I love deadlines. Others hate them. The word itself sounds ominous—essentially, cross this line, and you die. But where did it even come from?
It turns out that deadline has a fascinating etymology. Originally, in the 19th century, a “deadline” referred to a literal boundary in prisons—if a prisoner crossed it, they could be shot. Over time, it shifted to mean an absolute limit for completion, the line where something must be finished.
That history makes me wonder: why does the word provoke such strong reactions in ministry?
Say deadline in a corporate setting, and you’ll get nods of understanding, maybe even a sense of challenge. Say it in a ministry setting, and you might as well have announced that you’re canceling Christmas. It’s a word that carries baggage—rigidity, pressure, maybe even a lack of grace.
And yet, ministry is filled with deadlines. The Sunday sermon? A weekly exam. That conference or retreat? A hard stop. The newsletter, the budget, the team meeting agenda—all deadlines. But functionally, many ministry deadlines are fluid, and that’s where things get interesting.
Because while ministry is (rightly) about people rather than projects, I sometimes wonder if resistance to deadlines is less about prioritizing people and more about avoiding accountability. Deadlines force clarity. They reveal priorities. They ask, “Did you actually do what you said you would?” And that kind of exposure is uncomfortable.
In some ways, the word deadline in ministry functions as an insider code. If you use it, you might be tipping your hand as someone who “doesn’t get it.” Ministry, after all, is unpredictable—people don’t operate on schedules. Jesus wasn’t rigid about timelines. And yet, he still had a mission to accomplish in a set amount of time.
So maybe the real question isn’t “Should we have deadlines in ministry?” but rather, “What kind of deadlines actually help us love and serve people well?” The goal isn’t to impose rigid constraints for the sake of efficiency—it’s to create rhythms of accountability that free us to be faithful.
What do you think? Are deadlines a necessary structure, or do they kill the organic nature of ministry?
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