For a practical guide to preaching through a book of the Bible, see our expository preaching guide for small church pastors.

By Brent Lacy

The bi-vocational pastor’s most scarce resource is not money. It is time. You have a secular job that demands 40+ hours per week. You have a congregation that needs pastoral care, preaching, and leadership. You have a family that deserves your presence. And you have a soul that needs tending.

Something has to give. The question is what. The question is whether you get to choose, or whether the choice gets made for you by exhaustion and crisis.

Here is a practical weekly system that works for bi-vocational pastors who are serious about doing both jobs well without destroying themselves in the process.

The Foundation: Know Your Numbers

Before you can manage your time, you need to know how much ministry time you actually have. Be honest.

Start with your secular job: How many hours per week does it actually take, including commute? Subtract that from 168 (hours in a week). Subtract sleep (49 hours for 7 hours per night). Subtract family time (protect at least 20 hours per week). What is left is your ministry time budget.

For most bi-vocational pastors, this is 15-25 hours per week. That is not a lot. It is enough if you use it ruthlessly well..

The Weekly Ministry Time Budget

Allocate your ministry hours before the week starts, not reactively. Here is a sample allocation for a pastor with 20 hours per week:

• Sermon preparation: 7-8 hours. This is non-negotiable. Protect it first. See the sermon prep guide for a 5-7 hour system.
• Pastoral care: 4-5 hours. Hospital visits, counseling, check-in calls. Triage ruthlessly. Not every need is a crisis.
• Administration: 2-3 hours. Email, planning, board prep. Batch this into one or two sessions, not scattered throughout the week.
• Leadership development: 2-3 hours. Investing in lay leaders who can handle ministry you cannot. This is the highest-use use of your time.
• Personal devotion: 2-3 hours. Not sermon prep. Your own soul. This is the first thing bi-vocational pastors cut and the last thing they should.

The Weekly Planning Rhythm

Sunday evening (30 minutes)

Review the week ahead. What are the non-negotiables? What pastoral needs are you aware of? What administrative tasks must happen? Block time for sermon prep before anything else.

Monday (sermon prep block 1)

Read the passage for Sunday. Write down your initial observations and questions. Do not research yet. Just read and think. This takes 45-60 minutes and can happen during a lunch break.

Tuesday or Wednesday (sermon prep block 2)

Research and outline. Commentaries, cross-references, illustrations. This is the longest block. Plan on 2-3 hours.. Do it in the morning before work if possible, or in the evening when the house is quiet.

Thursday (pastoral care and administration)

Make the calls, send the emails, handle the logistics. Batch everything administrative into this day so it does not bleed into the rest of the week.

Friday (sermon prep block 3)

Write or finalize the sermon. This should take 1-2 hours if the previous blocks were done well. If you are starting from scratch on Friday, something went wrong earlier in the week.

Saturday (rest)

Do not prepare sermons on Saturday. If you have done the work earlier in the week, Saturday should be a day of rest and family time. A pastor who is exhausted on Sunday morning cannot preach well.

The Three Rules of Bi-Vocational Time Management

Rule 1: Protect sermon prep time like a doctor’s appointment

Sermon prep time is not flexible. It does not move for non-emergency requests. It does not get cancelled because something came up. Treat it as a non-negotiable appointment and communicate that to your congregation.

Rule 2: Triage pastoral care ruthlessly

Not every pastoral need is a crisis. A member who wants to talk about the worship style is not a crisis. A member in the hospital is a crisis. A member going through a divorce is a crisis. Learn to distinguish between what needs your immediate attention and what can wait, or what can be handled by a trained lay leader.

Rule 3: Develop lay leaders or burn out

The bi-vocational pastor who tries to do everything a full-time pastor does will burn out. The bi-vocational pastor who develops lay leaders who can handle hospital visits, benevolence decisions, and routine pastoral care will thrive. Investing 2-3 hours per week in developing lay leaders is the highest-use use of your ministry time.

When the System Breaks Down

The system will break down. A pastoral crisis will consume a week. A work deadline will eat your sermon prep time. A family emergency will derail everything. This is not failure. This is ministry.

When the system breaks down, do not abandon it. Return to it as quickly as possible. The goal is not a perfect week. The goal is a sustainable rhythm that holds most of the time and recovers quickly when it does not.

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