The pastor is (not) in
We should not be calling our ministers back to the office full time.
Prior to the pandemic, many congregations expected their pastors to be in their offices for most of the standard work week (i.e., 9-5, with some allowances for a weekday off since Sundays are a full workday for ministers).
For some church members, this availability was a comfort. If there was an emergency, the pastor was easy to contact. If someone came in needing assistance with food or utilities, the pastor could provide that help along with compassionate conversation. If a member wanted to drop in and talk about Sunday’s sermon, the pastor was usually around to expound.
For other church members, pastors sitting in their offices provided a way to assess whether they were doing their jobs. Since the role of minister is somewhat mysterious, there aren’t any concrete metrics for whether pastors are earning their keep. Butt-in-chair time was a way, even if wasn’t a good way, to gauge work ethic.
Truth be told, many pastors were resentful of being tethered to their desk chairs. They had cell phones, so they were rarely unreachable. Many people, not just the pastor, could be authorized and prepared to distribute bags of food, gift cards, or even limited amounts of money with a caring smile and listening ear. Constant availability for drop-in conversations (often of the “shoot the breeze” variety) kept pastors from writing sermons and Bible study curriculum so that they ended up scrambling on Saturdays to be ready for Sundays. Needing to be seen in the office felt to pastors like a questioning of their integrity. Added to all of this was the fact that a lot of pastors saw much of their purpose as being fulfilled beyond the bounds of church property: engaging in work in the larger community on behalf of the congregation, making pastoral care visits, and building relationships with the church’s neighbors. And to top it off, so much of ministry happens beyond the 9-5 window (meetings, funerals, community events, and more) that these pastors were left with little to no down time.
Then…the pandemic.
Pastors couldn’t be in their offices, or if they could, they were usually there alone for physical distancing reasons. Yet still the work of ministry carried on, often in ways that were both innovative and surprisingly fruitful. (It also, to be sure, overtook the lives of pastors even more than in The Before since there was such a learning curve to distanced ministry and there were fewer ways to connect and care for people in groups.)
But here in our post-distancing world, many churches want their pastors right back in their desk chairs, despite now knowing their ministers won’t disappear into the ether or shirk their responsibilities. I know that the business world is pushing for its employees to return to the office. I get the impulse to try to put things back the way they were before Covid upended everyone’s lives. We’re tired of thinking about the pandemic, even about the helpful learnings from it. But this is a time to lean into trust in our pastors. Trust that they know how to prioritize their work and manage their time. Trust that they will be here for us when we need them. Trust that what they are doing behind the scenes is readying them to be the most effective leaders for us. Trust that they are fertilizing wide swaths of soil with the good news of God’s love. Trust that their trust in us is not misplaced, because God calls us all to be ministers.
All of this is to urge churches to let - to encourage - their pastors to do some of their work remotely. Everybody wins: pastors get to do more deep and broad work, and churches get happier pastors, a heightened and more favorable profile in the larger community, and an expanded vision for the congregations’ place and work in their contexts.