At least one conference in the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s North American region has concluded that frazzled pastors don’t make for successful ministry. That conference, spanning the U.S. states of Iowa and Missouri, is encouraging pastors to trim their sometimes 80-hour workweeks to a saner 45 to 55 hours.

“We’ve seen more disturbingly high incidents of stress-related illnesses, marriage problems, divorce and conflict between parents and children among Adventist pastors than at any other time,” says Iowa-Missouri conference president Dean Coridan.

The region is inviting pastors to reprioritize their lives and recast their roles within the church. “The day of working an 80-hour week must come to an end. The church does not own us,” Coridan tells ministers during workshop sessions, which he has led in the region for 18 months.

Ministry shouldn’t jeopardize the health of any pastor’s spiritual life or family happiness, Coridan says.  But all too often conferences, church members and pastors themselves have equally unrealistic expectations of pastoral ministry.

The conference’s executive committee is developing a curriculum to teach church elders how to better support pastors by being spiritual leaders. Coridan says the committee also plans to push for cohesive job descriptions for pastors throughout the region, in which they’ll be cast in mostly outreach, rather than church maintenance roles.

“It’s easy to keep piling onto that initial job description until the pastor is overworked and overwhelmed,” Coridan says.

The solution, he says, requires pastors to delegate and say “no” to some responsibilities. Coridan adds that while the plan may not fully eliminate pastoral exhaustion, ministers in the conference have found it beneficial.

Eddie Cabrera, who pastors three churches in the Iowa-Missouri region and has reined in his workweek for two years, will vouch for the value of ‘No.’

“I tell my church members, ‘Don’t call me on Sunday to ask how many Sabbath school quarterlies you should order,’ Cabrera says. “If it’s an emergency, yes, I’ll be there, but otherwise Sunday is family day.”

“You can’t be hard-nosed,” he says, “but your church members will respect you when they realize how much you value your family.”

Many church members, Cabrera says, are surprised yet generally receptive to helping the pastor minister. “I tell them, ‘Look, I trust you. I won’t hoard responsibility. I don’t have to lead all the Bible studies and evangelism, preach all the sermons or make all the decisions. If you have an idea, Go for it.’”

Cabrera is quick to point out that shorter workweeks don’t create lazy pastors who ignore responsibility or problems in the pews, as some might suspect. Instead, he says the program strengthens churches by involving each member in active ministry.

“Defining the role of pastors is really defining power. When you delegate, you’re handing that power over to somebody else,” says Coridan. “Some pastors are reluctant to do that.”

No pastor is forced to corral his ministry, and there are no ultimatums if workweeks creep back up, or, if a pastor chooses not to limit his hours. “If a pastor tells me, ‘Dean, I don’t agree. This is a 24/7 job,’ I’m not going to fight the guy, but there are devastating effects to overworking that are costing us more than we know.”

Coridan says divorce rates within the Adventist Church keep pace with those outside. He has also observed that when pastors work fewer hours, they tend to spend more time with their families. A pastor himself, Coridan says, “It’s time we got a sense of what it means to be a godly father and husband. It doesn’t just mean earning a living.

“And as pastors, we haven’t failed if we aren’t directly involved in every last detail in our churches.”