Do you ever think you work long hours? Maybe you do and I mean no offense if you do. But according to allbusiness.com the average working week in North America is 34.5 hours per week.

However, according to a new survey by LifeWay Research (the survey was conducted via telephone on 1,002 randomly selected Protestant pastors Oct. 13-29, 2008) it seems that full-time Senior Pastors tend to work 55 hours or more in a typical week. And while the median number of work hours for Protestant pastors is 55 hours, the survey showed that 42% of Senior Pastors work 60 or more hours… and I can believe it! When including bivocational Pastors, part-time senior pastors and volunteer pastors, 35% work at least 60 hours a week and 30% work 50 to 59 hours.

So how is their time spent? Not surprisingly, much of the time is spent in sermon preparation. Half of those surveyed spend 5 to 14 hours a week preparing their sermons. Meanwhile, 9% spend 25 hours or more and 7% spend less than five hours on their sermons before preaching. In comparing evangelical pastors with mainline pastors, 30% of evangelical pastors were found to spend 20 or more hours a week in sermon preparation compared to 20% of mainline pastors.

If not preparing for their weekend preaching, pastors are typically in meetings, handling e-mail or electronic correspondence, counseling others, or in hospital, home or witnessing visits. More than 70 percent of pastors spend up to 5 hours a week in meetings. Only 15% are in meetings 10 hours or more a week.

Meanwhile, half of the senior pastors spend 2 to 6 hours on e-mail and other electronic correspondence. And nearly a quarter of the pastors put in 6 hours or more a week in counseling ministry. The same percentage (24%) spends an hour or less counseling others. Nearly half (48%) spend 2 to 5 hours a week in visitation.

However, despite such long work hours, Senior Pastors make time with their family a priority. 30% say they spend 20 to 29 hours a week with their families and 16% report spending 40 or more hours with them. More than half (52%) spend one to 6 hours in prayer each week and the same percentage spend 2 to 5 hours in personal devotions unrelated to sermon preparation. 14% spend an hour or less in personal devotions and yet 24% say they watch television for 10 to 14 hours each week.

Scott McConnell, associate director of LifeWay Research, says sermon preparation and prayer are biblical priorities and many pastors have that right, as indicated by survey results. But McConnell suggests that more of the pastors’ ministry tasks need to be shared. “Jesus Christ designed the work of the church to be done by believers together in unity,” he commented.

Thinking further about this: We wonder why there is a huge drop off rate for Pastors; we scratch our heads and wonder why they leave the ministry to become insurance and car salespersons – maybe it has to do with the long hours that are not usually reflected in their pay. I grant you that some pastors choose to work long hours; as a pastor myself I too have fallen into the wrong thinking that finishing up paperwork and taking care of other mundane tasks is more important that spending time with family. However, most pastors who fall into this mindset are often taken for granted by their congregations who conclude, “why stop them if they want to work more hours?”

A good thing to remember is that Pastors are only human beings complete with families, feelings, financial and health worries, stress levels, and breaking points. Speaking to many ex-Pastors over the years I have come to an alarming conclusion: most left the ministry because they felt that there were too many unhealthy expectations placed upon them and the cost that they were paying to work long hours (namely time apart from family and health related issues… mainly burnout) was just not worth it.

Something for us all to think and pray about.

Keeping it Hardcore!

Christian St John M.Div, BChM, ACS
January, 2010

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