The Unique Dimensions of Pastoral Time

Welcome to the Twilight Zone of Pastoral Time

My name is Rush Witt. My co-author in this series, pastor Joe Keller, and I grew up on a heavy diet of movies and television. Our IQs tell the tale of countless brain cells sacrificed at the altar of cheap entertainment. But somehow–surely by grace alone–here we are, working through an important pastoral concern in a series of articles for The Focused Pastor on the topic of time management and handling various expectations in ministry.

Sometimes, our wrangling the dimensions of pastoral time draws us back to our childhood and the haunting intro to Rod Serling’s classic, The Twilight Zone: “You’re traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That’s the signpost ahead – your next stop, the Twilight Zone!” 

In this series of articles called Time Shepherd, we are your guides through another dimension, a journey to examine the unique aspects of pastoral time and how we can grow to shepherd time faithfully. 

We’ve spent significant hours wrestling through time-related issues in our own lives and ministries, and we know the difficulties of pastoral time management. Sometimes, it resembles a disorienting trip through the twilight zone. We’re eager to share key insights from Scripture and experience with you, our fellow focused pastors. As you read, think of the article series as a kind of two-manned TED talk. 

Thank you to The Focused Pastor for allowing us to discuss this important topic together. In this article, we introduce five problem areas that contribute to the unique challenges of pastoral time management. 

Pastoral Time Morphs

Joe Keller: Pastors manage different areas of time in any given week: time for solitude, preparation, counsel, and grieving. 

There is also time related to his roles: time with family, friends, and church members. 

Time is not stagnant for the pastor; it morphs. It is not uncommon for a pastor to be in the same place but experience different kinds of time. Those in pastoral ministry learn quickly that a phone call from a senior saint can morph family time into care and crisis time. It takes mindfulness and humility to understand what time you are in and then to help those around you know what kind of time you are living out before them (Ephesians 5:15-16). 

Time-morphing can happen when a pastor is not expecting it. I have been in situations when, in my mind, I was in friendship time, but those around me thought I was in pastoral time. The proverbial golf game is an easy illustration. I am out with some guys from church for an early morning tee time, and before I know it, a significant counseling session emerges at hole 5. Time morphs happen to everyone, no matter his vocation or life stage. But the pastor has a particular calling to shepherd time, which means the ability to see and foresee when time morphs. 

Rush: Joe points out a real problem in the morphing of time for pastors. Someone might retort, “Yeah, of course. You have to learn to go with the flow.” However, there’s more to the issue than simply learning to relax and pivot. In my experience, the unpredictability of circumstances creates significant occasions for pastoral frustration, perhaps even resentment of the pastoral life. I’ve felt it myself and seen it in others. The sense that the nature of time can shift so easily provokes annoyance when a pastor feels he can’t enjoy a round of golf because some unexpected conversation or distraction could pop out of the bushes. I hope no one hears it as complaining. Nearly all the pastors I know welcome the reality that time can turn on a dime, but it remains an issue that requires our attention to ward off frustration and resentment. 

 Joe: Time-morphs are a reality, but they do not deter you. There is joy in the different rhythms of life, and moving from one conversation or circumstance to another is a part of it. The way to enjoy the variety of times in your day is to center your heart on the pursuit of worship (Colossians 3:17). This Christocentric view of all things can bring continuity to the variety of our days, either expected or unexpected. Our days feel chaotic when there is no direction or plan, but when your heart as a pastor is to model, apply, and encourage a heart of worship in all circumstances, time-morphs can be shepherded. 

Pastoral Time Expectations

Rush: Gaining a firm and useful grasp of our time requires attention to the expectations in our lives. We all like to say things like, “I don’t worry about what other people think. I just live my life, and everyone else can deal with it.” That kind of thinking might work for most people, but pastors don’t have the luxury of such an oblivious lifestyle (and no one should live this way). Pastors are, in fact, men of the people and should, therefore, care about what others think. We should be careful not to cross over into the ever-alluring “fear of man,” where we live for the opinions of others (Proverbs 29:25). Yet we must not throw pastoral caution to the wind and adopt the “I’m my own man” mentality. We pastors are, in fact, not our own men. We serve as men of the people, shepherds who care for sheep. 

