Minneapolis is the seat of Hennepin County. most immediately these two names create mental images. Minnehaha Falls, inspiration for Longfellow’s immortal Song of Hiawatha . . . warm, friendly neighborhoods filled with people by the name of Swenson, Johnson and Carlson . . . fire hydrants making their presence known by marking flags attached to long poles that poke their way up through mounds of snow. Hennepin County is mid-America . . . well, north mid-America.
Perhaps mid-America isn’t the place to analyze any particular group of professionals and then generalize about them or their professions. But we found ourselves intrigued by a survey of Hennepin County pastors and priests sponsored by the Minneapolis Star (a highly respected daily). From a directory of 1,000 clergy names, 301 individuals were randomly selected and personally interviewed about “how they viewed themselves and their ministry.”
Released over a year ago, this survey could not have come at a better time. Most religious leaders are aware that the professional image of the minister has suffered a severe loss of public esteem. In the July 1979 issue of Psychology Today (“Job Prestige: The Duncan Scale”), the clergy placed 52 out of a possible 100 when the scores for “respected and desirable professions” were ranked. Ministers found themselves just below manufacturing foremen and just above power station operators. The top half of the “pecking order” on the Duncan Scale reads thus:
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A hundred years ago, such a listing would have looked quite different. The minister was known as The Parson . . . meaning, “The Person!” He was usually the best educated and most widely traveled individual in the community. Ordination to divine ministry was a major public event. Regardless of the size or sophistication of the community, The Parson was sought after by both the high-and-mighty and the humble-and-downtrodden. He was The Person of wisdom, insight, and sound judgment. Local sociological structure often revolved around him. (This is still by-andlarge true in the black community.)
Psychology Today says times have changed. Perhaps so, but we found some reassuring data
 about Hennepin County clergy that might encourage you.
First of all, nine out of ten . . . that’s right . . . nine out of ten pastors and priests are very satisfied with their work. Almost 50 percent gave “job satisfaction” the highest possible score. The respondents were asked, “How satisfied would you say you are with your profession on a scale of one to five, with five meaning very satisfied and one meaning not satisfied at all?” Graphically their answers look like this:
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In an age when Time magazine says that “nine out of ten Americans are unhappy with their jobs” or “hate their work,” it is very affirming to know that the spiritual leaders of Hennepin County derive great personal satisfaction from their ministry.
From a vocational perspective the “satisfaction rating” of this study is significant since the respondents “spend much of their time performing duties other than those of their choice, undergo job-related stress, and by commonly accepted standards appear to be overworked and underpaid.” It is also significant that job satisfaction would rate very high even though 41 percent of the ministers said their congregation was “going through a major change.”
Second, the interviewees unanimously agreed that their jobs are very challenging. This is the only statistic we found hard to believe! Not the part about the job being challenging, but that 301 ministers from every conceivable church and denomination would unanimously agree on something! The serious fact is that 93 percent reinforced this agreement by saying, “At the end of a day I feel a certain sense of accomplishment.” Over half emphasized this statement!
If Time magazine is correct, very few profession. als, including the ones Psychology Today rated above ministers, consistently enjoy great challenges, the highest levels of satisfaction, and an opportunity to finish each day with a sense of accomplishment.
While many of the “top 20” prestige professions are service oriented (as opposed to product oriented), none of them deal to the same degree with the physical, mental, social, and spiritual dimensions of society as does the ministry. As every pastor knows, the task requires dealing with the “whole” man. Can anything be more challenging or
 satisfying than addressing oneself to the most complex problem of all time? Clergymen seem to realize that there might be more satisfaction in moving a mountain one inch than moving a molehill many miles.
One of the respondents, a Lutheran pastor, when asked to describe his greatest reward said, “Seeing a person ‘fly’ for the first time. … “
A colleague put it another way: “My greatest reward is a relationship with people . . . and personal growth. I go through as many experiences in one year as others do in a lifetime.”
But these statistics and statements raise discomforting questions If the above is true, why isn’t the pastor considered to be The Person any longer? While standings on a prestige scale are not all that important, it does make one wonder why “those who provide significant spiritual and social services” are perceived by the larger community as “half way up the scale.” The Hennepin study doesn’t give us conclusive answers, but it does provide some interesting clues.
