#185 Best Day for a Sabbath as a Pastor Statistics

I recently did a poll on Facebook among a group of pastors. With over 50 responses I believe I have a decent idea what sort of rest pastors take. The people who responded are the people who are healthy enough to seek out other pastors to communicate with and are also willing to respond to the post. This necessarily limits the audience, likely limiting those who are spiritual or unhealthy, busy, or older. Given these limitations we can look at the responses and what they might mean. I posed the question, “What is the best day of the week to take a sabbath as a pastor?”

The responses can be categorized as:

None 10

Saturday 5

Sunday 4

Monday 17 

Tuesday 1

Wednesday 1

Thursday 1

Friday 12 

Depends 5

Parts of days 3

= 59 Responses

Many of the responses seemed either healthy or unhealthy. I will explain as we go along. What shocked me was how many pastors don’t take a true break. I would include those who chose none, Sunday, depends, parts of days, and most people in the Monday category. Together that is 39 people or 66.1% of all responses! Imagine how much higher that number might be if we included the pastors who are not on Facebook. 

Ten pastors said that they don’t take any sort of Sabbath. The common response here was along the lines that there is no sabbath any more. Essentially these pastors rejected the idea that they need any rest. One response said, “Monday was the worst. It always left me tired and still thinking about Sunday. Fridays were often busy at night with activities …. So I have always tried to move it around based on the season of life and make sure my family got me at my best. Not exhausted from the weekend. Now I run a few small business ventures so I never rest 😅😭.”

Many pastors chose to take only parts of certain days off. Such as Sunday afternoon and Monday morning. This is rather horrifying, if I may exaggerate a bit. If the average American is a workaholic these pastors are their ultramarathon burnout ready counterparts. 

Five pastors chose Saturday. These pastors seemed to be concerned with being well rested in preparation for Sunday morning. They want to give the church their best selves. Which is noble. But is this giving the best to their family as well? 

I was perhaps most surprised that four pastors chose Sunday as their sabbath. Although when reading through their responses it began to make sense. One pastor wrote that after church they go home and take a nap and have a crock pot meal for dinner. To me this raises the question who is sabbath about? If it is about you - the pastor - then perhaps for some people Sunday makes sense. But if it is about your family or God I doubt that Sunday makes sense. 

Monday was by far the most common response. Seventeen people reported Sunday as their day of rest. The most common reason for this response was that pastors did not feel up to doing ministry on Monday. The majority focus seemed to be on their ability to do ministry and the necessity of rest on Monday. 

A few people responded with Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. These people seem to be trying to escape from the anxiety leading up to Sunday and the exhaustion in the days following Sunday. Yet the flaw here would seem to be that you don’t have multiple days in a row. That is you need to get up early the next morning. And just because you stopped work for all of Thursday does not mean work stopped piling up. 

In my opinion the best answer and the most thought out answer of when to take a rest as a pastor was Friday. Friday was also the second most popular answer with 20.3%. Friday seems to work well for many reasons. Most people stop working on Fridays anyways so less work piles up on Fridays. While Saturday remains open for special events and last minute sermon preparation. On a good week, a pastor could use a vacation day to take Thursday off of work and be able to take a three day vacation coming back Saturday evening ready to preach Sunday morning. The most helpful advice I read was, “I think the big shift to make is that Sabbath becomes the start of your week not the end of it. While rest is day 7 for God, it is not day 7 for Adam and Eve. You were actually designed to work from rest not for it 👊 Also Fridays 🤣.” The advice of this pastor shifts the narrative completely. When we start from a place of rest we give God our best. This requires us to be prepared, to write the sermon and to be ready to worship before the weekend rolls around. Such that when Sunday comes we can focus on God rather than on the administrative work. 

I will include the advice of a couple other pastors who put some good thought into their answers. One pastor exposited on the responses I received, “Lots of good answers here... Just came to say, thank you for being intentional about taking a sabbath. Obviously, we are no longer bound by the Jewish tradition of "when" the sabbath is - but, God clearly knows the limits of our bodies which He created, He instituted the sabbath for a reason, and Jesus told us the sabbath is not for God, but for man. Whichever day fits best within the other activities around you that you can't control ... but once you choose it, stick to it! It's important! I hope some of the others who have commented here about not resting do become more intentional about forcing themselves into a day of rest each week - It's a rejuvenating thing that God created to prevent burn out and exhaustion and to allow us to be intentional about drawing close to Him, ignoring the notifications and distractions for a day. 🙂” Another pastor wrote, “Find a day that works for you and your family. I know pastors who take Monday others Thursday or Friday and Saturday. The important thing is to take the day off. No visits, calls or sermon preparation. Let your Church know the days off, most will respect it. Obviously if there is an emergency you need to provide a means of contact. My wife is the gate keeper for those calls. It's essential you disconnect from ministry and be fully engaged with your family during your time off. Friday for me. Early morning prayer and solitude followed by golf.” Imagine that, if anyone wants to reach the pastor on Friday they have to call his wife! I bet that would stop most calls right there. 

When a pastor takes a sabbath regardless of when, he must make time to connect with God, connect with family, spend time alone - to rest, and to have time away from stressors. We are called to lead our families as Paul says in 1 Timothy 3:5 “if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?” How can you lead God’s church in rest if you cannot lead your family in rest?