Often your pastor is carrying around other people’s burdens that he cannot, for many good and godly reasons, share with you….There is a part of the calling of Christian ministry that must be done in the silence of the prayer closet….90% of his life is taken up with what may be 10% of yours. This dichotomy, as they say, comes with the territory and it is part of the reason why Paul tells Timothy that it is good that not many seek to be overseers (1 Timothy 3:1).

An interesting part of pastoral ministry that I’ve come to embrace in my now fifteen years in the pulpit is what I’ve termed the 90/10 Principle. We’ve all heard the idea of the 80/20 in the church, that 20% of the people do 80% of the work (though in some congregations that number may be higher or lower depending on the hospitality quotient). This thesis follows a similar pattern of thought. In this case it is that for the minister 90% of his life is taken up with the care and concern of the members of the church he serves, while approximately 10% of the individual church member’s life is involved with the pastor or the congregation where they have their own membership. It’s helpful sometimes to meditate on what goes on in the background to help better serve and positively reinforce what happens in the foreground.

Let’s first think a little bit about the expectations both pastor and church have for one another. It is a common trope that seminarians imagine these grand conversations they’ll have about esoteric theological questions as they lead deep discoveries into God’s word through preaching and teaching. While I am sure that takes place somewhere it is not the common experience of most of us in the real world. When I was in boot camp at Parris Island, through infantry training at Camp Geiger, and even during MOS school we would often hear tales of the Fleet Marine Corps. It was this mythic landscape that us green jarheads were looking forward to be subjected to when we received our orders to our first duty station. In some ways it met those ideas, but in other more substantial ways it never did live up to this picture we had made up in our head. Yes, it had its moments, but for the most part it was like having a real job, just with fancy uniforms, manning combat mops on Thursdays, and PT three or four days a week. Some of us kind of were let down by it, but other things we did more than made up for it and it turned into the best four years of my life in many ways. Full Metal Jacket it was not, neither was it Stripes either.

When it comes to life in the ministry this can follow a similar pattern. Seminary for all its good parts doesn’t do a great job preparing you for real life in the fleet so to speak. Attempts are made to remedy this by requiring internships and the like. However, these often end up being a cheap way for churches to have a youth pastor. As important and vital as that work is it is not the normal experience of being a solo minister in a congregation where you are the staff. Too many times I’ve seen young guys who do internships at large multi-hundred member congregations die on the vine because they’ve never had to unclog a toilet or write an evening sermon in a hospital room because there isn’t a pastor of visitation to do it, because that’s your job. Maintaining competency for morning and evening worship, bible study, and Sabbath School all the while checking in on every member on the rolls takes a different kind of mindset. It’s central to the picture of ministry Jesus taught His disciples. Servanthood takes sacrifice and it takes effort.

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