I. Understanding the Mission:
St Paul’s understanding of ministry is to become all for all (1 Cor 9:22) as per the need of the people we serve. This would imply that one needs to be a person ready for action. In pastoral ministry we need to give equal importance to being and doing, that is, human being and human doing.
Model: Jesus’ Time Management
Jesus had no time for eating and resting (Mk 6:31); but he had time for personal prayer at night (Lk 6:12). He had a perfect balance between action and contemplation. His prayer could be assumed to energize Him and he could feel power going out of Him (Lk 8:46). His whole life could be summarized as ‘He went around doing good’ (Mt 9:35-38) especially to the lost sheep of Israel (Mt 10:6). He respected the social and religious custom such as participating in Sabbath prayers in the Synagogue (Lk 4:16); paying tax (Mt 17:27); taking active part in social functions (Jn 2:1-11) etc. People came to Him but He also went in search of the needy (Jn 5:5). He could find time for all, the learned, the unlettered, the exploiter such as the night visitor Nicodemus, Samaritan Woman at the well of Jacob, Zacchaeus in the tree respectively. He practiced discernment in common with his disciples (Jn 11:1-15); He delegated power by sending his disciples in twos (Mk 6:7) etc.
Understanding Jesus:
D. Chopra in his book The Third Jesus (2008) classifies thus: The first Jesus is the historical person, of whom we do not know much. The second Jesus is the constructed Christ who is projected by the Church and the tradition clothed in dogmas of faith and tradition. The third Jesus is hidden in the Gospel and we need to fathom Him. We need to re-discover Jesus in our time and in our context. We need to recognize the incarnational Jesus who relativized divinity in the form of humanity. It is also relational as the Word (God) became flesh (Human) and dwelt among us (Jn 1:14). This third Jesus who was God becoming a human, inspires us to reach out to people and non-people (the discriminated, the marginalized, the neglected etc) alike. In other words, we are, in the pastoral ministry, invited to live out Jesus who not only identified Himself with the people but also got now submerged with us in the Eucharist. The pastoral ministry can be understood to make three tents (Lk 9:13) of grace for God, the Church, and the People with the ministers as the catalyst or facilitator. Often we try to ‘design’ Jesus through our depicting Him in our own way but we should remember what Albert Schweitzer said in his book The Quest of the Historical Jesus (1906), in summary of all researches about Jesus, that people make numerous attempts to domesticate Jesus but Jesus always escapes. We need to understand Jesus by imbibing His mindset (Phil 2:5) and live out and fulfill the redemptive mission (Col 1:24) He initiated.
Mission Formula:
We could gain inspiration by looking at Jesus forming and missioning His disciples. It was a transformational journey for Jesus with them, shaping them up especially in leadership later. K. Blanchard and P. Hodges, explain the process in four stages, in their book Lead like Jesus (2005): They decipher a four-phase formula for mission. i. Jesus was aware of Himself and His mission that He was the second person of the Trinity ‘who should become man to save the human race’ (SpEx 101); ii. He encountered and befriended His future disciples one by one and then invited them to join His team; iii. He then set to work on team-building among them by sending them two by two on experimentation for experience (Mk 6:7); and iv. Finally, He entrusted the entire universe to them to evangelize (Mk 16:15), thus empowering them for organizational mission, the Church. He formed them making them the mission visible and viable. He made them understand that the mission is to correct people and connect them through humility, in other words, they were sent out to connect people irrespective of nationality, language, cultural difference; and to correct if there is any injustice and inequality by proclaiming ‘liberty to the captives’ (Lk 4:18) through servant leadership.
Leadership in Mission:
In pastoral ministry what is most important is leadership. A leader is not just to show the way; but he should be able to walk the way with the people. C. Lowney in his book Heroic Leadership (2003) enumerates four characteristics of a leader which is the replica of Jesus’ leadership: i. The leader should possess self-awareness, that is, knowledge, awareness, and acceptance of one’s strength and weakness along with readiness to face and address opportunities and challenges; ii. He should be a man of ingenuity, who is ready to think of out of box with creativity and innovation in a given context and need; iii. He should love his mission and work with passion putting his heart and soul in the entrusted mission; and iv. He should be heroic aiming at maximum achievement – And all these for the greater glory of God in the service of his fellow humans.
