SCHEDULES
DO 106
9/71
1. SCHEDULES ARE ALWAYS ONE OF YOUR MAJOR PROBLEMS! The Lord Himself drew up a weekly schedule for us the very first thing after Creation!--"Six days shalt thou labour & on the Seventh, thou shalt rest"!--A very good plan for us all!--God made it!--"Let everything be done in decency & in order." But the seven days are not the major problem, but rather WHO should work at WHAT jobs & how many hours of the day should be allotted to work, classes, study, meetings, devotions, meals, sleep, freetime etc.--as well as witnessing times, which vary according to Home locations, & also the problem of the special jobs for special shifts of special people which have to be done outside of regular working hours, such as KP, Guard Duty, Phone & Radio Monitoring, Greeting, Nursery etc.--some of which must be done 24 hours a day in shifts!--Then there's the teaching schedule of the various classes & who should teach them on what days & at what times.
2. WHEN WE FOUNDED OUR FIRST LITTLE HOME OF ABOUT 12, about 20 years ago, consisting of my family of 6 & about half a dozen students, we met with the very same problems on the very first day!--So you're not alone. Scheduling was a part of the job from the beginning & we immediately found that the three main schedules we had to work out right away, even with only a dozen people, were: First, THE DAILY SCHEDULE--Hour by hour for everybody.--When to get up, when to have devotions, meals, work, classes, meetings, freetime, sleep etc.
3. SECOND WAS THE WORK SCHEDULE: This was divided into the number of jobs, the number needed for each job & the hours they would have to work, including the Special Jobs outside of regular working hours, including KP, Guard Duty etc. & how to rotate them, so that everyone would be doing his fair share, no more & no less. We started off with volunteers, but soon found out that the willing-spirited were always volunteering, whereas the slothful were always willing to loaf!-So we found we had to schedule it to be fair to all & to give all their proper training & experience so necessary for all!
4. AND THIRDLY, CAME THE TEACHING & CLASS SCHEDULE: When to have classes, how many hours daily, what days, what classes, by what teachers & taken by what students!
5. LAST, OR FOURTH, BUT FIRST IN IMPORTANCE, WAS THE WITNESSING SCHEDULE, which had to specify what days, what times, where, & who was to lead who, what teams, what buddies & what areas etc.
6. EVERY ONE OF THESE SCHEDULES IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT & absolutely essential & must be worked out to the nth degree & down to the LAST DETAIL, & every single minute for every single person, be they leader, leadership trainee, babe, or brand new disciple. Every moment of time must be budgeted exactly & every person must get his fair share of both burdens & blessings, so that none shall be overworked, overburdened, neglected in training, or permitted to waste time or do less than his share!--Some good Scriptures to memorise along these lines are: Acts 1:8; 2Tim.2:15; Ps.119:11; 1Thess.4:11-12; 2Thess.3:10,12; 2Sam.6--especially verses 5,14,16,20-22.
7. THE DAILY SCHEDULE: This will vary somewhat according to your numbers, local situation & needs, witnessing opportunities, disciples being taught, general work of the Home, its purposes, the weather, time of year, transportation, logistics, personnel etc.
8. I CAN ONLY TELL YOU WHAT I KNOW regarding our own personal experiences with schedules, & anything beyond that, I can only counsel & advise you & you will have to work out your own Salvation with fear & trembling!
9. BUT WE COULD BEGIN WITH OUR OWN FIRST LITTLE HOME, & our pitiful little dirty dozen--me & Mom & the kids & a few motley disciples to use as an example, which may help you. You don't have to follow this Schedule, but I'm just telling you how we did it then with only a dozen to work with, as follows:
10. 7:00 A.M.--WAKEUP, Wash, Dress & Private Devotions-Including News, if you wish!
11. 7:30 A.M.--BREAKFAST & More Private Devotions, Preparations, Study, Rest or Freetime.
12. 8:30 A.M.--UNITED DEVOTIONS--Strictly not more than 1/2-hour of only one prayer, one song, one Psalm or Scripture, one more song & a final prayer, each led by a different person, if possible, of your leadership trainees, with a different person in charge each morning, with EVERYBODY in the Home present, absolutely together in the Spirit to start the day off right!
