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Matt at Catching Meddlers (see link below) recently blogged about a study Pulpit and Pew Research on Pastoral Leadership conducted on how pastors spend their time each week. The following results are for Protestant clergy, who have, on average, a 46 hour work week. The following is a breakdown of time spent doing particular pastoral tasks:
In years past it was not unusual for me to work 55 to 60 hours a week. In fact, I remember one of Eastern Pennsylvania’s former Bishops, the Rev. Herbert Skeet, actually saying that he expected all of his pastors to work 60 hours weekly. But the hours I worked began to decline when I got married and assumed some familial responsibility. Currently I probably work about the average mentioned above. However, I probably spend about 20 hours a week in sermon and worship preparation and another 4 to 5 hours in “other reading.” This year I had hoped to spend more time in pastoral care and prayer and meditation, and I have gotten better in those areas.
How about you other pastors out there? How do you spend your time? And if you are not a pastor, how would you like your pastor to spend his or her time each week?
Thanks to Matt for his original article “What Do Pastors Do All Week?,” originally published on Wednesday, 23 January 2008.
Technorati tags: pastor, work time, tasks
I’m a new minister and started using a program to count my hours worked; only because it helped me stop feeling guilty! I usually work 52 hours per week but I might actually top out this week at around 80! (A number of deadlines for next week.)
In the UK, many ministers don’t have administrative help and I spend an awful lot of time doing admin. Doing a mailing can take me all morning.
I also get the impression that people think that ministers all walk around with thousands of things to say in our heads and that sermon preparation is a few minutes here and there in our spare time when in reality it probably takes me 8 in total to write a sermon and a service.
Are home communions and visits to nursing homes ‘pastoral visits’ or ‘worship’?
The expectation of 60 hours a week is unreasonable for the pay we receive but often times those hours are easily reached. People don’t understand that for a pastor that wants to help their church move ahead, the 45 hour week is just bare maintenance.