I read with interest the recent article by my friend and fellow pastor Paul Carter as he outlined a typical week in his ministry. I saw many parallels to my own ministry but just as many differences, so many in fact, that I thought it would be helpful to write a companion article to contrast some of the differences found between larger multi-staff churches, and the reality of serving in small contexts as a solo pastor.
In my early days of solo-pastoring I remembering dropping in on a handful of older pastors and asking if they could help me sort out ways to best use my time. I found it helpful to hear from these older brothers in ministry what they did through the week, and I think it was just as helpful to discover that there was more than one way to divide one’s time effectively. So here is what a typical week in the life of this solo pastor looks like.
The first decision: when to take your day off
Over the years I have experimented with when my day off occurs. I have tried almost every day of the week, but I consistently return to Monday’s as the best day for me. My philosophy of taking a day off is that it should be a day to rest from one’s labour, and I find that as the week progresses the labour intensifies so Monday is as restful as it gets. I have adjusted to a position of anticipating only one day off in a week rather than the usual expectation most people have of two. I expect that most Saturdays will be, at least partially, committed to work and I even plan Saturday as a buffer to complete tasks necessary for Sunday. I don’t feel bad or guilty when I manage to complete all that is necessary in such a fashion that I get Saturday free, but I don’t plan for Saturday to be a day free from labour; but Monday is always free from labour.
As much as is possible I try to really rest on Monday. I believe hobbies can be a blessing. I like to cook and sometimes I’ll take part of the day and work up a feast for my family on a Monday. I like to cycle, and during the warmer months of the year I often ride my bicycle during the week to church meetings or on visitation around the countryside but on warm Monday’s I’ll often plan a nice long ride that fills a large part of the day. In the colder winter months I build a model railroad that is now in its fifth year of construction. There are, of course, household repairs that call for attention at times, but I try to keep the routine maintenance for the ends of Saturday. If I can keep Monday free from all labour and just a time to rest I am most happy and healthy.
Sunday:
I rise early on Sunday to begin the day as I begin every day, with personal devotions. By 7 a.m. I have my sermon manuscript before me and am beginning the final read through. During this final reading I will often pray over what I am preparing to preach, I fill the margins with reminders of points I especially want to make and occasionally during this time will have a new insight that I write in and mark with a circle or a star.
With the sermon reviewed and marked I begin to wake my family and then settle down in front of the computer to review and complete the final bulletin. The church does not have a secretary and over the years I have found that it is no burden to take this responsibility on myself. I insert the hymns chosen by the worship committee, I double check for any announcements that are needed, I check the schedule for church cleaners, communion stewards, nursery attendants and the snow clearing lottery (the only lottery endorsed at Walsh Baptist because you can’t win, you just lose).
Only the musicians arrive at the church building before 10. So I aim to be there by 9:45 a.m. I would personally love to be in the building earlier, but as my family travels with me (we live 15 kms from the church) I compromise to ensure that they are not stuck in an empty building an hour early. Upon arriving I double check the thermostat settings, ensure that the sound system is set properly and, if it has snowed, that the unlucky winner has shovelled and salted the walks. My wife copies and folds the bulletins as I chat with the music team and ensure that everything is in order for the service.
The congregation begins to trickle in around 10 a.m. and then the trickle becomes a flood around 10:20. I’ve learned not to concern myself with a half empty building before 10:25, this is a country church and people arrive just in time.
A few minutes before service a group of deacons and leaders gather for prayer. Service is typically 90 minutes in length wrapping up around noon.
I go to the church door to visit with those who will hurry away immediately after service and generally find myself engaged in some longer conversations about the sermon or about life. Those wanting to have a few minutes of my time know to find me at the church door, but most of the congregation heads for the coffee and refreshments set out week by week. It is often nearly an hour later that the final few people have said goodbye and I walk around the building ensuring that the lights are off and the doors are locked.
Sunday afternoon is usually family time. During the football season my boys and I will settle in to watch our favourite team over lunch on the couch, during the rest of the year we either host the extended family for a meal, or head over for lunch and board games at one of my siblings homes. I like a long nap on Sunday when I can get one.
Monday:
Even on days off, I am not one for sleeping in. I am often up before 6 a.m. every day of the week. I don’t use an alarm clock, on the rare occasion that my body sleeps past 7 I decide that my body knows best that a little more rest is needed.
