“What Does the Pastor Do All Day, Anyway?”

The question, directed my way recently, suddenly jolted me to the realization that some members in my parish may still have questions as to what a pastor does. Maybe I have been too focused on “what a pastor does” all these years and have assumed the demanding workload that comes with pastoral ministry ought to be as obvious as the morning sun. But apparently it is not. Maybe I’m like the ailing visitor to the ER of a hospital where my wife, Elizabeth, once worked. When Elizabeth inquired as to the reason of her visit the woman replied with exasperation, “Can’t you see I have a headache?!”

It’s a fair question, but exposes another issue. I, as pastor spend little time wondering what my parishioners are doing all day. It feels to me like I don’t have the time or the luxury. But the question itself reveals a common view held by certain church members. Some seem to reason that a pastor does not work for God, but rather that he works for them (but is that really true?). Because the pastor is paid by “their” tithe (whose?), he is considered accountable to them as their ”employee.” This view, held by some (but not by all thankfully) precludes a certain ownership of the pastor and demands that he fulfill their expectations of what he is to do with his time. To enforce compliance by the pastor to their standard, members will sometimes resort to calling the conference, or perhaps use other alternate strategies; including clandestine meetings, engaging in gossip, or sometimes open or public criticism.

I must resist a lengthy departure into how this (pastor there to serve “them”) is in my view an incorrect, and in the end, disastrous view. Is a pastor in God’s best plan at the mercy of, and a slave to the demands of his congregation? If ministry is thus “bought” or “manipulated” in any way, it is no longer ministry but merely employment, and its integrity is thereby compromised and ruined. Truth and spiritual standards are soon jettisoned, and ministers become nothing but “yes men” who are coerced and corrupted by the rich and powerful, if not just the “loud.” We would have some form of anarchist congregationalism. Or even the dark ages. But the pastor works for God, not men.

Forgive me, if I come across as a “grouchy” pastor (one of my many faults) in this missive of response. While I might indulge some of that on this issue (as did the apostle in 2 Corinthians by the way), what I’m really trying to do is give a straightforward answer to the question posed in the title. I’m trying to educate, plead for understanding, and even maybe throw in a little humor from time to time just to make it more interesting. Pastoring definitely has many positive rewards, I must say. And for these I am very thankful. But these rewards are hard to earn and do come with a challenge when considering the whole range of pastoral activities.

It certainly isn’t out of place for church congregants to expect that a minister who has accepted the call of the Lord to serve his brothers and sisters will do just that. A minister should look like one and act like one. The ministry is a very high calling, and this calls for the humble, faithful, and dedicated. Such sincere and dedicated workers will represent Christ and His work to the best of their ability. It is true that ideally they should be found engaging their time in acts of service and in preaching the gospel. But to return to our original question: “What does the pastor do all day—and why does he do it?”

Well, certainly it does depend on the pastor, the parish, and a variety of other factors as well. Different pastors have different strengths, gifts, and pastoral styles. Pastors can be individually as different as are any number of individuals. Trying to stereotype the pastor has been the foundation of untold numbers of conflicts and misunderstandings. Churches would be far ahead to begin with if they would simply accept the individual characteristics of their given cleric instead of trying incessantly to change them, or force the pastor into their own mold or image of what a pastor should be. It doesn’t work in marriage, and doesn’t work in this arena as well.

I can only tell you what my own experience has been, with close to forty years of pastoral experience behind me. In all those years there has never been two days exactly alike. But the responsibilities are always somewhat similar. For me it has always been the responsibility that places me under so much pressure, not so much the work itself that draws the most amps. People can’t understand this because the pastor’s work appears so easy. He just wears a suit and wiggles his tongue once a week in the pulpit. What could be easier than that? But not until someone actually carries the same responsibilities of a pastor will they really properly understand this issue.

This concept never became clearer to me than when I was a young associate pastor in Hermiston, Oregon. One day, a Monday, I was out visiting with the visiting evangelist and my senior pastor. It was grueling schedule through the series and through all the work that surrounded it. There were tiresome days, and long nights (I guess I’ll change that to “short”). Anyway, one day we went to one house to visit an interest and were met at the door by the subject’s daughter, a delightful little lass, maybe about 10 years old. We asked if her father might be present. She quickly sized up the three gentlemen dressed in church clothes, and remarked with more than a hint of scorn in her voice, “No–he’s not here—–he works during the week!”

This is, of course, where many are wrong because even public surveys report that pastoring is among the most stressful of all occupations, in some cases the most stressful—or at least right up there with catching alligators or serving as bartenders. Actually, only a few visionaries take up the profession initially, and even fewer survive it long. Only a handful of theology students that I went to school with remain in the ministry today. I once read where 50,000 priests had bolted from the priesthood in a surprisingly short time span. I estimate that less than one per cent of the people who actively criticize their pastor would find themselves capable of doing his job for long. Their temperaments, their lack of natural wisdom, their spiritual aptitudes would likely disqualify them long before anything like speaking ability, leadership capability, or biblical knowledge would.

