Minister's Lament

This was my lament on 2 April 2013. In fact this is how it goes all the time in urban ministry -- and if it doesn't, one "isn't doing urban ministry": 

It's the same chorus-line on this blog. The volume of things that need attention from the minister is huge. I sat down this morning to revise my whole to-do list -- the first time in ten days -- reviewing about twenty sheets of hand-written notes from my pockets, and several telephone messages. In these ten days, my to-do list grew by about eighty items. But I had bumped about forty items off the old list -- and so the new list reached around one-hundred-and-twenty items in all -- bearing in mind that ministry has additional exigencies and problems which don't make it onto the list. OBSERVATION: I can't possibly keep up. An item might be as simple as: Contact X or as time-consuming as Sunday Sermon. Most items, in fact, would sooner qualify as time-consuming. Most people are understanding if the minister can't get to something -- a few get impatient.