balance

Balancing Your Life and Ministry



Big Picture: What is Life?

 Is it all about me or is it all about God? (Col. 1:15-16)

 We are in God’s plan, who wants us to enjoy life. We can choose to follow God’s plan

or our plan. But eventually, God’s plan will prevail (Prov. 19:21)

 Life is all about relationships (Matt. 22:37-40; Lk. 6:31): Others oriented

1) With God

2) With Others

3) With Ourselves



Know yourself well

 Focus on your strengths (1 Cor. 12:18; Rom. 12:4-5)

We need to understand what we can do and what we cannot do. We are only part of a

team. In order for our team to win, I need to maximize all the members on the team.

There will be certain areas that will come easier for us than others. And there are areas

that we are not very good in and it will cause much stress. We do want to be as efficient

as possible.

1) Spiritual Gifts

2) Heart/ Passion

3) Abilities

4) Personality

5) Experience

 Recruit people that have gifts in the areas that you are not strong in.

 Do not be a lone ranger. Many times, we want control. So we do it ourselves. But we

need to understand that we can’t do it by ourselves. (1 Cor. 12:12)

 Build a team; we can only reach as many people as the quality and quantity of the

leadership team. Delegate and train others; minimize meetings. Empower others.

[ Know what gives you happiness and what gives you frustration. ]



Understanding why you get stressed and frustrated

Remember that ministry is running a marathon. Pace yourself. Take care of yourself.

 Have realistic expectation

 Trying to do more than you can handle

 We get frustrated when expectation does not match reality. Stress is the gap between

expectation and reality.

 Not getting enough rest: take time for yourself

 Savior mentality can produce stress; thinking you are the only one that can do it; if you

do not do it, then it will fall apart.



80/20 principle



The Pareto Principle: 20% of your priorities will give you 80% of your production.



Priorities Production

1 1

2 2

3 3

4 4

5 5

6 6

7 7

8 8

9 9

10 10



Efficiency: is doing things right.

Effectiveness: is doing the right things.



Time: 20% of our time produces 80% of the results.

Reading 20% of the book contains 80% of the content.

Leadership 20% of the people will make 80% of the decisions.

Donation 20% of the people will give 80% of our satisfaction.

Meetings 20% of the people do 80% of the talking



Application: How can the Pareto Principle affect our life?





 Focus on the most productive people

 Use your most productive time for the most important task.

 Make sure each day that your top three priorities are carried out

 Equipping is a major responsibility of a pastor

 Care for the leaders and delegate the rest of the caring to them; only take the difficult

cases (Exodus 18: Jethro principle). The principle of decentralization.

 Move with the movers: Identify them and bring them on to your team; understand their

strengths and maximize their abilities.

 Seek forgiveness; keep the team strong.



Sabbath Principle

Have margin: time for yourselves, your family, those closest to you. Leave church earlier

if you have a meeting in the evening. Set meeting at home so that you can save transportation

time.

 Take a day off to do things that you normally do not do (like shopping, gardening,

playing tennis)

 Exercise: Take care of the temple of God, our body (It needs to be done 3x/ week)

 Eat healthy: This will give you proper energy when accompany by exercise.

 Get adequate rest: Get 7 hours a day.

 Play vacation: It could be short trips. Take all of your vacation allocated to you. Plan it

with your family.

 Go on dates with your spouse and children.

 Take vitamins

Setting Goals (1 Cor. 9:24-27; Luke 14:28-32)

We are in a race; it is a marathon. **How do we train for a marathon? What are key

elements? Pace yourself; training; conditioning; patience; know what you can do. Set a plan of

action. How can you maximize your time?

 Set Objective: Your final destinations

We do not see things happening to us because we have not set many destinations down

the line. Based on my God-given strengths, I could do the following best for the Lord.

 Set Goals: The steps to get you to the final destination. (Phil. 3:12-14)

 We all have the same amount of time. Let us use maximize our time. Be more

purposeful in using your time.

 How do we set good goals? Be specific, measurable, and realistic.

 Make sure you accomplish the top three goals for the day no matter what happens. Do

you know whether you had a good day or not? We understand that there will always be

unpredictable circumstances that will pop up. That is a given. We have a choice to let

others determine how we use our time or how we determine how we use our time. When

we have a plan, then it makes it more probable for us to accomplish it. Too often, we

allow others to dictate how we use our time. There are many interruptions. There will be

time

 Evaluate regularly. Read your weekly goals daily. Read your monthly goals weekly.

 How can you team help you accomplish the goals that you set?

 Reward yourself when you fulfill your goals.

 Ask people to pray for you and to encourage you to stay on top of your goals.

 Long-term planning: Allocate 30 minutes to plan each week. Allocate an hour to plan

each month. Allocate three hours to plan every three months. Go away to plan.





Priority Matrix:



High Importance Low Importance





High

Urgency









Low

Urgency









High Importance/ High Urgency (Q1): "Do It Now!" Tackle these projects first.

High Importance/ Low Urgency (Q2): "Mid/ Long Range Planning" Set deadlines for

completion and get these projects worked into your daily routine.

Low Importance/ High Urgency (Q3): "Typical Interruptions" Find quick, efficient

ways to get this work done without much personal involvement. Delegate it.

Low Importance/ Low Urgency (Q4): "Trivia" This is busy or repetitious work such a

filing. Stack it up and do it in 30 minutes segments every week.



 Determine what is important and what is urgent.

 Focus on high importance and low urgency. You will eliminate the number of high

importance and high urgency, which causes stress.

 Identify prime time, which is when you are most productive, and down time, which is

when you are most unproductive. Use down time to do those things that are less

importance and low urgency. Read email after lunch. Do not read email during prime

time.

 First thing first

 Prime time verses Down time

 Weekly plan

 Daily plan