The Lord encourages his people to pray for the spiritual leaders he has provided for them. Pray for the
pastor who serves you as a shepherd under Christ—for his spiritual, emotional, and physical well-being. Pray for his family and his ministry among you. Pray also for your pastor’s spiritual and professional growth.

Twenty-one large blocks of time—that is what the pastor gets if he divides every day of the week into a morning block, an afternoon block, and an evening block. If he reserves six of those blocks for his family, the remaining blocks will result in a work week of about 55–60 hours.

We encourage that pastors dedicate one ministry block to informal study every week. The church secretary should know that he is “scheduled” (unless it is an emergency). As he unplugs from ministry and technology, the pastor can dive into his studies. Consider the following hypothetical study session.

Beginning at 1:00 p.m. the pastor reads periodicals and newsletter articles: an article and a book review from Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly, our seminary’s theological journal; some articles from Forward in Christ magazine; articles from the Grow in Grace Notes newsletter and The Four Branches newsletter; a book review and perhaps a podcast from The Shepherd’s Study; and an article from the seminary’s library resources (e.g., from the ATLA database or the essay file). There are many other resources distributed by our church body and others that could be read at this time.

By about 2:15 or 2:30, the pastor is ready for a break; he goes for a walk in the fresh air to get ready for the “book part” of his study. The pastor is reading through four books in four areas of theology: biblical studies, church history, doctrine, and practical theology. In biblical studies, the pastor is reading a chapter a week in an Old Testament introduction book called Prepare the Way of the Lord. For church history, he is reading a chapter a week from The Lives and Writings of the Great Fathers of the Lutheran Church. To review Christian doctrine, he is reading through about fifteen pages from their dogmatics class notes, which serve as a textbook at the seminary. In the area of practical theology, the pastor chooses books on preaching, teaching, leadership, and counseling. Currently, he is reading a book called Preaching: The Art of Narrative Exposition. The pastor reads for about thirty minutes from each book and takes a short break between them. Sometimes he listens to audio books or podcasts.

Pastors who plan and carry out weekly informal study time will reap a variety of benefits. They will discover and maintain the joy of learning, finding often that what they just studied can be shared with members and prospects during the week. They will grow in faith and knowledge, be more confident for ministry, and be motivated and better equipped to participate in formal continuing education courses with other pastors. Every pastor is knit together differently. This disciplined approach to informal continuing education will not necessarily work for all pastors. Planning for this kind of growth, however, is the best way to make sure it happens. Grow in Grace, the branch of the seminary dedicated to the continued growth of pastors,encourages pastors to make time in their weekly schedule for this kind of study, and we provide resources and recommendations for such study.

We pray that the Lord will continue to bless our growing pastors.

Bradley Wordell is director of Grow in Grace and professor of Old Testament.