Time is(n’t) on my side

In yesterday’s post I mentioned that finding balance is one of the keys to cultivating one’s call to ministry. Of course finding balance isn’t a challenge unique to pastors; all people struggle to prioritize their days. But with all of the demands on our time, many of them good, we must find out how best to use the time we have.

I came across this post from Thom S. Rainer on how pastors tend to use their time. The statistics cited in his post were taken from a survey of 200+ pastors. Rainer divides the group between pastors in what he calls “effective churches” (i.e. churches that have high rates of conversion growth) and the remaining number of “comparison church” pastors. Here’s what Rainer found:

• Pastors of effective churches sleep slightly over six hours per day. Pastors of comparison churches sleep almost eight hours per day.
• Pastors of effective churches spend twenty-two hours in sermon preparation each week versus four hours for pastors of comparison churches.
• The effective church leaders spent ten hours each week in pastoral care compared to thirty-three hours for the comparison group pastors. Pastoral care included counseling, hospital visits, weddings, and funerals.
• Effective church leaders average five hours per week in sharing the gospel with others. Most of the comparison church pastors entered “0” for their weekly time in personal evangelism.
• Comparison church leaders spend eight hours a week – more than an hour each day – performing custodial duties at the church. The typical custodial duties included opening and closing the facilities, turning on and off the lights, and general cleaning of the building.
• Leaders of effective churches average 22 hours a week in family activities. The comparison church leaders weren’t too far behind with 18 hours of family time each week.

It seems that “effective” pastors are actually spending more time in preaching prep, less time in direct pastoral care, and less time doing the day-to-day tasks of “running” a church. Of course “effective” is a subjective term; I doubt many of those “comparison” pastors would admit to a commitment to ineffective ministry.

In light of this survey here are three observations I would like to make about pastoral balance:

1. Preaching the Word effectively is priority number one.

Good preaching preparation takes time. I’ve never kept a log but if I had to estimate I would guess that the time I put into preparing a sermon each week is right around that 20 hour mark. I do think that the relationship between hours put in and value returned has it’s limits; I doubt 40 hours of preparation would equal a twice as effective sermon. I would actually like to reduce my prep time eventually. Not so that I could get the work done faster, but that I could complete it more efficiently. I think doing so would free up time for more spontaneous ministry.

2. Delegation goes hand in hand with identifying spiritual gifting in the church.

The first lesson most of us pastors need to learn is that we can’t do it all (see #3 below). Scripture teaches that all believers are spiritually gifted, but that doesn’t equate to being fully gifted. I am the first to admit that my gifts are more in the areas of preaching, teaching, leadership, vision, and administration and that the care giving and mercy gifts are not my strongest. Therefore, I lean heavily on others who posses the gifts that I lack to work with me and to teach me.

3. It is so easy for pastors to take a “nobody does it better” attitude.

As a solo pastor I struggle with this all the time. If a light bulb burns out at church and I’m the only one in the building until Sunday, do I change it or do I call a Trustee? I know it’s a silly example (and yes, I change light bulbs) but multiply out all those 2-minute tasks that need to happen in any given week and you soon find yourself doing more than what you’ve been called to do. I think that’s the key: do what you’ve been called to do. That doesn’t permit pastoral snobbery, that just means that we need to employ delegation and boundaries if we are going to effectively cultivate our calling.

 

That’s what I think anyway. Maybe you have a different take on the survey. If you are a pastor, how do you divide your time during a typical week? What priorities have you established in your ministry? If you are a solo pastor (like me), how have you worked to equip others at your church to share the work of ministry?