Interruptions can be frustrating.
But as long as you’re in local church ministry, interruptions are not going away.
If you are involved in the lives of people, and the real issues they deal with, interruptions will be part of your work. You can choose to fight that reality, or embrace it.
The goal isn’t to pretend that interruptions don’t bring complexity to your schedule. They do! The goal is to learn how to best navigate interruptions, so your ministry has the greatest impact, and you continue to experience inner peace even on difficult days.
It’s important to focus on what you can control, and not get frustrated about the rest. You can’t control everything that happens to you, but you can control what is going on within you. You can manage your emotions which are the place to start.
Fighting against the natural flow of interruptions is like getting stressed about being stressed, it serves no valuable purpose. We know that too much stress is not good for us, but stressing about stress is completely counterproductive. It’s the same with interruptions. They produce complications to your schedule, and maybe even stress you out, but fighting it only makes it worse.
Here’s a helpful approach:
1) Establish routine and margin.
Intentional routines are not boring and confining, they are healthy and needed. They require discipline to maintain, and they help you establish healthy and productive rhythms for your life.
For me, a weekly routine is not a legalistic straightjacket. In fact, it’s often interrupted and ends up changed. But the routine provides the necessary guardrails so I can make good decisions when interruptions come.
I also believe that some margin helps make it all work. For example, I try not to book a full day on Thursdays until the week of. So when “stuff happens” every week like it always does, I have a place to put it. By the time Thursday hits, it’s usually full. But if I filled it weeks in advance, there is no place to help handle the interruptions, (and opportunities.)
2) Cultivate your generosity.
An important part of governing your perspective involves how you think about the interruption. Because it nearly always involves a person, it’s important to possess an internal disposition that you want to help if you can, rather than seeing the person(s) as an inconvenience.
One of the ways I cultivate a generous spirit within me is reminding myself how I feel when I want to see someone right away, and I don’t fit into their schedule. Whether it’s a plumber, doctor or a personal trainer, when they “make room” for me, I’m very grateful.
3) Lean into the moment.
Never underestimate the potential life-changing impact of an interruption.
One of my favorite stories (Mark 5:21-42) takes place after Jesus had just again crossed over to the other side of the lake. A large crowd gathered around Him.
He was interrupted on the spot, in whatever He was doing.
Jairus, a synagogue ruler, had a daughter that was dying. He pleaded with Jesus to go with him to heal his daughter, and Jesus goes with him.
On the way to see Jairus’ daughter, Jesus is interrupted again. His interruption is interrupted!
In the crowd of people, a woman (bleeding for 12 years) touched His garment, and Jesus stops to heal her. Jesus was aware (sensitive to divine interruptions) of even a sick woman touching his clothes, and took the time to identify who she was and say: “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be free from your suffering.” (Matt 5:34)
Wait for it… Yes, Jesus is interrupted yet again. (Verse 35, While he was still speaking!) Some men came from the house of Jairus, and reported: “Your daughter is dead.”
And the end of the story… Jesus said, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.” And, “The child is not dead, but asleep. They laughed at Jesus. Jesus healed the little girl!
When you are sensitive to divine interruptions and invite the Holy Spirit to guide you, you will likely experience some incredibly powerful ministry moments.
4) Sometimes you need to say no.
Not every interruption is a divinely inspired moment. Sometimes you must say no. In fact, the larger the church, the more often you may need to say no. However, in many cases, you will have the staff to help you handle the interruptions.
Here are some practical questions to help you think through how you should respond.
- Can someone else can handle the situation?
- Might you be doing this just to please someone?
- Would saying ‘yes’ prevent you from fulfilling an important family commitment?
- Is this a non-urgent, low impact request?
- Are your gifts and abilities not well suited to meet the need?
These questions do not represent a formula, but they give you a sense of how to think about the question.
None of us can eliminate interruptions, but we all can get better at how we handle them.
Thank you so much for this! An area that God is working on in me, I can get pretty involved in whatever I am doing whether in work or ministry and I forget the divine “opportunities” that God sends my way. Often, even if I stop what I am doing it is apparent on my face that I am frustrated. I love the story of Jesus going to meet Jairus’ daughter and the impact He had on those who interrupted Him in His journey!
It would be a lonely world if we never had anyone interrupt us for a moment in time.
E
It would be a lonely world indeed… I often consider myself fortunate that anyone would care to interrupt me. I know that sounds like pie in the sky, and there are days that it’s challenging, but overall that helps produce gratitude. Thanks for your comment Eve.
