During the summers in between college I made money by painting houses. It wasn’t the ideal job for a college student considering I had to report to work at 6:45am and didn’t leave until 6pm. Nonetheless it was a good paying job, but the value that was drilled into me was, “Never Cut Corners.” Why? Because you aren’t that clever. Maybe once in a while you can wing it; however, the rest of time people catch you. And I had a boss that always knew when I was being lazy, and my punishment? Dock in pay, clean up duty and once in a while I had to redo the whole job.
It’s best to go all out and prepare ourselves properly because when you cut corners you show a lack of respect to others. Here are some of the areas I’ve unfortunately cut cornes and know others have too:
- Practice The Message: I give a message each week to high school and middle school students. You can tell when I’ve practiced, because their’s passion in my voice. If you really care about what you are saying, you want to give it the time to make sure you present it clearly.
- Prepare For Meetings: Have an agenda, have an end time and rehearse it. There are too many times I’ve been in meetings with none of the previous mentioned and they were a waste of my time. If you find that you aren’t preparing on a regular basis, ask yourself why you are really having that meeting. Lastly you disrespect other people’s time when you don’t run an organized meeting.
- Partnering With Parents: You can’t say you want a family ministry if you all you do is throw resources and materials with parents. You can’t say you are partnering with parents if you only contact them every blue moon. You need to go the extra mile, call some of them personally, get their feedback and stay in touch with them as consistently as possible. You’ll never win over parents if you don’t show them respect and when you don’t give them clear communication you are doing just that.
- Spend Time With God: Most, if not all of us are guilty of short changing God. We’re ministers, we need God just like everyone else; yet, we don’t spend time praying, we don’t tithe, we don’t serve, we slander parents, students….our boss. I’m not saying you can’t struggle, just don’t confuse the bible study you are creating as your quiet time.
There are probably other areas people can call me out. I’m guilty of it and have probably done so because I was tired, rushed, overburdened, etc. but it’s still no excuse. To avoid the guilt of cutting corners you need to prepare, organize and find a pace at which you can best function.
Where do you feel like people will most likely cut corners?
and
Where have you cut corners?