I take no vacation from daily devotions, so I begin my day with my morning readings and a time of prayer. On every day of the week I try to spend an hour reading outside of my area of expertise – books on history, politics or biography sit by my reading chair. On my day off I may indulge an extra hour if one of these has caught my interest. I then set out to rest well with whatever my planned activity for the day will be.
Tuesday:
Tuesdays set the tone for the entire week.
I begin Tuesday with personal devotions and reading. Having had my breakfast I settle into my study (my study is in my home) to take care of any administrative tasks. I answer emails, review the coming week’s schedule and submit any mileage or financial receipts to the treasurer. Administration is my weakness, so I try to get most of it dealt with at the beginning of my week so nothing gets missed.
Sermon prep begins on Tuesday and fills most of the day. Unlike my friend Paul Carter, I have not made a translation of the New Testament. My Greek skills are sufficient to allow me to handle the Greek tools and to follow the arguments of the scholars as they explain things in technical commentaries.
I am grateful for the faithful work of good scholars and I lean on their labour. My strength throughout school has always been history – names, dates, places, the movement of the story, these things are the things that mark my preaching and teaching.
I begin by studying the text, reading it in the ESV and often a couple other translations. Before I pull out any commentaries I try to fill a page with ‘queries’ for the text. I’ll ask questions I’m pretty sure I know the answer to, I’ll put myself in the shoes of various people in my congregation and ask questions of the text as they would ask, I’ll ask why the author chose certain words or certain phrases.
Once I’ve written many queries I begin the process of trying to answer each one, I still have not opened the commentaries, I am answering on the basis of what I know of scripture, relying on the Holy Spirit to guide me with just my Bible before me.
Once this process is complete I will open the commentaries. I am a systematic expositor and when I begin a series I aim to purchase the two most recommended commentaries on a book and also one that is at least 100 years old. This gives me the most recent scholarship, but also guards me from chronological snobbery (a term C.S. Lewis coined for thinking that every new idea is better than every idea that came before).
Over the years I have amassed an enormous commentary library, but I generally limit myself to reading 3 commentaries on the text and then pulling down the others for particularly ‘tough nuts’.
My sermon reading spreads throughout the week, not just on Tuesday, but my querying the text begins on Tuesday and I will certainly aim to be into the commentaries before the day is out. By doing this I ensure that my mind is full of the material needed for the sermon.
I often find that in quiet moments during the day I am able to pull up these thoughts and advance my preparation even jotting down new insights on my phone or in a notebook. I ‘seed the field’ so to speak and wait for the harvest to come.
Three out of four Tuesdays I lead a 30 minute nursing home service which really requires about 90 minutes. I pick up my organist, arrive at the nursing home, go through Covid protocols, conduct the service, visit with the residents, return my organist home and return home myself.
I wish that Tuesday was not the day that this had to happen, but I am committed to this involvement and commend to you nursing home ministry. Many of these elderly folk are in their final days, the time grows short, find a nursing home you can serve in and offer up a steady diet of gospel rich, simple, short messages and then stick around long enough to visit with the residents.
I have seen people saved through this ministry and have also noted that the staff, who has to be present, often lean in to hear what is being said to the seniors.
Sidebar: Regarding nights out
I am in full agreement with Paul Carter’s statement about nights out. I know that I will be out two nights every week and likely three. We have a prayer meeting that gathers every Wednesday evening at the church and I lead a Bible Study on most Thursday evenings. Association meetings and inter-church prayer meetings occur on some Tuesdays, so I expect to be out a couple of Tuesdays every month and working families often need visits in the evening which will fall on Tuesday, Friday or Saturday depending on availability. Expect to be out in the evenings, it is a reality of pastoral ministry.
Wednesday:
Wednesday is a day when I continue the work begun on Tuesday. Lots of commentary study fills my Wednesday. I will often schedule visits during the day with folks who have daytime availability. I have a retired man in the congregation who is known as our Pastor of Visitation and we usually meet for coffee and to compare notes on a Wednesday morning.
If all is going smoothly and I have no other meetings scheduled I will often set up in the corner of a local cafe to read and study knowing that I am likely to be interrupted by people who know me and want to stop and chat, many good and helpful conversations happen providentially in the corner of the cafe.
Once a month the local evangelical ministerial gathers for prayer and fellowship on Wednesday morning for a few hours. I do my best to clear enough time to attend this meeting. I find it encouraging to my own soul and I trust it encourages the others who gather. For those who will minister as solo-pastors it is a lonely road, take advantage of opportunities to gather with other brothers when it is offered.
