I get the question often.  Sometimes it’s in jest from a church member, “So you only work on Sundays, right?”  At other times it comes from someone outside of the church that thinks of a church as “open” only on Sunday mornings, “I know you’re a pastor, but what’s your real job?”

The truth is that most churches–and our church more than most–are “open” seven days per week, with a variety of outreach events and ministries.  So what’s my real job?  Here is my schedule from this last Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.  They are three typical days in the life of a pastor:  

• On Saturday, I arrived at the church by 8:30 am to set-up and get ready for our basketball games.  Every hour, from 9:00 to 3:00, I greeted guests and started the games with prayer.  I also met with the coaches and referees before each game for prayer and final instructions.  During one game, I had no responsibilities, so I re-keyed and installed a lock on a storage room.  (Unfortunately, things were mysteriously disappearing.)  I served as a referee for the final two games of the day, and then took down the baskets, put up equipment, and went home earlier than normal (about 4:30) since there was one less game than normal!  That evening, I took my family and met some friends for a movie.
• On Sunday, I arrived at church at 6:00 am, to make sure that I was ready for the day and that I would be “prayed up” and “studied up” for the day.  I preached in the 8:30 and 11:00 services and attended Sunday School in-between, going home for lunch and some rest time before returning at 4:30 to make final preparations for my 1 Corinthians class, which I taught at 6:00 pm.
• On Monday, I dropped two of my kids off at school and headed to the office at 8:00.  I had a prayer time, returned phone calls and emails, planned the rest of the day, uploaded my sermon to the internet, did some preliminary reading of the my sermon passage for the following Sunday, and contacted Sunday’s visitors.  At 10:00, I took some potential volunteers through a one hour tour of our Mission of Mercy medical ministry.  By 11:15, I was back in the office taking care of more ministry details, reviewing a draft of next year’s budget, and doing some planning for my November sermon series on “Contentment.”   At 12:00, I broke for lunch.  By 1:00, I was at a local hospital praying and counseling with a family that had just been told that their sister was brain dead.  By 3:00, I was back at the office counseling with a young man who wants to get married, wants to do it right, and was seeking advice on how to know God’s will and approach his fiance’s family.  At 4:00, I was setting tournament schedules and emailing our basketball coaches.  By 4:30, I was in the gym, setting up baskets for practice, and meeting with a father who has just been told that he has some pretty severe medical issues and wanted to know what we believed about prayer and healing.  Monday evening, after dinner, I went on a 5 mile walk, with the dual purpose of getting in shape and preparing for our upcoming Bethlehem Walk.

So what’s my real job?  Preacher?  Marriage Counselor?  Grief Counselor?  Webmaster?  Sports administrator?  Accountant?  Fund Raiser?  Referee?  Building Superintendent?  Teacher?  Medical ministry coordinator? 

All I know is that I love serving God.  I love the variety of situations in which I’m called to serve.  I love the people (most of the time) that I am called to serve.  And I love the church in which I get to serve God.

What’s my real job?  I don’t know how to answer that, but I love it!