My message to ministers, young and old, is this: Guard jealously your hours for prayer, Bible study, and self-examination. Set aside a portion of each day for a study of the Scriptures and communion with God. Thus you will obtain spiritual strength, and will grow in favor with God (Ellen G. White, Gospel Workers, p. 100).
In 2023, the Seventh-day Adventist Church conducted a global survey to understand better the working life of pastors. The findings reveal a sobering picture of their workload and the challenges they face in balancing ministry and personal life. In this blog, we look at the challenges Adventist pastors face in trying to balance their work and their own life.
Pastoral Roles
The majority of pastors serve multiple churches. Survey responses show the following:
- 61.7% are district pastors (responsible for multiple churches),
- 21.6% are senior or primary pastors, and
- smaller percentages (16.7%) serve as associate pastors, church planters, departmental directors, chaplains, and administrators.
Number of Churches
Nearly 60% of pastors are responsible for five or more churches. Specifically,
- 31.3% oversee 5–9 churches,
- 14.1% oversee 10–14 churches,
- 5.2% oversee 15-19 churches, and
- 7.7% oversee 20 or more churches.
Given that there are only four Sabbaths in a month in most cases, many pastors cannot visit each congregation even once monthly.
Church Membership
When asked about the size of their churches, this was the result:
- 28.1% oversee less than 200 members,
- 28.5% oversee 200–500 members,
- 25.3% oversee 500–1,000 members, and
- 18.1% oversee 1,000 or more members.
While some pastors serve smaller groups, a significant number manage large congregations across multiple locations.
Sabbath Attendance
Sabbath attendance numbers reveal that:
- 43.5% of pastors have less than 200 members attending weekly,
- 30.7% of pastors have 200–499 members attending weekly, and
- 25.7% of pastors report more than 500 members attending weekly across their churches.
Thus, many pastors are shepherding large flocks with limited time and resources.
Weekly Work Hours
The survey shows a heavy workload. While 40 hours is considered a typical full-time workload, many pastors exceed it significantly, thus impacting their personal and family life.
- 65.8% of pastors work more than 40 hours a week.
- 10.8% of the people who work overtime reported working more than 80 hours weekly.
The global survey highlights the fact that many pastors juggle multiple congregations, large memberships, and heavy workweeks. While large churches sometimes have multiple staff, this remains rare in many regions.
This reality makes it difficult for pastors to protect time for personal devotion, family, rest, and health. As Ellen White wisely counseled, spiritual strength is found in daily communion with God, yet the current pastoral load makes that increasingly difficult.
The Church is rightly concerned about pastors’ work life balance, family life, and time for personal devotions. Hopefully, this finding will help leaders to formulate plans for increasing the total number of pastors and decreasing both the numbers of churches they are responsible for and the number of hours they work every week. Promoting pastors’ work-life balance is likely to improve their overall health, spirituality, family life, and ministry.
Please remember to keep our dedicated pastors in your prayers.
You can access the full report here.
Created in collaboration with the Institute of Church Ministry.
Published by ASTR on 5/20/2025