Hours Worked in Ministry (Tyler)

I met with pastor Aaron Cloud on February 8th, 2009. We were able to sit down and talk after he had just given his message to his congregation.

I asked him about an average week as a pastor and what he does as far as ministry hours are concerned. Something that makes Aaron unique is the fact that he is actually only part-time according to his pay-scale and expected hours. However, this does not show in the amount of work he actually puts in. Regardless of the fact that Aaron is only paid part time, he works his job as if he is a full-time employee of the Wesleyan Church.

Here are a few of his hours broken into different categories:

Study(Alone): 7 Hours
Aaron spends a decent amount of his part-time work doing study. He finds this to be one of the more enjoyable aspects of ministry and likes to dedicate a decent amount of time to it.

Administrative/Office Work: 2 Hours
Because it is a rather small church of about 40 people, there is not a whole lot of administrative work to be done at the church. Aaron considers paying his bills for the church and helping the church treasurer with money issues as one of his administrative duties.

Services: 2 Hours
There is a brief youth service on Wednesday nights and then a typical Sunday morning service every Sunday. Aaron usually considers Sunday to be a full 8 hour work day because of his preparation on that day and the house calls that I will talk about in a little bit.

People: 6 Hours
Aaron spends much of his time with people. Because he lives in a rural area, there is need to travel great distances and this takes up a majority of his time. Then he chooses to stay with most people from between a half hour and an hour. These visits (even if they are only twice a week) are very time consuming, but necessary.

What Else: 2 Hours?
What I listed above is pretty much an accurate description of the duties that Aaron has to deal with on a typical week. If there is a hospital call/visit, that usually adds a few hours to his week, but besides that, it is pretty predictable and typical.

1. I noticed the comment that Michael made concerning Chris being bi-vocational. This same fact applies to Aaron. While he isn't bi-vocational, he is only part time. It is sort of a shame that he is only paid part-time, because he works as if he is a full time employee. I know he doesn't mind and that he loves his job, it just doesn't seem entirely fair.
2. Aaron spends much of his time traveling, and yet still considers it time spent in ministry. The simple fact of traveling to see someone who lives out in the middle of nowhere says something about Aaron's heart. It doesn't matter where you live, God loves you and Aaron wants to share that love.
3. Finally, Aaron works with such a humble heart. He loves the people that he minsters to, and if it wasn't for the bills that he must pay, he would do it for free (don't let the district know I said that). He has such a compassionate heart, and each and every hour that he spends is worth something, and I find that to be inspirational.