What does a pastor do?
Pastors are considered the leader of a church whose primary role is to give sermons to church members. They also have other duties, including conducting worship services, planning weekly sermons, and interpreting scriptures for the congregation. As the church leader, they provide counseling and care to their members and offer support in times of crisis. Their job also allows them to officiate at special events like weddings, baptisms, and confirmations. Also, they are responsible for overseeing and supporting congregation staff and ensuring the functionality of church facilities.
Pastor responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real pastor resumes:
- Manage and provide oversight for the administration of all ministry areas within the organization.
- Provide formal and informal leadership training and forums for frequent communication, encouragement and evaluation.
- Coordinate visitation program, VBS, and youth programs.
- Develop children's ministry including writing of curriculum for Sunday school and VBS.
- Begin to birth new Sunday school groups, and new bible study small groups.
- Provide hand-outs, and employ PowerPoint slides to illustrate concepts and provide visual referencing of all teaching content.
- Present gospel message weekly, on-call for emergency ministry, and extend other pastoral support and counsel as needed.
- Assist students in succeeding in school, music, and life (relationships, family, etc .).
- Perform various administrative roles such as: updating database, preparing youth building for service, building props, etc.
- Conduct corporate/community prayer and outreach.
- Coordinate bi-yearly worship/ministry nights focuse on worship and ministry prayer.
- Deliver gospel and theological education to members and emerging Christians.
- Create and coordinate monthly servant evangelism projects connecting church with community.
- Organize and implement newly structure discipleship ministry; provide oversight for various programs.
- Plan, organize and coordinate events and trips resulting in community evangelism and outreach.
Pastor skills and personality traits
We calculated that 22% of Pastors are proficient in Community Outreach, Overseer, and Bible Study.
We break down the percentage of Pastors that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Community Outreach, 22%
Planned and organized community outreaches including recruiting and training volunteer teams to carry out events.
- Overseer, 7%
Perform administration aspects required as overseer.
- Bible Study, 7%
Implemented bible study by conference call to include elderly, disabled and economically challenged congregates.
- Public Speaking, 6%
Developed public speaking skills by personalizing a contemporary format to integrate with timeless truths.
- GOD, 6%
Assembled a Vision Team, to pray & ask God for His vision for the church & developed the vision statement.
- Youth Ministry, 5%
Maintained awareness of resources for developing the youth ministry and participated in continuing education events and training opportunities.
Common skills that a pastor uses to do their job include "community outreach," "overseer," and "bible study." You can find details on the most important pastor responsibilities below.
The three companies that hire the most pastors are:
- Grace Chapel
2 pastors jobs
- Southland Christian Church2 pastors jobs
- Chandler Signs2 pastors jobs
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Compare different pastors
Pastor vs. Hospital chaplain
A Hospice Chaplain provides care and comfort to patients nearing the end of life because of terminal illnesses. They collaborate with the community and the care team to ensure that care is in accord with the patient's faith.
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a pastor are more likely to require skills like "community outreach," "overseer," "bible study," and "public speaking." On the other hand, a job as a hospital chaplain requires skills like "patients," "clinical pastoral," "pastoral care," and "patient care." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
Hospital chaplains tend to reach higher levels of education than pastors. In fact, hospital chaplains are 8.8% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 1.7% more likely to have a Doctoral Degree.Pastor vs. Hospice chaplain
The word chaplain is originally referred to as representatives of the Christian faith. In tradition, a chaplain is a cleric or formal leader with an established religion or any non-ordained members of religious institutes. Chaplains now are diverse in terms of faith and often serve various constituencies. Chaplains are professionally trained and certified to provide spiritual guidance in a clinical setting to individuals who has issues with meaning, hope, and transcendence or any specific life circumstances it may be. They offer reflective listening and non-judgmental emotional and inner comfort in various settings, including the military, parishes, hospitals, prisons, universities, and schools.
While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that pastor responsibilities requires skills like "overseer," "bible study," "public speaking," and "youth ministry." But a hospice chaplain might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "patients," "home health," "clinical pastoral," and "patient care."
In general, hospice chaplains achieve higher levels of education than pastors. They're 11.2% more likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 1.7% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for pastors in the next 3-5 years?
Dr. Christopher Foster
Associate Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies, Graduate School of Theology and, Oral Roberts University
Despite the technological tools, with all the bells and whistles, technology must remain relational and dialogical.
Pastor vs. Chaplain
Some important key differences between the two careers include a few of the skills necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of each. Some examples from pastor resumes include skills like "community outreach," "overseer," "bible study," and "public speaking," whereas a chaplain is more likely to list skills in "patients," "social work," "clinical pastoral," and "pastoral care. "
Chaplains earn the best pay in the health care industry, where they command an average salary of $58,864. Pastors earn the highest pay from the education industry, with an average salary of $42,598.chaplains typically earn higher educational levels compared to pastors. Specifically, they're 5.5% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 1.3% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Pastor vs. Elder
Types of pastor
Updated January 8, 2025
