How Pastors spend their time...

One of the blogs I read on a regular basis is Chuck Warnock's blog, Confessions of a Small Church Pastor. I really like his insight, and he passes along a lot of great knowledge.

Last week, he had a story about how Pastors spend their time. Here's what he had to say...

The old joke is that pastors work only one hour a week — Sunday morning at 11 AM. If I could get a gig like that, I’d take it, but the reality is that pastors, and other church leaders have very busy work schedules. I was thinking about this the other day, and here’s how my week gets divided up:

• Worship Services: 6-8 hours at church for worship and Bible study, depending on the season of the year. We don’t have a Sunday night service; those who do will spend more time just at church for services.
• Pastoral Care: 8-10 hours per week talking, visiting, counseling church members and others. This includes hospital visitation, homebound members, nursing homes, in-office appointments, telephone calls, pastoral visits, as well as funerals or weddings.
• Administration: 8-10 hours per week working on bulletins, newsletters, committee meetings, deacon meetings, preparing for meetings, calendaring events, going over finances, and meeting with church leaders.
• Prayer and Preparation: 8-10 hours per week in sermon preparation, prayer, Bible study preparation, and general study and research for future sermons and Bible studies.
• Outreach: 6-8 hours per week working with community groups, contacting prospective members, visiting with community members I encounter casually or intentionally to discuss community projects.

I have to admit that my schedule looks very much like his. Some of the activities in the various categories are somewhat different, but the time in each category still holds pretty true. Very interesting....

I pass this along because we're having a guest speaker this week, and i know that sometime on Sunday morning, I hear the inevitable, "How does it feel to have the week off?"