December 28, 2007

Really ... ?

In talking to my mom about the call process and some churches I might be interested in, she says:
"Does Sunday really count as a work day? I mean, you don't work anywhere near 8 hours, so how do you get to 40 hours a week in five days?"
So many misconceptions in just two questions:
  • Sunday is the BIG work day.
  • A lot more energy and thought goes into it than just the hour in front of the congregation.
  • I'd like to meet a pastor who works 40 hours a week.
  • At my yearlong internship, I managed to keep it to approximately 50 hours a week.
And she has a daughter in seminary and has been a member of her church for 26 years. What does the average congregation member think?

5 comments:

Adam Copeland said...

Um, yeah. Hmm. Over here, people seem to work less than at home (not ministers, of course). Some say an expected work week is 37.5 hours. Many folks have 6 weeks vacation (ministers too).

I especially like how every time I'm before the CPM they ask me about how I'm not going to work too much because every one of those ministers works too much and is burnt/burning out because of it. Can we say pot calling the kettle black?

Of course, I just somehow made the problem into working too much, whereas your post was more about congregation members perceiving working too little.

Karen Fleming said...

when I was at Harbor View I was told that I could NOT include the hours I spent in leading worship as a part of my 23 hours per week...because it's worship, not work. this has always rubbed me the wrong way and i wonder/ed how other pastors handle those particular hours of the supposed 40/week.

i also frequently heard comments, indirectly, about how infrequently i was in the office. janice often told people on my behalf, "she's only part-time you know and a lot of her work with youth happens after regular office hours."

argh!

Anonymous said...

Interesting post...I recall serving on a session that, as a whole, did not believe a congregation had any role in helping nurture/teach a pastor, either - that a pastor was supposed to come already fully prepared - as if learning was not contextual/situational/lifelong, or a multiple-way process.

I somehow "got" it - that the pastor(s) are there on Sunday way before others are - the visits - the meetings - Sundays are LONG days and worship - liturgy - is "the work" of the congregation. Sigh. You mom and others who share similar observations are legion - makes one want to say, "how long, o Lord?"

Happy call process, happy new year!

Sue Densmore said...

As with most professions, people not actually in it often don't really understand what goes into it. Happens to me all the time as a teacher. People think we cease to function if there are no students sitting in front of us!

Hang in there, girl - you're doing a great thing by becoming a pastor.

I am very much enjoying being a vicarious part of your journey, Emily, and am glad to have found your blog on RevGals.

Sue

KnittinPreacher said...

Several congregation members here joked about my only working on Sundays (and they are the ones who get it!) and I asked them to stop making the joke in public and spreading the perception (and these being good people, they did. My choir director still likes to make the joke in public as much as possible but thats another thing).

When I was negotiating a call I made several things clear -- this job takes much more than 40 hours a week. That is the unfortunate reality. BUT, I take friday and Saturday off, and after church on sunday is mine once the church stuff is done. Often my sunday work day begins around 5 am, so that's a fair trade. I found that the PNC's got nervous when I said "I plan on taking 2 days off a week", because they translated it as "2 days plus saturday". I did have one PNC question it, and I used the words "I am the paid professional leading worship. It's my job to be the one to lead so the congregation can worship." Didn't go over so well, but my theory is that for us Sunday is work -- we can't decide to have another cup of coffee or go to brunch instead, and sometimes the churches forget that. I am lucky here because once worship is over and everyone goes home, I am pretty much done. But that is balanced by the saturday afternoons I spend writing.

You'll figure it out. I do find that some of the congregation members get it better than others, and they can educate each other.