New resource: a planner for clergy with reflection prompts and planning tools

Ground your planning in your values, vocation, and sustainable rhythms.

UPDATE: I received a request to create an online retreat companion to A Year of Intention, which will be Thursday, January 4, from 11:30 am - 2:00 pm central time. The retreat will provide an overview of how to use the planner, then participants will engage in guided individual and small group work around vocation, values, and self-care as well as the behaviors that support each of these areas and the obstacles that must be addressed. The retreat will be scaffolded with grounding practices, prayers, and check-in in the large group throughout. The cost is $15, and you can register here.

Many of us are on the search for the perfect planner. If we could just find it, we would be able to do all the things!

I have created a resource that might be useful for organizational purposes. I make no claims, though, that it is the perfect planner. In fact, I don’t want it to be the tool that allows us to do all the things. Instead, I hope that A Year of Intention: Reflection Prompts and Planning Tools for Clergy can help us focus on what is most important in our professional and personal lives and to name the behaviors and supports that will undergird that focus.

In A Year of Intention you will find:

• Prompts for thinking through values and vocation (your own and your ministry setting's) and sustainable rhythms

• Planning pages for both liturgical seasons and seasons of the calendar (i.e., fall, winter, spring and summer), with questions that hearken back to identified values, vocation, and sustainable rhythms

• Weekly planning pages (three different options, depending on how you frame your week) with reflection questions for the beginning and ending of each day to help you stay grounded in how you want to show up for God, others, and yourself

• Reflection questions to help you look back on the year, assessing what went well and what you'd like to adjust for the following year in order to live even more fully into values, vocation, and sustainable rhythms

Table of contents:

Example of one of the weekly planning formats:

After purchasing the planner for $15, you are welcome to download, print, and copy its pages for your own use. I envision putting them in a ½” binder, but you might have a better idea. Do what works best for you. The resources are undated, so you can use them year after year.

I pray that A Year of Intention will be a help to you as you navigate your year with intention. Blessings on you and on your ministry!