Pastors' Pulse - Christianity Today

When LEADERSHIP asked that question, here’s what you said.

We’ve heard the bad news: Ministry is becoming harder than ever. Scores of pastors are discouraged or disillusioned. Hundreds have abandoned their call to take up secular employment.

But, according to a recent LEADERSHIP survey of 758 pastors, most American pastors thoroughly enjoy what they do and wouldn’t trade places with anyone–no matter what the pay might be. (Yes: 20.1%; No: 54.6%; Maybe: 19.9%; No response: 5.3%)

What might tempt pastors to take up secular pursuits? Decidedly not money. Seven out of 10 pastors said that the possibility of more money would probably or definitely not cause them to leave ministry. (Yes: 9.9%; No: 70.7%; Maybe: 15.2%; No response: 4.2%)

Some might wonder, Are pastors rooted to their profession because they feel ill-equipped to do anything else? Not really. Fewer than one in three ministers (30.6 percent) admit to having felt trapped in the job. And as LEADERSHIP adviser Warren Wiersbe put it, “Even Moses felt that way sometimes.” Interestingly, some who in the past have felt trapped in ministry would not leave now if they were given the opportunity.

Pastors’ commitment to their ministries is even more striking when you consider that between 1965 and 1987, the number of Americans changing occupations nearly doubled. According to career expert Richard Nelson Bolles, 33 percent of American workers in 1991 contemplated changing their jobs the previous year.

MIDLIFE MALAISE

Age influenced responses. Early baby boomer pastors (those 40 to 49 years old) were more likely to say they have felt trapped. We asked LEADERSHIP adviser Lyle Schaller to speculate why.

“Pastors 50 and up feel good about ministry because those who didn’t have been sifted out. And the pastors in their 30s–those born between 1955 and 1962–grew up in a world full of choices. When they chose ministry, they did so freely, not just because they were following in the steps of a father or grandfather. Also, they went to seminary in a different era. Pastors now in their 40s found that seminaries had a great deal of disillusionment about the local church, but the younger group received more reinforcement about parish ministry. They also have the advantage of helps that the older group did not: new conferences, Leadership Network, and so on. That’s why I think they haven’t experienced the kind of disillusionment that people who are 45 to 50 have felt.”

GOD’S CALL

Most pastors (86.5 percent) cited a “strong sense of God’s call” as the primary factor in why they had chosen to enter ministry. Surprisingly, given the many recent books on the dire straits of ministry, we found most pastors feel satisfied for having answered God’s call. Asked whether they would choose a career in ministry if they had it to do all over again, more than four out of five ministers (83.4 percent) said yes!Â (Yes: Under 40 – 83.7%; 40-49 – 84.8%; 50-65 – 79.5%; Over 65 – 88.3%)

A tiny number of pastors (3.4 percent) said they had become disillusioned because of ministry, but the overwhelming majority–89.2 percent–said they had grown and matured in their faith as a result of being in the ministry.

Comments Wiersbe, “We older ministers have lived long enough to get a broader perspective: hard times aren’t as bad as they seem, and difficult people aren’t as bad as they seem, either.”

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Richard Doebler is a contributing editor for LEADERSHIP.