Nick back on time brought to church (5)
I believe the answer is:
notch
'nick' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'back on time brought to church' is the wordplay.
'back' shows that the letters should be reversed in order.
'time' becomes 't'.
'brought to' says to put letters next to each other.
'church' becomes 'ch' (common abbreviation).
'on' written backwards gives 'no'.
'no'+'t'+'ch'='NOTCH'
(Other definitions for notch that I've seen before include "Tallying incision" , "small score?" , "Mark indented in wood etc" , "Secure" , "Nick - incision" .)