After 20 years of working at a church, I have seen countless approaches to my own ministry productivity. Now, I am in an admin role and boots on the ground since I work within the denominational system.

I've been thinking through some shifts over the past month, and I realize these are applicable to a broader spectrum. Especially if you are stepping into a staff-sized church of a few hundred people. I am low-key curious about how this would have affected my last full-time ministry gig when I had 7 staff members and over 200 active adults.

So this isn’t definitive, and it doesn’t knock out other things that folks find important. These are just the ways I’m currently approaching ministry. And I do think these scale down as well, so if you are in a smaller church, I’m not leaving you out.

Build up a heart for the mission.

As Tod Bolsinger has said, the mission always wins. I read this earlier this year in his book The Mission Always Wins: Quit Appeasing Stakeholders. It is easy to find ourselves curious, especially if you are a constant tweaker like myself.

Experimentation does have value. But it only has strong value when you are experimenting towards a greater purpose. Once we understand this purpose, we need to shift the experimentation towards a specific focus.

Objective > Strategy > Tactics

Don’t run around still thinking about the greater objective when you should be on the tactical side of a project.

When you’ve got a strong heart for the objective, let that emotion keep you focused on the long-term side of things.

Know the purpose.

This is closely related to the last rule.

I am a high activator in the CliftonStrengths profile (see my last email, which is a borderline love letter to the assessment). The downside of Activator is a drive to always focus on what’s new and start new things. In some ways, this means defining how the necessary outcome of purpose is of greater benefit than getting distracted.

If you avoid conflict, knowing your purpose can help in tough talks. This applies to both your personal life and leadership. It also helps drive internal motivation.

Or you are in a space where things have changed. Yes, daily ministry challenges might impact us. Still, our greater purpose drives us to make real change.

Have a plan.

Don’t shoot from the hip. I’ve also heard this described as “throwing spaghetti against the wall." This is when we simply do things in hopes something changes. I find this is present in many smaller congregations, and they constantly live in reactive mode. Part of strategic leadership is having a known plan.

Plans make us confront present realities that aren’t working. Plans help us think critically and think about the future. Plans force us to drive things down to the task level. Sure, we might have spots in which adaptation or response might be needed, but the same end goal is always in play.

Plans aren’t just the long-term. Specific plans for specific repeatable actions. Yep…plans are just systems. But when you enter into a season of ministry requiring more administration, more of your work is repeatable. Taking the time to develop those systems you KNOW are most effective will give you more margin.

“Chad, all of these sound the same!”

Yep. You caught on.

What I’m learning in this stage of ministry is that understanding the bigger things is critical to the day to day. In any ministry situation, it’s easy to get blinders on and be reactive all day with what falls on our desk (or inboxes). When working with a larger church or organization, especially one going through shifts, it is important to do whatever it takes to understand the big picture and keep it in focus.

Now for the other 2.

Write things down.

This isn’t new at all. One of the transitions I’ve made over the last year is going back to a more analog workflow. Sure, I still use tools like Trello, but I’ve found that an intentional analog strategy is faster and keeps me on track. My mind retains things better, and I have the space to think through tasks, draw ideas out, and other things.

Cal Newport calls any work that lasts longer than a single session a project. My life now is often all about projects. Writing things down, especially over a multi-day (or even month) project, helps keep things in focus. I’ve found my own productivity has increased in healthy ways since shifting back to an analog workflow. I declare that handful of important things, map out my schedule, do the work, and when I’m done with it all, I don’t feel the pressure to add more.

Avoid the temptation to multi-task.

I spent years in ministry avoiding what I call “small ball." These are the little 5 minute tasks that seem to gather at our feet. I’ve got tons of them now. And they come up all the time. Quick stuff, less than 2-3 minutes. Someone else usually requests or hands them to me.

One of the core values I am holding to now is responsiveness, so it is easy to want to divert myself for a couple of minutes to knock out this task. I can even convince myself that this is right.

It’s not. The distraction gets very real.

A few months back, I did an episode of Productive Pastor about Cal Newport’s “push/pull method," and I’ve tried to start implementing as much of that as possible. These tasks are 100% push tasks, though.

So I give myself an hour in the afternoon for them.

I’ve found unhealthy reactivity towards these tasks is like a drug. It’s a quick hit of satisfaction for the people pleaser in me, but it's a detriment to my overall workflow.

So that’s it.

5 rules for ministry productivity during this season of life.

Chad

PS - Have you listened to last weeks episode? I talk about my upcoming book and use an interesting AI tool to talk about the project. Listen to episode 128, Is My Church Healthy?, here.