A Week in My Life

Sometimes I get asked what I do during a typical week.  While few weeks are ever "typical" here is the basic routine I try to maintain.

In general, I try to get up fairly early (between 5 and 6 depending on when I got to bed the night before) and workout, eat breakfast, and have some personal time with God.  I like to get to church between 7 and 7:30 am.  I also try to use lunch to meet with different people (staff, guests, church members, other pastors, etc.)

Monday

Monday is the day Beth & I have set aside for us.  I call it "date day".  We do something together as a couple.  If one of needs to do something else, we must get permission first :)

Tuesday

Tuesday is a day for meetings.  I meet with some men from our church to pray at 6:30 am and then I am in solid meetings (regular meetings with staff) usually through lunch.  On Tuesday afternoon I am around and available for either more project-specific meetings, counseling & pastoral care, chats with staff members, or basic administrative stuff like emails, phone calls, church-wide communications, etc.

Our regular Tuesday meetings include all-staff prayer & worship; a "tactical" meeting to review the weekend and discuss priorities, projects, and strategy; a worship planning meeting to discuss upcoming messages; a meeting with our small groups' staff to work through group questions.

Wednesday

I study and prepare for the message (I usually prepare 2 weeks ahead).  I pray.

Thursday

I spend the morning working on and finalizing the message I began preparing on Wednesday.

Thursday afternoons are for other meetings, touching base with staff, getting progress reports, counseling, etc.

Friday

Friday is miscellaneous day.  I start going over the message for Sunday, get the Scriptures and bullet points over to our Tech & Worship staff, and go over the service with our worship leaders.

Friday is also my day to visit the hospitals (Each staff pastor is assigned a day to make hospital visits).

I catch up on emails, phone calls, and other communications.  I also try to do some reading and praying.

Saturday

Beth & I usually do something together but we try to keep this day light.  We try to be settled in for the day around 5 or 6 pm.  I spend a few hours Saturday evening getting ready to preach on Sunday.

Sunday

I'm up pretty early and get to church to start praying and reviewing the message.  At 9 am we have a prayer team that assembles.  Then it's off to greet folks and preach!  Sunday afternoon I write blogs, email, reflect, and sometimes grab a nap.