Stewards of Time (by Mike Glenn)

By Mike Glenn

Several years ago our church did a time audit. We looked at how many times a week and what times we asked our people to be at church. We were stunned by what we discovered. Our church, supposedly the most pro-family organization in town, was the most anti-family organization in the way we functioned.  We wanted everyone there on Sunday morning. We wanted children and students back on Wednesday nights and parents and Bible studies throughout the week. We cluttered Saturday mornings and Sunday nights with special events and filled the rest of the week with committee meetings.

Photo by Unseen Studio on Unsplash

When are families supposed to stay home and be families? If we were asking our parents to be the primary disciple makers of their children, when was this supposed to happen?

I went to church all the time. I was on one side of the building and my parents were in the other side. They were dropping me up and picking me up. Our house was always busy going to church. Then, I got a job where my success was measured by attendance. My job was to put butts in the seat and some Sundays I sounded like a carnival barker trying to get people into my tent. While I was successful in a lot of ways. (I can be very convincing). I'm not sure this is what I signed up for. For all the events and for all the man hours of work, there was precious little life change.

I'm sure you've had the same conversation with most of our friends. None on has any time these days. Everyone is busy. Most of us are overloaded and even though we're all exhausted, we go to bed every evening wondering if we got anything done. Churches shouldn't be adding to this stress.

The truth is we have plenty of time for those things that matter. What we don't have time for is all the distractions life -- including -- church throws at us.  There are only a handful of things that matter -- and I'm not exaggerating. Once you get past faith, family and friends you're into "nice, but not necessary" obligations and commitment.

Churches are called to be stewards of all God has created. This would include the stewardship of resources, people and time. How do we help every person fulfill their God intended destiny? And how much time does that take?

Growing in Christ requires three major experiences. Worship, discipleship and some kind of expression of ministry or mission -- it's that simple. (Notice I said "simple" which means without complications, not "easy" which means without effort).

I'm learning that churches waste a lot of time.  I don't know how else to say this, but wasting people's time is a sin. Time is a precious resource and far too precious to be squandered for arbitrary attendance goals and programming success that, at the end of the day, don't make anyone more like Christ. And isn't that the whole point.

They can do a lot of things to change the way they treat people's time.

First, never hold a meeting without an agenda. After you decide if the meeting is necessary at all, make sure you have an agenda to keep the main thing the main thing.

Second, limit the number of meetings, Bible studies, worship services, etc you expect your members to attend.

Third, stop putting pressure on people to attend non-essential events. If someone doesn't want to come to something, don't keep insisting or begging them to come. Instead, try planning something people will actually want to be included in. Every golf club in middle Tennessee has a waiting list. What does that tell you?

Fourth, encourage families to do life together. Worship together, study the Bible together, go on mission together. Instead of pulling families apart, the church should create moments that pull people together. The family is under enormous pressure in our world. The church shouldn't be part of that pressure. The church should be part of healing. The church should model good stewardship of every resource invested in it -- including time.

We forget one of the callings of the church is to help people prepare to die. One way we do that is by helping people make the best use of their time so they can come to their final moments without regrets. Have you ever heard anyone say on their deathbed, "I wish I could go to church one more time."

Me either. Don't get me wrong. I believe being part of a faith community is vital to a well lived life. Church is more than attending events. It's doing life together with brothers and sisters who were rescued by Jesus and love Him with every aspect of their lives -- including their time.

Churches should be part of this solution, not part of the problem.