But let’s take a quick summary look at what usually occupies the pastor’s time, at least this one’s:

MEETINGS:

Let’s start with the meetings he is required to attend, and the time invested in that. While these aren’t always exactly the same in every district the responsibilities related to them are necessarily covered in most any pastor’s oversight somehow and someway. We will list them on a monthly basis, because this is usually how the cycle works. But it can vary with the season. I remember, that even as an associate pastor it was not unusual to be expected in supporting or leading at least 20, even 30 or 40 general church meetings over a month, not even counting Sabbath School, Church, and Mid-week Services.

1. Church Board (most churches the pastor is the chair, and builds the agenda) (In addition, church business meetings, which may happen a few times a year; these require more time investment than just the meeting itself).

2. Church Budget Committees, or Stewardship Committees, Finance Committees

3. School Boards, School Personnel Committees

4. Student Finance Committees

5. School Discipline Committees

6. Deacon’s Councils

7. Deaconess Meetings

8. Communion practices, Shut in Communion, Remote Communions

9. Youth Council(s)

10. Evangelism Planning, outreach events

11. Equipment Systems, Capital Purchases Committees

12. Elder’s Meetings

13. Pathfinder’s (teaching, worships, activities; at times several a month)

14. Worship Committees and Worship Planning

15. Music committees

16. Staff meetings (weekly)(daily in some cases)

17. Nominating Committees (multiple meetings)

18. Maintenance Committees

19. Building Committees

20. Prayer Gatherings (weekly)(multiple in some cases)

21. Continuing Ed Classes

22. Town Ministerial Association

23. Local SDA Ministerial Association

24. Conference Meetings (sometimes several days)

25. Elementary School Worships (including numerous weeks of prayer, many days)

26. High School/Academy Assembly Speaker (occasional, but sometimes with chaplaincy commitments requires often)

27. Community Services (worships, helping, basket delivery, administration, etc. etc.)

28. S.O.S. (Something on Sabbath, Sabbath pm activities, Vespers)

29. Sabbath School Councils

30. Safety Committees

31. Social Committees

32. Evangelistic Outreach Events (sometimes months of evenings, etc.)

33. Many more custom committees could be listed: personnel committees, VBS, radio spot recording sessions, radio station boards and ad hoc committees, constituency sessions, funerals and memorial services, weddings, 50th wedding ann., weeks of prayer elsewhere, baptismal classes, Bible classes, seminars, health evangelism, cooking schools, stop-smoking clinics, etc.

I as a pastor have been involved with ALL of these things many times and in many ways, and more. When it comes to stop smoking clinics alone I have perhaps worked to help perhaps 500 people to stop smoking. I have had as many as 20 Bible Studies going at a time, and for a number of years have taught a daily Bible class at the local school. I have an NPUC educational teaching certificate. This is only part of what a pastor might do, however.

This is not a contrived or exaggerated list. Some pastor’s participate in additional meetings beyond these, especially if they are on conference and union committees, attend other pastoral meetings of various sorts, and support community involvement opportunities, etc. Presently I have had to attend several meetings to deal with enormous issues at a local school, probably absorbing 20-30 hours of counseling and deliberating in just over a month’s time. There are many church and school events. Churches expect or demand the pastor to participate in ALL of these, when probably few of the church members themselves attend even a fraction of them. (My opinion is that this expectation that a pastor be involved with all of them both displeases God, and is terribly unfair, but….!”).

WORSHIP SERVICES

Pastors are ultimately responsible, of course, for the worship services. A common misconception is that this is all a pastor does, because that is what is most visible to the greater part of the congregation. Actually the worship service is a very small part of the total time given by the pastor. Nevertheless, it is a visible and important one.

What many fail to factor in is the weight of even a typical church service, and carrying it off. Those who plan weddings, for instance, may spend months preparing for a service that lasts from 20 minutes to an hour. In effect, the pastor with his team pulls this off every week! It doesn’t happen by chance (even though it seems like it sometimes!!). There is a tremendous amount of preparation and work that goes into it. Studies have clearly demonstrated that when a pastor delivers a half-hour sermon he has expended the equivalent energy that a typical businessman expends in an entire 8 hour day! I know this to be true beyond doubt, and by Saturday night I have sometimes felt very near to exhaustion and collapse. Yet the church expects me at the Sabbath evening church activity, smiling; and some feel neglected if I and my family choose not to be there or cannot be because of other commitments.

