OYPO – One Youth Pastor’s Opinion – Vol. 45
A Day In the Life Of a Ministry Guy…
The famous quote says, “You probably wouldn’t worry about what people think of you if you could know how seldom they do.” While I know how true that is, I also want my church to know that I feel a certain level of obligation to stay productive, as my salary comes from their giving. Sure, sure, sure… spiritual people give to the Lord. But don’t tell me you’ve never wondered how much a pastor is on Facebook versus how much he’s doing churchy duties.
I read a “Day in the life of a board game store owner” article, and it got me wondering about how much people know about their church staff’s routine. So, here’s as typical a sampling of a week as I could come up with.
Sunday. I start my morning at 4:00 am. I’ve been reading a 90-day Bible plan, so my devotions alone take quite a while. I finalize my Sunday school sermon, write my Sunday school announcement sheet, and think through the next 2 weeks of teen activities to announce. If I have time, I’ll work on the choir announcement sheet note and schedule.
Another staff guy opens our buildings, so I show up to church with my family around 9:00 am. My wife is a champ with getting our kids ready, so I’m mostly working at my computer until about 8:00 am. I direct choir at 9:30 am, preach Sunday school at 10:00 am, lead singing at 11:00 am and we’re done about 12:15 pm.
Sunday afternoons are usually leisurely; sometimes not. If I am preaching that evening, I wrap up the sermon notes for the 6:00 pm service. If not, I might nap or work on a little project at home until getting back to church around 4:00 pm for choir practice.
In the summer, we fill up our Sunday evenings with youth activities, but we do not do much of that through the school year.
Monday. We take our day off on Mondays, so lately we’ve been going to Disneyland with our passes that we got for Christmas from pooling all our extended family’s gift money together. If it’s not a Disney day, we’ll clean up the house, go to the park, or work on little projects at home.
Tuesday–Friday. Each week is different, but here’s an example of the past two weeks:
- Counseling
- Research and purchase new microphone bar to hold 4 wireless mics
- Plan East Coast Missions Trip
- Call pastors – meal plans, schedules, outreach times, service expectations
- Youth staff meeting – final costs; transporting 20 people in DC, Philly, and NYC; hoodie design and ordering; church planter gift ideas; sightseeing ideas
- Write the teen announcement sheet notes
- Planning upcoming Comedy Night skits
- Putting a voting system together for the teens to choose their favorite skits
- Tracking the East Coast Missions Trip requirement forms
- Planning paintball camp trip rides, checking in on registration, texting dads to see who’s coming, researching paintball rental stores for campers
- Change clocks for time change Sunday
- Fix network issues
- Researching new router
- Fixing connected Access Points
- Testing all connected computers and other devices
- Ripping remaining hair out – mostly just eyebrows
- Thursday maintenance days
- Hanging new choir mics
- Oiling squeaky doors
- Attend a funeral
- Plan/think ahead about upcoming activities
- Always looking at calendar
- Gathering notes for Youth Leaders Retreat idea share time
- Summer camp registration ideas
- Outreach on Fridays
Saturday. Saturday mornings for us are door-to-door outreach times, but the afternoons are pretty open. We usually head home and play together as a family that afternoon.
Every day is a little or a lot different. Sometimes it’s crisis-driven. Usually it’s routine-driven as Sunday is always coming, and that means a lot of things to a lot of people. I obviously didn’t cover everything in the day-to-day routine, but a bullet-point list gives a sort of answer to the “What does the church staff do all week?” question.
I promise—I PROMISE—I’m never bored nor lazy. There’s too much riding on what’s next to waste time. –Bro. Ryan
