Three years ago, I was the president of a small, for-profit college campus in Northwestern Indiana making a six-figure salary and enjoying the perks of corporate America and academia. Life was good. Life was comfortable. But deep down, I knew that I wasn't fulfilling the call that God had placed on my life a few years earlier.

In 2011, I was hired as the Student Ministries pastor at the church that I'm currently employed by. I now serve as the executive pastor and I seem to be learning new lessons about the church on a regular basis. Being the son of a small-church pastor, I didn't have the mistaken idea that full-time pastors simply sit around reading their Bible all day, listening to worship music. But there are five things that did take me by surprise when I moved from a secular job to church ministry.

168 hours vs. 40 hours

Ok, maybe none of us actually work a 40-hour workweek any more. But, I can attest that I worked far fewer hours when I was in a secular job than now, in a church ministry ...