I have been a professional minister for almost ten years. I don’t know how this happened, but here I am. It is sometimes a strange realization for me.

Professional ministry in the church today is difficult. Ministers are seldom afforded sufficient time to do their jobs. The demands on ministers far exceeds the explicit expectations of the job. I find this the most frustrating part of my job: not being able to do it.

I suspect that is an unusual problem for ministers compared to other professionals. In other professions, your provide your service or skill, and you are paid for it. I know it isn’t always quite that simple. But for clergy, exactly what is expected of us varies wildly from congregation to congregation, season to season. I would say that in my experience I generally spend half my time on my stated job description, and the other half of my time on a wide variety of tasks outside of my actual job description and training.

In addition to distracting and confusing, this reality makes it difficult to know how you are being perceived and evaluated. Am I being judged by my performance of my stated duties? Or is it the plethora of “other things” that determine how I am perceived? When conflict erupts in the congregation, as it often does, it is difficult to unpack all of the competing and conflicting expectations that have given rise to the conflict.

I’ve read a few books on being a pastor. Some of them seem to suggest that clergy should be super-humans, capable of doing all their pastoral duties and also able to clean the toilets and fix the roof. At the same time, we are repeatedly encouraged and even pressured to make sure we devote enough time to “self-care.”  The conflicting messages can be maddening.

What is a pastor to do? The answer, I think, is provide leadership. Our churches are in decline in part because our laity are not acting like disciples. We have failed to create communities of passion and joy. If our laity are engaged in meaningful ministry that effects real transformation, I suspect our pastors will spend less and less time outside of their job description. That means someone has to show them the way out of the wilderness and to the promised land. It’s not an easy job. And sometimes it’s quite depressing and discouraging. At other times you get a glimpse of the kingdom.