Wednesday evening is the church prayer meeting. Our gathering is not large, but it is consistent and I am almost always present.
Thursday:
Thursday is Bible Study day. My first priority is to spend the necessary time reading and studying in advance of the evening study. Over the years I have been a long student of scripture and so I am generally well equipped for handling questions that emerge, but I take the time to read a commentary or two on the chosen passage for the evening. I like to create my own question sheet to guide the conversation, but I encourage questions and ‘rabbit-trails’.
We have just concluded a year long journey through Romans and I am now in preparation mode for a deep dive into ‘cultural exegesis’ with a planned study on tough subjects such as medical assistance in dying, transgenderism, homosexuality and modern racial theories (these issues are present even in small town Ontario and my people are wrestling with them).
I’ve asked the congregation to give me 8 weeks for preparation during which time I am spending the full day on Thursday, and the usual evening period also, reading a fairly large stack of books on the subject in order to get my mind wrapped around the subject.
On weeks when I conclude my Bible Study prep with time to spare, I generally return to sermon study and reading.
Friday:
Friday is sermon writing day. I’ve ‘seeded the field’ on Tuesday by ‘querying the text’, I’ve used time on Wednesday and Thursday to continue my study on the text. When Friday arrives I want to have plenty of raw material on hand to weave the sermon with.
I usually find that by Friday morning the sermon has resolved into its final form in my mind, but there are often a couple of points that require more specific study or confirmation. I usually write the first draft of the sermon by hand in a notebook, then I type out the manuscript as the second draft. I mark any areas of weakness for further review on Saturday morning. (The sermons that are produced from this method are naturally exegetical, inductive and usually have a narrative quality.)
Friday is often a day of tying up loose ends, making an extra visit or two and sending out a few more emails.
Saturday:
I usually find that at least part of Saturday is necessary in order to ensure everything is in readiness for Sunday morning.
Once a month our deacons meet on Saturday morning at 8 a.m. for about two hours. I set aside time to read further on the sermon and build confidence in the points I plan to preach Sunday morning. The process of thinking long on the text is now yielding fruit often from unlikely places; 90% of my sermon illustrations are drawn from scripture and it is often at the end of a week of mulling over the text that these illustrations present themselves.
My final draft of the sermon will be printed Saturday evening in full manuscript, early on Sunday morning it will be reviewed once more and the margins filled with reminders or final thoughts – as a result of this process I find that I know my material so well that I am completely at liberty in the pulpit (I take my notes with me to remind me of where I intend to ‘turn the corner’).
The Holy Spirit often brings extemporaneous thoughts to mind in the process of preaching, but that is to be expected, as the sermon has really been written three times over before I step into the pulpit, my mind is full of the text and its meaning.
In Conclusion
I leave you with two thoughts. One is my settled conviction of the primary work of a pastor and the other is an encouragement from scripture that has often encouraged me.
First, it is my settled conviction that the pastor is first and foremost a preacher. Everything I do in shepherding my flock flows from the proclamation of the Word of God. I will have many one on one visits with people, but my greatest general impact upon the lives of the people God has entrusted to my care is the week by week faithfulness in making known the scriptures. My week reflects that priority – even after 25 years of ministry I spend more than half of my labour on the Sunday morning sermon, so should you.
Second, be encouraged. Even in a small pastorate in the middle of a corn field, even in a tiny downtown church with no parking lot, even if you are never called to a larger church. In my younger years I went through a time of struggle; I looked at the ministry of other men my age and saw that they had been entrusted with bigger buildings, larger numbers, multiple staff or ministries known across the nation.
You may struggle this way too.
The same diploma hangs on your wall as the younger man now invited to preach on a conference stage; you give as much time to preparing your sermon as the man who preaches to ten times the congregational gathering on a Sunday morning; you are faithful with little, why does God not give you more?
To you I offer the passage that has been the great encouragement to my own soul:
By by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. (1 Corinthians 15:10)
When these questions come upon you, learn to meditate upon these words penned by the Apostle Paul, there is so much in those words. It presses me in two directions, first, it reminds me that all that I have, I have by grace and not merit (the Spirit gifts as he chooses); second, it reminds me that working hard is a fitting response to God’s grace; finally, I am reminded that whatever results of my working hard in response to the grace of God, this also is a product of grace.
May God be Glorified!
He must increase and I must decrease!
Pastor Marc Bertrand
