Keeping Busy Without Getting Busy

Time management is one of the most difficult things for pastors involved in church planting. It is a problem for all pastors I suppose, but I think church planters get consumed even more easily.

There are a few reasons for this.

1. First of all, we are constantly trying to improve what we do. Creativity takes a great deal of time. While this is the job of every good pastor, the nature of fighting for survival when a church is still in its childhood causes us to take this responsibility more seriously.
2. We are consumed with the complexity of meeting with people face to face and building relationships. Again, this is very important for every pastor, but church planters find is a necessity for survival.
3. We don't know what we are doing. We try and fail... a lot. The nature of church planting is that much of what we are doing in the context of our specific communities has probably not been tried before there. If it had been tried, most likely an existing church would be there to meet the needs of the community.

So, much of what we are learning requires a great deal of meetings, readings, listening, and learning. Its hard to fit it all into the calendar. At what point does it become too much? How do we keep busy without getting busy?