How many hours must a pastor work each week to satisfy the congregation? This question, often unspoken, hovers over many churches and their leaders. A simple experiment I conducted several years ago might shed some light on this complex issue.
When I was a pastor in St. Petersburg, Florida, I surveyed the twelve deacons in my church (I often joked that we had eleven good deacons and one Judas!). The survey listed several pastoral responsibilities, and I asked them to share the minimum amount of time they believed I should devote to each area every week. The list included about twenty predefined responsibilities, with space for them to add others if they wished.
I wasn’t entirely sure what I expected from the survey, but the results were startling. After tallying the responses, I discovered that to meet the deacons’ minimum expectations, I would need to dedicate the following hours each week:
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- Prayer at the church: 14 hours
- Sermon preparation: 18 hours
- Outreach and evangelism: 10 hours
- Counseling: 10 hours
- Hospital and home visits: 15 hours
- Administrative functions: 18 hours
- Community involvement: 5 hours
- Denominational involvement: 5 hours
- Church meetings: 5 hours
- Worship services/preaching: 4 hours
- Other: 10 hours
Total: 114 hours per week
To put this in perspective, meeting the minimum expectations of twelve deacons would have required me to work over 16 hours a day, seven days a week. Alternatively, if I took one day off, I’d need to work 19 hours a day for six days a week. And keep in mind, these expectations came from just twelve people—not the entire congregation.
This exercise revealed an impossible reality: no pastor can humanly meet the varied and often conflicting expectations of every church member. The sheer number of responsibilities competing for limited hours in the week creates constant tension for pastors.
A Few Key Questions
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- For Laypeople: What are your workweek expectations of your pastor? Are they realistic, and do they account for the human limitations of a single individual?
- For Pastors: How do you manage these expectations without succumbing to burnout or neglecting your personal and family life?
Reflecting on this topic reminds us that ministry is a calling, but it is also a role performed by humans with finite time and energy. Honest conversations about expectations—rooted in grace and mutual understanding—can lead to healthier relationships between pastors and their congregations.
