How To Free Up Time To Build Your Church

True achievement is the ability to perform, carry out, and accomplish, especially something difficult.

How To Do Less So You Can Build Your Church

Busyness involves expended time and energy but not necessarily productivity. Leadership and management expert Peter Drucker said, “We spend a lot of time teaching leaders what to do. We don’t spend enough time teaching leaders what to stop. Half the leaders I have met don’t need to learn what to do. They need to learn what to stop.” Instead of a “to do list,” most pastors and leaders need a “not to do list.” Every Saturday night of the year, I have dedicated myself to conducting a church leaders’ seminar. No matter where I am in the world, I always ask the group, “What is the number one barrier to church growth?” The answers I receive vary greatly—from better music, lack of evangelism, being nicer to visitors, to needing a new building. The list goes on and on. In all the years of helping people develop their LQ, I have never had a crowd identify the real problem—the real barrier to church growth. In my experience, the number one barrier to church growth is the hyper busyness of the senior pastor. Just because you are busy does not mean you are making progress or reaping success. Your busyness may be keeping you from developing and training others to be the leaders they are called to be in the Kingdom. The life and ministry of Moses changed the day Jethro gave Moses a word of wisdom saying, “Moses, you are doing too much! You need a stop doing list! Stop working harder and start working smarter by training others to do what you are doing. If you continue at this pace, you are going to burn out!” (Exodus 18:13-27, my paraphrase). Moses needed to learn the “work” of leadership delegation.

Moses Changed Two Things That Changed His Life & Ministry

1. His way of thinking, and most importantly 2. His way of working It is both natural and necessary for a pastor or Christian leader in any sphere of influence to be a leader and set the pace in the church. It is often necessary to do almost everything yourself because you don’t have others to help you. But what was natural and necessary in the beginning, over a period of time, limits your effectiveness. Some pastors and small business owners are so busy that they do everything themselves without raising up leaders around them. Every leader has two jobs—doing the work of a leader and training a leader to take his or her place. Failure to raise up leaders and delegate responsibilities results in burnout. I have taught these leadership solutions to friends who now pastor churches with several thousand members: LQ Solution 1—The less you do, the more you accomplish. LQ Solution 2—The less you do yourself, the more you enable others to accomplish.1 LQ Solution 3— The less you speak, the more authority and influence you have when you do speak.

The Ultimate Leadership Help Question

Is your time consumed with endless counseling sessions, putting out church “fires,” hospital visitations, telephone interruptions, and other such tasks of the ministry? Check out the next video in this series at: What Is A Leader Let us know what you thought of this video in a comment below!