Have you ever completed a large writing project or arrived home after a conference and felt overwhelmed with where to begin? I surely have. Last weekend, I submitted a 49K word manuscript I’d worked on for nine months. After successfully turning in this project in a timely fashion, I suddenly wasn’t sure where to turn. I’m guessing you’ve been there before. I needed a reset.
Ministry can offer immense satisfaction, yet it can also be quite overwhelming. With various responsibilities and tasks, losing sight of the bigger picture is easy. To ensure effectiveness in our ministries, we must frequently evaluate our priorities and focus on what’s truly worth our time and effort.
Here are six simple strategies to reset your ministry priorities and ensure you dedicate your time and resources to what truly matters. Whether you’re a leader, writer, or speaker, these tips will help you stay on track and keep your ministry moving.
- Pray and ask for wisdom; prioritize prayer and personal time with God above all. It’s tempting to think we don’t have time to pray in ministry, but most know this is the furthest thing from the truth. If we want to prioritize our tasks in accordance with the Lord, then communication with him must come first! Without connecting with communication headquarters, we won’t be able to move forward in ministry. As Erica Wiggenhorn says, “Only the Spirit can transform lives, and God moves through prayer.”
- Use your planner to plan, not just to record activities and appointments. Sometimes, we forget that “plan” is within the word “planner.” Simply recording appointments helps you keep track of what you need to do but does not allow you to manage your time efficiently. When you use your planner to plan, you can schedule your tasks in a way that helps you achieve your goals and complete your projects on time. You can break down your commitments into smaller tasks and set completion date goals, which enables you to stay on track and focused. By using your planner intentionally, you can make the most of your time and resources in ministry and ensure that you dedicate your efforts to what truly matters.
- Order your project commitments by list of due dates. Ordering project commitments according to their due date helps prioritize tasks based on urgency. By completing tasks with a closer deadline, you can ensure meeting deadlines and avoid last-minute stress. Moreover, it helps maintain a clear overview of all tasks and helps plan and allocate time wisely. Psalm 90:12 reads, “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” This verse helps us recognize the value of time and allows us to use it wisely.
- Consider tasks that energize you and strategically schedule those to sandwich tasks you don’t enjoy as much. According to Brian Tracy’s Eat That Frog, prioritizing complex tasks helps enhance productivity and maintain motivation throughout the day. By initially facing unpleasant or challenging tasks, you create mental room to concentrate on other tasks more efficiently. This helps alleviate stress and helps keep you on schedule. Furthermore, accomplishing challenging tasks helps boost self-assurance and makes you feel more fulfilled, ultimately leading to better overall performance.
- Eliminate anything that doesn’t align with your mission or vision statement. Eliminating elements that do not align with your mission or vision statement helps you concentrate your energy on what is essential. Doing so enables you to stay clear of distractions that can derail you from your objectives and allows you to remain focused. Remaining faithful to your mission statement helps you ensure that your endeavors are channeled toward the appropriate areas, leading to a more significant impact in your ministry. It helps you manage your time better, make informed decisions that align with your values, and helps you attain your goals more effectively.
- Block out preparation time on your planner for upcoming events or projects. It’s so easy to forget that every event, writing project, and message all require one thing: preparation. If you become preoccupied with daily activities or underestimate the value of preparation, stress builds up, and success crumbles. Don’t fail to recognize the potential repercussions of insufficient preparation for future events or projects. I readily share that I learned the value of preparation when I worked through Carol Kent’s acclaimed book, Speak Up with Confidence. Blocking out time to prepare is as critical as delivery, and if you do this, you’ll be so glad you did!
I hope these tips have encouraged you to step back and realign yourself with God’s Word. Try implementing one or two of the above strategies. By using any of these six simple ways to reset your ministry priorities, you can be sure that your efforts are worth the time investment and that they will significantly impact your ministry. May the Lord bless you beyond measure!
Question: Which point from the above list hits home for you this fall?
About Rachel Wojo
Rachel Wojo is an entrepreneur from Columbus, Ohio, who self-started and developed a blog to business platform over the last decade. She is the director of Speak Up Growth Groups and podcaster at Untangling Life. Rachel hosts Bible reading challenges on her popular blog, rachelwojo.com, which rallies readers of all ages to search God’s Word for solutions to life’s problems. Her site has over 30,000 subscribers, and her six-week Bible reading plan for children is used by more than four million people worldwide. Her biblical approach, coupled with her life circumstances, influences women to find strength and hope for everyday situations. Rachel is the author of One More Step: Finding Strength When You Feel Like Giving Up. Her experience includes traditional-publishing, self-publishing, email list management, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest development. She is also a public speaker and contributor to well-known faith-based publications for companies, such as Dayspring and Girlfriends in God. Rachel’s list of works includes 2 ebooks, 14 self-published books, 2 traditionally-published books, and 3 traditionally-published collaborative works. Rachel is crazy in love with Matt, mom to six on earth and two in heaven. Find her at rachelwojo.com.
Great suggestions! Thank you. I am blocking out time to accomplish a huge task that has kept me from moving forward for too long! I am praying and trusting that my website will be up SOON!
Can’t wait to see it, Larke!
Needed this post. Such wisdom here! Thank you! Number one is a must so I will continue to keep that at the forefront. All the others I could use improvement on. I think that number 5 stands out the most because my biggest challenge is having too much to do and not enough time to do it. Before I can align with my mission statement though, I need to write it out. I somewhat know it in my head, but this reminds me to get it on paper in my planner. Then I can focus on winnowing through what’s on my plate and eliminating all that doesn’t align. Thank you for this – I’m actually going to print this list and keep it handy.
Yes, on the time to do it! I’m working to simplify too. Thanks, Victoria!
Rachel, thank you for these suggestions! I need to work on all of them, but the one that caught my attention is that I need to use my planner more to plan and not just record appointments and activities.
Love it, Missy! Yes, that was a game changer when I realized that more.
Rachel,
Rachel, Thank you for sharing your expertise with us!
I’m sure I can glean from All of your ideas as I journey along this writing path. Implementing a planner to block out time for writing I know will be very helpful in accomplishing my first writing assignment.
Thanks, Nancy! We’re so glad you are an important part of Growth Groups!