Week #4 Hours Worked In Ministry

Nick Smith
Tuesday February 10, 2009

This week I met with Pastor Bob Woods after church Sunday morning to discuss how his hours are divided throughout his week. On a regular week, Bob studies between 10 and 15 hours. In his administrative duties he spends about 10 hours. Between all of the different services and bible studies, he spends about 6 hours. Most of Bob’s time is given to meeting with people, not necessarily in a “counseling” setting but in a way that is more geared toward programs and service preparation, which adds up to about 20 hours. There are finally about 4 hours on average per week that Bob spends on meeting with people in a counseling setting, either one on one or small group (mainly husband wife).
The first thing that I noticed about Bob’s week is the amount of hours he spends doing his job. He could easily end up working more than 60 hours per week on a regular basis. He mentioned that if there is a funeral or any other emergency, which his hours can spike really quickly. Another interesting thing about Bob is that he spends a lot of his time working with other people. He delivers good sermons every Sunday, but that is not the focus of his time. He allots most of his time to doing something that involves working with others, which I think is great.