Week 5 - Hours Worked in Ministry

On February 4th I met with Pastor Matthew and Pastor Kaleb from the River Community Church.  We were meeting together to plan a sermon series that is starting at the River in March.  While I was interviewing Pastor Matthew he suggested that I also interview Pastor Kaleb to understand the difference in the hours that they work based on the differences in their role in ministry.  

1.  Study (alone) - Pastor Matthew will spend 30 hours per week in study alone for his sermon preparation.  This number does vary based on different responsibilities that he has to fulfill but the average time spent per week is 30.  

2.  Administrative/Office (administration, paperwork, computer etc.)  Throughout the week Pastor Matthew will spend 6-10 hours doing administrative and office tasks.  

3.  Services (worship, Bible studies etc.) - On a weekly basis Pastor Matthew spends 3.5 hours in services.  

4.  People (meetings, committees) - On average Pastor Matthew will spend 10 hours a week in meetings.  

5. Other (graphics, media) - Usually for each sermon Pastor Matthew spends time developing or helping to develop graphics and find media for Sunday morning.  The time spent doing this per week is usually 2 hours, however the time spent by others preparing the graphics and media is much longer.  

Observations:  The first thing that came to mind as I was talking to Pastor Matthew is that it is critical to be scheduled.  With all of the responsibilities that he has it is important to recognize the time that is needed to complete everything before sunday morning.  

It would also be critical to recognize when you can have time away from ministry.  With so many hours to be logged in ministry it would be easy to let it take over your life and neglect other areas of your life that need attention.  Pastor Matthew has a family to care for and invest in but also needs time for himself away from ministry.  To invest all of his time in ministry would burn him out and would hinder him from being the father and husband he needs to be.  

The last thing I observed was that a lot of time is spent on the Sunday morning service.  I think this is critical because there is no way that Pastor Matthew can meet on an individual basis with everyone in the congregation.  Because the Sunday morning service is going to reach more people than individual relationship building can I think spending a lot of time in preparation is extremely important.  This also allows him to feel more prepared for his ministry and will allow him to focus on individual relationship building.