One more thing pastors will not admit publicly (until now): It is not the hardest job in the world
The perennial hardest job in the world is being a stay-at-home parent. One publication creates a news story each year that unveils the supposed cost in wages a stay-at-home parent would earn in the open market, and each year the figure given far exceeds my salary. No one wants to belittle stay-at-home parents, except for jerky comedians like Bill Bur, who say what a lot of other people may think, namely that it is hard to imagine parenting to be the hardest job in the world when you can do it in your pajamas.
That is not to say parenting is easy. It is one of the hardest things I’ve ever tried, and I am only ten years into it. But parenting is not the hardest job in the world, and it is arguable that it counts as a job anyways. My list of hardest jobs would include specialized military personnel, first-responders, deep-sea fishers, and countless other hazardous occupations. What would not be on my list, despite what a lot of posts on the Internet recently claim, is being a pastor. Personally, I had much more difficulty operating printing press machinery without yelling at it and kicking it than I have had serving as a pastor. I also have worked in places with no windows, places that required hard hats and earplugs, and places that smelled like ammonia all the time. Even so, I am glad I have never worked at an airport or a shopping mall, and working in a food court within said shopping mall or airport would be doubly worse for me. Instead I am quite happy to split my time between my home study, church building, and various other locations for visits as a pastor.
Please do not take offense if you love your job at the airport; chances are you might be frightened at public speaking, uneasy at funerals, and prefer running away from conflict. In other words, you might find being a pastor quite difficult. Thankfully, God gifts us differently and uses all of us together in this great thing we call society, which is why it might be helpful for us to stop comparing our vocations to one another to the point where we have to shout on the Internet about how hard it is to do what we do. Even after getting their own cable television show with the word “deadliest” in its title, I do not see too many deep sea fishers coming out with online reflections on how hard their job is. That could be because I am not friends with any of them as I am friends with many pastors. It could also be that writing is probably not a job qualification for fishing as it usually is for being a pastor. It could be that fishers have no time on the clock to write and are too tired off the clock to do it. Or it could be that truly difficult jobs are self-evident (or have television shows that make it evident).
No one pretends that being a deep-sea fisher is easy or that it only requires one day of work a week, but many people will joke that pastors work only one day a week and, as with all jokes, there is that unfortunate hint of truth behind what is said. The truth in the case of pastors is not that pastors do not work very hard, but rather that there are plenty of people who think that way. Although it is tempting to set the record straight publicly, before we pastors do so, it might help to ask ourselves why. Why do we need to set the record straight, especially if it could be hurtful to do so? We only have to prove ourselves to Jesus and the people he has entrusted in our churches who hold us accountable. Jesus knows the truth about our hearts, work ethic, time management, thoughts, and actions. We do not need to whine about how hard it is to be a pastor for him to notice us.
Being a pastor requires a unique mixture of qualifications and functions that are hard to balance well, and when we serve humbly no one may ever pat us on the back about our set of skills. I once heard that offering pastoral care is like being a clown at the circus; it is quite difficult and skillful, but all the other acts will garner more respect. I cannot speak for clowns, but being a pastor requires having a thick skin, since there is no shortage of people who seem to be especially good at making us feel inadequate, whether they aim to make us feel that way or not. Instead of defending ourselves to them, just let it go. Other people in life have it rough too, and as pastors we have the privilege of caring for them. Do not make anyone feel bad that we have to care for them by talking about how hard it is to do that or how difficult they are to care for.
Being a pastor means caring for others constantly, which could become part of our need to complain once we realize no one seems to be caring for us. While that probably is not true in reality because God always cares for us in various ways, we could start changing our perception of our lack of care by caring for ourselves. Take a weekly guilt-free day off from work. Let the phone ring and go to voicemail. Turn off the computer, tablet, and smartphone. Find something relaxing and do it regularly. Learn to be available to your family by saying no to other things. Learn to embrace your gifts and how God uses them instead of beating yourself up for not being good enough. Learn to let God fill up your cup routinely through nature, friendship, fun, reading, music, art, or whatever else God uses to minister to you. That way whenever your parishioners need your care you will have something to offer them.
We serve as pastors because God called us to it and God’s people confirmed his call on us by recognizing our giftedness for the task. We also serve as pastors because we know it is a privilege to proclaim God’s Word, study it deeply, teach it, display it, pray for and with people, enter the space they share with us in times of crisis, and equip them to grow in their own faith and make other disciples, not to mention all the other things we get to do each day.
