Study Finds Ministers Spend a Third of Time as Managers

From their seats in the pews, congregation members often imagine that their ministers spend each week deep in study, preparing sermons. And that is certainly the image prospective clergy bring to their seminary studies.

Once they get out in local churches, however, ministers quickly find their days dominated by a series of interruptions--from phone calls from people wanting to know what time services will be held to visits from vendors peddling supplies.

A new study in which researchers observed five Protestant ministers at work for a full week found that a third or more of their time was spent on administrative duties. Take away Sundays, when most are busy in the pulpit, and that percentage rises to close to 50%, said the Rev. Gary William Kuhne, an assistant professor of adult education at Pennsylvania State University.

“You have all the frustrations a manager would have, plus the frustrations a professional would have, and they’re all melded into the same role,” Kuhne said.

Kuhne and Joe F. Donaldson, associate professor of higher education at the University of Missouri at Columbia, are publishing their findings in the December issue of the Review of Religious Research.

Past research has tended to rely on the opinions of experts or perceptions recorded on surveys. But Kuhne speculated that clergy tend to underestimate the actual time they spend on administrative duties, since those are not seen as important parts of ministry.

In a 1985 survey of pastors conducted by Bethel Theological Seminary, ministers estimated they spent 20% of their time in an administrative role--nearly twice as much time as they would like.

But in observing what ministers actually do in a work week, Kuhne and Donaldson found that nearly half their time was spent in scheduled meetings, a category that included worship services. About a quarter was spent on desk work, half of that involving preparing sermons.

Twelve percent of their time was spent traveling, 8% in unscheduled meetings, 6% on the telephone and 5% touring church buildings, inspecting the facilities and informally talking with other staff.

“Overall . . . the amount of time really spent on administrative tasks is close to 30%, 40%,” Kuhne said.

Edward A. Buchanan, professor of Christian Education at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, said he has reservations about the small size of Kuhne’s and Donaldson’s sample, but it supplements other research showing pastors spend a significant amount of time on administrative functions.

Kuhne said churches can cut their ministers’ administrative loads by enlisting greater involvement of congregation members in running the church or hiring administrators to perform those tasks.

“There’s really a high level of frustration existing [among clergy] about the level of administrative responsibility . . . and the resulting question is: Is this really the way it has to be?” Kuhne said.

And Buchanan said seminaries can help current pastors by offering continuing education classes to help them deal with administrative work.

Although prospective clergy in seminaries are sometimes warned about their administrative roles, the message apparently rarely gets through.

It is not until they get out in the field, Buchanan said, that they “discover they’re not going to study the Bible all day.”