What does a pastor do? Duties, hours, and pay by church size
Table of Contents
- What does a pastor do in a typical week?
- How much of the job is preaching and teaching?
- What does pastoral care involve?
- Who runs the church, the pastor or the board?
- How does church size change a pastor's job?
- What does the job demand from a pastor?
- How do pastors get paid?
- Frequently asked questions
- Read the church size before the job title
The joke that pastors work one day a week tends to come from people who have never seen a pastor's calendar. Sunday's sermon sits on top of hospital visits, a finance committee meeting, emails about a leaking roof, a funeral nobody planned for, and long hours alone with a Bible and a commentary. If you're weighing a call to pastoral ministry, that hidden week is the job you'd be signing up for.
A pastor leads a congregation's spiritual life and much of its practical life. The core work is preaching and teaching, pastoral care such as visiting the sick, counseling, weddings, and funerals, and leadership of staff, volunteers, and budgets. In small churches one pastor does all of it; larger churches split it among a staff.
Key takeaways
| Part of the job | What it looks like in practice |
|---|---|
| Preaching and teaching | A sermon most weeks, plus classes, Bible studies, and leading worship |
| Pastoral care | Hospital and home visits, counseling, weddings, funerals, and crisis calls at any hour |
| Leadership and administration | Board meetings, staff and volunteers, the budget, and the building |
| Church size | Small churches often have one pastor, sometimes part time; large churches divide the work among several pastors |
| Schedule | Sundays, evenings, and holiday weeks are workdays |
| Pay | Median about $51k across 92 ministry listings with complete salary ranges, according to ChristianJobsList.com salary data (as of October 2026) |
Last updated October 2026
What does a pastor do in a typical week?
A pastor's week bends around one fixed deadline, Sunday morning. Ask "what does a pastor do?" at a 60-person country church and again at a 2,000-person suburban one, and you'll hear two different job descriptions that mix the same kinds of work in different proportions.
Lifeway Research surveyed 1,002 Protestant pastors about their time in 2008 and published the results in 2010, so treat the figures as a rough guide. Full-time senior pastors reported a median 55-hour week, and 42% worked 60 hours or more. The survey also broke down where those hours went.
| Activity | Weekly time pastors reported |
|---|---|
| Sermon preparation | Half spent 5 to 14 hours; 9% spent 25 or more |
| Visitation | 48% spent 2 to 5 hours |
| Email and correspondence | Half spent 2 to 6 hours |
| Meetings | More than 70% spent up to 5 hours |
| Counseling | 24% spent 6 or more hours, and another 24% spent an hour or less |
| Prayer | 52% spent 1 to 6 hours |
In many churches the week follows the sermon, with study early on, staff meetings and visits midweek, an evening Bible study or small group, and a wedding or a last pass through the notes on Saturday. Funerals and hospital emergencies arrive on their own schedule and push everything else aside.
How much of the job is preaching and teaching?
Sermon preparation took more of pastors' time than any other ministry task in Lifeway's survey, and preaching is the one part of the job the whole congregation sees. Preparing a sermon usually means choosing a passage, studying it in context with commentaries (and sometimes the Greek or Hebrew), outlining or writing a manuscript, and rehearsing. Many Catholic, Lutheran, Episcopal, and Methodist preachers follow a lectionary, a three-year cycle of assigned Scripture readings, while many Baptist and nondenominational pastors preach through whole books of the Bible in series.
Teaching continues after Sunday. Depending on the church, a pastor may lead a midweek Bible study, new member or confirmation classes, and training for small-group leaders and Sunday school teachers.
Pastors also plan services with musicians, lead prayers, and preside at communion and baptism. Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, Anglican, Presbyterian, and Methodist churches treat those two acts as sacraments and generally reserve presiding to ordained or specially licensed clergy. Many Baptist and nondenominational churches call them ordinances and leave more room for local practice.
What does pastoral care involve?
Pastoral care is the shepherding side of the work, the part where a pastor shows up for people at the best and worst moments of their lives, and it typically includes:
- Visiting members in the hospital, in nursing homes, and at home when they can't come to church
- Short-term counseling for grief, marriage strain, family conflict, and spiritual doubt
- Premarital sessions and weddings, funerals, and time with grieving families
- Crisis calls at night and on days off
- Follow-up with first-time visitors and new members
Pastoral counseling has limits. Pastors are trained for spiritual care, so a careful pastor keeps a list of licensed counselors for depression, trauma, addiction, and abuse, and refers early.
If one-on-one care is the part of ministry that draws you most, Christian counseling jobs at churches and faith-based clinics are another way to answer that pull.
Who runs the church, the pastor or the board?
Authority in a church is shared, and the tradition decides how. In many Baptist and nondenominational churches, the congregation votes to call a pastor and approves the budget. United Methodist pastors are appointed by a bishop, Catholic priests are assigned by their bishop, and in the Presbyterian Church (USA) a congregation calls its pastor, who then moderates the session of elders.
Whatever the structure, a pastor usually:
- Meets with a governing board, called elders, deacons, a council, a session, or a vestry depending on the church
- Supervises paid staff and recruits and trains volunteers
- Builds and tracks the budget with a treasurer or finance team
- Oversees the building, insurance, and church calendar
Larger churches hand much of this to a church administrator or executive pastor. If budgets and staffing energize you more than sermon prep, look at church administration jobs.
How does church size change a pastor's job?