In short, he should seek everything in God and find God in everything; and he should work for self-actualization in God-realization through his selfless service for the needy.
II. Pastoral Time Management:
Understanding the mission brings in conviction and confidence that one could render justice to the mission, which leads to actualize the needs in mission. One needs to keep reminding oneself the words of Paul: Let us not grow weary while doing good… As we have opportunity let us do good to all (Gal 6:9-10). The arena of ministry would expand even beyond the prescribed territory of the mission.
Productivity and Efficiency:
Right at the outset one should have clear notion about one’s productivity and efficiency (productivity capacity). Just to give an example: The productivity of a golden-egg duck is one golden egg a day; but the productivity capacity of the duck is much more (perhaps infinite). Productivity is activity is based; but efficiency is long lasting effect of one’s service. This could be achieved through optimizing resources of time, that is choosing ‘important’ things from ‘urgent’ things – One needs to do what only one can do based on ‘priority’ – The rest could be either delegated or could be attended to when there is time available.
Mind Management:
You are what you think you are – Your thinking creates your feeling; feeling turns into action; action becomes habit; and habit evolves as one’s character. So basically one’s thinking is basic in doing and if the thinking is creative, one can optimize the time and workforce. It is not event-oriented but it is efficiency-based. One should be able to understand the energy cycle of oneself: Not all have the same energy cycle. Some would be more energetic in the morning, some in the afternoon, evening, or night. Once this is deciphered then one can set out the event-program to be done to take up more difficult or complex work when the energy level is high and lighter workers when the mind gets tired or less in concentration.
Schedule Management:
If mind management is ‘being’, then schedule management is ‘doing’. Time management would be a combination of both ‘being’ and ‘doing’, that is inner disposition (mind management) and outer execution (event management). One should make a list of things to be done in a day with timeline and could start working on the list. One need not go as per the list but one, by practice, would know to do as per priority and what is important. One should not work on one particular work for a prolonged time. Our mind cannot concentrate for too long: If it is a routine work our mind can concentrate for about 40-45 minutes; and if it is a creative work it could go on for about 90 minutes. Then the brain-drain would set in and you should better change the scheduled work. And when you feel physically exhausted having a few minutes rest or a short walk, it could be helpful to continue with the work. Imagine you and your companion are trying to saw a huge trunk of a tree. If you keeping work on it for a few hours non-stop, the saw would break as it would lose its sharpness. You need to have a break every now and then and sharpen the saw so that you could do the task efficiently and effectively.
Driving Forces of Time Management:
Often we are driven by deadlines and calendar of events, which are result oriented. But what is more important is not getting done the event but the meaningfulness and usefulness of the event. This is an ongoing process depending on how much we are getting formed to operate events. The need to become aware of the subconscious. Brian Tracy compares in his book Maximum Achievement (1993) the relationship between the conscious and the subconscious. He says if you attach a cricket ball to a basketball, then the basketball is the subconscious and the cricket ball is the conscious mind. And their combined operation is like the captain of a ship giving order is the conscious mind, while the sailors are the unconscious mind who execute the orders. The conscious mind is rational (logical and intellectual) capable of critical thinking; but the subconscious is irrational (emotional) just accepting whatever the rational mind says or instructs. When the concept is repeatedly registered by the conscious mind, such as I am a success or I am a failure or I can do this or I cannot achieve that etc it gets registered within the subconscious and turns into belief (which might turn to be real). So the subconscious is the watch tower or a traffic control observing everything, and it comes into the command chain when the order is passed on from the conscious.
