Just One More Hour Of Ministry…Or Maybe Not

So we all turned back our clock last nights to get the one extra hour of sleep…did you take advantage of it? I think I always look forward to this day because it means one extra hour of sleep, but instead I use the extra hour to stay up…I haven’t learned.
I remember my first year at college (Xavier University in Cincinnati) some of the students from Indiana had no clue about the time change (I think it’s because of farming or something) and it freaked them out.  It’s kind of a funny concept though, getting an extra hour.  Because we aren’t getting an extra anything it’s just adjusting to the short days and what not.
Anyway, it got me thinking…what would happen if we got one extra hour a week to do ministry?  Would it help?  Maybe you don’t need that extra hour, maybe you feel like you have enough?  But then again what is enough, how many hours a week should a youth minister be working?

I’m not sure about you, but I try to work around 45 hours.  Actually, I’m pretty good sticking to that, except during busy seasons (i.e. Christmas and Easter).  Then again I’m not sure that’s what you need, maybe you believe it takes 35 hours or 50 hours to get the job done, maybe you’ve never tracked it?
As youth workers I think it’s essential to do three things when it comes to our work schedules:

1. Set Your Hours – Set a goal of how many hours a week you plan to work and stick to it.  On top of that set a time of day when you will arrive and leave.  It might be different each day (i.e. Mondays I come in at 9 and leave by 5 but Thursdays I’m in by 10:30am and leave by 9pm)
2. Design Your Calendar – Allocate what you are going to do and when you are going to do it and stay to it.  Create margin, make sure you put priority to your big 5.
3. Be Flexible – While it’s important to set a calendar and hours, know that at times it gets busy and once and a while you’ll have other things take over.  Also your calendar should never be written in stone, know that from season to season it’ll be adapted or tweaked.

But enough of what I do and what I say, I’m curious as to what you all think is appropriate in regards to the amount of hours a youth minister should work.  Let’s talk about this, please respond to the poll and share your thoughts below.


How many hours a week does it take for a full time youth minister to do his/her job effectively?