Most church members work five days, and have two days off. Pastors like some physicians are rarely awarded true days off. Sabbaths are not only work for pastors but they are double work in a sense, the equivalent of two days work. Even the Bible mentions this circumstance. Therefore, I believe that pew-sitters need to realize that there is more to being a pastor than what appears to them. Many weekends I have presented up to five times in one twenty four hour period. Some churches I have served have double services and I have preached twice, at the very least. For my friends, who may wonder, this is not really so easy! It isn’t! Try it sometime if you don’t believe it. Especially try it without adequate time for preparation (which is usually the case), and which is by far the biggest part of the endeavor. It is most nerve draining.

The Sabbath School also brings requirements for the pastor. I have taught hundreds of Sabbath School lessons, many on short notice. I have taught hundreds of youth lessons, the hardest to teach, I believe, at least in the right way. I have told hundreds of stories. These require preparation, and extra effort, at least at some time.

Before we go on, let’s do some simple math. Many meetings, including travel to and from along with the people that surround the pastor when the meeting is done can consume an average of 1 and half to 2, even 3 hours. On the basis of the typical 38 hour work week almost half of a work week and usually more can be taken up in meetings alone! Then there is church and Sabbath School, Prayer Meeting, and endless array of seminars and activities. Pastors that have two or more churches almost double this.

PASTORAL TASKS

However, a number of administrative matters can steal a pastor’s full ministry time as well. We must mention these because while they may seem minimal in themselves to the normal church member, yet in totality they can take from 75 to 90 per cent of a pastor’s time that might otherwise be spent doing other more direct things of ministry. I have actually written a small book related to this very issue, entitled: “The World is My Parish,” which addresses in part this extremely important matter. But no one seems willing to read my book, because of what it exposes apparently, and so far I only know of one person who has read it, and that is Albany church’s Mr. John Stitzel! (Bless you! John, my understanding colleague!) But I still stand by the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy principles developed in that book. They trouble me every day, even though others wish to ignore them. I maintain great reforms are demanded in the way some ministry is carried out these days. The system is becoming corrupt, ministers are largely side-tracked from their true calling and purpose, and the Lord is greatly displeased about it—but back to the task at hand:

So let me just give a few examples of this area of pastoral tasking for the sake of further elucidating what a pastor does:

Church repairs (Many pastors, who do not have head deacons like Alvin Kosaka, spend a number of hours doing church repairs to help an ailing budget. This can include painting, repairing cabinets and doors, custodial tasks, changing light bulbs, and general maintenance. I have spent many hours fixing broken pipes, you name it. None of these tasks are below a pastor’s station. But they can certainly detract him from his central purpose, I can testify. I have done many hundreds of these over the years)

Letters of Recommendation. Because of the pastor’s position he is often asked for letters of recommendation. Lest one think this is a minor thing let me assure you it is not. In totality the numbers of these in my ministry probably goes in the high hundreds if not into the thousands. Students need references for new jobs and schools and universities. Many need letters for Sabbath exams, or others for excusing of Sabbath work at their job. I just did one for a Big Lake youth camp candidate. Sometimes religious liberty issues are at stake. There are legal and custody issues. Getting the letters written, signed, sealed, and delivered can sometimes take a significant part of a day.

Church mail, answering machine: (From people asking the pastor to visit a relative, promotions that must be dealt with, matters requiring correspondence). E-mail has helped this in one way, but opened up a barrage of what I call “spiritual spam” that largely wastes a pastor’s time yet often might demand some kind of response.

Newsletters and Communication

The ministry hours spent in my ministry on the production of newsletters and church communication over the years would be enormous. Fortunately, Pam, or now Jeanie, is easy on me. But it can sometimes take up to a morning to either write a newsletter message from the pastor, or to find a clipping or quote or story that I read somewhere, or decide on what to do for. Its work doing this. Pastors are not fountains of wisdom always with something to say! At least not this one. In one of my early churches that I worked in as an associate it could take all the mornings for a week to produce and mimeo the monthly newsletter. The newsletter is an opportunity for ministry, so I contribute to it. But it can represent a larger time investment than most people realize. It probably converts no one, and sometimes, in my opinion, is a waste of time.

Bulletins: In many churches I have authored and produced the bulletin myself, usually because it was necessary. I at least had to oversee it and copy it off. I have calluses from folding bulletins! One may observe that others could do that part. True! But it usually takes more work to find someone else to do it, especially at 2:00 A.M., than to do it myself. Beyond this is the significant part of each week that goes into planning services and producing a bulletin. Then there are the inevitable battles with computers and printers and copy machines that can turn into hours. (Then as you stumble into church the next morning with one eye shut, every congregation has those who came to church fully rested, “bright eyed and bushy tailed,” and “kindly” (or not) point out to you all the mistakes you made in the bulletin!).