Subconscious:
The rational conscious mind is objective, while the subconscious is subjective and emotional. The thinking in the conscious becomes the feeling in the subconscious which then propels towards action. The subconscious does not argue or dispute with the conscious mind but just accepts the inputs. It becomes a storehouse with infinite information leading to a capability of infinite wisdom. The subconscious gathers all (seen, heard, read etc) and sorts out into various files and when demanded or required brings out to the surface of conscious mind. The subconscious is the power house with enormous energy and normally we make use of upto 5-10% of its energy capacity. The process leads to confidence in oneself (and faith in God).
So each one is a powerhouse. Whenever someone comes to Jesus to be healed, Jesus says, “Your faith has healed you” (Lk 17:19). Jesus has touched and activated the healing spring within and that healed people. J. Murphy considers this in his book The Power of Your Subconscious Mind (1963) as a chain process: The organ of healing is the subconscious and the process of healing is the faith. What is needed is change in mental attitude (that is, ‘I shall be healed if I meet with Jesus’). The subconscious, though subject to the conscious mind builds up a belief system where the rational thinking of the conscious mind becomes the emotional feeling of the subconscious. This, on repetition, becomes feeling that becomes impression leading to decision and finally resulting in action. So the thinking of the mind, based on the needs of the ministry, becomes energetic action through the infinite energy source of the subconscious. “If you have faith (in yourself) as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you” (Mt 17:20). The power is within and is stored in the subconscious – All we need to do is to unleash it and accomplish things. Visualize the work to be done in your mind, the subconscious would do the rest.
Working of the Subconscious:
Thoughts create impressions in brain cells. And the subconscious works with association of past ideas/events cataloguing and filing all information so that when required or requested the necessary information (especially by association) is drawn from the stored files and offered. In this sense our subconscious knows answers to all problems: Sometimes immediately you get the solution; and sometimes there could be a time delay. However, you tell your subconscious your wish and it works on it and offers the solution. When you want to achieve something, the subconscious works out a strategy and leads you to accomplish the same.
Time Management by the Subconscious:
You initiate the process by positive thinking, either through self-talk or self-projection with confidence. You not only tell yourself, “I am excellent in my mission/task”, or “All is/goes well”; or “Every day I am becoming more successful and sufficient” etc. Then, visualize the work done. When you think of accomplishing a work, feel that it being done, wish/pray with confidence, and imagine the completed mission. You should practice this creative imagination: Tell yourself that you are excellent in time/event management; you feel, with confidence, that you have already achieved your goal; and work with hope and confidence and you would soon realize that success is an insider-job. Tenzing Norgay was dreaming of scaling Mount Everest; as a child he imagined himself standing on the summit; and he did climb Mount Everest. It was the subconscious that motivated him and energized him and led him to success.
III. Components of Time Management:
Time management has a few components. F.P. Xavier in his book Creating the 25th Hour (2019) cites the following phases: i. Internal: This is the mindset (especially positive) which is the preparation to trigger motivation and set goal setting. ii. Transition: Mindset evolves into a discerning mind and an understanding heart leading to decision making and discernment (which could be personal or in common) between what is important and what is urgent. iii. Execution: This is the execution phase offering success formula: Attitude + Aptitude = Altitude. The attitude is whether one operates as a leader or as a manager with picking up necessary aptitude of skills to gain experience and expertise. Then the outcome is high level success (altitude). Ability for multitasking comes in here. iv. One should be aware of built in challenges in one’s mission: a. There could be stress within oneself (trying to do too much with too little resource and time); b. There could come up conflict with others who work with us in the team; and c. There could be disaster and emergency situation to handle. v. All these could be made easier, with the subconscious coming in, with time contract which enables one to create the 25th hour!
