Are Pastors REALLY Overworked?
- Posted by: Todd
- Posted on: Mon, October 06, 2008
- Viewed 136
- (27) comments so far
OK… good points, or a bunch of bunk from someone who really doesn’t understand what pastors do?
(If you’ve been in the ministry longer than 5 minutes, you’ve had someone ask you what you do all week… what do YOU tell people how you fill your time?)
Respond to this person's comment at another discussion forum:
I hear all the time that pastors are over-worked.
Yet most pastors I know have the largest libraries I know of.
Is reading work?
Most pastors I know are also fat or bordering on it (I'm "bulky" myself). ....And a few pastors I know have soft, girly hands that do not have callouses.
Also, most spend a large portion of their time reading and studying the Bible - things that most devoted laymen do AFTER work. Is studying Scripture work? Do we need a break from it?
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Peter Hamm on Mon, October 06, 2008
Okay,
I took a deep breath, too… and…
Leonard, you don’t just speak for yourself, you generally speak for me on this, too.
Sam, your vindictive and thoughtless expressions have little if any value. No pastors I have ever known personally fit any of your descriptions. You lump great hard-working pastors in with some wierdos to make a point that… Sorry… I don’t know what point you’re actually trying to make after all…
I have indeed looked at what the Bible says about what pastors are supposed to do. I’ve also looked at what the Bible says about how we are to speak to others… I’m doing my best to follow the former. You appear to be making no effort on the latter.
I really do pray you get the counseling it appears you might need.
(Frankly when you attack a guy like Leonard, you lose what little respect I might have for you… I can only guess others feel similarly.)
Peter Hamm on Mon, October 06, 2008
Also,
I’m not overworked per se, but I more often than not work a little too long and hard…
Jan on Mon, October 06, 2008
Sam, out of the 18 churches in our association, only 2 are not bi-vocational. “Gone are the days of the bi-vocational pastor” Huh? Not sure where you live, but where we live that’s mostly what we have.
As to the original question, are pastors overworked?
Some are, some aren’t. Mine definitely is, but he is also a workaholic type, something that he has been struggling with for a lot of years in and out of ministry.
I think personality has a lot to do with and personal drive and work ethic.
Yes, there are lazy pastors. Just as there are lazy lay people. Laziness comes in all shapes and sizes and careers.
But I would say that the job description of a pastor is often unrealistically overloaded.
J on Tue, October 07, 2008
Q: “Is reading work?”
A: Absolutely. I’m currently a full time student and l can say with confidence that when we have a couple hundred pages of reading to do in a week there is not a single person in the class who does not consider it work. Is it rewarding, fulfilling and sometimes enjoyable? Yes, but it is also a lot of hard work. But you don’t have to agree with me, 2 Timothy 5:17 Says to study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman who does not need to be ashamed. The Apostle Paul calls those who study God’s word “workmen.” I think this is pretty cool and a well deserved title for our pastors http://www.mondaymorninginsight.com/images/smileys/smile.gif
“Most pastors I know are also fat or bordering on it (I’m “bulky” myself). ....And a few pastors I know have soft, girly hands that do not have callouses.”
Are you seriously trying to use this as an argument to discredit the work pastors do? We pay professional athletes millions of dollars to play a game that kids, teens and your average adults play for free. Professional business men, authors, the dudes who do your taxes, radio talk show hosts and news reporters (the one’s who sit at the desks and talk the entire time ) probably all have “soft girly hands.” What in the world does this have to do with anything? I do realize that farmers and construction workers are ripped dudes with manly hands, but there are plenty of other jobs out there as well.
“Also, most spend a large portion of their time reading and studying the Bible - things that most devoted laymen do AFTER work. Is studying Scripture work? Do we need a break from it?”
Hmmmmm, apparently you’ve been lucky enough to never sit though a church service where the pastor was not well prepared. Actually I don’t want to make light of this one. Often people view pastors as experts because they are behind the pew and carry the title “pastor.” As we all learned from spiderman “With great power comes great responsibility.” In all seriousness, pastors have the potential to cause great harm in peoples lives when they give bad, uninspired, well meaning but doctrinally unsound, well-it-seemed-like-a-good-idea-at-the-time, advice.
