I want to quote an article I read on the four hardest jobs in the world. You can read this article here.
Mike O’Dell of the York Baptist Association writes:
In his book, “By The Stream,” Monty Hale quotes leadership guru Peter Drucker, saying that the four toughest jobs in America are: president of the United States, a hospital administrator, a university president, and the pastor of a local church. Are you surprised by number four? I mean, just how difficult can it be to be a pastor, right?
I have been in ministry for over 40 years.I served as the pastor of a local church for 12 years and have served as encourager, counselor, coach and pastor to pastors for 25 years. In my experience, most pastors work 55 to 60 hours per week, often with additional hours in sermon preparation. They are “on call” literally 24 hours a day, seven days a week. More often than not, days off and family vacations are interrupted by a call to minister to a crises in the church family. Pastors work hard!
However, the hours are not what make this “job” tough; it is the burden they carry. Pastors carry the burdens of their people: the sorrow and heartache shared in confidence over human brokenness, the grief of the loss of a loved one, or the disappointment of a broken relationship or unfairness of life. They also bear the burden of being the peacemaker between church members who don’t get along because of conflict in the church. Then there is the burden of the “lost-ness” of your community! That “call” from God brought with it a profound awareness of the spiritual darkness and the lost condition of the people living in your community. Who will reach them with the gospel? Who cares about this issue more than your pastor? As if these burdens were not enough, he also carries the burden of leadership.
Your pastor is the leader of your church. He is the only one in your church who has been “called” to lead your church. This distinction makes him the target of criticism by anyone with an opinion, and especially those in church who share leadership responsibilities. That is not to say pastors are perfect or don’t need to be held accountable. Pastors need the accountability of godly counsel and should lead by building consensus around a clear vision — but the fact remains, your pastor carries the burden of leadership.
That leadership burden is why Satan has marked your pastor for attack. He knows he can nullify the Great Commission by simply neutralizing the effectiveness of your pastor. It is a true saying that “as the pastor goes, so goes the church.” Satan will use people inside and outside of the church to criticize your pastor. He will bring past failures to your pastor’s mind to beat him down. He will try to create conflict in your pastor’s family to bind him emotionally and relationally. Satan will try to wear him down physically by using the expectation of church members to convince him that he is the only one who can do the ministry. No one knows how that burden weighs unless they have carried it! It is no wonder that health insurance for pastors is driven so high because of stress-related illnesses.
You can read the rest of the article on his page. I have never been any of those other positions and have no doubt that there are many other tough jobs out there. However, having now worked in pastoral ministry for quite some time, I agree that being a pastor is tough. Very tough.
It’s not that the actual job duties are hard. In fact, I love what I get to do! I am still amazed that I get paid to study the Bible! I get to visit people when they are sick. I am currently writing this blog from a small bubble tea shop in Manchester, NH while sipping on passion fruit green tea with popping bubbles. What a life! I have also gotten a lot better at protecting my time with my family, so while my kids still complain that I am “never” home, I do get quite a bit of quality time with them and my wife.
All this to say that the actual duties of being a pastor are pretty sweet!
What makes the job hard then? As O’Dell says, it’s the constant, unending internal and external pressures. If you are pastoring correctly, then most likely not everyone is going to be happy. And unhappy people love to try to pass along their unhappiness! The pastor gets a lot of that thrown at him. An endless stream of angry, discouraged, or unhappy people.
Additionally, there are the spiritual pressures. The leadership pressures. The constant emotional turmoil of working with broken people. It can be a hard job!
I am not sharing this article to get your pity. Instead, I want your prayers! Take a moment to pray for your pastors and others church leaders.
Additionally, I encourage you to extend grace to your pastors. Speaking from personal experience, I KNOW I am not perfect. I am the first to point out my inadequacies as a leader. At my own church, we have grown by about 25% in this past year alone. That’s awesome, but at the same time, that means 25% more complexity and difficulty that I am still learning how to lead. So extend your pastors a little grace when they are not perfect.
Grace and prayer. If you do those two things, your pastor will be much more encouraged to press on when things are tough.