Friday Fun: A Tuesday in Ministry

 

A few weeks ago, I shared with you what a Monday in ministry looked like for me. That day was a work-from-home day that was very heavy in writing projects and creating resources and documents. Each day looks different in the ministry world, and sometimes the same day each week can look very different. This month I thought I’d show you a recent Tuesday, so you can see other things I do.

                My day begins at 8 a.m. with a monthly breakfast gathering for ministers in our city. I’ve been going to this (nearly) every month since starting my job and have formed some new friendships along the way. We order breakfast and coffee and run through the business for the month: National Day of Prayer service agenda, installing new officers for the term beginning in the fall, sharing the current happenings in our local churches, and hearing from our guest speaker. Today our speaker shares about a local ministry to help with food scarcity. I pay extra attention so I can pass along the idea to our church’s mission coordinator.

                When the meeting is over, I hang out for a little bit to chat with my table-neighbor, who happens to be a friend. He just returned from a conference, so he tells some stories from that.

                Then it’s time to head to the church for staff meeting. Our agenda varies from week to week, but some things stay the same – like praying for families in our church, praying for other requests we know about, talking through the upcoming Sunday service, and then moving through events down the road that need our attention now. Even though most of us are wearing long sleeves, all our conversation is geared around summer activities. So strange to think about church camp when it still feels like winter!

                Of course we get sidetracked along the way, but those little trails usually result in good stories and some laughs. One of the board members stops by to say hi and thank us for our work – so kind!

                After staff meeting, I return phone calls that have made their way into my voicemail, send Ryan a Marco Polo to check in with him – so he can watch at his convenience – clean out my inbox, and stop to talk with the cleaning staff. It’s almost time for lunch by then, so I decide to gather my lunch and work through it.

                During lunch, I write an encouragement card to one of our new members and prepare it for mailing. One of our teens wants to talk about baptism and has requested to meet with me, so I send a message to set up that meeting. I’m also prepping my lesson plans for our final week studying Darlene Schacht’s book “Nehemiah and the Holy Spirit’s Work of Restoration.” This will be our 13^th week of study, and I have absolutely loved leading two groups through this book!

                I print out my lesson plans, add a fresh page to our party sign up (next week is our end-of-year party!) and tuck everything neatly into my binder to be ready for tomorrow night. Much like a schoolteacher, I’m sure, I both welcome and dread the end of this semester. I have loved learning and meeting with these ladies and will miss them so much over the summer, but I also look forward to a lesson-plan-writing break so I can plan at large for next year’s groups!

                I have Growth Group signs that I hang over the Sunday School signs each week, and I like to hang them on Tuesday because I don’t often work from the office on Wednesday. I grab my stack of signs and hang them in preparation for our midweek studies.

                While I am out hanging signs, I walk by the Sunday School room that houses our elective Sunday School class. They are about to wrap up for the session that has been meeting for several weeks, which reminds me I wanted to send a message to the teachers to encourage them on the home stretch and offer some suggestions for gathering feedback from those who attended!

                I have received some information I need to send along to one of the committees I oversee, so I pause to do that while I’m thinking of it. I always text all the committee members to let them know when I’ve sent an email – especially if it is time-sensitive. I send my texts and file my paperwork.

                I have two storage tubs taking up space in my office, and I need to move them into long-term storage. Both are from Holy Week, if that tells you anything about how crazy life has been. I need to print some pictures from our Journey to the Cross event so we can reference them for future setup, but technology is NOT my friend today and the pictures will not print. Without them in the tub, I can’t put everything away, so I decide to table this project for another day. On to more adventures!

                It’s snack time and I’m hangry, so I pull out my yogurt/granola/fruit snack to eat while I make lists of things I need to do another day when my brain is clearer.

                I have some texts and emails from church people to respond to, and I need to update my time log for today. I pause to do those things – and stop to have conversations with our staff and people coming through the church for meetings. The joy of a day IN the office is getting to interact with my coworkers. (Our church doesn’t have regular office hours for the ministerial staff, since all of us do ministry in different locations. Anytime we happen to converge in the office at the same time gives us a chance for team bonding!)

                I am giving some announcements at church Sunday, so I write out my notes and print them. I don’t want to forget, and I don’t want to get brain freeze in front of the church!

                By this point, I’ve been at church for seven hours, so I decide to go home and start working on dinner and chores there. I have grand intentions of doing another hour or two of work, but it doesn’t happen.

                Every night, though, I do study The Bible Recap by Tara Leigh Cobble. I am choosing to listen to the Scripture passage on an audio Bible (something I’ve never done before) and then I read and study her recap. Then I discuss it on Facebook Messenger with a friend from church who asked for accountability in getting through the Bible in a year. I am SO proud of her for sticking with it, especially through the long, hard book of Jeremiah. This hasn’t been an easy read, and she’s still going! I do my study time and then I can call it a day!

                Thanks for coming along for a day in the ministry life!