Background forms: In our modern world we are troubled like never before with sexual predators and the ring of paperwork that must necessarily surround this issue. At this writing I have a stack on my desk of volunteer forms that I need to fill out and send to the conference risk management department (maybe 30). Even though I often don’t know enough about the people on the forms, I am sent them because I am the pastor. I have had literally hundreds of these cross my desk over the last few years. And they don’t give me a return envelope. Because I love children I am willing to do this, but there are getting to be so many of these kind of things that being a pastor is becoming less and less interesting any more. To be honest, for these reasons, my zeal is seriously flagging.

Board projects: a church always has a number of projects and assignments that must be carried out to advance the church mission. These are many and varied and can eat up incredible time and effort. There is no end to this heading.

Church Conflicts and Squabbles: A huge part of my ministry has been spent addressing church disagreements on furniture, procedures, and the like. Its grape juice and the carpet, who pays for the napkins for potluck, why is the organ too loud, why is it too soft, desserts or no desserts at potluck, why aren’t the Ten Commandments in the foyer any more ?, now…. isn’t a picture of Jesus an icon, etc?, etc. etc. Recently, I was pastor at a church that nearly divided over how many people were necessary for a board quorum and how that should be determined. This matter lapsed not over months, but over years. (And now thousands of more souls are eternally lost). Presently its about certain ones demanding to have elders and pastor ascend the sacred platform rather than reaching it from the front pew (like many churches today). This simple matter caused an incredible fire storm. Another has been over allowing the inclusion of a Spanish congregation in our church. In another church it was some rogue elders trying to set up an inquisition over minor issues in the behavior of others, and the damage that was causing. These matters actually can sometimes take huge chunks of pastoral time to resolve.

Camp Meeting: SDA pastors are actually required to attend these meetings and work! I remember that early on in my ministry I was a leader of a children’s division for the entire ten days, all day each day. I did this for a number of years. This took an immense amount of planning and time. If any one wonders what types of things occupies a pastor’s time, I suggest they try planning and carrying out activities for 300 juniors for ten full days. They will never need to ask that question again. It actually takes months of unseen preparation to carry such an endeavor off. I and other pastors still do similar stuff every year. Camp Meeting is not a vacation! Anything but.

Devotionals: For obvious reasons the pastor is the default devotional provider. While devotionals are a nice idea, they aren’t any easier for pastors to give than anyone else. Pastors are not eternal fountains of devotional material. Often the pastor will be asked to give “just a little devotional,” for some meeting or occasion. There is no such thing as “just a little devotional.” They don’t just pop out of a hat, just like that, and it can take hours to come up with something appropriate, something he doesn’t already need for his sermons and messages. After giving what seems like many hundreds of devotionals, laying awake at night wondering what and which to do, I have come to the conclusion they are a ministry demand that is greatly underestimated by the flock. If one must ask what a pastor does let me give the example of last week. I did a assembly talk for the elementary school on Friday, for all ages. Then came services on Sabbath. Then on the following Wednesday I did four devotionals the same day in four different rooms. These all required preparation. Then I helped serve the hot lunch. And, of course, that’s not all I did that day or that week! There was church board (provide devotional for that too), and this, calls and calls, and that….

Church Socials and Events: There are any number of social events that call for pastoral participation, whether the pastor is interested in them or not. (To be honest, or to speak privately I’m not, for I have other friends and interests that would be much more socially and intellectually satisfying). But I go to them to support my church. There are church and school picnics, 50th wedding anniversaries (#’s, at which I have led out, given devotional, or renewed vows, or even performed mock and real wedding ceremonies, etc.), school events by the scores, community events, and various promotions. Many or most of these the pastor is expected to attend, yet I look around at these events and and few of the folk who wonder “what the pastor does all day” are there. A recent example was the Harvest Party at CVCS.

Work Bees: School, Church, member’s homes. The pastor usually supports these and sacrifices time off to do it. I almost always, if healthy, have, and its usually on my much needed day off—announced days off, which many still do not respect and still call me.

VISITATION

One of the things that seems to define a good pastor is his visitation skills, and I believe every good pastor will visit. Church members make this a common complaint if he doesn’t do this enough. But as one can see, there can only be a sliver of time left in a pastor’s work week for visitation. Visitation can take an immense amount of time, requiring the setting up of appointments, the inevitable small talk that comes along with it, and the travel necessary to find the wide spread addresses of people requesting or needing the visit. Visiting folk isn’t as easy as it looks. Most church members don’t understand this in the least.