In our view, church size predicts a pastor's week better than the job title does. The 2020 Faith Communities Today study from the Hartford Institute for Religion Research found that the median U.S. congregation had 65 people in weekly worship, and 65% of congregations drew fewer than 100. A third of congregations with 100 or fewer attendees had part-time leaders, while churches of 101 to 250 mostly employed a full-time pastor, often with other staff.
| Weekly attendance | How the pastor's job tends to look |
|---|---|
| Under 100 | A solo pastor, sometimes part time or bivocational, who preaches nearly every Sunday and handles every visit and meeting |
| 100 to 250 | A full-time pastor with a few part-time staff, such as a music leader, children's director, or office manager |
| 250 to 1,000 | A senior pastor who preaches and leads staff, with associate pastors over youth, families, worship, or care |
| Over 1,000 | A lead pastor focused on preaching and direction, an executive pastor over operations, and a team sharing pastoral care |
The bands are approximate, since budgets and traditions shift them.
Many pastors also hold a second job. According to the National Survey of Religious Leaders, as reported by Lifeway Research in June 2025, 35% of U.S. clergy serve bivocationally, including 47% of evangelical pastors and 11% of mainline Protestant pastors. If you take a bivocational role, agree in writing on which tasks the church expects you to cover and which go to volunteers.
What does the job demand from a pastor?
Scripture's job description for church leaders is mostly about character. The lists in 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9 ask overseers to be above reproach, faithful in marriage, self-controlled, hospitable, able to teach, gentle, and free from the love of money, and search committees often probe those areas in interviews and reference checks.
The skills side shows up every week:
- Public speaking and clear writing for sermons, newsletters, and emails
- Listening well and keeping confidences
- Running meetings, managing staff, and reading a budget
- Working through conflict before it splits the congregation
- Bible knowledge and theology, often built through Bible college or seminary
Education requirements vary by tradition. Many mainline denominations expect a three-year Master of Divinity for ordination, while many Baptist and nondenominational churches hire pastors without one.
The schedule runs against the usual workweek. Sundays are workdays, evenings fill with meetings and studies, and the weeks of Christmas and Easter are often the busiest of the year. A death in the congregation doesn't wait for your day off, so many pastors guard a weekly Sabbath and agree with their board on how after-hours calls get handled.
How do pastors get paid?
Pastors are paid by the church they serve, out of a budget that members fund through their giving. The board, a personnel committee, or the congregation sets the pastor's pay, and some denominations publish minimum salary guidelines through a regional body.
ChristianJobsList.com salary data shows what employers advertise. Across the 92 ministry listings in that data with a complete salary range, the middle half of pay runs $42k to $63k, with a median near $51k. The figures describe ministry listings as a group and do not isolate senior pastor openings. Hourly roles are annualized at 2,080 hours, so a part-time pastor on an hourly wage appears here at a full-time rate and earns less than that over a year.
For a national benchmark, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics puts median pay for clergy at $60,810 a year in its May 2025 data. Pay for any single pastor varies widely with church size and region, and you can compare ministry figures with other church and nonprofit roles on our salary data page.
Pastor pay also follows its own tax rules. Under IRS Publication 517, a minister can exclude a qualifying housing allowance, or the rental value of a church-provided parsonage, from federal income tax, though not from self-employment tax. Ministers also pay Social Security and Medicare through self-employment tax on ministry earnings, even when the church treats them as employees, so plan for estimated tax payments or ask the church to withhold extra.
Frequently asked questions
Is a pastor the same as a preacher?
A preacher is anyone who delivers sermons, including traveling evangelists and guest speakers. A pastor preaches too, and also carries ongoing responsibility for one congregation by visiting the sick, counseling members, officiating weddings and funerals, and leading staff and the church board.
What is the role of a pastor according to the Bible?
The New Testament describes a pastor as a shepherd of God's people. Ephesians 4:11-12 says pastors and teachers equip believers for works of service, 1 Peter 5:2-3 calls elders to shepherd the flock willingly and by example, and Acts 20:28 tells overseers to keep watch over the church. Character standards appear in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1.
How many hours a week do pastors work?
Full-time senior pastors reported a median 55-hour week in a Lifeway Research survey of 1,002 Protestant pastors, and 42% worked 60 hours or more. Bivocational and part-time pastors in the same survey reported a median of 30 hours a week for their churches, on top of any outside job.
Do pastors get paid?
Most pastors receive pay from the church they serve. The 2020 Faith Communities Today study found that 14% of congregational leaders work without pay, and 24% serve part time. Pay can include a salary plus a housing allowance or parsonage, which IRS Publication 517 lets ministers exclude from federal income tax. In ChristianJobsList.com salary data, ministry listings with complete salary ranges show a median near $51k (N=92).
Is a pastor the same as a minister?
Minister is the broader term. A minister is anyone a church authorizes to preach, lead worship, or officiate at weddings, baptisms, and funerals, including chaplains, missionaries, and youth ministers. A pastor is a minister who leads and cares for one particular congregation over time. Many Protestant churches use the two words interchangeably.
Read the church size before the job title
The same title can describe different jobs. A solo pastor at a 70-person church and a lead pastor at a 1,500-person church both preach on Sunday, yet their Tuesdays look nothing alike. For any particular church, the clearest answer to "what does a pastor do?" sits in the current pastor's calendar. Before you accept a pastoral call, ask the search committee to walk you through a typical month, including who makes the hospital visits, who builds the budget, and how many Sundays a year the pastor preaches.
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