I’ve spent 7 years as a pastor. Haven’t been a pastor for the last 2 years. I now work a “real job.” There is so much less stress in my world now. I go to work, do my job and I am done. That’s it. No emergency phone calls, no sleepless nights frustrated that my sermon isn’t as good as I want it to be, no last minute rushes trying to find more people to serve. I loved being a pastor, but I gotta say it was a lot of work.
The one thing that really did get me slightly irked about this post is that it seems to take the role of pastor lightly. Every pastor I have ever met sincerely desires to add value to people. If you want to pick on people for making easy money I would personally suggest starting with movie stars who get paid $$$$$$$$$ to look pretty and be on t.v. I love going to the movies, but don’t know that I am a better person for it. Pastors are important.
Hey, if you read my long rambling post. Thanks for listening http://www.mondaymorninginsight.com/images/smileys/smile.gif
Leonard on Tue, October 07, 2008
Okay Bart I took a long breath. My argument with Sam is still the same. He has a one act play about how MOST everyone gets it wrong, so if telling him directly is not Christ like I apologize. If this were his first post or even his second or third I would say dialog and reason should rule the day, but since his history is an unaccountable rant of false information or mis- information each time he posts I would say that dealing with anger and bitterness and getting some counsel is indeed a good prescription.
As for pastors being over worked, the topic at hand. I think almost all comparisons here in this are dangerous and fruitless. So what if my hands do or do not have callouses. So what of it is my eyes and not my back that is wearing out. What is missing is appreciation and respect.
I think pastors need to appreciate the people in their churches. Their stress, their struggle, their effort and their work. I also think this is a two way street. People need to appreciate their pastors work too.
Shawn on Tue, October 07, 2008
I feel overworked just reading this post.
I am a Worship “Pastor.” I have roughly half the responsibility of my senior pastor. In the last two weeks we have all been overworked by the world’s standards. 60+ hours including our weekend gatherings. Don’t consider that work? Try waking me up from my Sunday afternoon nap.
As for Mark Driscoll and Perry Noble. I never considered these church growth pastors. Mark preaches for at least an hour. Just because a church is growing, doesn’t mean they are following some cooky church growth model.
Thousands were added to the early church as recorded in the book of Acts. These guys worked hard.
Paul encouraged Timothy to study the scriptures. Not something to be done in 15 minutes before watching Prison Break. These men dedicate their lives to preaching the whole counsel of scripture in a way that both teaches and edifies the body of Christ at the same time making the Gospel clear to those who would believe.
By the way, Paul was a missionary, not a Pastor. He worked so that the churches offering could support the ministry and its Pastors. Check 1 Corinthians 9.
Bi-vocational pastor is a by-product of 20th c. consumerism. It is a necessity in some churches, but by no means a biblical mandate.
JOB on Tue, October 07, 2008
Somehow, there’s always enough time to follow the threads on a blog.
Sam on Tue, October 07, 2008
Leonard,
“There ya go again Joe” <wink>
Try and stay on point with me. I stayed within the bounds of the topic of my first post. But you are the one that seems to have some unresolved anger towards me that you seem to let overwhelm you rationale.
There are pastors out there working alot of hours but on what? Where are their priorities? Are the working all that time truly studying in the word and shepherding their flock or are they spending their time concocting new gimmicks and elaborate stage sets for their “worship experience”? Are they spending time instead of in the word listening and watching other pastors in order to mimick them and plagiarize their content. Are the pastors traveling from conference to conference feeding into the pastor celebrity culture and feeding into para church organizations like LN that only exist because of the failure of the local church to properly disciple and shepherd their people. Are the pastors spending hours on the web scouring blogs like this one, Peter Hamm, looking to post daily adn engage in arguments all on the local congregation’s dime.
yes, there are VERY hard working pastors out there that are being overworked and underappreciated by their lazy local congregations. BUT there are lazy hirelings that fill the pulpit that have no reason or biblical mandate to carry the title of pastor
Cholula Puebla on Tue, October 07, 2008
They probably have a lot of work. But I can’t say they are overworked.
