Are Pastors REALLY over-worked

[Reepicheep]

Laziness is a sin. No believer should be lazy.

If a pastor is lazy, it's not because the pastorate is an easy or non-labor intensive job, it's because he is lazy.

 

[Curt]

When I'm not having a pity party (which, thankfully doesn't happen TOO often), I tend to think of myself as "appropriately busy." As pastor of a smaller congregation, I do most of the teaching, almost all the preaching, the secretarial work, some of the toilet cleaning, and whatever else is needed.

I wish that I could truthfully be accused of spending a lot of time reading. I marvel at how much reading is alleged to take place by members of this board. Reading is fundamental! It is part of our "keeping up." This includes newspapers, cultural and societal commentary, history, politics, etc.

 

[Mushroom]

Curt, some of these guys are human page scanners. It's impossible to keep up for us non-cyborg types.

 

[py3ak]

Pergamum, in some ways I have been where you are. The whole time we were in Mexico I didn't feel like I was working. But it was not because there was no effort. To visit four people could easily mean a 12-hour day, with scanty and irregular meals, and some serious walking involved in that (I didn't have a car at all). Just GETTING to one hospital could take 90 minutes, and for a long time I had to go there every week. But since it didn't feel like work, I did feel badly for people who were driving a taxi 10 hours a day for peanuts, or people doing manual labor.
But preparing sermons is work. It's creative work, like writing poetry, so of course it never has that satisfying feel of accomplishment like when you finish changing the last faulty ballast in a store and put the ladder back on top of the truck. Talking to people seems cushy, but listening and answering charitably and intelligently, even if you enjoy it, serves to wear you out.
The point is, you shouldn't feel guilty for not engaging in manual labor. And it is impossible to make hard-and-fast rules about quantities of time, etc., etc. The reason is that everyone's strength varies, and what takes it out of me might invigorate you, and vice versa. But if you don't take care of your family, realistically, you're not going to last where you are. It's not a sacrifice to rule your own family well: it's a necessary precondition for God-glorifying ministry.
What you can do is to calculate how much time you would have to spend every week in order to do everything you feel like you should do. It's probably more than 150. But you can't do that much, so you have to prioritize. The priorities get done (postponed in case of emergency but still done), and the non-priorities wait for a convenient opportunity --maybe when your son is 14 he'll be able to do them! But if the people you are working with have come to love you, and are confident that you will help them, even if you are able to spend more leisure time reading (which as a minister that is part of your responsibilities anyway) than someone else, I think you can be confident that you have not given in to idleness.

C.S. Lewis didn't know how to answer the question how many hours he worked in a day, because what he did for work and what he did for recreation was the same thing (read books). That doesn't mean he didn't do good work (just read anything he wrote to see that). It meant his life didn't easily fall into a repeatable schedule. Ministering overseas is going to be more like that. If your sermons are true, if your counsel is wise, if your hospitality is open-handed, if your medical treatments are helpful, if your prayers are fervent, you are doing what you need to do; don't let guilt bog you down or sidetrack you.

 

[DMcFadden]

What a interesting thread!

During my 33 years of ministry, 22 were spent in local church ministry and 11 in a parachurch executive role. Permit me a few observations from both sides of the pew.

* Pastors in America typically average 55-56 hours work per week. That is nothing any more or less significant than many other similarly educated professionals.

* Much of the issue of "overwork" has to do with the condition of the road rather than the miles on the odometer. Serving as a full time associate pastor in a congregation of 200 back in the early '70s, was much different from trying to build a church from 35 to 110 or as senior pastor of the congregation with 500 coming on a Sunday. Today, I spend my time dealing with attorneys, investment bankers, architects, staff issues, ceremonial occasions, disgruntled residents and their equally disgruntled families, sessions with industry regulators, more meetings than one can count, etc. The "stress" of trying to pull off a $45 million project in this economy is killing me! Nevertheless, my current ministry is the easiest of my life (compared to the pastoral ones). The contentious congregation with 500 attending on a Sunday and about 1,000 opinions on how better to do my job was the longest root canal (10+ years) of my life!

