Here are 21 aspects of pastor life that might surprise you. These don’t apply to every pastor, but many of them do! Here is what you need to know about pastor life:
1. He cannot afford the books he just bought to help him serve you better.
2. He has worked over five weeks in a row without a day off several times this year, and the only ones who know this are his wife and kids.
3. Yes, he probably knows all the gossip about you (though he will say he has heard nothing) and loves you like family anyway.
4. He is always on call. If he has been a pastor for five years, he has been on call over 40,000 hours.
5. His children and wife hate the phone.
6. He has probably visited or received help from the food bank this year.
7. He can’t sleep without some kind of medication.
8. He is probably on or has been on some kind of antidepressant.
9. He is probably not telling the truth about certain personal theological changes because he’s afraid you will fire him.
10. He and his wife cannot afford childcare and a date at the same time. So they have probably not been alone together for months.
11. He is the loneliest person in the church, no matter how many friends he has. He can only allow certain people to become very close to him, and if he’s smart, it’s not a person in the congregation.
12. He wants to hide after every sermon.
13. His hardest day is Monday (most pastors’ day off).
14. He has performed many weddings, funerals and counseling sessions for free. Most of the time it’s the wealthy and middle-class families that don’t pay or pay very little.