Time Management Skills:
Once the goal is clear, the inner motivation makes things work giving one impetus and resilience to go ahead. What is next needed is to prioritize tasks depending on one’s energy cycle. When there are many things to do at the same time, one should be able to delegate things to someone else to do the less important works to do. Decision making could be personal or in common. This is a two-level process: When the leader consults others getting their informed opinions, his/her perspectives broaden. This is the first phase known as ‘making the decision’. Then, reflecting based on pros and cons and listening to one’s ‘small inner voice’ (the conscience) when the final decision is taken, it is ‘taking the decision.’ This follows a three-step formula: Awareness – Acceptance – Action. You become conscious of the need and the work to be one; accepting your responsibility start to work (if needed by delegation or by subsidiarity principle); and the action phase, as an outcome, would be smooth going.
Often one is expected to do multitask, that is working on many assignments. Apart from delegating certain works, the subconscious could be helpful in assisting in multitasking. Once the subconscious is informed of the pending works with expected deadlines, the subconscious swings into action getting all the details (from its stored information) with necessary strategies to accomplished the expected or assigned work. Multitasking process would imply that one needs to build up relationships to shoulder the responsibilities and also he/she would need a mentor for giving one the necessary direction, whenever needed. We need someone not only to show the way but someone who could journey with us in our mission.
Goal Setting:
If you are not clear or particular about where to go, then any road would take you ‘there’. To achieve something you need to set a goal. This goal is based on a clear idea of what to achieve with possible deadline. Every goal has to be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timebound). And this should be labelled further as major and minor goals (such as yearly, monthly, weekly, daily). J. Clear in his book Atomic Habits (2018) recommends to grow in this technique. If you want to write a book, it might look like a major task involving a lot of time. But start writing a few lines a day to start with. When it becomes easy, then move on to writing one page a day. This would enable you to write a few pages at a stretch and soon you would find it easy to write a chapter. Finally writing a book would not be difficult. Any new habit starts with a new thinking, “I can do it”. And if this thought is seriously entertained and put to practice for about 21 days, it become a habit. In his book 21/90 Rule in Progress (2019) C. O’Brian states that it takes 21 days to make a habit and 90 days to make it a permanent lifestyle change.
Process:
One needs the constant driving impulse in any ongoing mission. There should be clearly defined command chain and reporting line in administration – One should know who is giving the direction and how the report would be passed on. This is organogram with clear job description in the administrative rungs. In a specific mission one should keep on asking oneself: “How can I make my ministry excellent?”, “How can I avoid mediocrity in my ministry?”, and “How can I make the people I serve excellent and exemplary?” The ministry is, after all, to enlighten and to enlighten the people entrusted to us, especially in the pastoral sector.
Challenges:
In any mission, challenges or obstacles are inevitable. i. Stress Management: The challenge one feels as inadequate is stress management. If you could fix priorities, if you could delegate or share work with a team, and if you have a routine in daily life, you would be able to handle this challenge. ii. Conflict Management: When we work with others, there could be conflicts with others. This could be objective or subjective; and it could be due to clash of common goal with personal interest. This could be handled by looking at the situation from others’ perspective – When we see the other’s standpoint through his/her perspective, we could understand the situation better and we could work on common good. It is not what I want but what is needed for the common good. iii. Disaster Management: Murphy’s First Law says that what could go wrong, would one day go wrong. Any disaster, such as fire or floods or someone dying in an accident etc could be unexpected but we need to handle it swiftly. We should have all possible communications and networking in hand to inform people or to get emergency help. We also need to have Plan A along with Plan B (Sometimes we might need Plan C as well – Life is what happens when we make other plans).
Mind Management:
We should realize that in time management more than event management, mind management is basic and effective. We need the problem solving habit which starts with an analytical mind and an integrating heart so that action could easily flow out in mission. For any work one needs to have a preview (regarding what is needed or expected and what is possible) before starting the work; and review (what was expected and what was achieved) after the work is done. This process would keep us alert and efficient. And this could be enhanced and enriched by team building which could be ideally cordial. When that is not possible, there should be at least functional relationship (that is, consultation and sharing of report etc). In this context or phase, the handholding by the mentor would be of much help to go forth with confidence.
