5 Things That Surprised Me When I Moved From a Secular Job to Church Ministry

Three years ago, I was the president of a small, for-profit college campus in Northwestern Indiana making a six-figure salary and enjoying the perks of corporate America and academia. Life was good. Life was comfortable. But deep down, I knew that I wasn’t fulfilling the call that God had placed on my life a few years earlier.

In 2011, I was hired as the Student Ministries pastor at the church that I’m currently employed by. I now serve as the executive pastor and I seem to be learning new lessons about the church on a regular basis. Being the son of a small-church pastor, I didn’t have the mistaken idea that full-time pastors simply sit around reading their Bible all day, listening to worship music. But there are five things that did take me by surprise when I moved from a secular job to church ministry.

168 hours vs. 40 hours

Ok, maybe none of us actually work a 40-hour workweek any more. But, I can attest that I worked far fewer hours when I was in a secular job than now, in a church ministry context. At my last job, the phone would ring sometimes after hours. But, it wasn’t very often and was frequently simple questions that could be addressed quickly and from the comfort of my own home. When I left work, I left work. I didn’t take it home with me and I was able to fully “unplug” when I was at home.

This is not the case as a pastor. I work long hours and cannot disconnect from what I interacted with throughout the day. There are always things that need to get done and not enough hours to do it all, plus care for the congregation in the way that I should. I have been woken up in the middle of the night to deal with the brother of a member of the church who had come home violently drunk. I’ve had to go to the apartment of a person who said they were going to attempt suicide. I’ve had long phone conversations while on vacation to try and solve financial issues. You get the idea …

But, I’ve got to say, it is the stories that make it worthwhile. The people that you meet along the way that share their lives with you. Like the girl that came to my youth group with a friend and came back because I sent her a friend request on Facebook. She accepted Christ and now is in college actively involved in the ministry to students there. She is on fire for God and she doesn’t come from a Christian background at all.

Public vs. Private

As the leader of a small college campus, I had around 30 or so employees. There were a total of 325 students in a given semester. Those people knew me. But, not too much. They didn’t care how I was raising my kids or how I was treating my wife. They could care less the kind of car that I drove or whether I ever invited them into my home for dinner. My life outside of work was just that—outside of work. There were very specific boundaries set up in that regard.

Church members want to know their pastors personally. Actually many feel that they should have full access to their pastor and should know the details of their family and home life. The way we discipline our kids, whether we celebrate Halloween, whether we allow our kids to believe there is a Santa, if the Easter bunny is a part of how we celebrate that holiday—these are just a few examples. Our family is always on display and open to the opinions and judgment of those I lead.

The lesson here is not so much about access, but rather about how we view the information that we share. I have seen it far too often where people will take a personal belief that a pastor holds as Biblical or religious in some way. These perceptions on the part of the congregation can lead to a blurring of the line between what the Bible actually says and what are more personal decisions of conscience or preference by a person or family.

Personal vs. Professional

This one somewhat goes with the previous difference. It deals more specifically with the criticism one can receive as a pastor. When I was in the secular world, the criticism that I most often received was professional criticism. It dealt with the quality of my work, perhaps not hitting a goal or a poor decision that I had made. But it hardly ever got personal.

The criticism that I’ve received as a pastor has been far more personal than I have ever experienced. Some criticism is focused on me being a spiritual leader or questions about my leadership and the motives of decisions that have been made. I’ve even been accused of not caring about a group of people who had stopped being a part of the ministry I led. These aren’t professional in that I can’t just fix it by working harder or implementing a new strategy—these are criticisms about me as a person, and those aren’t easily overcome.

I once heard of a pastor who was criticized because his children didn’t have as vast a Biblical knowledge as their Sunday school teacher thought they should. But, you see, throughout all of the criticism, it is the people that love you for who you are and believe in you and your ministry who count. I receive cards and emails often, telling me what a good job I’m doing. And at the end of the day, if I’m living out my calling and doing what God wants me to do, that’s all that should matter.

Charitable Giving vs. Sales

Sales for a secular organization is a simple equation: You offer a good or service and the customer pays you a fair market value for said good or service. There is predictability and historical data across the industry that will help the organization make plans for future operations and future decisions. Consumer behavior has been analyzed and charted so that leadership can manage the business according to trends and not according to best guesses.

The church doesn’t have sales. “Revenue” comes in the form of charitable gifts and these can often be sporadic at best. If your church holds to the principle of tithing, then that levels out what can be an up and down journey in tracking the giving that comes into the church. But often there is a large percentage of people that attend a church who do not tithe—in fact, there are many who give nothing at all. There is no predictability. There are no “normal” trends. Many “consumers” will pay nothing for your “product.”

Although people are not predictable in their giving, God is always faithful in taking care of his church. In 2013, we were behind our budget for a good part of the year. Then December came. And gift after gift came in—some very large and some small. By the end of the year, we had completely made up the shortfall that we found ourselves in and then some. We had the best single month of giving on record for our church after a lackluster year of giving.

Volunteers vs. Paid Employees

In my previous job, I hired employees to work for me. They had set schedules, job descriptions, and their primary motivation was the paychecks they received every other week. There were annual performance reviews, weekly staff meetings, and goal setting meetings where we could agree to performance expectations and review progress towards identified goals.

Volunteers are different. Very different. With the exception of the 20% in the 80/20 rule (which holds true for volunteers), the commitment level of a volunteer often does not match that of a paid employee. It is also much more difficult to communicate well with volunteers and help them feel like they are “in the loop.” Many times, we will take any “warm body” to fill a hole in our volunteer team rather than going through the process of interviewing and screening folks like we would if we were hiring a paid person.

One volunteer that I had would show up whenever they wanted and when they were there, all they would do would be to play basketball with the students. He never attended volunteer meetings and I really don’t think he ever knew what the plan for the ministry was. The upside, however, is that volunteers usually get the big picture and, although commitment levels may be less than you desire, their deeper sense of purpose and meaning in what they do can be a real blessing to you and your ministry. And that is something that you won’t get from a secular, paid employee.

Tim Parsons is the executive pastor of First Assembly Community Ministries in Lafayette, Indiana.