How Does your week Measure up?

It’s 7:30 on Sunday morning, and America’s pastors are already on the job while many of their congregants are still trying to find the coffee filters. In a typical week, pastors will:

spend four evenings away from home engaged in ministry-related activities
eat five evening meals with their family
sleep less than seven hours per night (but work in a Sunday afternoon nap)
take one day off (most often Monday)
work 55 hours.

How does that final figure compare with hours worked by professionals in other fields? According to the U.S. Department of Labor:

—Ed Rowell

Copyright © 1998 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal.Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.

Also in this issue

Confronting controversy with character and grace.

Leadership Journal Spring 1998

North American Guide to Church Dragons

How I realized I Was Hurting People

Mark Lauterbach

7 Trends Affecting You

Lyle E. Schaller

Peacemakers

Shielding your Heart from Strife

Am I working too hard?

Eugene Raudsepp

Article Summaries

From the Editor

Kevin A. Miller

Where Were You?

Making Changes without Getting People Steamed

Larry W. Osborne

The Day Rev. Henderson Bumped His Head

William H. Willimon

To Illustrate Plus

Tips, Tools, Training

How the Family Church Grows

Preaching That Connects

Workin' 5 to 9

Edward K. Rowell

Resisting the Urge to Hit Back

Gary D. Preston

We Grew Up In a Pastor's Home

War of the Baseball Caps

Best Books on the Small Church

6 Rules for a Fair Fight

Edward G. Dobson, Speed B. Leas, and Marshall Shelley

Prayer When They Slander You

Character Forged from Conflict

An interview with Jim Henry

For Heaven's Sake

Download

How to Read Your Crititics

Explaining Unhappy Staff Departures

Douglas J. Brouwer

Making Your Message Memorable

My Worst and Best Sermons Ever

Barbara Brown Taylor

Heart & Soul

Growing Edge

Our Latest

An Indian bride and groom holding hands.

Indian Churches Encourage Couples to Leave and Cleave

Divya Chirayath

For many couples, in-laws are a major source of marital strife.

Man wearing VR goggles.

The Bulletin

A Third Presidential Term, South American Boat Strikes, and ChatGPT Erotica

Mike Cosper, Clarissa Moll, Russell Moore

Trump hints at running in 2028, US strikes more alleged drug boats, ChatGPT produces erotica.

The book cover on a pink background.

Review

Finding God on the Margins of American Universities

Perry L. Glanzer

A new account of faith in higher education adds some neglected themes to more familiar story lines.

CT's 1958 cover and an image of a brewery cellar.

From Prohibition to Pornography

Daniel Silliman

In 1958, CT pushed evangelicals to engage important moral issues even when they seemed old-fashioned.

People walking to work.

Tackling Unemployment

Interview by Haleluya Hadero

The head of The T.D. Jakes foundation on job assistance and economic empowerment.

A photo of Benjamin Watson at mic with the title of the podcast The Just Life overlaid on the image

The Just Life with Benjamin Watson

Stephen Enada: Exposing a Silent Slaughter

Unpacking the crisis facing Nigeria’s persecuted Church

Detail from the painting Still-Life with a Skull by Philippe de Champaigne

The Strangest Enemy I’ll Ever Meet

Eric McLaughlin

Scripture speaks of death as an enemy Christ conquers—and the door through which we see God face to face.

The book cover on a green background.

Review

First Comes Sex, Then Comes Gender

A new book acknowledges both categories as biblically valid—but insists on ordering them properly.