The sheep under our care have expectations. How could they not? They have entrusted their souls (to one degree or another) to our oversight, and it comes with expectations. Church members expect us to be places and do things, which requires time. Therefore, a significant part of shepherding our time well requires a healthy relationship with the expectations others bring to the various contexts of pastoral ministry. We will give more consideration and advice for navigating expectations in future articles with this series.

Joe: Many pastors ignore time expectations and find their time ineffective, not because they weren’t working hard, but because it wasn’t directed toward ministry that met their people’s needs. The time shepherd understands that expectations are fashioned best in collaboration. This will require openly identifying and communicating expectations among the people and giving direction to them. The goal is to create realistic expectations, not eliminate them (Galatians 6:2). This level of understanding and engagement helps people consider expectations from a culture of care based on biblical principles. Certainly, there will be cultural expectations that will be different in each ministry context. The goal is not to ignore those expectations but to shepherd them toward reasonable expectations that promote godliness. 

Later in this article series, we will address pastoral expectations directly. Though daunting and persistent, together, we can apply biblical truth to address them with joy.

Pastoral Time Guilt

Joe: Guilt is something that we all have to deal with theologically and practically. Many pastors deal with a sense of obligation and impending guilt over the use of their time. Pastors set their own hours and objectives, informed by the elders’ directives and the needs of the people under their care. The pastor has an internal dialogue and assessment of the time invested in activities to accomplish those desired ends. The immediate conclusion is that there is always something that could and should be done to advance gospel ministry. Here is where Time Guilt comes in. 

The pastor may feel guilt when spending time on activities not readily seen as advancing gospel ministry, such as recreation, physical rest, reading literature, enjoying a concert, woodworking, spending personal time with staff, and during lunches with family in town (Ephesians 5:16). Some people may perceive these activities are taking away from the ministry efforts for which pastors are being paid. 

There is another kind of time guilt that pastors should recognize: that which comes with unfulfilled ministry outcomes. “I could have studied more.” “That meeting didn’t go as well as it needed to.” “I’m unable to get away to this conference because I’m behind in other areas.” “The church is too administratively weak.” Time guilt is the internal dialogue that evaluates our time. To shepherd time is to understand that time guilt exists and reframe the difference between time guilt and being guilty of mismanaging our time. The former is an issue of theologically realistic expectations on time, and the latter wastes it.

Rush: It occurs to me that the issue of time guilt presents another distraction for pastors.  If we fail to bring this dynamic under control–which is to shepherd not only time but our internal dialogue about time–we will become mentally compromised. We will lose some of the critical bandwidth that we could directly spend on ministry and instead spend it thinking about how our time is measuring up, what it’s producing, and even whether other people are scrutinizing us. Yet again, here we find serious distractions stacking up against us as pastors who wish to be faithful and focused in our daily work.

Joe: As pastors seeking to shepherd time well, we must have a higher awareness of time. We are exploring together the burden of knowing what could be done with time and the contrast between what is actually being done in time. One of the factors that pastors have to recognize is that we base time guilt on our perceived value of what we do. Don’t get me wrong, pastors are to be productive and efficient with their time, but when it comes to gospel ministry, God doesn’t need our efforts or time to accomplish his work among his people and in the world. One of the ways to engage and shepherd time guilt is to reframe our hearts to embrace our limitations and dependently look to Christ to accomplish his work in and through us (Philippians 4:13). This requires intentional effort to shepherd our time guilt towards dependence on Christ, freeing us to enjoy the time we have rather than feeling guilty about the time we wish we had. 

Pastoral Time Thieves

Rush: I sent Joe two texts the other day. He didn’t like them. The first included a 30-second video I captured on my phone while attending a small-town festival. In the video, a man performs a wild drum solo in the middle of the library parking lot. Imagine Neil Peart from the band Rush, and you’ll have a similar image. The second text included a link to a YouTube video butchering the pronunciation of the name Joaquin Phoenix. Joe replied with a simple complaint: I can’t get back the time I wasted on these texts. #timethief

No matter how amusing my texts, Joe was right–he was the victim of a small but significant heist. Now, it’s also true that he should’ve known better. These were not the first time-stealing, nonsensical, and trivial texts I’ve sent. Nevertheless, he cannot recover the time lost.

