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I.
Various surveys have produced the image that clergy health and pastoral satisfaction are in a crisis state.
Many of the clergy crisis ministries either quote
from one of these studies of clergy
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The listed studies include: |
1991 Fuller Institute of Church Growth |
George Barna, What Americans Believe |
Blackmon & Hart, Clergy Assessment & Career Development
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Malony & Hunt, The Psychology of Clergy |
Leadership, Fall 1992 Marriage Problems Pastors Face
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Current Thoughts & Trends, May 1992 |
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Current Thoughts & Trends, December 1992 |
Duane Alleman, Theology News & Notes, Fuller Seminary
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Ministries Today, Nov / Dec 1992 |
Focus on the Family Survey |
Current Thoughts & Trends, July 1992 |
These statistics came from across denomination lines, and have been gleaned from various reliable sources such
as Pastor to Pastor, Focus on the Family, Ministries Today, Charisma Magazine, TNT Ministries, Campus Crusade for Christ and
the Global Pastors Network.
1. Protestant
Pastoral Ministry at the Beginning of the New Millennium by Jackson W. Carroll, Duke Divinity School His article gives some reasons
for not accepting overly positive reports about clergy satisfaction.
2.
Job Satisfaction and Role Ambiguity
Experienced by Protestant Clergy: Investigation of Possible Predictors of Vocational Longevity and Clinical Depression
Part of Duke Divinity School's
Pulpit & the Pew research was this dissertation by Kenneth Jones Dr.
Jackson W. Carroll, Duke Divinity School, mentions this dissertation in his article “Protestant Pastoral Ministry at the Beginning of the New Millennium” page 7, footnote 3. As
is stated on the Dr. Carroll’s above mentioned article. One of the dissertations that we are funding as part of our Pastoral Leadership
Project (Jones, forthcoming) is exploring this matter in some detail. In responses to a mailed questionnaire, he has found
that a majority of clergy check responses saying that they are very or moderately satisfied with their jobs. However, when
given opportunity to write in comments, a significant portion of these same clergy express considerable dissatisfaction with
their jobs. How to interpret the discrepancy is an interesting problem.
This
part of the Pulpit and the Pew Pastoral
Leadership Project raises two theological
issues. We clergy are no longer great examples of health. Today’s clergy have more stress and less support than the
previous pastors who had more support and less resources. Thus, whole church must regain a theology of the stewardship
of one’s personal health.
The
whole church must experience a theological renewal concerning the incarnation of Christ which carries with it a much more
positive view of the body. Today’s unbiblical view of the body comes from mixing Neo-Plantonism with Christian doctrine
among some in the very early years of the Church. Neo-Plantonism teaches a false dichotomy of the body as bad and the spirit
as good. This led people back then and today to substitute brave faithfulness to the Gospel for living a life of dying to
the self and living for God and others to the degree of not caring for their own health.
5.
According
to the Ministering to Ministers Foundation...
• Over 1600 pastors in the U.S. are forced out
of their positions each month.
• Nearly 1 in 4 pastors experience
a forced termination at least once during their ministry.
•Only 54% of pastors go back into full-time church related positions.
II. Important Links to Other Research.
III. Links to Other Important Articles.
IV. The Clergy Satisfaction Report.
V. A Reasonable Response to the Clergy Job Satasfaction
Study.
Happy, Healthy, Shiny, Satisfied Clergy? by John M. Crowe
VI. New Clergy Health Programs and Blogs.
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