Nick has no time to go to church (5)
I believe the answer is:
notch
'nick' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'no time to go to church' is the wordplay.
'time' becomes 't' (abbreviation).
'to go to' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'church' becomes 'ch' (common abbreviation).
'no'+'t'+'ch'='NOTCH'
'has' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for notch that I've seen before include "V-shaped incision" , "Dent" , "Incision; indentation" , "Make the cut" , "Nick - score" .)