Most of a pastor’s visitation time is probably spent at local hospitals, or nursing homes, but pastors have modernly become ambulance chasers, sometimes going to even distant cities. I have spent countless hours monitoring people’s many illnesses, doing death watches, doing anointing services, and listening to the never ending litany of people’s medical problems. (Why must I, the pastor, be informed of all the illnesses of every possible relative in the country, I wonder?). Satan is constantly on the march causing sickness, death, and injury to a degree that no single pastor can keep up with it. I feel for these people but I can’t reach them all. People typically have no idea how much time this all takes, though not all weeks are the same. Funerals or memorial services can largely dominate an entire week of visitation and planning. More than once I have had up to 3 or 4 funerals in one week. Some of these are incredibly draining both physically and emotionally. I have been called to homes where suicides and hangings have just occurred, scenes of homicide, fatal motorcycle and auto accidents, and other such similar things. Yet this is only a fraction of what a pastor does in this area. Members get discouraged and expect a visit from the pastor to encourage them, but the pastor is not allowed to be discouraged himself, because he is God’s man and though just as human as his parishioners he is not allowed to ever be discouraged. He is only guilted, frustrated, and shamed by these people telling him about all the further people he SHOULD visit.

The pastor desperately needs the church members to arm themselves to help him and EXPECT to do the larger part of the visiting, for this is what the church members are for! The pastor is just one, they are many. But they instead expect that the pastor must do much of the visiting because “he is the pastor” and “that is his job.” This lame, errant, and dangerous philosophy pervades our churches to this day, and is actually damaging the same churches, who wrongfully and selfishly believe the pastor is there for the purpose of visiting them in their distresses. This is totally opposite of the Spirit of Prophecy truth on this matter. The pastor is to be spending the majority of his time working with and visiting the lost, and training the church members to be help each other and seek the lost themselves. The counsel is lucid and clear, but is, for the most part, not being followed. Church members think the pastor is to focus his efforts on them when he has been counseled that to follow this model will weaken his church and he will be required to tend them like sick children. This is all very wrong. Read the counsel, friends. The SDA pastor is not to spend his time serving the already converted.

Any pastor, because he is God’s servant will visit as often as he can, because he loves people, but he cannot visit everyone. Jesus even couldn’t. He called disciples for that very purpose.

PREPARATION TIME

What a pastor says from the pulpit doesn’t just spill out of his mouth, or at least it shouldn’t. If a pastor does not have time to drink from the sources, he will have nothing significant to say. The best preparation comes from Bible study and prayer. Yet it seems like the typical church member has the idea that the only time a pastor is allowed to fill his own cistern is during his early morning or sleep hours.

I remember a cartoon that appeared once in Leadership magazine. The pastor is kneeling in his office when the church secretary abruptly barges in. She sees the pastor kneeling by his desk and even though she has interrupted him she exclaims, “Oh! Good! You’re not busy!”

My point is that for a pastor to do what he does, he must be awarded time, time, time to study and pray privately. It may appear that the pastor is only filling his car with gas, or working in his yard, or going for a walk, but he may actually be doing more than that in his mind. You can’t just prepare, I have found, by intense study all the time. Ideas need a chance to brew, to marinate, and to emerge out of life and experience. Yet if a pastor is seen doing something simple or even recreational people assume he is “playing” or “hobbying,” or “goofing off.” What a straight jacket to place upon a man of God, who needs breaks from the pressure of clerical life to “live” and “pace himself!”

One of the worst parts of pastoral ministry for our family is the “fishbowl effect.” The pastoral family constantly lives under the judgmental and watchful eye of the parish. This common but sometimes obsessive interest in what the pastor is doing has actually destroyed the happiness and success of many a pastoral family, and is part of the PK phenomenon, where pastor’s kids leave the church partly because of witnessing the pressure and judgment of church members toward their father, mother, or family.

Some pastors are natural speakers, with ready minds, and even photographic memories. I am certainly no such person. I need time, HOURS, EVERY DAY, to read my Bible, and study the Spirit of Prophecy writings, and write, and pray. I can’t function without it. And I need to do it my own way. Yet church members seem to think sometimes that if a pastor spends time in his office writing and preparing for his messages, or even just enriching his spiritual life or knowledge he is really “not busy.” If he is not out visiting (or is doing things they can see, or even should not be able to see) or doing some aggressive evangelistic activity he is considered lazy or not doing much. “Well…..I resemble that remark!”

Of course, the wise understand that this is a false view of things. Bible study and prayer is the most important endeavor of any pastor, or any parishioner for that matter. As I read the Bible through (80X-100X probably now), read, pray, study, write, I realize over and over again that a pastor’s success depends more on this foundation of preparation time than anything else. God and His Word and prayer are as necessary as breathing and eating. But this area of a pastor’s life is private and sacred, and must be. It is not the church’s business to judge or scrutinize this area of the pastor’s life. (I have found I can’t pray and study at the church—it never works–for a variety of reasons). But I would say it should be reasonable to expect that a significant portion of a pastor’s day be devoted to preparation for devotionals, sermons, and the like. As well, his way of preparing is his business, and not the church’s.

