.Real.Greg.Lee.

I feel like I can constantly tweak personal things throughout a year, but life is so layered and integrated where you have to be in sync with others, that a yearly assessment and overhaul is worth a look.  I do this at the start of every year.

This year, I’m working on New Rhythms that will (I hope) be beneficial to at least two things that are wildly important to me — my wife & kids and Suncrest’s mission.

1. Less travel. If you are a regular reader, you know this haunted me last year.  I’ve slept in my own bed every night this year so far and think I’ll get into March before that changes.

2.  Tuesdays and Sundays. Being a multi-site church has added layers of leadership challenges that I didn’t see coming.   Everyone in “church world” knows Sunday is a non-negotiable day.  In our rhythm with campuses and staff spread out, we have added another day for all full-time and part-time ministry staff.  Tuesdays are our day to be together.  There are tons of meetings and (even better) side conversations to help with our alignment as one church — whether All Staff, Campus Pastors, All the worship staff or children’s staff.  It’s a hectic day, but one of my favorites. And, it gives us a lot of flexibility on the other days.

3.  Blocking Time. Pastors are weird.  Not like you are thinking. 🙂   On one hand, we have a lot of flexibility with time.  On the other hand, we work during the day to get stuff done and then in the evenings and weekends because that’s when all of our volunteers/teams are available.  When I’m not careful/intentional, the day and evening stuff just run together.

So, my solution going into 2011 is to maximize the right parts of the day for family and church.  It includes starting super early most mornings and walking out of the office at 4:00pm, so I have a full evening with the kids or at least a good block before returning for meetings.  One day a week I’m going to work straight through until my evening meetings, but on that day I’m going to take one of the kids out for breakfast and come in a little later to the church.

I imagine most people are like me — knowing my natural drift is to let healthy patterns erode over time.  So a reset to my schedule at the start of a new year is intentional and invigorating.

Even harder (but on my radar) is to not just schedule better, but to function better, lead better, and love better in the New Rhythms.  That will be a post for some other day…

~ by Greg Lee on January 13, 2011.

Posted in Suncrest