pastor

Proof being a pastor is a tough job

As the pastor, I’m shaking hands with church goers after worship one Sunday, I talk with a congregant about meeting him during the week. His reply?

“I thought pastors only worked one day a week!”

Truth be told, we full-time (and part-time pastors) do not work one day a week. I work anywhere between 35 and 75 hours a week. My congregation expects a full-time, ordained, college educated, graduate school 90-credit hour trained, and spiritual pastor to lead the congregation. And so, I provide that. However, there are unspoken and unwritten expectations: my wife and children share in the full life of the congregation, I give 10% (and more) of my income to church, I’m available 24/7, be an excellent preacher, sound teacher, be a chaplain, be a theologian, providing counseling, give financial leadership, bring people to church, and sometimes even clean up a mess in a common area.

If you ask me or my colleagues, it’s tough being a pastor.

If you think I’m just complaining and think I have cushy job, don’t take my word for it. Take Forbes Magazine’s top 9 toughest leadership roles into consideration:

#9: CEO, lots of pressure for profit
#8: Congressman/Congresswoman, everyone (sometimes including your mother) hates you
#7: Newspaper editor, sorry that your job is almost extinct
#6: Mayor, “Unlike most politicians, you actually have to make sure that garbage gets collected, snow gets shoveled, and things get done.”
#5: Pastor/minister

Other than #1 on the list, Forbes collected the most cons of being a pastor:

Church Leadership, pastor

The Nature of Pastoral Ministry

Several bloggers are writing about a paradigm shift in pastoral ministry. The model of a pastoral ministry 60-80 hours a week is slowly changing and for good reason! Who can sustain their sanity, a family, and a job at that rate? Maybe that is why many people think of pastors as male, bald (or have bad hair), look disheveled, and are over weight. I know of some pastors that are literally killing themselves in their work by being at church four or five nights a week.

Three blog posts are worthy of your attention. My friend and fellow pastor Elizabeth Hagan recently wrote about “Being Off Duty as a Pastor” on her blog Preacher on the Plaza. Her piece was picked up by the Associated Baptist Press. Props to Elizabeth! Her most pointed comments might come to a surprise to many lay people:

But, as you might imagine, all of this can be quite weighty on a pastor when everyone expects him or her to be at everything. My week, as is the case with almost every pastor I know, is filled with hard choices of what invitations to accept (and don’t take this to mean I don’t want to be invited to things, I consider it an honor and an important part of my work, so I tell my church to keep them coming). If I say “no” to a birthday party or graduation ceremony or even an anniversary dinner, it doesn’t mean I don’t love my congregation.

Proof being a pastor is a tough job

The Nature of Pastoral Ministry

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