Clock Builders, Not Just Time Tellers: What Parishes Can Learn from Built to Last

In Built to Last, Jim Collins and Jerry Porras explore what makes companies endure—what makes them visionary. One concept that struck me deeply is their distinction between Time Tellers and Clock Builders.

A Time Teller is someone who can look at the sky and tell you the time with incredible accuracy. It’s a gift. But what happens when that person is no longer around? The gift dies with them. A Clock Builder, on the other hand, creates a system—a clock—that keeps telling the time long after the builder is gone.

The best leaders, the ones who leave a legacy, aren’t just great Time Tellers. They’re Clock Builders. They don’t just do the thing—they build a system, a culture, a structure that allows others to keep doing the thing long after they’re gone.

This hit home for me, especially as I think about parish leadership today. In youth ministry, evangelization, faith formation—we need fewer Time Tellers and more Clock Builders. Too often, parishes rely on one great priest, one incredible DRE, or one dynamic youth minister. And when that person moves on, the momentum fades. The ministry withers. The “time” stops being told.

But what if we started building clocks?

What if we cast a compelling vision for discipleship that lives beyond a single personality or program? What if we rooted our culture in a shared mission that every volunteer, every parishioner, every staff member could own?

That’s the heartbeat of Sent Parish—to help leaders stop chasing short-term fixes and start building structures for long-term, Spirit-filled fruitfulness. We want to help you build parishes that are truly built to last.

The good news? We’re not starting from scratch. Our “core ideology,” as Collins and Porras would say, is already given to us in the Gospel and the teachings of the Church—2,000 years of truth, beauty, and mission.

Let’s rediscover that mission. Let’s build systems that form disciples, not just programs that gather attendees. Let’s raise up leaders who create culture, not just content.

Let’s stop checking the time—and start building clocks.