It is truly funny. being an ADD Pastor, i originally thought up this idea to share some helpful tips for other Clergy and alike, on how to be better organized as this is a daily task for me in my life. ADD Pastors get the whole Empathy, Pastoring, Preaching thing but "at least i do" struggle in Calendering, filing, etc...
over the last couple of years I had been meeting with a great retired Principle who gave me many extremely helpful tools!
Here is one of them: The Binder System!!! dadada....
Basically if you want to make it the best you can get put aside about $400 from your Continuing Educational Account or Accounts Reimbursable.
Go to Staples: They are like a good pet, a persons best friend, and they even clean up after themselves!!
Pick up a bunch of the Staples "Better Binders" they last a long time, look great on the shelf, and hold a lot.
This is Color Coded of Course:
Name of Ministry: Color of Binder
Youth Ministry: Orange Binders
Church Ministries Navy Blue Binders
Personal Ministries: Light Blue Binders
District&Conference: White Binders
College&Grad School: White Binders
Clinical Pastoral Education White Binders
Finance&Pension&Sallie Mae White Binders
Confirmation: Yellow Binders
Retreats&Personal Written Curriculum: Brown Binders
Missions&Fundraisers: Pink Binders
Magazine Resources Green Binders
Music&Guitar Red Binders
*Keep them all in order of color on your office bookshelves
*Keep hole punch next to them as well
*have a couple hours set aside per week to file what comes in or to shred
This has helped my ministry more than I could write down!
Here are some examples of what I file under each binder section:
Church Ministries: (NAVY BLUE) Binder Size
1. SPRC 1/2 inch
2. Church Counsel 1/2 inch
3. Church Calenders 2 inch
4. Orders of Worship 3 Inch
5. Prayer Lists 2 inch
6. Church Newsletters 2 inch
7. Ministries Planning Team (MPT) 1/2 inch
8. Program Planning Team (P&P) 1/2 inch
9. Charge Conference 3 inch
10. Child Protection 1 inch
11. Staff Meetings 1/2 inch
12. Trusties 1/2 inch
13. Communications 1/2 inch
14. Worship Meetings 1/2 inch
15. Music Ministry 1/2 inch
16. Scouting 1/2 inch
17. Young Adults 1/2 inch
18. Parents of Little Ones Group (P.O.L.O.S.) 1/2 inch
19. Public School Resources 1/2 inch
20. Public Sports& Recreation Resources 1/2 inch
**it is good to start of on small inches, when you need more space, bet a bigger binder
*The Orders of Worship will seem like a large Binder but after a year, I am now on my second 3 inch binder
**you need to make sure and pick up a lot of calender tabs as well. for prayer lists, meetings, orders of worship it is easier to place them under the month it actually happened instead of placing them hap-hazardly!!
Another example:
Personal Binders: (Light BLUE)
1. Candidacy Guidebook
2. Licencing School Binder
3. Provisional Binder
4. Ministry Inquiry
5. Myers Briggs
6. Advent and Christmas (resources, your sermons, what is going on,)
7. Lent and Easter
8. Worship
9. Children Messages
10. Preaching (past and future sermon ideas)
11. Baptisms
12. Weddings
13. Funerals
14. Holiday Resources (other holidays besides Christian biggies)
15. Theology Resources
16. Pentecost
17. Ecumenical&Interfaith Resources
18. Pastoral Care
You get the Drift this is awesome...use it well and you will be very happy. if you have any further questions shoot me a message or facebook me!