The adage is that a pastor needs an hour of preparation for every minute of presentation. Though there are few pastors that spend that much time in a given week for preparation, the ratio is probably still accurate. Somewhere in their pastoral experience they spend an hour of time to produce or find the minute of presentation. What if some pastors look like they did not spend the necessary time? I would say, pray sincerely and privately for that pastor. He (sometimes now, she) desperately needs your prayers in lieu of the prayers they did not have time or priority to pray or prepare for themselves.

COUNSELING

Countless hours are spent in private and family counseling by the typical pastor. Marriage counseling is perhaps the most common, but guidance counseling, spiritual counseling, conflict resolution is never done. Satan is busy dividing families and sowing perplexity. People cannot always be blamed for the terrible things that happen to them and they reach out to the pastor for help.

But this is about the pastor’s time. Remember that the pastor must keep confidentiality as much as possible therefore he will not report to his church the full extent of his counseling activity, nor should he. This is another part of pastoral life that few are privileged to see or understand. Nevertheless it happens, and for some, a lot. Counseling is exhausting and emotionally draining. The problems are sometimes so large and difficult that the pastor, man of God though he be, can become privately discouraged as he encounters circumstances seemingly impossible to solve, and the failure to solve them makes him feel like he is a failure.

The common church member who looks at the pastor and questions his workload or effectiveness really has no idea whatever what battles are being fought or what burdens the pastor is carrying personally or otherwise. I have spent entire nights with families in crisis of which no one else really knows about and have gone to work the next day, with no rest. I know too much, sometimes. Its an uncomfortable position and quite debilitating.

I have spent days or parts of days in court sessions to support a church member in some way as a witness or just to provide moral support. I have intervened or worked through marital disputes, or many times with troubled youth and their parents. Pastors become involved in scores of such things. It’s the nature of their job.

It is no wonder to me that some pastors fall through infidelity or discouragement. They are under Satan’s full attack, and they are, after all, very, very human, and they are known to fall at the times they are at their weakest. God can always give them the victory, but there are times, I must say, that the knees buckle underneath you. I don’t mean to be dramatic, but I believe pastors understand the Lord’s Gethsemane experience more than most of the populace. They drink a cup and bear burdens few understand. Even though they may bring some of these upon themselves, they did not wish to do so. They do indeed carry them.

If one truly wonders what a pastor does all day, it might be well to remember that he carries burdens that the same ones who often criticize him have often laid upon him. Ellen White has written that members should not heap their burdens on the minister. Some feel that this is what the pastor is paid for. I do not agree. The pastor is there to point people to Christ and to instruct them to place their burdens on Him. A pastor will attempt to help, for this is what a pastor hopes to do. Please don’t hesitate to come and talk to him if you feel you need it. I for one am happy to do that. But I can’t carry your burden, or always “fix it.” I will, or at least, should, refer you to the true Counselor who is the Prince of Peace, for all your needs and decisions.

There has only been one perfect pastor, and they crucified Him. Most pastors are doing the best they can in their own skin. This doesn’t mean that the pastor doesn’t deserve or bring upon himself some of the criticism. We are all very faulty instruments. But the pastor still carries the burden, for whatever reason, and the path can be difficult. Usually such criticism, rather than spurring him to action, has a paralyzing effect on the pastor, and he ends up handling the situation worse than he normally would have. I know that to be true in my life. Give the pastor, and please give me, the latitude to be very imperfect, to do things you don’t like, and to fail. There will always be pastors who seem to play too much golf, or who don’t visit enough, or who score a complete “zero” on a sermon. Guess what? They just might be human like yourselves, and may be struggling, or they may just disagree with you and maybe should. My advice is given in a song apparently made popular a few years ago by a group called The Eagles: It was called: “Get over it.” Just let it be, and be the best Christian you can be. God knows about all of us.

FORMER DISTRICTS

I have noticed that churches like to take a certain ownership of their pastor. There is a good side to this, which I like. But there is another side that I don’t. Jesus illustrated this side when he told some of his followers, “I have other towns to which I must go.”

When a pastor has ministered in many places, he and his family touch or befriend many people. For me, these actually number in the multiplied thousands. (More than a thousand from just one church!) These do not totally drop out of the pastor’s life just because he has changed his residence. There are baptisms, weddings, anniversaries and the like that will call the pastor out of his current district from time to time. Remember, there is more to a pastor’s world than your current world, however small or large that might be. Not every trip outside the district without your blessing is a pastoral fling or vacation. It is sometimes work, or ministry, but in another place.

CONTINUING EDUCATION

The conferences I have been employed in demand a certain amount of continuing education experience. This too requires an investment in time. A pastor needs to hone his skills and get help for areas of difficulty. Many pastors I know are or currently were working on a Doctor of Ministry degree or some selected intensives. This requires reading, writing papers, and sometimes travel.