13. YOU HAVE TO HAVE A DEVOTIONAL SCHEDULE, USUALLY MADE OUT BY THE WEEK OR MONTH, depending on your numbers, rotating the names of those in charge of each morning's Devotions, who are to pick the songs, those to pray, those to sing & the Scripture to be read.--No preaching, no exhorting & no longwinded teaching! This is just a brief moment of prayer & meditation to get your hearts & bodies together for the day-which means you also need to be sure to call the roll to make sure nobody's still sacked out or dissembling! You'll be surprised! Keep it short!
14. 9:00 A.M.--WORK OR CLASSES, depending on your Home, its personnel, work, situation, the weather, the season etc. For example, if you are a Babes Home, you will have less work, more classes & more play--maybe even more meals & sleep! Baby the Babes!--With a maximum of 3 to 4 hours labour daily, Monday through Friday, & a minimum of 3 to 4 hours of classes daily, Monday through Friday, plus Devotions, Happy Time (Music, Singing, Dancing, Sharing etc.) & any other meetings. However, any meetings about work must be held during work time, & any meetings about classes, during classtime or during meal time at the Elders' Table, & NOT during Freetime or Sleeptime EVER! That's the law!
15. YOU MAY WANT TO, DURING SUMMER, HAVE YOUR WORKTIME IN THE MORNING, when it's still cool, or in the Winter, during the afternoon, when it's warm, or be able to change it at a moment's notice, according to the weather, such as, if it's raining, have inside classes instead & work later, if it has stopped, or keep on having classes, if it's still raining. If this winds you up with an all day of classes one day, then maybe you could have an all day of work the next etc. Or if you're supposed to witness that afternoon & it rains, then have classes or inside work, depending on the weather, & witness all day the next day, if feasible. The main idea is to get in the required number of hours of work, classes, or witnessing per week, no matter how you have to vary them according to the weather, the season or location.
16. 12:00 NOON--SNACK & REST, FREETIME, STUDY, PRAY, PLAY, OR MAKE LOVE, if mate's handy!
17. 1:00 P.M.--WORK OR CLASSES again, according to the above suggestions--or WITNESSING some days. In our first small Home, with only a few & not much manual labour needed, we were able to have classes every morning & go out witnessing every afternoon to the nearby areas, unless it rained, Then we'd stay home & have more classes. In you Northern Homes where it's too cold to witness outside in the Winter & there's nobody out there to witness to, you'll have to find indoor spots, such as your own Club or somebody else's, college lounges etc., but go where the kids are, wherever they are, Summer or Winter, especially if they can't come to you. Just please don't freeze your nose or toes or theirs, by trying to witness standing in the snow!
18. 4:00 P.M.--FREETIME--Absolutely no work, classes, meetings etc., except special duties, such as KP, Guards, Greeting, Monitors, Nursery etc.! Don't rob the poor!
19. 5:30 P.M.--DINNER, along with the TV News, plus more freetime! Hallelujah! After all, a guy's gotta have some time to go to the bathroom & sit & think! Amen?
20. 6:30 P.M.--HAPPY TIME--Sing, Dance & Play Music & have a real good time, including sharing your experiences & testimonies, articles, letters, logs etc.--maybe even pictures, films, tapes or slides, with everybody participating! Be free! Enjoy! Relax! This is not to be a class, teachathon or preachathon!--And needs a good, tough MC who can keep it MOVING, keep it ALIVE, keep it interesting & keep down time hogs! Don't let any of your main preachers, teachers or leaders hog this time! It might even be dangerous to let them MC it, lest they be tempted with Preacher's Itch! Let it be YOUR meeting, everybody's meeting, everybody's song & dance, with everybody having fun--a relaxation, recreation & inspiration--not mental perspiration! Probably one of your good musicians would be best to MC it, unless you have a good MC who knows how to keep HIS mouth shut & help OTHERS talk, encouraging especially the reticent & the usually unheard-from. This is THEIR chance, YOUR chance! Use it! Enjoy it! But watch out about some of these old rickety buildings!--Don't dance on anything but a concrete floor, or a floor supported by concrete & steel beams, especially not an old termiteeaten floor, or the rhythm of your dancing could cause the whole house to collapse! Use the basement or the yard if you have to, but never a weak floor!
