PP78: Three Different Ministry Weeks

Written By Chad Brooks

Each week in ministry looks different. But I think there are three of them that cover the majority of life. Let’s unpack each of these and talk about what it takes to succeed through them.

There are a few things to take care of before you can really understand how you experience these weeks. This all is about understanding your bare minimum work for each week?

  1. What is your sermon prep framework?

  2. When are your two non-negotiable deep work times?

  3. What are your tiny/huge tasks and when will you do them?

I also find it helpful to divide my ministry week into 5 days, or 10 separate working blocks. That helps us understand our work load in terms of percentages.

The Normal Week

You get to define normal, but how I define it is you are able to schedule to 80% (check out episode 25 for the idea behind this) AND add an additional 10% of absolute discretionary time. So, your week is scheduled to be 3.5 days or 7 work blocks. You have the solid day for whatever responses show up that week AND an additional work block to think forward.

Normal weeks are normal weeks.

The Light Week

Sometimes you have a week where things aren’t that wild. These weeks your bare minimum work AND other things add up to around 50% of your schedule. These weeks are perfect for making headway on larger projects. Or sometimes, you just need to lean into it and give yourself the ability to take a break.

The Different Week

Some weeks are just different. Emergencies, travel or other things. In these weeks, you lose a significant amount of your flexibility. For me, this means only having access to half of my work week, so 5 blocks. I have to get ALL the things done in these situations. The best way to handle different weeks is having a great handle on your work patterns.

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Chad Brooks
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