We know God wants us to be good stewards of our time. One leadership responsibility pertains to time issues — scheduling of meetings, programs, and of staff to serve various time slots within the different programs. Scheduling affects not only our own use of time but also puts expectations on other people’s lives. Since God has entrusted His flock to church leaders (1 Pet. 5:2-3), good stewardship in scheduling thereby requires consideration of their time.
How Good Stewards Take Other People’s Time into Consideration in Scheduling
Scripture exhorts us to “Be very careful, then, how you live – not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil” (Eph. 5:15-16). This suggests as stewards we exercise discernment and wisdom in scheduling, seeking the best investment of people’s time.
- Discernment: To “be very careful” suggests we have a good understanding of people’s lives. We don’t just assume our plans work for them.
- Wisdom: Once we’ve discerned people’s needs, we must use that knowledge to schedule in ways that best fit into these realities. We schedule purposefully, flexing and adapting as needed.
- Investment: In light of people’s lives and determination of how to best meet their needs, we schedule intentionally with the objective of making the best use of their time and efforts for maximum ministry impact.
Why Scheduling Requires Good Stewardship
Since scheduling ties into the use of other people’s time, we need to think about obstacles to making the best fit in scheduling. People have a lot of worldly lures competing for their time — not just “evil” or temptations to misuse their time, but also normal daily concerns of life.
When we fail to see scheduling as a stewardship of the people God entrusted to us, we won’t tend to exercise discernment and wisdom in arriving at the best investment of people’s time as we schedule. As a result, we’ll likely add to the pressures they already feel. That will affect their level of enthusiasm and attentiveness when attending meetings, training, and other programs we schedule. It will also affect their level of commitment in giving their best into the ministry for which we scheduled them.
For More on Being a Good Steward, Go To: Stewardship Resources
All Posts about Scheduling:
- Considerate Scheduling
- Purposeful Scheduling
- Scheduling Leave Room for the Great Commission?
- Christ-like Scheduling is Flexible
- Scheduling Woes
- Gospel-Centered Scheduling
- Prayer-Based Scheduling Needed
- Prayer-Based Scheduling Makes a Difference
- Even Scheduling Needs God’s Power
- Spiritual Gifts for Scheduling
- God’s Grace in Scheduling
- Need Help with Scheduling?
- Scheduling in the Name of the Lord?
- Frustrated by the Task of Scheduling?
- Scripture Thoroughly Equips Us, Even for Scheduling
- Scheduling Have You Down?
- Good Stewardship in Scheduling