21. JUST BE SURE TO CALL THE ROLL FOR EVERY CLASS, WORK SHIFT, DEVOTIONS OR MEETING, to make sure nobody's goofin' off or sacked out!--Or sometimes easier & even more effective, have a security guard check all other rooms, quarters or areas for goofers!--Maybe we should call'm gophers, since they like to burrow down & hide out!
22. 8:00 P.M.--ANOTHER CLASS OR MO LETTER OR "BIBLE IN PICTURES" OR OTHER PICTURES OR TAPES, FILMS, SPECIAL GUEST SPEAKERS, such as visitors from other Homes etc.--Something fairly enjoyable, relaxing, inspiring & not requiring too much hard mental effort or physical concentration or spiritual strain, after a hard day of work, classes etc.
23. 9:30 P.M.--LIGHT SNACK & VISITING WITH EACH OTHER & GETTING HOME. To preclude any possibility of any long-winded preachathons or teachathons from hogging all the time & running way over & stealing your freetime, I suggest that somebody ring a bell promptly at 9:30, or flash the lights, as a gentle hint that we STOP! If they don't take the hint within exactly five minutes, whoever's in charge of the snack, have your servers invade the meeting & start passing out the food or drinks, in order to interrupt it & bring it to an end. After all, it is snack time & time to quit! If they insist on continuing, even while you're eating, have somebody finally pull the light switch on'm at exactly 10:00 p.m., leaving only enough light so that everybody can grope their way out in the dark, even unseen, & let this guy with the Preacher's Itch keep on preaching to himself for the rest of the night if he wants to.
24. YOU HAVE MY PERSONAL PERMISSION TO GET UP & WALK OUT ON HIM AT 10:00 P.M. & GO HOME, no matter what's going on, unless the LORD HIMSELF is speaking, & He cuts it short, let Him finish His prophecy or interpretation, thank Him for it, sing the Lord's Prayer & depart. Even the spirit of the prophet is subject to the prophet--& if I don't say this, some of these Windy Willies are gonna keep you up all night & rob you of not only your Freetime, but also essential sleep!
25. 10:00 P.M.--FREETIME!--Your own time to visit, relax, read, watch the news, study, pray, make love, go to bed &/or play! It's yours! Don't let'm rob you of it!
26. 11:00 P.M.--BEDTIME! Sleeptime: All lights out. Bed check! No exceptions but leaders!
27. SATURDAY & SUNDAY SCHEDULES: SATURDAY--NO WORK except emergencies!--And only "Ox-in-the-Ditch" emergencies allowed, besides the special rotated & security duties, such as KP, Guards, Monitors, Greeting, Nursery etc. This is your REST DAY, the good ole Sabbath! Keep it free--symbol of the already Eternal Sabbath freedom which we've found in Christ. Leaders may write reports & all others should write letters home, or to friends & loved ones, to witness to them or encourage their joining or support.
28. YOU SHOULD WRITE A LETTER EVERY MONTH--AT LEAST ONE, TO TRY TO SPOIL EGYPT OF ITS PERSONNEL & PROPERTY! They need your witness & you need their help to keep green & growing! Use it! The day is yours & the Lord's! Enjoy it! Go witnessing in groups or by twos with permission, signing out, always an older disciple with a younger one, or go hiking, riding, swimming, sleeping, fucking or what have you! Just don't let'm make you work unless you want to & it's really an emergency that can't wait--purely VOLUNTARY! It's your rest day-God's ordained Rest Day--made for Man--not Man for it--& you're free! If you go anywhere outside the immediate camp or yard, or off the property, be sure you don't go alone or without permission or signing out! This is for your own safety. We love you & don't want to lose you! God bless you!
