A Time for Every Purpose: Updating and Extending Blizzard's Survey on Clergy Time Allocation

Abstract

Using a 1994 survey of all clergy in Milwaukee County we update and extend Samuel Blizzard's work on time allocation. When compared to Blizzard's 1955 sample of mainline Protestant clergy, today's mainline clergy work a shorter work week, showing a sharp drop in the time devoted to interacting with church members and potential members. We also extend Blizzard's work by moving beyond the mainline clergy to review the differences in time allocation of sectarian, conservative mainline, and Catholic clergy. Many of the differences reflect the varied religious traditions and match common expectations, others call for revisions. We find that the Catholic clergy's time allocations for evangelical and personal piety activities more closely resemble those of sectarian pastors than the mainline ministers. And, although sectarian clergy continue to support small fellowships for little or no pay, they also serve some of the very largest congregations and are paid wellfor doing so.