the flip side of the research

I recently came across this fascinating research on Ed Stetzer's blog. It described how much time Protestant pastors spend in a typical week on various aspects of life, including work and family life. I wonder what you think of it. Where does your PH fall in the spectrum? Is the bulk of his time really spent with his family? Is there something missing? Online time, maybe?

Just last night, I was making an ... observation... to my PH that even though he's here (@ home) in bodily form, he's not necessarily HERE. The phone is always ringing, or he's attending to church business via email or his mind is on all of the church things that need to get done. I wasn't complaining, really. I understand. But I wonder how many of these pastors, who say they're with family, are really working from home.

But that wasn't really the point of the study, really... Here's what they say:

Protestant pastors in America are working long hours, sometimes at the expense of relationships with church members, prospects, family and even the Lord.

A telephone survey of more than 1,000 senior pastors indicated a full 65 percent of them work 50 or more hours a week – with 8 percent saying they work 70 or more hours. Meetings and electronic correspondence consume large amounts of time for many ministers, while counseling, visitation, family time, prayer and personal devotions suffer in too many cases.

Read more...

I would love to hear your thoughts. What would your PHs graph look like?

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