Something our staff has begin doing that has helped us apply this is to plan 3/4 of our day before our day begins. We’ve found anticipating that God my not have planned to run the universe the way we laid it out on our Google Calendars each day helps us to be more generous with our time (kind of like having some money set aside to be ready to spontaneously help someone financial;y that God might bring into my path) It also helps us to be better equipped to say “no” when we should. Faced with an unforeseen opportunity, we know exactly what and who we’ll need to reschedule if say “yes” to something God planned but didn’t send us a calendar invite for ahead of time.
Proverbs 16:1
The plans of the heart belong to man,
But the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.
That’s really good Roy. I like your 3/4 day plan. Leaves room for both opportunities and interruptions… and still engages the need to sometimes say “no” …
Dan, this post in particular is life-giving and timely. Thank you.
Joe, so glad to hear this. You are most welcome!
Thank you Dan for another great article. You are inspiring. God bless you.
Thank you guy! I’m glad its helpful to you!
Helpful stuff, Dan. Love the examples of our LORD here. Following. (Him, not the post, or maybe both, whatevs)
😊 Thanks David! Glad it’s helpful, and I really love that passage. Interruption after interruption— so real and everyday! I wonder if Jesus would have liked this post!! Haha!
levothyroxine en ligne : Informations essentielles pour les consommateurs levothyroxine disponible
en vente libre
Conseils d’utilisation de la synthroid en ligne Trouvez des réponses à vos
questions sur la synthroid en ligne
Achat de synthroid en quelques minutes en ligne Acheter levothyroxine en ligne en France : conseils
pratiques
Acheter levothyroxine en ligne sans prescription en France prix synthroid Maroc
synthroid : Avantages et inconvénients synthroid et grossesse : ce qu’il faut savoir
synthroid en vente avec des instructions d’utilisation claires synthroid sans consultation médicale :
à éviter ?
synthroid générique en ligne : efficace et abordable vente libre
de levothyroxine en Belgique
achat en ligne de synthroid sans ordonnance
Vente de synthroid sur internet en France synthroid en pharmacie en ligne :
Conseils d’achat
Commander synthroid sur internet France
synthroid en vente sur Internet : ce qu’il faut savoir
Acheter levothyroxine générique en ligne France
pharmacie en ligne en Espagne pour le levothyroxine
levothyroxine pour une solution sûre et pratique
levothyroxine et grossesse : évaluation des risques et bénéfices
levothyroxine livraison rapide en France synthroid pour
une solution sûre et efficace
synthroid en ligne avec options de paiement sécurisées
levothyroxine sans ordonnance : est-ce possible ? synthroid en vente
en Europe
synthroid sans ordonnance : Les alternatives légales
achat de synthroid en ligne en France
levothyroxine en ligne : Informations essentielles pour les consommateurs commander du levothyroxine en Belgique
en ligne
Hey would you mind stating which blog platform you’re using?
I’m going to start my own blog soon but I’m having a difficult time
selecting between BlogEngine/Wordpress/B2evolution and Drupal.
The reason I ask is because your design and style seems different then most blogs and
I’m looking for something unique. P.S
Apologies for being off-topic but I had to ask!
This blog was… how do you say it? Relevant!!
Finally I’ve found something which helped me. Appreciate it!
Hi! I could have sworn I’ve been to this website before
but after looking at many of the posts I realized it’s new to me.
Anyhow, I’m certainly pleased I came across it and I’ll be bookmarking it and checking back frequently!
There’s certainly a great deal to know about this subject.
I like all the points you made.
Just want to say your article is as amazing. The clarity to your submit is simply cool and that i could
assume you are a professional in this subject.
Well with your permission let me to snatch your RSS feed to keep updated with forthcoming post.
Thank you a million and please keep up the gratifying work.
I know this website provides quality based articles or reviews
and additional stuff, is there any other web page which offers these kinds
of data in quality?
Howdy! Quick question that’s entirely off topic.
Do you know how to make your site mobile friendly? My website looks weird when viewing from my apple iphone.
I’m trying to find a template or plugin that might be able
to correct this issue. If you have any recommendations, please share.
Appreciate it!
This is the right website for everyone who wants to
find out about this topic. You know a whole lot
its almost tough to argue with you (not that I actually will need to…HaHa).
You certainly put a new spin on a topic that’s been discussed for a long time.
Great stuff, just great!