The day after…

 The day after…

So I’m writing Monday’s blog post on Tuesday morning. Why? 

Because Monday did not go as planned. It frequently does not in the pastoral world. Partly because every pastor is a little bit different and so we all try to tackle Monday in those differences. 

Why is Monday a day to tackle?

Well, in the business world, Monday’s usually your starting point. So you have to fire up from downtime and get to work. That’s a challenge in its own right, getting started progressing through what the new week will bring, seeing what someone might have done over the weekend, restarting on this week’s deliverables, that kind of work.

In the church world, though, Sunday is the main day. Now, for some of you, this is going to sound less spiritual than you’d like, but the big “deliverable” for churches is typically the Sunday activities. There are a lot of other things that go on, that are important, crucial, parts of being the body of Christ in our current context.

But Sundays are a big part of what we do. It’s also become the habit, over the years, of being the one time some folks in the church try to talk to each other or ask about happenings in the church that may be months away. Any way you slice it, there’s a lot going on in the typical Baptist church on Sunday morning.

Monday, then, is a combination of recovery and action based on what happened during that Sunday time. As a result, it’s one of the most unplannable days on the calendar. Sure, I am heavily in favor of schedules and planning. Those make the days turn out functional.

Mondays, though, just don’t fit that. 

Which means that what you schedule on Monday may not get done until Tuesday.

Like this blog post.

Or plans for committee meetings.

Why does this matter? It’s a good reminder of a couple truths.

The first is that the more one can distribute responsibility, the better off an organization is. That applies to the big moments—I know some churches that have only 2 or 3 people handling everything that goes on during Sunday morning, and it’s exhausting—and to the every day. Organizational leaders have to find, develop, empower others to handle the work of the organization. It’s crucial.

The second is to hold plans loosely. You don’t want to have none, thus losing your time into the void. But you also want to know which times are hardest for you to hit with stability and keep your options a bit more open in that timeframe.

Those are the Monday thoughts…that had to flow over into being shared on Tuesday.