My respect for pastors is unbridled. Yes, there are lazy ones as Ben suggested (although many pastors I know consider military chaplains the ultimate gold brickers of the clergy universe. Guess it all depends on which stereotypes you believe. ). But, all in all, they are a diligent, Godly, hard working lot who deserve more honor (and honoraria) than they receive.

* My "take" on pastors (as a class) is that many of them suffer from self-inflicted wounds. Maybe the Reformed brethren are better educated in business and finance than the majority of my Baptist colleagues. But, a good deal of the problems pastors in my tribe have had in their congregations traces to sheer ignorance of (and neglect for) sound business practices and skills (e.g., something as simple as being able to read and differentiate the balance sheet from the other financial statements). Just remembering "luo, lueis, luei, luomen, luete, luousin," having read Bavinck, or being able to parse rare hithpael forms in the Pentatuech does not a minister make. Believe it or not, even if you are a TE, Sr. Pastor, Lead Pastor (whatever your nomenclature calls you), you have GOT to know something about management, leadership, and finance. The current fascination with the MBA/CEO pastor is disgusting. But, that does not excuse an obscurantistic head in the sand when it comes to the business side of ministry.

 

[jwithnell]

Since coming to faith, I have been blessed by three wonderful pastors. I cannot imagine the responsibility that these men carry! And their wives take on so much as well. Thanks to all of you who labor faithfully!

 

[R. Scott Clark]

A Day in the Life of Rev Joe Presbyterian

Mon - Prayer and rest from Sunday. 5 phone calls re church (crisis brewing with an elder), 4 txt msgs. One hospital call. Stayed away from email.

Tues - Prayer and start translating Greek for AM sermon and Hebrew for PM sermon. Read chapters before and after passages in ESV. Worked on accordance for an hour figuring out word usage. Answer 12 phone calls, 3 txt msgs, and 20 emails. One pastoral visit. Session meeting in the evening. One of the elders is really unhappy. Late: Fixed church webpage (our "webmaster" transferred to another city).

Wed - Prayer and finish translating passages and begin sermon outlines. Answer 10 phone calls. One house visit. One hospital visit. Squeeze in 30 minute run to the local seminary library. Answer 10 emails and 7 txt msgs. Lunch with a visitor to church. Prep for address to the Rotary Club next week. Work on bulletin. Convene church anniversary committee. Computer is acting up.

Thurs - Prayer and prep for evening Bible Study. Write church news letter. Go to Office Depot. Call repairman for that broken light switch in the narthex. Do tax forms for 501 c 3 status. Ask the grounds committee to get the lawn mowed before Sunday. Answer 6 phone calls and 3 txt msgs. Long lunch with a disgruntled elder. Committee work for Presbytery on the latest stupid theological problem in the conservative Presbyterian churches because no one reads the catechism or confession any more. Squeeze in a little sermon prep.

5. Prayer. Fri - Finish sermon outline. Read 6 commentaries (3 for each passage) to make sure I didn't miss anything obvious. Started reading the latest stupid evangelical fad book so I could answer Mrs Jones question at Bible Study. Picked psalms for worship. Sent the bulletin to the pianist (we're not completely Reformed yet). Took computer to repair shop. Only 5 emails (using old, slow pc) and 5 txt msgs today. 4 phone calls. No emergencies. One nursing home visit. One late night phone call.

Sat - Prayer. Not happy with sermon outline. Re-worked it. Catechism class. Lunch at home. Took a call from Mrs Henry. She's upset with Mrs McElphatrick. Mowed the grass at church (the grounds committee didn't show up). A homeless fellow showed up and the afternoon was done connecting him with the shelter. 12 phone calls and 10 emails. One of our aging baby boomers wants a more "contemporary" service.

Sun- Prayer. Set up for catechism and church (communion). Adult Class. Bulletin was late for AM service. 5 guests for lunch (good day for visitors!). Reviewed notes for PM sermon. PM service - the pianist didn't show. Calvin would have been proud of us. Emergency session meeting; the elder is really unhappy. Don't know how many phone calls and txt msgs setting up the emergency session meeting.

