Week 6 - Office Work

Adam Fike
Thursday 2/19

In the 1970’s, the pendulum swung to the extreme of no office work, and in the 1980’s, the pendulum swung to the opposite extreme of too many office hours. I realize the necessity of office hours, but I would rather do personal calls and visits with people. I can see how office work would be a nice break and provide some solitude and alone time, but I would go crazy with too much of it. I would like to see a shift away from office hours and toward more visitations and calls. I would like to retain a balance between the two. I want to avoid extremes, but the balance I want to see is lopsided. I would retain enough office hours to do necessary organization and filing that will help make the ministry of the church more effective. At the same time, I would cut unnecessary office hours or delegate them to other members of the church so that I could focus on the spiritual side of full physical communication.

My ideal week would be to have two office hours a day, Monday-Friday. This does not count sermon preparation, but I would like to avoid spending more than two hours a day on office work. I realize the importance and spiritual side of office work, but I think there are more effective ways for a pastor to spend his/her time outside the office. As long as those two hours a day are kept, I believe I could get most of the work done every week. The work that I did not get done could be delegated to someone else. This may sound selfish, but I truly think it is best for the life of the church if the pastor is not shut in an office all day. I would have another two hours a day devoted to sermon preparation, or I would devote an entire day early in the week to the sermon. The other hours of the day (around 3-4) could be devoted to visitations and calls.