Other jobs in my past were more difficult to me than being a pastor because my heart was never in them to begin with. I was just paying the bills by working them. But my heart has always been in being a pastor. I love what I do, and I know other pastors do too, so let us cut down on our posts that aim to convince other people about how hard it is. Jesus knows it is hard, more than we ever will, and he promises to be with us always. Do not worry about how hard other people think it is. We do not have to be held accountable to the distorted ideas of comedians or acquaintances, but rather to Christ and his church.
That is not to say parenting is easy. It is one of the hardest things I’ve ever tried, and I am only ten years into it. But parenting is not the hardest job in the world, and it is arguable that it counts as a job anyways. My list of hardest jobs would include specialized military personnel, first-responders, deep-sea fishers, and countless other hazardous occupations. What would not be on my list, despite what a lot of posts on the Internet recently claim, is being a pastor. Personally, I had much more difficulty operating printing press machinery without yelling at it and kicking it than I have had serving as a pastor. I also have worked in places with no windows, places that required hard hats and earplugs, and places that smelled like ammonia all the time. Even so, I am glad I have never worked at an airport or a shopping mall, and working in a food court within said shopping mall or airport would be doubly worse for me. Instead I am quite happy to split my time between my home study, church building, and various other locations for visits as a pastor.
Please do not take offense if you love your job at the airport; chances are you might be frightened at public speaking, uneasy at funerals, and prefer running away from conflict. In other words, you might find being a pastor quite difficult. Thankfully, God gifts us differently and uses all of us together in this great thing we call society, which is why it might be helpful for us to stop comparing our vocations to one another to the point where we have to shout on the Internet about how hard it is to do what we do. Even after getting their own cable television show with the word “deadliest” in its title, I do not see too many deep sea fishers coming out with online reflections on how hard their job is. That could be because I am not friends with any of them as I am friends with many pastors. It could also be that writing is probably not a job qualification for fishing as it usually is for being a pastor. It could be that fishers have no time on the clock to write and are too tired off the clock to do it. Or it could be that truly difficult jobs are self-evident (or have television shows that make it evident).
No one pretends that being a deep-sea fisher is easy or that it only requires one day of work a week, but many people will joke that pastors work only one day a week and, as with all jokes, there is that unfortunate hint of truth behind what is said. The truth in the case of pastors is not that pastors do not work very hard, but rather that there are plenty of people who think that way. Although it is tempting to set the record straight publicly, before we pastors do so, it might help to ask ourselves why. Why do we need to set the record straight, especially if it could be hurtful to do so? We only have to prove ourselves to Jesus and the people he has entrusted in our churches who hold us accountable. Jesus knows the truth about our hearts, work ethic, time management, thoughts, and actions. We do not need to whine about how hard it is to be a pastor for him to notice us.
Being a pastor requires a unique mixture of qualifications and functions that are hard to balance well, and when we serve humbly no one may ever pat us on the back about our set of skills. I once heard that offering pastoral care is like being a clown at the circus; it is quite difficult and skillful, but all the other acts will garner more respect. I cannot speak for clowns, but being a pastor requires having a thick skin, since there is no shortage of people who seem to be especially good at making us feel inadequate, whether they aim to make us feel that way or not. Instead of defending ourselves to them, just let it go. Other people in life have it rough too, and as pastors we have the privilege of caring for them. Do not make anyone feel bad that we have to care for them by talking about how hard it is to do that or how difficult they are to care for.
Being a pastor means caring for others constantly, which could become part of our need to complain once we realize no one seems to be caring for us. While that probably is not true in reality because God always cares for us in various ways, we could start changing our perception of our lack of care by caring for ourselves. Take a weekly guilt-free day off from work. Let the phone ring and go to voicemail. Turn off the computer, tablet, and smartphone. Find something relaxing and do it regularly. Learn to be available to your family by saying no to other things. Learn to embrace your gifts and how God uses them instead of beating yourself up for not being good enough. Learn to let God fill up your cup routinely through nature, friendship, fun, reading, music, art, or whatever else God uses to minister to you. That way whenever your parishioners need your care you will have something to offer them.
We serve as pastors because God called us to it and God’s people confirmed his call on us by recognizing our giftedness for the task. We also serve as pastors because we know it is a privilege to proclaim God’s Word, study it deeply, teach it, display it, pray for and with people, enter the space they share with us in times of crisis, and equip them to grow in their own faith and make other disciples, not to mention all the other things we get to do each day.
Other jobs in my past were more difficult to me than being a pastor because my heart was never in them to begin with. I was just paying the bills by working them. But my heart has always been in being a pastor. I love what I do, and I know other pastors do too, so let us cut down on our posts that aim to convince other people about how hard it is. Jesus knows it is hard, more than we ever will, and he promises to be with us always. Do not worry about how hard other people think it is. We do not have to be held accountable to the distorted ideas of comedians or acquaintances, but rather to Christ and his church.
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