Lauren van Vliet, author

A few times while I lived in Toronto I ventured outside the city. I was always struck by how much the GTA sprawled. There was nothing but buildings. The only way I could tell I was in a new city was the signs marking the boundaries. Where were the fields, or trees, or something between these cities?

This kind of sprawl can happen during busy seasons in ministry. Irregular hours and long days running between meetings and events can blend into each other with no glimmer of a proper day off on the horizon (I’ve done this – don’t do it, it’s not fun).

If you let this get out of hand, the irregular hours and long days don’t stop after the busy season; you work a little bit everyday, not exceeding your weekly hours, but not taking a full day off. This is the ministry sprawl (although I know it happens in other professions): your ministry seeps into all the nooks and crannies of your life, and you just can’t get away from it.

It happened to me last winter and spring. Between office hours, programs, and being present on the weekends, I didn’t take many full days off. I rationalized it by saying I was only going in for a couple of hours, or I was volunteering so the time didn’t count. But even the event I voluntarily attended put me in work-mode.

It all seemed so innocent, but this is exactly why the sprawl is dangerous. I didn’t realize how far it had spread until I sat down to count the number of full days off I had taken. By the time I did that, a habit had formed, one that was hard to break.

So my personal development goal this year is to prevent ministry sprawl as much as I can (it’s not always possible, busy seasons do exist). Here’s how I’m hoping to do it:

1. Schedule Sabbath time – whether you call it a day off, Sabbath, or something else – schedule it. Block out that time (for me it’s a full day) in your phone, on your calendar – wherever you track your professional AND personal appointments. Noting in both places means that you’re more likely to remember it regardless of which calendar you happen to be looking at. Blocking out Sabbath time like this does two things, first it makes you pick a Sabbath day in advance, which I found especially helpful on the weeks I have events scheduled for my Sabbath day. This way I have an alternate day picked out before I start making more appointments and plans. Second, in the event of booking an event on your day off, having to erase or delete the Sabbath time forces you to think about it for even another couple of minutes – perhaps giving you enough time to reconsider if you really need to schedule that meeting during that time.
2. Find a flow in your week – Pay attention to when in the week things are naturally happening. For instance, I usually do the regularly occurring administrative tasks on Monday morning because I’m alert, and the office is quiet because other people take that day off. The flow of events in the week can be helpful (like Monday morning admin tasks), or disruptive, like scheduling a visit to one class each day of the week. It disrupted the flow of each day making it harder to get focused on big tasks that needed more time. Noticing and understanding these took me a few months of intentional observation, but it paid off when I started scheduling for this year. I have general blocks of time to plan for programs, keep up with admin tasks, and be in schools. I find this important because it helps me find a routine in the week, which I find comforting, and helps me settle into doing the different tasks more effectively.
3. Plan other regular activities (yes, outside of your ministry) – This could be a hobby group, a class, or volunteering. Whatever it is, make it a regular commitment. For me, this is a writing group on Monday afternoons. I don’t want to be in the office then because I run other programs, but I’m especially tempted to schedule a meeting or a class visit because there isn’t much happening on Mondays. Having a commitment to another group of people outside of work means that when I schedule that class visit or meeting, I have to change these plans, that I look forward to, which makes me question if that appointment could be scheduled on another day, because I don’t want to miss it.
4. Set some personal goals or projects – these could be connected to your regular activities (from #3), but these are also things that you could do on your own. Writing is a big one for me, both a couple of fiction projects and working on this blog. But it’s also spiritual development, and making exercise a regular part of my life. Of course doing these things means that I need to set time to work on them, but if I can be self-disciplined (or have an accountability buddy), this is a great way to fill some of those nooks and crannies of my life (especially the mornings because I’m an early riser).
5. Find someone to hold you accountable – when I first realized I was having problems containing the ministry sprawl, I told my spiritual director (she encouraged me to do #1), and she’s asked me about it since then. Whether you ask a friend, mentor, or volunteer, make sure the person will look out for your best interest by holding you accountable in a loving way. This isn’t about shaming you for ministry sprawl, it’s about helping you bring your ministry into a life-giving balance. I also told one of the ministry volunteers, and asked her to check in with me. From day one she has been a huge support both in ministry and life in general. I trust her to ask me about my Sabbath time, and to hold me accountable by not making lame excuses. Having someone else check in helps me feel like someone else notices and cares how I am doing.

Ministry sprawl is a very real temptation in a world of constant connection. But it’s not healthy for long periods of time. How do you avoid the sprawl?