29. 12:00 NOON--NO MEALS SATURDAYS TILL NOON, except for those on Special Duty who have to work. They will be served a special breakfast or snack at an earlier hour, according to their work schedule & those in charge. We believe in the Thirty-Hour week, six hours a day, five days a week of work &/or classes, plus other enjoyable things like Devotions, Happy Time, Pictures, Light Inspiration etc. So this means a little time off for the cooks, too. So only breakfast or a light snack at noon during your day off, so you can sleep till then if you want to.
30. 5:30 P.M.--DINNER & TV NEWS, followed by more Freetime Happy time etc.
31. 6:30 P.M.--HAPPY TIME again!--Singing, Dancing etc. as usual--or witnessing on special occasions, such as at Festi vals, Parks etc.
32. 11:00 P.M. OR LATER BEDTIME if necessary, as the Club, Witnessing or occasion warrants.
33. SUNDAY--YOU GET THE MORNING OFF again, unless you have some special witnessing assignment, such as a church, Sunday School or another city etc. Otherwise, you can sleep till nearly noon--no breakfast, except for those on special assignment or duty.
34. 12:00 NOON--SUNDAY DINNER & get ready to greet visitors or go witnessing somewhere for the afternoon & perhaps for the night too. Sunday is only a rest day for the churchy people & the World, between whom there's not much difference, if any!--For us, it's a good WITNESSING DAY usually, unless there's bad weather, in which case we might stay home & witness or go to somebody else's Club, or have an afternoon of classes, study, letter writing, or whatever your leaders decide.
35. 5:30 P.M.--LIGHT SNACK whether at home or out witnessing--or if you prefer & are going to spend the day at home, you might have the light snack or breakfast at noon & have the dinner at night, depending on the conditions & where you are & what you're doing. It will be up to your leaders to decide this--but feed you, they will! Hallelujah! If you're at home, you can also watch the TV News again with your meal, God willing.
36. 6:30 P.M.--VARIOUS ACTIVITIES again, depending on your location, opportunities, leadership, possibilities, conditions, needs etc.--perhaps more witnessing or a Happy Time! In any event, you should try to get home & to bed by 11:00, if possible, because Monday is another work day, & up at 7:00! Hallelujah! Amen?
37. ANY SPECIAL PLANS or programs for Saturdays or Sundays, whether witnessing or otherwise, will be announced accordingly by your leaders not later than Friday night, if possible, so you'll all know how to plan, God willing. Weekends are a good time for departing teams to have their farewells, so as not to interrupt the regular daily schedules during the week; either that, or have them farewell at the nightly Happy Time of the night before departure. If you wanna good farewell with everybody present to give you a good send-off, loving & prayer to remember you by, then please try to plan it for the night or weekend when everybody's there & not too busy! God bless you!
38. REGULAR WORK SCHEDULES: For the BABES, this means only THREE OR FOUR HOURS, either morning or afternoon, Monday through Friday only. But for LEADERSHIP TRAINEES who have completed the Introductory & Basic Courses of at least three months, your daily work schedule on your now new fulltime job or on-the-job training will probably be at least SIX HOURS a day, following the very same Daily Schedule as the Babes or Basics, with the exception that you work both periods, from 9 to 12 & 1 to 4, without classes, during these periods, unless those classes ARE your work. Since you are supposedly working hard at your new job all day, you will have only one leadership training class period nightly, from 8:00 to 9:30 p.m. following Happy Time, although this 1-&-1/2 hour period may be divided into two 45-minute classes, if your teachers so desire, unless there is a new MO Letter or other special programme, which will then be your class. Your LEADERSHIP TRAINING CLASSES from 8:00 to 9:30 in the evenings Monday through Fridays will be held separately, of course, from the Babes or Basics & their nightly class, unless the Mo Letter is for all, or the special programme such as visiting guest speakers, movies etc. are for everybody, in which case you will all gather together for this united programme or class in Homes in which there are both Basic & Leadership Trainees. Otherwise your Schedule follows exactly the same plan & hours as the Basics.
39. LEADERS OF VARIOUS REGULAR WORK DETAILS may wish to issue their own work schedules for their own groups of workers, including the planned work & the names of those who are to do it, & these will either be read or given to them at the beginning of their work period, but if you spend too much time discussing it, you won't get the work itself done, so get with it & don't drag your feet, & do it as unto the Lord! Amen!
