It is suggested this is an area of the life of God’s people in which we need to make a significant breakthrough. The wastage and lost opportunites are just too great. In this context, many ministers need to learn more about ‘permission giving’ and using the gifts of their congregations as the bases for organising their own ministries.

(The following messages appeared on the list of the Uniting Church in Australia.)

The following is an article from the LA Times.

How would this compare to what ministers experience here in Australia? What is your experience?

What about the pressures of lay people? Is it any different?

How can we alleviate the pressures of full-time ministry? What are the creative ways that people have found to stay on top of things?

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Pastoral Pressures Take Their Toll “Pastors are the single most occupationally frustrated group in America,” says Southern California psychologist Richard Blackmon, quoted in a recent Los Angeles Times story on the demands faced by today’s spiritual leaders. Roughly 30% to 40% of religious leaders eventually drop out of the ministry, according to Blackmon. About 75% go through a period of stress so great that they consider quitting. The incidents of mental breakdown are so high that insurance companies charge about 4% extra to cover church staff members when compared to employees in other businesses.

Pastor John Huffman of Ventura, California, said he could empathize with Ron Dybvig, a 55-year-old pastor who ran away from his congregation a week ago and spent three nights wandering the snow- covered mountains in San Diego County. When found, Dybvig told authorities he was overwhelmed by life and just needed to get away.

The demand to be on-call for a congregation 24 hours a day – as personal confidant, marriage counselor, crisis interventionist – puts church leaders in a constant whirlwind of stressful events, says the article. And when the phone rings, a pastor is expected to answer the call no matter how tired or strained he or she may feel.

The profession is often characterized as more stress-ridden than a doctor dealing with a terminal illness, since the doctor can walk away from the situation when he leaves the room. The pastor, how ever, unlike other professionals, normally has emotional links and personal ties to those being helped and suffers with them.

Pressure is also applied since ministers live under tremendous scrutiny by their congregations and the community, and are expected by them to conduct a life far more holy than their own.

Additionally, religious leaders, especially those heading up small churches, wear several administrative hats – worrying about attendance, bills, building repairs, staffing issues and volunteer recruitment – on top of preparing multiple sermons, messages and Bible lessons each week. “Their strong religious beliefs mean they won’t kill themselves, “says pastoral psychologist Archibald Hart. “They just spend their time wishing they were dead.”

Pastors need to set limits for themselves if they are to avoid burnout, warn the experts- They also need to have hobbies and interests outside of the church. Finding or creating a regular support group with other religious leaders is also important. [Source; Los Angeles Times, 1/29/99]

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Forgive the intrusion of a lay voice, but I have had a number of friends/close acquaintances among the clergy, and I am widely read on religio-social issues in Godzone, so feel mildly qualified to comment as an observer.

Firstly, I would not expect – as a general rule – problems in the U.S.A. to be reflected to the same degree in Australia. An American cleric will routinely have more parishioners to look after, and a higher percentage of active (or at least vocal) persons to attend to. I suspect also, that the intensity of those persons is likely to add stresses of a more extreme nature than most of our parishes would present.

Please note, I am talking in generalities and assume exceptions. But on the whole I think that a comparable survey would reveal an existing, though lesser, problem here.

Second, there are many (including some well-publicised) cases of Australian clergy succumbing to the stresses of the task (and I am excluding moral or theological lapses of judgement). There are examples of clergy treated for mental health problems, or who have left the vocation, or switched parishes – even denominations – as a result of perceived pressures. I suspect (though these are less apparent) that cases will be found also among the para-vocationals (those in support roles such as deacons, lay-preachers, etc.).

Yet, for each problem that can be identified, there are examples of clergy who thrive on the self-same factor. Some achieve a higher sense of achievement and satisfaction in situations that would have crippled others. (Just as priests have left the Roman Catholic church because celibacy is a problem, others find their place there.)

I think of one parish I know where the pastor left feeling weighed down and dissatisfied, to be replaced by another pastor who blossomed and thrived. Interestingly, pastor one went on to have a great deal of reward from his next posting.

I agree that having some other diversion or interest may assist many, though I think it is trivialising to call this a hobby. It might be wood-carving, it might be listening to Wagner, it might be singing Victorian parlour ballads, but it might also be meditation or even having a family life.

To me the problem is a management problem, and I apologise in advance to any bishop who might be listening. An individual will have his/her own personality, and that will be more or less in tune with the needs of different vocational settings. It is a matter of finding the right parish or other setting for each individual, and achieving an appropriate resolution for problems that may generate unacceptable stress.

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To which

“Howard Groome” <> responded:

Ray has put his finger on some important issues here. I’d like to add soem refelctions from another ‘different’ perspective.

I have been a community minister within my own congregation for the last six months. Prior to that I worked as a principal of several schools and have been a university lecturer with managerial and counselling loads as well as teaching ones.

On the face of it my previous jobs were very similar to the ministry. There are however soem significant differences which I have become aware of.

The first is the lack of regular daily collegiality with folk in the congregation. I am very fortunate that I am ministering to a marvellous group of long established friends who chose me to pastor them. However during the week I feel the lack of the kind of collegiality that one finds in most work places, the regular formal and informal meetings, the talks in the tea room which keep the real business going and which serve many personal needs. I see a real need to create that supportive and enriching culture within my congegation, not only for my own sake.

The second is the problem of home being inescapably a work site. It’s hard to find ways around this, but we do need to create physical, mental and emotional boundaries here.

The third is the old temptation to try to do it all oneself. I’m having to relearn the need to roll work back on to others and not to do a job just because it won’t get done otherwise. This is a factor even though we have a delegated team structure. The baby boomer members of our congregation just have very little time in the week to think creatively and constructively about church affairs. Their lives as professionals and parenst are just so demanding.

Then there is the capacity for small issues to become raging bushfires – churches seem to have a special penchant for making the minister an Aunt Sally in these kinds of things. We can’t afford to own other people’s negativity and small mindedness.

Finally, I have found a definite spiritual agenda behind many of the pressures. In this new role I have become much more aware of a spiritual warfare than I ever knew in my previous work, even though many of the tasks wre almost identical. The struggles in doing the job have become much more tangibly focussed as ones against the forces of darkness.

Howard Groome Community Minister, Port Adelaide Uniting Church

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