run their lights and lyrics through Ableton . Otherwise , automation ’ s just for manufacturing and robots , right ? But let me quickly give you four ways you can automate your worship planning , as well as other administrative tasks in your ministry .
Templates Templates are something you create once and use over and over . Your worship service is a great example of this . You ’ re likely following some sort of pattern for the flow of worship elements . Whether it was printed on a bulletin 38 years ago and hasn ’ t changed since , or it ’ s just a pattern you ’ ve settled into ( until your lead pastor gets a wild hair to change it ), you ’ ve got a template for your worship service .
This is nothing new . Patterns for sacred Christian gatherings have been used since the second century , maybe earlier . The human brain craves predictability and patterns . But besides benefitting your congregation , an intentional template jumpstarts your planning . I created templates in the PCO Services App for two kinds of services we had – our regular service and our monthly communion service . It saved me from thinking through all the steps , elements , and time frames . They were already in the template . All I needed to do was choose the right template and customize it for that particular week .
We don ’ t have space to talk about all the opportunities here . But you can apply templates to dozens of things in your ministry . Simply notice when you ’ re doing a task that you ’ ve done before . Is there a way to create a template to speed up the work and avoid recreating ( literally ) the initial work every time ?
Routines Routines are a way to ‘ automate ’ yourself . Set specific times to complete predictable and recurring tasks in your ministry . I had a particular day of the month when I planned music sets for the following month ( batch processing ). And I also had a specific time I scheduled musicians every month .
Here ’ s a weekly example : I blocked time every Monday afternoon to get the service order as complete as possible . Since I already had chosen the songs , I used that time to add scriptures , segues , special service elements , band notes , etc ., so I was ready to talk about it at our Tuesday staff meeting .
Delegation Delegation is the ultimate automation – someone else is doing the task . Since delegation is a complex issue , I ’ ll just give you a starting point : if someone else can do a task that takes you more than five minutes , look for a way to delegate it . Even if you have to invest several hours over a few weeks to offload it effectively , it ’ s worth it . It won ’ t feel like it at first , but the math for delegation ( done well ) always wins out .
Let ’ s go on to the fourth tactic to cut your planning time .
4 . TIMED WORK SESSIONS Always use a timer when working on tasks that can easily take too much time . This tactic leverages Parkinson ’ s law : Work expands to fill the time allowed for it .
List all the activities and tasks that you do regularly that will balloon out if you ’ re not careful . Here are a few to get your list going : searching for new songs , working on arrangements , writing rehearsal notes , planning sets / services , meetings , etc .
For all these activities , set a timer ( or have a ‘ hard stop ’ time in the case of meetings ) to help keep you focused . And make sure you eliminate as much outside distraction as possible – put your phone on ‘ do not disturb ,’ shut your office door , put on noise-canceling headphones , etc . Then , each time you approach those tasks