A pastor does many, many things; largely depending on the congregation's size and whether or not there are more than one pastor. If the church is large and there is multiple pastor then they are specialized into separate fields, but in an one pastor congregation then he/she does most (if not all) of the following. The first and most obvious is preaching Sunday morning, but this is not as simple as getting in front of a crowd and rambling for 20 minutes. Hours of preparation and prayer go into even the simplest sermon, even a "recycled" sermon-one that the pastor has done years ago but still has the outline, takes considerable work to revise and prepare with. But his/her job isn't over Sunday evening after the services are over.

Throughout the week he/she holds positions in most (if not all) councils or boards that the church offers and it is his/her responsibilty to make as many as possible to ensure everything is running smoothly. There is outreach that needs to be done, and that can look like a hundred different things but most common is visitation of the sick, elderly, or incarcerated, and the means spending a good amount of time with each individual. Beyond visitation he/she may be actively involved in other means of outreach including (but not limited to) street evangelism, school outreachs, homeless shelter work, etc. These outreaches depend largely on the area that the pastor preaches to.

Back in the church proper, when he/she isn't chairing a comittee, working on a sermon, preaching/teaching, he/she is busy with counciling. Numerous issues come past a pastor's desk and congregates will bring a wide range of issues before a pastor to handle, be in marriage issues, personal problems, spiritual questions, etc. etc. etc. He/She also will be involved in, if not directly leading marriage counciling.

That brings me into the next aspect of being a pastor, "the marrying them and burying them" aspect. In other words, involvement and leading of numerous special occasions in a person's life, (in many cases, conversion), baptism, weddings, and burials. Some churches have different milestones like these and differ widely from church to church. These are bittersweet moments for a pastor, especially when he/she is personally invested in the individual(s) that the ceremony is being held for.

These are your standard "9-5" job qualities, things that a pastor knows about atleast a few days in advance and can prepare for. But a pastor's job is far from 9-5. One of the most physically demanding, and spiritually taxing aspects is those moments that you can't be prepared for. That midnight phone call to the hospital because Mr. and Mrs. Smith's 21 year old son is in critical condition because of a drunk driver. A pastor may be there for hours giving comfort and aid to the family and victim. He/She may not have gone to bed yet, and in some cases it'll be Saturday night/Sunday morning and 2-3 sermons in the morning. It is in those moments that they relay entirely on God to pull them through.

Being a pastor is far from an easy job, he/she is continously being thrown into situations that most would want to avoid, tragic accidents, violent and malicious agruements, and pressed with questions that noone can really answer, these normally start "Why would God..." They're job are 24-7-365, and they are part teacher, part psychologist, part CEO, part finicial manager, part therapist, part orator, part embassador, and part solider.

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