larry Perkins explains, that this tripwire will empower the chair to decide if and when additional time will be granted instead of having one discussion dominate the entire meeting (refer to his recommendations on agenda preparation and management). 

Eliminate Verbal Reports  

Reporting is a necessary function of church board life. But reporting is always focused on the past whereas board leadership should be primarily concerned about the future (I credit Larry Perkins for making this excellent point).  

My wife and I sometimes wonder what we spent our time doing before our children were born. We don’t remember feeling troubled by an abundance of time, but compared to what we now experience, it’s hard to understand our earlier years any other way. Revisionist history now tells us that we must have read dozens of books each month and weren't unsurprised by the sound of silence.  

It can be habitual to think that life was easier when we look in the rearview mirror. I know of many parents who bemoan their shortage of time and the increased responsibilities that they now bear. This is usually compounded by the guilt they carry from no longer devoting as much time to the spiritual practices they think “count” such as personal Bible reading and prayer. Not surprisingly, any activity that requires personal time is likely to take a significant hit when anyone becomes a care taker for a young child (my golf game is a perfect example).

Comedian Jim Gaffigan defines children as young humans constantly making noise. He would know since he and his wife share their two-bedroom apartment with their five kids.

If quiet time is so hard to come by, what can a parent do to have Christ formed within them?

John Ortberg suggests that our season of life is not a barrier to our spiritual growth because our growth should not be defined by prescribed activities. Parents may have limited opportunities for quiet time, but as they care for their child they can offer expressions of gratitude, prayers for help, and the patient acceptance of trials. This, Ortberg argues, might become a kind of school for transformation into powerful servanthood beyond anything a person might have otherwise known [1]. 

It can be tempting to define unexpected or unwanted circumstances in our lives as barriers to our spiritual growth, but these can actually be the very catalysts for our growth. We can choose to devote each season of our life to the transforming work of the Spirit.

Some of our circumstances come through our choices, but we live with other realities that we had no choice of. Either way, every season of our life counts. If we find ourselves wishing away a particular season, we’re actually wishing away our very life.

Instead of wishing we were in another season, let’s discover what this one offers. Because the best season of your life is now.

Keith Reed is the Associate Director of MinistryLift at MB Seminary. 

Every person has their preferred way of keeping their to-do list, but what most systems don’t have is a way of defining what item gets priority. Is your list arranged by importance, deadlines, or what’s easiest to do? The danger of not accounting for priority is that you might think you had a productive day, when you actually didn’t gain any ground on your most important assignments.

I recently adopted a new way of tracking my tasks that is based on Stephen Covey’s third habit in his popular book called The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. In order to “put first things first” Covey suggests using four quadrants to organize your responsibilities. I have been familiar with this concept for years, but had assumed his method worked best for big picture thinking and large project management. What I have found is that it works just as effectively for weekly to-do lists.

Covey’s Time Management Matrix captures how people spend time. The two defining factors are urgency and importance. Urgent matters require immediate attention, such as an approaching deadline or a ringing phone. Urgent things are usually visible and they act on us.

Conversely, importance has to do with results. You can be assured that something is important if it contributes to your mission or the goals that have been given highest priority.

As a general rule, we react to urgent matters, but important matters require us to act. 

Take a look at the four quadrants below and think about how much time you spend in each quadrant.

Here is Covey’s overarching principle: “Effective people stay out of Quadrant 3 and 4 because, urgent or not, they aren’t important. They also shrink Quadrant 1 down to size by spending more time in Quadrant 2.” 

But how can we do this? It wouldn’t be healthy to radically alter your approach to time management overnight, but there are gradual steps you can take to use your time more effectively.