40. ALSO, WORKERS & THOSE IN CHARGE of work details should be sure that your fellow labourers know what time to knock off & are warned thereof by a bell, whistle, call, honk, shout or otherwise, so they'll not overwork or miss their freetime or be late for a meal! This stop-work signal is compulsory & must be obeyed promptly, no matter what you're doing, so as not to disrupt the rest of the schedule, except in the direst of life & death emergencies--& any such emergency overtime must be made up for with an equivalent period of freetime the next day or the next work period, without exception!
41. ALSO, ANY SUCH EMERGENCY OVERTIME WORK must have the permission of your immediate superior officer, or the officer in charge of that Department, preferably even the Home Shepherd himself, to make sure that it is indeed an unavoidable emergency & cannot possibly be stopped at that very moment! Each of you, therefore, has the right to walk off his job at the appointed time & to warn your fellow workers to do so too is also your responsibility. Any overtime is purely voluntary & cannot be enforced unless agreed to by the workers themselves & department or Home Heads, & must always be compensated for with exactly the same amount of freetime during the following regular work period! Any violation of this rule will be penalised, & every worker is obligated & hereby requested to report such violations to a superior officer!
42. ALSO, REMEMBER, LEADERS & ORGANISERS of Work Schedules & Appointers of Work Details & Assigners of Jobs, you should study carefully the qualifications, talents, skills, training, education, experience & personal preferences of your colabourers in the Lord & try to get them not only the kind of work they are best FITTED for, but also that which they would PREFER & like & choose to do. This information should be found on their original registration card, but if not, find it out yourself & assign tasks accordingly, with mutual & voluntary agreement between you & your fellow labourers. This is not a dictatorship or a slave or prison or military camp, like those of the System! Although this is the Army of the Lord & we observe strict discipline, it is VOLUNTARY, willing-spirited & cheerfully given, NOT FORCED labour. "The Lord loveth a CHEERFUL GIVER"!--"As unto the Lord & not unto Man"! We are love slaves of Jesus Christ & we serve one another because we love Him & them, & do it by voluntary choice, for the good of all!--"Freely ye have received, also FREELY GIVE"!
43. SPECIAL WORK SCHEDULES: SUCH AS KP DUTY, GUARD DUTY, GREETER DUTY, RADIO OR TELEPHONE MONITOR, NURSERY etc. These are the tough ones, some of which require someone on duty 24 hours a day, & which, therefore, must be rotated as Special Duty assignments throughout the entire Home in shifts, every so many days, so that no one will have this duty too often & be overburdened with it.
44. FOR EXAMPLE, in the smallest Home, our first Home nearly twenty years ago, with my little family & a few odd disciples in one big house, KP Duty or Kitchen Police, as it's known in the Army, is one of the first & most necessary for the survival of any man's Army.
45. IF YOU'RE GOING TO EAT, SOMEBODY'S GOT TO PREPARE THE FOOD, COOK it, SERVE it & CLEAN UP the mess afterward. For some reason or other, most people seem to have gotten the idea that these are the lowliest & least desirable jobs of all, outside of cleaning toilets, sweeping the floors or doing the laundry, to mention a few. But frankly, this was my favourite job while in college!--At least that's one place you can be sure of getting enough to eat! Every job has its compensations!
46. SO YOU GUYS WHO DON'T WANT KP JUST DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE MISSING, do they, Boys!--Especially when you get to work side by side with some of those pretty girls!--And get to eat early, before everybody else!--When everything's nice & hot & fresh & plenty of it!--Ah, KP!--What a delightful duty! How pleasant are thy memories!
47. THE ONLY THING UNPLEASANT ABOUT KP was trying to figure out the schedule in order to make sure that everybody was made happy by getting to share at least a little of it & so no one would be offended by getting left out!--Ha!--Because, don't forget, you get let off your regular job every day you're on special duty.