--

This is a quickly drawn composite of what I remember from my years as a full-time pastor and what I hear from pastors and what I continue to experience as a volunteer associate pastor. Two of my strongest memories (pre-email) were driving and the phone. I was constantly in the car driving to see someone or pick up something. It was a year after went to the UK before I stopped jumping when the phone rang and that was before cell phones. The number of calls is probably conservative.

Yes, it's a little idealized. Five visitors? Psalms only? Hey, it's my story and I get to tell it the way I want. Subtract the visitors, add a bad contemporary song or two and a 19th-century Methodist revival hymn and you're probably closer to reality. Mrs McElphatrick loves those revival hymns and her family is pretty important at church. If we lost them.....

 

[Semper Fidelis]

Mon - Prayer and rest from Sunday. 5 phone calls re church (crisis brewing with an elder), 4 txt msgs. One hospital call. Stayed away from email.

Tues - Prayer and start translating Greek for AM sermon and Hebrew for PM sermon. Read chapters before and after passages in ESV. Worked on accordance for an hour figuring out word usage. Answer 12 phone calls, 3 txt msgs, and 20 emails. One pastoral visit. Session meeting in the evening. One of the elders is really unhappy. Late: Fixed church webpage (our "webmaster" transferred to another city).

Wed - Prayer and finish translating passages and begin sermon outlines. Answer 10 phone calls. One house visit. One hospital visit. Squeeze in 30 minute run to the local seminary library. Answer 10 emails and 7 txt msgs. Lunch with a visitor to church. Prep for address to the Rotary Club next week. Work on bulletin. Convene church anniversary committee. Computer is acting up.

Thurs - Prayer and prep for evening Bible Study. Write church news letter. Go to Office Depot. Call repairman for that broken light switch in the narthex. Do tax forms for 501 c 3 status. Ask the grounds committee to get the lawn mowed before Sunday. Answer 6 phone calls and 3 txt msgs. Long lunch with a disgruntled elder. Committee work for Presbytery on the latest stupid theological problem in the conservative Presbyterian churches because no one reads the catechism or confession any more. Squeeze in a little sermon prep.

5. Prayer. Fri - Finish sermon outline. Read 6 commentaries (3 for each passage) to make sure I didn't miss anything obvious. Started reading the latest stupid evangelical fad book so I could answer Mrs Jones question at Bible Study. Picked psalms for worship. Sent the bulletin to the pianist (we're not completely Reformed yet). Took computer to repair shop. Only 5 emails (using old, slow pc) and 5 txt msgs today. 4 phone calls. No emergencies. One nursing home visit. One late night phone call.

Sat - Prayer. Not happy with sermon outline. Re-worked it. Catechism class. Lunch at home. Took a call from Mrs Henry. She's upset with Mrs McElphatrick. Mowed the grass at church (the grounds committee didn't show up). A homeless fellow showed up and the afternoon was done connecting him with the shelter. 12 phone calls and 10 emails. One of our aging baby boomers wants a more "contemporary" service.

Sun- Prayer. Set up for catechism and church (communion). Adult Class. Bulletin was late for AM service. 5 guests for lunch (good day for visitors!). Reviewed notes for PM sermon. PM service - the pianist didn't show. Calvin would have been proud of us. Emergency session meeting; the elder is really unhappy. Don't know how many phone calls and txt msgs setting up the emergency session meeting.

--

This is a quickly drawn composite of what I remember from my years as a full-time pastor and what I hear from pastors and what I continue to experience as a volunteer associate pastor. Two of my strongest memories (pre-email) were driving and the phone. I was constantly in the car driving to see someone or pick up something. It was a year after went to the UK before I stopped jumping when the phone rang and that was before cell phones. The number of calls is probably conservative.

Yes, it's a little idealized. Five visitors? Psalms only? Hey, it's my story and I get to tell it the way I want. Subtract the visitors, add a bad contemporary song or two and a 19th-century Methodist revival hymn and you're probably closer to reality. Mrs McElphatrick loves those revival hymns and her family is pretty important at church. If we lost them.....

Hey! Where is answering a post on the Puritanboard in all of this?

Priorities!

 

[py3ak]

"Text messages" are code for "PuritanBoard arguments"!