A pastor needs to read and develop his mind. He needs to learn practics and skills. Personally I do research by writing books. I have written nearly 30 books, 500 sermons, and several articles. A pastor needs professional time for professional improvement. Don’t expect an improved pastor if he doesn’t receive opportunity to improve himself.

FAMILY

If you ask any church member whether or not the pastor should spend time with his family they will all agree that he should. But what actually occurs, I have found—if a pastor spends some “quality” time with his wife, or family— is that he is opens up himself for criticism. This is because the pastor that dedicates time for his family must leave some expectation of the church undone in order to carve out time for his family. This makes the family happy, but leaves the church unhappy. If the pastor sacrifices his time with family for the sake of the church (the usual scenario) the church is happier, but the family is unhappy, and even damaged.

With evenings taken up with meetings, and weekends taken up with services, and children away at school, and wives at work, the family is awarded very little family time. All I can say that every situation I know of where a pastor regularly takes off a dedicated day or evening for family he does so at the cost of criticism or a loss in popularity. If this happens at any church, and I know it does, I boldly say, “Shame on them!” It is my settled opinion that churches expect way too much of a pastor in this regard. So that’s my story and I’m sticking to it! The church should never find themselves reliant on any pastor. If they have one they should take what blessing they can. But they should never depend on a pastor for spiritual support. Ellen White tells us that this very circumstance is damaging the modern church. Members need to flex their own nerves and muscle instead of relying on the clergy.

Pastoral families must largely leave their extended families behind to minister to others. We rarely see Elizabeth’s father (100 years old in Walla Walla), because the church takes away available weekends. Elizabeth’s mother went through her demise, and we helplessly watched from a distance and were largely absent as both of my parents approached death and died—- because of the endless round of nominating committees and boards and church services. The idea of permanently located pastors attached as slaves to minister to their assigned districts is actually in most cases a Satanic practice and straight out of Catholic and Dark Age tradition. It is against the Spirit of Prophecy counsel and the counsel of Jesus. But we as a church continue to insist on worldly practices, practices that in this case create family separations for pastors, and nourish and support other selfish and dire malpractices that would not occur, if God’s counsel were simply followed. But this is another discussion. The point is that pastoral families have to make large sacrifices that negatively impact their families in many different ways.

In my family, I have children to raise. I have a God-given responsibility to raise them. This needs to be part of my day. Elizabeth, my stranger wife, is gone to Portland most days now, and arrives home very late Friday evening. She has an 81-mile one-way commute. During the week, someone has to take Jonathan to school, pack his lunch, help him with homework, and do the normal supervision of a child. Keeping up a household we all know is a large task. Pastoral families, too, have to mow the lawn, pay the bills, fix the car, endure moves (I have moved 37 times in my life) and all the reconstruction that moves call for— in short pastors must eat, sleep, and live life like everyone else. But there is never enough time. Right? So it is necessary that many hours a week be divided between home and the church and a thousand other things. What does a pastor do all day? I can’t really even begin to tell you!

SICKNESS AND HEALTH CHALLENGES

Another time challenge pastors face that can be greatly misunderstood are the physical or mental health challenges that can affect a pastor’s routine and activities. It would be wonderful if we lived in a perfect world where everyone was in the full vigor of health and could clock long days without slowing their pace. But the fact is that probably most pastors, or their families, are afflicted with all sorts of ailments, cancer, sickness, or marital, or psychiatric challenges. These must be addressed and take significant time out of a pastor’s schedule.

It is my belief that many of these situations are the results of direct attacks upon the minister by Satan. We are told this happens. Satan attacks the pastor, but probably the main way he attacks him is by attacking his family, even his children. While some health challenges may come from violations of health principles, these often are directed because Satan wishes to distract the minister from successfully working to save souls. Yet often the church expects the minister to carry on, and produce great growth and results in the church when he is greatly compromised in a number of ways by this. These things directly affect what the pastor does all day.

Sadly the church sometimes helps Satan do his work. In one of the first churches where I worked I was under a senior pastor that had recently moved to the district. In the former district his young son had been tragically killed in a snowmobile or sledding accident. The pastor and his wife were devastated of course. The naturally shy and retiring wife basically retreated into her dark life circumstances as her husband tried to carry on ministry, yet very discouraged. I know more about this than some because I worked closely with his family in ministry.

What was awful for me to witness, though, in all of this, was that the wife came under severe criticism because she was not more engaged with church life, as the church thought she should be. She was socially and psychiatrically crippled by the tragedy, as well as her husband. Yet she and her husband were severely criticized for this. Instead of being a source of comfort and understanding, the church became critical instead, about everything the couple tried to do in that district. My response, was “shame on them,” but it was never the less true that they were out of line as a church. (Thankfully, not all were).

Pastors are simply people like anyone else. The only difference is they accepted a call to pastoral ministry. They are far from perfect, and may not be perfectly healthy in all aspects. God doesn’t always call the qualified, he qualifies the called.

