This week the plan is to post some thoughts on my new schedule. As I stated last semester (I’m the son of teachers, I’m married to a teacher, I am a minister to students- I think in semesters) I was stretched a little thin. The problem wasn’t that I felt overloaded. The problem was that I felt like my schedule was out of my hands. Years ago I wouldn’t have cared but now that I’m staring down a baby that is on its way and a busy summer schedule I knew I had to change something. I decided rather than to ride the wave with a “come what may” attitude that I would take the initiative and make the wave work for me. I sat down and marked down the have tos– the things that I must do or must accomplish each week. From there everything kind of fell into place. I found that in order to start of my week right I would have to make sure that Mondays Are For Foundations.

Each week I make sure that my Mondays are set aside for preparation, study, meetings, and planning.

Have To: Prepare for Teaching
As it now stands, I have to prepare for 4 separate teaching times- Sunday AM, Sunday PM, Tuesday Night, and Wednesday Night. If I don’t adequately prepare for these teaching times than I’m cheating everyone involved from my teens to their parents to myself and I am ignoring my calling to “preach the word.”

Solution
One thing that I learned to do years ago is to approach classes, sermons, and teaching times with a “series” mentality. That way I know what I’ve done, what I’m doing, and where we want to go. By laying out about 3-4 months at a time I can keep my eyes and ears open and prepare “on the go.” This allows me to shorten the actual preparation time for a single class or lesson because I (in essence) have been working on it for weeks. Example: On Sunday Nights I know that in February I’m teaching a month long series on Gospel and Culture and in April I’ll be teaching on the Holy Spirit. I already have pages of notes on each that I add to as I come across things or meditate on these topics. When it comes time to write out these lessons much of the leg work has already been done. It is like I’m sketching the rough outline now and then I’ll come back with the paint when it’s time to teach that lesson. Be prepared helps me be prepared.

Monday I lay the foundation for the week’s teaching times. I fully prep for Tuesday and Wednesday (I’ll spend time those mornings to tie up any loose ends) and I map out for Sunday. I will work/study on each class throughout the week but I really prep hard today.

I lay the foundation early so I can hit the ground building each Monday morning.