I do laugh when I think about my texts wasting Joe’s time. However, on the grand scale of pastoral ministry, it is a serious issue that every pastor faces. Time thieves lurk around every corner.  The nature of pastoral ministry–being on call–and happily making yourself available to parishioners presents an incredible potential for interruption and redirection at almost any moment. The focused pastor must, then, develop a flexible plan for handling disruption in a way that incorporates them into the flow of busy ministry life without allowing interruptions to steal time from the essential tasks of caring for his church, family, and other responsibilities (Colossians 4:5). You know it’s a problem. We know it’s a problem. So let’s deal with it soon. 

Joe: It is interesting that I feel less productive and effective when I don’t get things done on my task list because my time was interrupted, but when I recall my day, I realize there was a lot of meaningful gospel ministry that I was a part of. The goal of shepherding time-thieves is to redirect those moments or people to invest in gospel ministry differently than originally intended. This could mean not engaging or allowing the moment to redirect my day. This craft of shepherding time-thieves is the essential ability that every pastor learns. How do you engage with the parking lot conversation and take the phone call on your day off, especially when your buddy texts you in the middle of an elder meeting?

Rush: Or when your buddy sends you mindless memes by text, and you feel he has stolen your time? Sorry, Joe. Nevertheless, these are simple and real distractions that we can handle better with some principles in place, which we will provide later in the series.

Pastoral Time Pivots 

Joe: Every time shepherd needs to have a unique and dangerous skill set: the ability to time pivot. On any given day, a pastor will encounter all kinds of information, circumstances, and personalities, many of which are back to back. Time pivot is the movement from one type of time to another quickly. This can happen during an afternoon with the different meetings or phone calls a pastor could receive. Shepherding time requires moving from one kind of time to another without pulling the mindset with you. This is particularly important when transitioning home and pivoting to a different time with your family that is focused and intentional without being distracted from the day’s events. This is easier said than done, but the time shepherd learns to move thoughts and attitudes to places where they can address them at a later time. This might seem like unhealthy compartmentalization to some, but if theologically rooted and lovingly applied, a pastor can thoughtfully and effectively navigate various time demands throughout the day without going mad.

Rush: I am intrigued by Joe’s reference to this skill set as “unique and dangerous.” The uniqueness appears evident on its face; the pastoral office certainly contains many unique elements and requires a unique exercise of skill. I also wonder if Joe tries to sound like Bryan Mills, the protagonist played by Liam Neeson in the movie trilogy Taken. You may remember Neeson’s character told his daughter’s kidnapper about his unique set of skills, which he acquired over a long career, making him a nightmare for people like the kidnapper. That’s why I love how Joe frames the skill set as unique and dangerous.  

Pastors must serve the Church as men who present an imposing danger to forces of evil–the world, the flesh, and the devil. We are not dressing up the reality. The value of rightly shepherding our time–partly through a keen ability to flex and pivot with the demands of ministry–cannot be overstated. That’s why we’re thinking carefully about shepherding time in this article series.

Joe: Time doesn’t shepherd itself. The pastor can become skilled at engaging with time or be the subject to it. The beauty of the continuity of the gospel means that we can intentionally lead through every kind of time and be present in time (Romans 8:28). That is the craft and skill of shepherding time-pivots. Pastoral care can be present in whatever time-space we find ourselves because we know the power and continuity of the gospel, which means we don’t need to carry one circumstance into the other. This is one of the more laborious kinds of time to shepherd and could require your friends to help you think through some moments so that you can biblically move into the next. That’s why we are sharing these insights to help encourage growth together. 

Onward and Upward in Pastoral Time

In this introductory article, we’ve explored the multifaceted nature of pastoral time management, highlighting the unique challenges pastors face and strategies for navigating different roles and responsibilities. As we continue this series, we aim to equip you with practical tools and biblical insights to help you shepherd your time effectively, fostering a balanced and fruitful ministry.

©2024 Rush Witt and Joe Keller. Used with permission.