Week 5 Hours Worked in Ministry

Michael Berens
Week 5
Tuesday 10, 2009

Hours Worked in Ministry

Met with Chris Demarse
On Wednesday, February 4th, 2009

Study: 9 hours
The church also meets with other churches to study together for the scripture passage that week for three hours

Administrative/ Office: 3-4 hours
He does emailing, scheduling volunteers and writing devotional stuff.

Services: 6-7 hours for Sunday worship 3-4 for Thursday night Bible Study

People: 3 hours for staff meeting; 7 hours for one on one meetings, such as worship leading and practicum students

What else: 15 hours
Because it is a smaller church He does Maintenance and other church management duties that take up around this time. He also does coffee management and equipment maintenance. He also does odd jobs that come up unexpectedly for the church. They call him a Jack-of-all-trades,

Three observations

1. It takes many extra hours to do the small things in the church, even if you are bi-vocational. You would think that working another job would take up all your time and energy, but I guess there is always room for things to do.
2. The smallest, most insignificant things that you do in the church may take the longest. Something like mopping a floor in the sanctuary can take four hours. Meeting with a student or someone new to the church may only take one fourth of that time. What seems more important? It needs to be done and someone has to do it.
3. Studying and the worship service planning may take up most of my time as a pastor. That seems right but I have heard that administrative things take the most time. Maybe because it is a bi-vocational church that gets flip flopped and the time given is to the social aspects of the church.