48. WE SOON FOUND OUT THAT THE SIMPLEST WAY of figuring out these Special Rotating Duty Schedules was to take the total number of people you had available for the job & divide it by the number you need each day for that job, & this will give you how often each group of workers of the day will have to take that duty. It's just that easy! For example, in our first small Home of a dozen, we only had three cooks, so each one was assigned a different meal each day, so each one only had to cook once a day. Then we only had about six people who were available as cook's helpers & servers & another six available for cleanup. So two of each of the first six were assigned to each meal each day, so that each two only had to help & serve at one meal a day, & each two of the other six only had to clean up one meal a day.
49. WHEN WE HAD A LARGER HOME OF 24, it still didn't take any more workers for Kitchen Duty, so everybody only had to serve once every other day at one or the other job. In fact, many hands make light work, & the more you have in your Home, the fewer it takes proportionately to get the jobs done. c
50. IF YOU HAD 96 PEOPLE AVAILABLE for these 12-man-a-day duties, each team of 12 would be on their Special Duty every eighth day--so angling your line through the calendar from top to bottom in the opposite direction, each man will find he's on one or the other duty one day later every week etc. It's quite a science! In fact, if you had 50 people available for only five daily jobs, you divide 50 by 5 & you find that each team of five only has to work at their jobs every tenth day of the month, such as the tenth, twentieth & thirtieth, or eleventh, twenty-first & thirty-first etc. See?
51. BUT, YOU SAY, "I'VE ONLY GOT 48 PEOPLE AVAILABLE for that five-man team each day." OK, just divide 48 by five & you get each man doing that Special Extra Duty only once every 9 days, with three left over who can have their ninth day off for regular duty--but you'll catch them next time around & give three others the next ninth day off etc. In other words, each team of 5 will get every ninth day off! Isn't that easy? It's beautiful!--It's so simple & mathematical!
52. NOW ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS SIT DOWN WITH YOUR WORK COMMITTEE, composed of the two or three top Department Heads of the particular Department involved, & decide on which teams of five or six or twelve or whatever are most compatible with each other, can work best together & are most qualified for the job, just like that!
53. NOT BAD!--AND REALLY VERY FAIR & EQUITABLE! TRY IT!-Instead of having some people only working a few hours a day daily at the same job every day, while others are killing themselves off working 10, 12, 18 or even 24 hours a day at some zany duty that's ready to drive'm crazy, you'll have everybody working mostly at a regular daily job five days a week, or during the five-day week period, while working only a couple times a week at a variety of other jobs for which they are capable, & for only six hours each day on those days also, even though odd hours. VARIETY is the spice of life & some of these poor guys could stand a little variety.
54. SO GOD HELP US TO START EQUALISING THE WORK LOAD & SPREADING IT OUT SO EVERYBODY WILL HAVE THEIR FAIR SHARE of every kind of duty, pleasant or unpleasant, good or bad, easy or hard! Jesus said, "My yoke is EASY & My burden is LIGHT! Come unto Me, all ye that are weary & heavy-laden, & I will give you REST!"--Mat.11:28-30. If someone is over-burdened & distraught, it's not Jesus that's doing it!--It may be YOU!
55. TEACHER & CLASS SCHEDULES: These are about the easiest to figure out, & depend on the number of class days & number of class hours per day & number of teachers available. In our first tiny Home of only a dozen, there were only two qualified teachers, me & Mom! So I taught Bible, Acts & Prophecy, & she taught all the rest, until our first-time three months' Basic Course was completed & we had about six graduates, three of whom we sent to the mission field, while we kept the other three to turn right around & teach these very same courses they had just finished to the next incoming Babes or Basic class! How's that for teaching others to teach others! If we're gonna practice what we preach, we should be able to trust these babes of this three months' term to turn right around & teach the babes of the next incoming class the very same subjects they've just learned, while fresh in their minds, Bibles & notebooks! That's how this Revolution was built. And that's why it's such an explosion!
56. IF ONLY TWO PEOPLE WOULD WIN ONLY TWO SOULS A YEAR EACH, & teach their converts to do the same also etc., etc., etc., you could win the World's total population in only about sixteen years! Some of these millions of churchy Christians must have been falling down on the job, as it's been nearly two thousand years since Jesus was here & the World is not won yet!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family