A Week in the Life - Tuesday

4:30 a.m. - Alarm goes off... wishful thinking. I was hoping I'd get to the gym early today. I opt to sleep a little more.

6:00 a.m. - Alarm goes off again. I get up this time and make myself presentable. 

6:45 a.m. - Arrive at church and hunt coffee before our sermon starter Bible study. I'm not preaching this Sunday, so I get to just participate. It is a great study, except I inadvertently derail the conversation... whoops... 

8:00 a.m. - Head upstairs to grab the laundry from our week of hosting with the Interfaith Hospitality Network.

8:10 a.m. - Straighten up my desk. After Sunday it is usually a disaster. 

8:20 a.m. - Return and archive emails. 

8:45ish a.m. - On today's list is wedding stuff.  I type send scripture suggestions and some vow options to couple 1 (July wedding). I finalize the liturgy for a couple 2 (May wedding), and look over ecumenical prayers for couple 3 (July wedding... my brother-in-law). Spend some time in prayer for a lot of people I know who will be getting married.

I remember I need to go fold laundry. No matter how many times I watch it on youtube.com, I'll never be able to fold a fitted sheet... 

10 a.m. - Weekly check in with my supervising pastor. Today's meeting is mostly casual and consists of me setting up his pedometer (read yesterday's blog post). 

10:30 a.m. - Spend some time reading a required book for a conference I'll be attending in a few weeks.

11:30 a.m. - Get so hungry I break into my lunch early. Study my monologue for Maundy Thursday drama. I'm Philip!

1:00 p.m. - Head to the gym. I go for a run and struggle with my new pedometer. Remind myself that I've been living a healthy lifestyle for two years, so a pedometer won't break me! 

3:00 p.m. - Coffee meeting with pastors who are in a similar appointment as me. At 4:00 our "ring leader" shows up.

4:30 p.m. - Coffee check-in officially ends, and I linger to have another conversation with said "ring leader." He's a valued colleague, and we pack so much into that ten minutes standing outside Panera.

4:45 p.m. - I've lingered too long, and now I rush through the grocery shopping to feed our college small group. Tonight we're having a salad bar. Usually I have more "fun" food, but I personally can't handle a night of bad for me food. 

6:00 p.m. - Arrive at church to set out dinner. Can't find can opener in the church kitchen. Sheesh... 

6:30 p.m. - Students arrive. We spend a half an hour catching up. They ask me which is more stressful in the life of a pastor, Christmas or Easter? I ponder. I answer "Advent." 

7:00 p.m. - Spend the hour on session 4 of Living the Questions: Painting the Stars. These students are smart cookies. 

8:00 p.m. - Wrap up and clean up. I've forgotten to turn on the dishwasher to heat up, so I guess I'll do the dishes tomorrow... 

8:15 p.m. - Run a few errands before home. 
(A week in the life is a blog series I'm writing to share what a normal week in the life of this pastor looks like. I serve as the Minister of Discipleship and Mission at King Avenue UMC in Columbus, Ohio.)