Saturday, February 20, 2010

what does a pastor do?

Every now and then I run into people that really believe that pastors only work one day a week. They ask things like, "is that a full time job?" Or they ask, "what else do you do for a living?"

Once, several years ago, I had a young man come see me about going into the ministry. We had a nice talk. He was interested in my schedule during the week. I showed him my calendar and we went over it. I never heard from him again. When I called his family to check on the situation, they told me that when he found out what went on the rest of the week, he was no longer interested in ministry.

So, what does a pastor do all week? I will work on this information in upcoming blogs, but first lets just talk about sermon preparation. In seminary they told us that it takes one hour of preparation for every minute of delivery. 20 minute sermon = 20 hours of preparation. That is probably true, the problem is, that I don't know of many pastors who are afforded the luxury of sitting at their desk for 20 hours to prepare. For most pastors, preparation is a 24 hour a day event. Looking, listening, thinking, praying. Making notes, collecting pieces, molding, shaping, starting over. Making sure that it has a connection to the divine. Making sure that it makes sense. Reading, typing, running over it in your mind: once, twice, three times a sermon.

Somewhere at the end of this process, you go to bed on Saturday night and sleep. Hopefully well. Hopefully not consumed with something with the sermon. Sunday morning, having done your best preparation, you get up and go. You do your best. You put it into the hands of the Lord and hope that the words are blessed and have their intended effect.

Next time, a little bit more on how a pastor spends their time.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

We are so blessed by your sermons. God really does speak through you. Betty

Anonymous said...

I thought this might be a good time to tell you how much we appreciated you visiting our group Thursday night. Just little things like that on top of all the other things through the week. Thank you so much for all your time and devotion to our church and Christ's work.
M.A.

Josh S. said...

I hope that young man is still interested in ministry. Maybe he just realized that ministry doesn't mean working for a church. For him, working for a church as a Pastor didn't sound like a good way to minister. But whatever gift he possessed that made him feel like he would be a good pastor could be used to change lives in so many other ministries.

Teachers can minister. Nurses can minister. Janitors can ministers. Maybe the point is that it's not the job title we give someone that determines whether they are a minister. It's their heart. Now I don't think the story about the young man is the main point of your post, but I worry any time someone thinks they are walking away from "Ministry" because they aren't interested in working for a church.

As followers of Jesus, we never have to walk away from ministry. We get to do this every day. Paul made tents for a living. Jesus was a carpenter. It's not what you do for a living that counts. It's what you do with your life.

At the same time, I read a couple days ago that the average GRE scores of incoming seminary students are dipping lower and lower each year. What this means is that fewer and fewer of the brightest college graduates see seminary (and ultimately vocational ministry) as the best way to use their talents and gifts. There are also the statistics that say there are fewer young pastors than ever before. Apparently, young people are skeptical about this profession. Maybe we're not sure about its potential to do good anymore.

Also, is the Pastor role a fixed role, or is it being shaped and changed in every church and with every subsequent generation's changing priorities? Maybe young people like that young man need to hear that being a Pastor at a large church in Lee's Summit can be completely different than the role of a Pastor in other settings.