ideas, resources, and conversation about the joys and struggles of ministry September 2006

A Look Back

     I inherited from my Dad a book on pastoral theology written in 1932.  Out of curiosity, I recently took it down and glanced through it.  The usual subjects were there:  preaching, conducting weddings and funerals, the “Christian training of children” and confirmation, the “spiritual care of young people,” stewardship.  A closer look, however, led me to notice what wasn’t there.  There was next to nothing on church administration, nothing about church bulletins and newsletters, church secretaries and other staff, and nothing at all about time management. 

     The chapter on church officers is found near the end of the book (shortly before “The Ladies’s Society”) and is the book’s shortest chapter, a mere five pages.  Reading it, one is left with the impression church officers are sort of optional.  The chapter begins with the statement “Although according to Scripture the Christian congregation is completely constituted when it has established the office of ministry by having called and gotten its pastor. . . , it is well that a Christian congregation should. . . elect church officers who will assist the pastor in the performance of his official duties” (emphases are in the original).  As far as qualifications of church officers go, it states “Let the honors go round.” 

     The only thing even remotely related to time management was the advice that a pastor should regularly get sufficient amount of sleep---10 p.m. to 6 a.m. is suggested.  This admonition is given in a section related to the Pastor’s health, which states “The first law of health demands that we conform to God’s law of regularity and that we therefore cultivate regular habits of living.  Modern conditions of life often make this difficult, and therefore so much the more determination in this respect is required.  But it is worth the effort.  We should rather seek to prevent illness than to cure it; rather to preserve health than to restore it.”  Despite this encouragement for regularity and balance, there is no mention at all of taking a day off, time for family, vacations, or sabbaticals. 

     Most pastors today rank time management at the top or near the top of their greatest difficulties.  It is tempting to assume, therefore, that in the ’30s, time management wasn’t an issue since a pastor’s schedule was less busy.  Unfortunately, the facts don’t seem to bear that out.  In Jackson Carroll’s book God’s Potters, which reflects on information gained from the 2001 Pulpit & Pew survey of American clergy, Carroll resurrects a 1934 clergy survey for comparison.  The 1930s pastors said they spent a whopping average of 75.7 hours per week engaged in various ministry tasks (compared to 50.8 in the 2001 survey).  That included 22.5 hours per week on sermon preparation and delivery (compared to 10.3 in 2001) and 19.5 in pastoral care (compared to 9.2 in 2001). 

     Did they really work that much?  If so, how come they weren’t as concerned about time management, days off, and burnout as pastors are today?

     It is possible that at least some of the difference is due to the distinction between work and not work was less clear.  Church offices then were usually in the parsonage, and the parsonage was next door to the church.  If you are living in your office, it is not too difficult to rack up 75 hour weeks. 

     But I think there is another distinction as well.  I suspect that the work of ministry is far more stressful today.  The expectations are greater, the challenges are often more difficult, the respect for the office is less, and all of life has become busier and more complex.  If you were to record every phone call, every drop-in visitor, and every activity that occurs in a single day at your church office, I wonder how many of them would have been issues with which 1930s pastors would have concerned themselves. 

     Many of us were taught by those who practiced ministry in another generation, one in which a 75 hour work week was the norm.  I know many pastors today who, if they could devote a fourth of their time to preaching and a fourth to pastoral care as was formerly the case, would be perfectly content.  Burnout would not be an issue.  It is the daily barrage of urgent but ultimately unimportant issues that over time make one weary.  However, the preaching/pastoral care model was one that fit when the major task of ministry was “feeding souls.”  Feeding souls is still an important task, but today you have to find them as well as feed them.  Like Israelites in Egypt, whose workload doubled when they had to get straw as well as make bricks, we have discovered---or at least imagine this to be the case--- that increased expectations come with demanding taskmasters, each standing ready to inflict punishment for failure. 

     It is quite possible that some of the frenetic activity which is characteristic of most congregations today is unnecessary and unhelpful.  We perhaps have been too quick to adopt a societal model of success where doing is more important than being and where more is always better.  However, what was already noticed in 1932, that “the modern conditions of life” were making more difficult the task of maintaining balance, has certainly accelerated a hundredfold since then.  Having grown accustomed to busyness, we are not always aware of how abnormal it is (see the following excerpt from Barbara Brown Taylor describing her adjustment after a return from a sabbatical).  That is all the more reason why time management and balance are important for ministry today.

     “Back home, I realized how many survival skills I had lost during my time away.  The mail came too often.  The ringing telephone drove me mad.  On my first trip to the grocery store, I abandoned my cart in the cereal aisle, utterly overwhelmed by how many kinds of oatmeal there were.  Walking out of the store empty-handed, I felt half a dozen pairs of eyes on me, which stung me as badly as a swarm of buzzing bees.

     “Eventually I remembered how to shut all of these things out, by numbing myself to the vast majority of them. . . .  I remembered how to handle myself at large gatherings of talking people, and how to spill excess information when my brainpan was already overfull.” 

The Omaha World Herald recently ran an article about the role that church groups are playing in the Hurricane Katrina recovery effort.  They also compiled a short list of different church groups who have been involved.  Lutherans were not on the list---even though it is quite likely that Lutherans from Nebraska have done more than any other group in Nebraska.  It is not always important to receive recognition---but recognition does contribute to the image of the church in the public mind and helps recruit additional people wanting to get involved.  Nebraska Lutheran Disaster Response is endeavoring to compile a list of those in Nebraska who have been volunteered time for Hurricane Relief.  If you have individuals or groups in your congregation who have done this work but may not already be known to the Nebraska District or Nebraska Synod office, please contact Karen Andresen, 402 660-0049.

• “If Jesus knew what you were doing, he would be turning over in his grave.”
• “Goals seem to be the in-thing.  Even my boy’s Junior High basketball team has goals.  He is supposed to set goals for how many rebounds, how many field goals, and number of turnovers for each game.  In the church also, we are being told to set goals----numbers in attendance, offering.  When I became a pastor, my only goal was to be a pastor.”
• “70% of my ministry is creative plagiarism.”
• “Last Sunday when I was on vacation, there were only forty-six in church.  That’s disgraceful.  I’m glad I was not there.  If I had been, I might have taken a machine gun and mowed ‘em all down.”
• “God has a sense of humor.  You can see that in the people he calls to ministry.”  Response from a fellow pastor: “Yeah, and it’s really a sick humor.   He needs help.”
• “I used to have such a Jesus-complex.  In seminary, I wore Birkenstock.”
• “I now give my age by what verse of Borning Cry applies to me.”
• “I’ve never had a call I didn’t take.  We’ve moved so many times that this year, when we took out the boxes with the Christmas decorations, one of our kids said, ‘What?  Are we moving again?’”

In Christ's Service,

Roger Kruger

rkruger@lfsneb.org

(402) 978-5670 (direct line and confidential voice mail)

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