For the past 20 years, Leadership has unleashed its editors and research staff to interview and survey pastors. Being journalists, we’ve never felt bashful about asking probing questions on topics such as sex, money, and power. You’ve answered—candidly.
Recently, I pored through three thick notebooks bulging with two decades of reports and selected ten questions-and-answers I found intriguing.
We asked probing questions. You answered candidly.
1. How do you feel about ministry? Conventional wisdom bemoans crisis proportions of pastors discouraged and depressed, stressed and burned out. With due respect, our research consistently shows otherwise. For example, 91 percent of pastors say they feel “very positive” or “positive” about ministry. Nearly all feel satisfied (91 percent “very satisfied” or “satisfied”), and they want to stay in ministry (75 percent “definitely want to stay” and 21 percent “prefer to stay”). Sorry, doomsayers, there is no professional crisis.
2. Since you’ve been in ministry, have you had sexual intercourse with someone other than your spouse? Yes: 12 percent; no: 88 percent. This 12 percent, though nothing to cheer, is lower than the equivalent figure in the general population, 15-35 percent, according to Sex in America: A Definitive Study (Little Brown, 1994).
3. [Of those involved in inappropriate sexual activity:] Did the church find out? Yes: 4 percent; no: 96 percent. Hmmm.
4. Are sexual fantasies about someone other than your spouse harmful, harmless, or it depends? It was a statistical dead heat: Harmful (41 percent), Harmless (39 percent). My reading of the Bible and good psychology says pastors in this 39-percent group are kidding themselves.
5. How much money do you make? Although it’s difficult to compare pastors’ compensation with that of other workers, probably the fairest number to use is pastors’ salary plus housing allowance. The 1994 medians for senior pastors ($46,675) and solo pastors ($33,577) compared favorably to the median salary for U.S. male workers ($30,854). Yet pastors earn much less than most other professionals with the same level of education.
6. Have you ever asked for a raise? Yes: 35 percent; no: 65 percent. We then asked the 35 percent, “What happened when you asked for a raise?” Surprise! 65 percent got all of what they asked for, another 22 percent got some of what they asked for. Moral of the story: Ye have not because ye ask not.
7. During your ministry, have you ever been fired or forced to resign? Fired: 6 percent; forced out: 19 percent. (Since some had experienced both, the combined tally came to 22.8 percent; still nearly 1 in 4 pastors have been terminated.) We also asked “Who forced you out?” and found the biggest single culprit was “a small faction” of about 10 people. Pastoring is increasingly like coaching pro football: being under pressure is part of the territory.
8. [Of those forced out:] Was the church told why? 63 percent of the time, no. Is this healthy?
9. [Of those forced out:] To your knowledge, had the church forced out other ministers in its past? 62 percent of respondents said yes, meaning that roughly 15 percent of Protestant congregations are, in my colleague Dave Goetz’s term, “repeat-offender churches.” Lesson: If you’re candidating, ask probing questions about past departures—and be sure to talk to the former pastor. If pastors were fired or forced out, be ready for the same.
10. If you had it to do over again, would you choose a career in ministry? An overwhelming 86 percent said yes. Pastors are in the business of changing people’s lives forever. That’s worth doing, and doing again.
Kevin A. Miller is editor-at-large of Leadership.
Copyright © 1999 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. For reprint information call 630-260-6200 or contact us.