My personal struggle is my back. I have degenerative disk disease, and spinal stenosis, and as a result suffer from moderate to severe pain almost constantly. It is chronic. Many days I really need to lay down or find relief, but I have to press forward because a sermon must be preached, or a board chaired, or a visit or anointing made. This only heightens the pain and the damage. I have to work through the background of chronic and sometimes severe pain, so at these times I am certainly not 100%. Yet the church expects that I be, or so it seems. I’m not complaining or playing the martyr. I’m simply telling folk that the pastor and his family need consideration. (And not snake oil remedies, please!!!!). They may need help with their health, or their mental condition, or their family trials, or their marriage trials, but the church can often be very inconsiderate of this. I can tell many stories about other pastors. The church often demands that the pastor heal them, but do not consider that the pastor or his family need healing too. Many are carrying the heavy burdens of others with only one arm of their own to work with. Therefore their time management is not optimal, their success sometimes mitigated, their ministry compromised. There will never be enough time in any day for any pastor to even touch the amount of need that is out there anyway. He or she should not be blamed for all of it they fail to address it or alleviate it.

SUMMARY

With all the things a pastor needs to do, time, no matter how well managed is in short supply. Many a day between teaching a Bible class at school, attending boards and committees, visiting, counseling, preparation, evangelism efforts, it is not uncommon to log a 16 hour day. Not counting church service time, a work week can be between 60-80 hours. Some top a 100. All said, if a pastor spends some time working on his house or preparing for retirement I would certainly forgive him because he has usually and most certainly earned it. He will have had some slack times, but the responsibility never leaves him. He has likely put in his time. He has put in much more time than 90% or more of his critics. My opinion is that pastors need far more vacations and sabbaticals than they customarily get. Mennonites give their pastors every seventh year off, and have noticed an enormous decline in pastoral burnout and infidelity. I’m jealous of them, because they are expanding the Sabbatical principle that we as Adventists should own and use. Mennonites are better Sabbath-keepers than Adventists in this regard.

At Milo Academy one year I endured a sixty plus day stretch without an evening off, or a day off, hardly an hour off. I was reduced to crawling– my tongue dragging! I missed most of my vacation that year because of teaching (I couldn’t claim vacation during term) at Milo and then had to work at Camp meeting then the move to Albany. I’m not bragging about this. I want to simply reinforce the idea that a pastor usually earns his pay. Some may not, but I think even that is mostly between him and God. But usually, even if he does the minimum, he puts in more than forty hours a week like most folk do.

Nothing in the Bible or Spirit of Prophecy recommends that a pastor work 24-7 or that he must work every day. In the Acts of the Apostles I read just recently that Peter (an apostle, of all things!) took a sizeable nap on the roof in the middle of the afternoon. (I think I really know why!!) In fact, Jesus recommended that the disciples “come apart and rest awhile.” He knew if they didn’t they would literally “come apart.” Ellen White charged that a pastor should spend several hours every day tending his garden, or the like. Peter and the other apostles did not punch a time clock, and I think it would be ridiculous for a modern pastor to be required to do the same. You can’t clock in and clock out in serving the Lord! If it comes to that, I’m done. As it is, an hour or two each month is spent in sending a summary report of my activities to the conference, a much hated and despised task! (Required because church members often complain to the conference and the pastor needs validating records of his work). But no paper report can begin to adequately represent ministry, not even close. For ministry, a paper report is actually a stupid idea on many fronts! Ministry cannot be quantified on paper.

I hope this small treatise doesn’t sound too much like a boastful or vindictive retort to the original question posed in the title. Forgive me if that is the case. I opine too much, I’m sure. But when I heard that some had questions over “what the pastor did all day,” and I stopped shaking my head, stabilized my spirit a little bit, it came to me that members of the church have a right to know a little bit more about the responsibilities of a pastor. Maybe we as pastors have failed to do a little education in this regard, or we have too miserably failed to minister like Jesus did.

Yes, I may get a little defensive when I feel I have given my life and time to ministry and people are still left with questions about what I do or even if I do it! That hurts, more than a little. But I shouldn’t get over wrought over a simple, innocent question, that deserves an answer. I need to “get over it,” too! I hope this little document gives you, the reader, a little better idea of what some pastors, imperfect and human though they be, face every day. It’s about mutual understanding. We as pastors know your life or profession isn’t easy either. We are all in ministry together, serving the Lord.

I, no we, for we are all ministers, need to continue doing as Jesus did, going about doing good, no matter what. All our efforts are nothing compared to His, and all we do we really do for Him. We can always improve, do better, we can always do more, to show the world His incomparable love and sacrifice. May He help us do just that. To Him belongs all the power, and the glory, in any case.

God’s blessing upon all,

Pastor Steve