-M from Mexico
Peter Hamm on Tue, October 07, 2008
So, I’m a lazy hireling.
Sam, I take that as a personal, and uninformed, incorrect, and uncalled for, attack.
You have no idea how I spend my time.
Doc on Tue, October 07, 2008
I’m a worship pastor. I’m also a lazy hireling.
At least, I am during the day. Our congregants expect our staff to be in from 8-4 Monday through Friday just like them. Of course, most of what I accomplish during the day consists of learning new music, fixing our broken sound equipment in our sanctuary (which has earned me quite a few callouses, let me assure you), restaging the entire look of our sanctuary every six weeks (again, callouses), resighting our lights because they can’t seem to stay in the right place (40 foot ladders, anyone? And, I’ve been electrocuted twice), etc. On top of that is visitation (yes, worship pastors do visitation) and counseling (okay, maybe more “listening and referring” than “counseling”...I’m as qualified to counsel as our youth pastor is, at any rate—a little inside joke I’ve got with him, all in good fun… ;-D). Fortunately, I’m rarely on deck to preach—usually the hierarchy for that goes “Head Pastor, Youth Pastor, Administrative Pastor, Me”, but those pesky conferences will do you in from time to time…
Yeah, I would say that I’m pretty lazy during the day. Because after my work day is over and all of my little “projects” are taken care of, the real work begins. Monday nights I meet with my creative team. That usually runs two and a half hours. Tuesday nights, I lead worship AND oversee tech for one of our ministries. Which means I do my own mix, take care of lighting, get videos queued up, etc, and then I lead worship. That’s a three-to-four hour night. Wednesday is three hours helping out with the youth worship team—running tech for the youth group and such. Saturday mornings are more meetings. Friday is two to three hours of rehearsal time for Sundays. Sunday is not so bad—coming in at 7:00, and services are usually over by noon. But after service is rehearsal time for the youth team, which I supervise, mentor, generally advise, etc. They’re typically done by 3:00, so all in all it’s not so bad—back in college, I did an internship at a church with five services on two campuses. We would literally be playing non-stop; finishing one set at main campus before running out to our other campus, and then running right back after we finished playing there. Literally, we’d be playing from soundcheck at 7:00am until the end of the music in the fifth service, around noon. Only then would we get to hear the message!
Thank God for Thursday nights, or I’d never see my wife.
I agree with one of the earlier posters—the big stress in ministry comes from a lack of tangible evidence that one can point to and say “I got this done.” As one of my professors in college used to say; “Sunday never stops coming.” There’s rarely any downtime—usually, the only variation is when things ramp up for Easter, Lent, or Christmas.
But the big burnouts usually happen when a Pastor realizes that he can’t turn off his cell phone when he finally gets to use that one week a year of vacation.
Jan on Tue, October 07, 2008
Sam, it is so sad how uninformed and biased you are!
How many mega churches do you think there are?
Not that many! The average church is 75 or under.
A church of that size usually has just one VERY overworked pastor and his family. Maybe if he’s particularly blessed, they have a part time person or someone who does office work.
But most likely he’s bi-vocational, working his rear end off doing two jobs, so his family can eat while they invest the rest of their time into ministry.
Your gimmick comment is just a joke from my perspective. This year in our church we baptized 22 people, and over a hundred professed Christ as Savior. How do you think those people were reached, by a “gimmick”? You think people are really that stupid to make a life changing decision based on some little formula?
Life change comes through personal encounters. And at our church that means the pastor and whoever he can take along.
Hmmm conferences. Nope, haven’t been able to swing one of those in a long time. The last one we were able to attend was because we were offered a scholarship for it.
And we really didn’t want to go, because we were too tired. What we really wanted was someone to offer us a hotel room, where we could just crash and get the sleep we’ve been missing over the past five years.
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