Important or Urgent - or both?

"Pastor Jim, you should be visiting Mrs. Smith at least twice a month. She's a charter member and plans to leave a lot of money to the church in her will."

"Pastor Judy, you should visit everyone who is in the hospital every day they are there. I remember when my mother was in the hospital. It meant so much to her that Reverend Jones called every day."

"Kelly, you're coming with me to the ecumenical homeless advocacy group this week, aren't you? Our pastors have always been key leaders in that group."

Sound familiar? In every church I've served there are people who "should" all over me. Many of their shoulds are very urgent.   Sometimes their requests are important; sometimes not.

I find it helpful to draw a four quadrant table making distinctions between what is important and what is urgent. Here are the quadrants with some possible examples:

Urgent and Important:

• Death of a member - pastoral care, a funeral or memorial service, etc.
• A crisis caused by storms like Hurricane Sandy
• A leader (staff member or lay leader) who is very angry and upset and who is generating a lot of conflict
• Preparing an excellent sermon for this coming Sunday

Important but not terribly urgent:

• Making sure the church building (or your house) is properly maintained. Deferred maintenance has a way of catching up with you!
• Having a clear widely owned sense of mission and vision. While it is important to develop a shared sense of mission and vision, it is best to do this deliberately and not too quickly.
• Having clear job descriptions, priorities, and appraisals. (related to mission and vision)
• Keeping abreast of best practices in church leadership

Urgent but not too important:

• Selecting where you will meet a church leader for lunch
• The Administrative Assistant wants your sermon plans for the next 3 months (she was used to this with your predecessor) (however, it might be more important that the Director of Music gets your plans well in advance)
• Reading all your emails, checking Facebook, etc.
• Filling all the vacancies on your Board(s). If the nominating committee has trouble getting people to say "yes" to serving, this might be symptom of a bigger issue that is important but not immediately urgent. Sometimes it's better to have a vacancy or two than to simply fill a position with a lukewarm body.

Neither Urgent nor Important:

• Reading all of the Washington Post or New York Times
• Visiting each member of the church annually (this would depend on size and expectations of the church)

As you look at your "to do" list, what do you see?   Where would you put your "to do" items on this grid? To what extent are you succumbing to the tyranny of the urgent and ignoring what's really important?

I have read that one area that pastors notoriously ignore is their own spiritual nourishment. Where is taking time to reflect on scripture and pray and sense God's presence and guidance on your grid? What practices might help raise this to the Urgent and Important category?

What anxious requests cause you to shelve work that is really much more important? How might you deal with these more effectively? Which mature leaders might help you clarify what is important even if it isn't immediately urgent and then work with you to establish mutual expectations?

If you are having difficulty dealing with too many urgent but not important demands on your time, please give me a call. I'd love to coach you through the process of getting clearer and responding to these requests more creatively.

If you find this article helpful and think it might be helpful to a friend, please forward my newsletter to that friend using the "Forward to a Friend" button.  

What books or resources have you found

• January - Writing Alternative Narratives
         
• Click here for previous newsletters