Time Contract:
This method is recommended by many experts. You find a quiet and comfortable place and make yourself relaxed and become composed, clearing a comfortable milieu. Now, plan for the future or for the next days/weeks. Make mental picture of work(s) to be done, visualizing the process in time and finally the finished work of the goal. This is what St Ignatius of Loyola also says: When you go to bed, before you fall asleep, think of the next day, when you would get up and what you would do etc (SpEx 73). During your sleep, your subconscious would work out the strategy (with support material, ideas, statistics etc) and you would find it easy to move around with your daily activities with ease and comfort. This could be greatly helped, which I follow, by writing on a piece of paper before going to bed the tasks to be done next day (forenoon, afternoon, evening). And when you get up in the morning you could begin the day with confidence. But be sure that you spend a few minutes at the end of the day to review the entire day reflecting on what was planned and what materialized. You might get enlightened on course correction, if needed, to do better. This would help us do better every day and in every way.
IV. Way to Go:
In pastoral ministry our role model is Jesus and Paul too recommends that we have the same mindset as Jesus Christ in all (Phil 2:5). As we share the mission of Jesus, we need to follow His modality of operation in our mission of making people and the world whole with fullness of life.
Enrichment in Mission:
One’s attitude is more important than one’s accomplishing the work successfully. H. Todd in his book Die Empty (2015) suggests three phases: Mapping – Making – Meshing. Our strategies, planning with timeline for the people we serve is mapping; our work in progress with periodic review is making (progress); and our own ongoing formation with further study, picking up new skills, intra and inter networking would be the meshing. This would not only make us professional in our mission but also people-friendly. In this context we need to prepare the second rank or future leaders to continue with our mission when required.
Inspiring Leader:
Pastoral ministry is ultimately to be an inspiring leader and to live as a role model to the people. As a leader whom people look up often, one should be able to build up interpersonal relationships with inner readiness to learn from people, for we receive in giving (as St Francis of Assisi would put it). Jesus concurred with the Samaritan lady at the well of Jacob that God is worshiped in truth and Spirit (Jn 4:24); He admired the faith of the Centurion (Ma 8:10); and He appreciated the gratitude of the healed Samaritan leper (Lk 17:11-19). This is in keeping with the spirit of synodality. It is not the top-down Church but bottom-up Church, where the Shepherd listens to the voice of the Spirit from the sheep.
Further, the leader should express his solidarity in crisis by building up an effective team to address the predicament of people in times of emergency. Finally, the leader should be a servant leader with serenity and at the disposal of the people as Jesus was at Cana (Jn 2:1-12). The pastor is to be the fullness of joy for others as J. Martin says in his book The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything (2012), “He is mild, friendly, and amiable so that he speaks with the learned and unlearned, with important and with little people, all in the same way: a man worthy of all praise and reverence.”
Biblical Keys:
We could evolve into a servant of God showing the way to God for His people by following the keys in the Bible. i. We take responsibility (Eph 5:16) without finding a scapegoat. ii. We seek God’s direction in prayer and discernment (Eph 2:10) depending on His wisdom (Pro 4:7). iii. We plan our daily schedule with the components of availability, approachability, and adoptability/flexibility. iv. We stay organized (Ex 10:1-16) even amidst chaos and emergency. v. We eliminate the unimportant in our schedule (Jos 1:7). vi. We review the day by looking at what was planned and what has been achieved, being open to course correction for the better in the future. vii. We do the daily examination of Conscience to thank God for all the good we have done; asking His pardon for all the mistakes committed; and imploring His grace to do better in the future.
Conclusion:
Time/Mind management is actually self-management. It is not doing things in time but being creative always; and it is not mere event management but energy management. It is finding out your energy cycle and designating works to be done for oneself and for others in order to work in a responsible team. We are to be aware that the conscious mind designs through rational or critical thinking and planning, while the subconscious executes it through integrated methods to realize the goal. We finally become able instruments of powerhouse within and all we need to do is consciously work on our ministry based on the priority and needs of the people we serve.
Francis P Xavier SJ
15May2023