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For example, it shows that a sizeable number of Minneapolis pastors are unhappy about the amount of time they must put into administrative work. They neither prefer, desire, nor feel trained to perform these kinds of tasks. Case in point. Only eight percent of ministers prefer to spend “most of their week” in administrative and committee work (administration three percent, group/ committee work five percent). These figures are remarkably close to the data George Gallup, Jr. found for a Christianity Today- commissioned survey of United States clergy. Gallup paints a slightly worse picture. Nationally, only two percent of pastors and priests rate administration as “most important” or as giving “most satisfaction.”
In actuality, 36 percent of Hennepin County ministers said these activities “take most of their week,” and another 35 percent said administrative and committee work took “the next biggest portion of my week.” Plotted in comparative columns, the numbers suggest a professional dilemma that cannot help but produce internal stress and external frustration.
This frustration was expressed in a variety of ways and usually in a sensitive, soft-spoken manner. A Lutheran minister described it this way. “Never expect to have a sense of being finished, because you won’t. With other jobs, like loading a truck, you can sit back when you are finished and say, ‘I’m done . . . it looks good and I’m happy with what I’ve done.’ Remember, everyone is a volunteer. The church is not the parishioners’ highest priority as it is for the pastor.”
The net result is a feeling of being “trapped” by a system of administrative “expectations” that most ministers neither anticipated, desired, nor felt adequate to handle. Even though 90 percent had college degrees and 70 percent had graduate de
grees, the respondents consistently rated themselves “least prepared” for administrative and time management responsibility. On a scale of one to five with one being the least prepared and five being the best prepared, pastors rated themselves as follows:
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It’s the proverbial “round-peg-in-a-square-hole” problem. Neither is made for the other. Hammered hard enough, both can be forced to change shape . . . with some damage to each. The “fit” is unsatisfactory, and both the peg and the hole are never the same.
Perhaps as interesting as the perceived lack of training for administration is the rating ministers gave themselves in dealing with conflicts. While the Hennepin study is not complete enough to draw a correlation with management training, time demands for administration, and conflict problems, it forcefully states that the minister experiences high levels of stress within himself, his family, and his congregation.
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Could the 91 percent who face “problems with parishioners” be helped with more counseling and conflict resolution training? Would a time management background reduce the levels of personal frustration and turmoil?
Perhaps. But this study only hints at the lack of training as the root problem. The difficulty is the sizeable disparity between what the pastor thinks the ministry should be and what he spends most of his time doing; what he wants it to be and what his congregation expects him to do.
The strongest suggestion that this might be true is found in the 81 percent who admit to “feelings of futility.” How contradictory! . . . when compared to the earlier mentioned 90 percent who are “very satisfied with their work.” How can a minister be professionally satisfied, fulfilled, challenged, and “finish each day with a sense of accomplishment” while simultaneously struggling with stress, conflict, frustration, overwork, feelings of futility, and loneliness?
This matter hits close to home. As we have been preparing LEADERSHIP for publication, dozens of potential readers have let us know that they are deeply interested in articles like, “The Pastor as Shepherd and Manager: An Impossible Tension?” (See future issues for a continuing treatment of this subject.)
How do ministers handle this dilemma? Some quit. Some pile on even more work. Some seek help. Many succumb to the inequities of “the system” and accept “coping” as a calling. When asked to give a short piece of advice to someone beginning a career in professional ministry, Minneapolis pastors suggested:
“Make sure it’s the only thing in the world you want to do. If you have a conflict, such as a desire to do something else, do it!” (Seventh Day Adventist)
“This job is difficult on the family . . . you just don’t have a lot of time for the family.” (Lutheran)
“Don’t do it. Don’t do it unless you really feel you have to. It’s not a career to be pursued . . . it’s a life style.” (Christian & Missionary Alliance)
The most poignant advice may have come from a United Methodist pastor who said, “Lower your expectations. I guess I think of how I felt when I started. I was going to set the world on fire. You have to come to terms with the limitations of yourself, the organization, the people, and reality.”
And for many Minneapolis ministers, reality is a frustrating job description (or non-job description), long hours, and low pay. Reality also means that one out of two pastors’ wives must seek outside employment.
These economic facts of life pose another set of provocative questions. It’s no wonder that in a society where most values are measured in amounts of money, being “overworked and underpaid” doesn’t equate with top billing on the respected and desirable list . . . a list that should probably be the least of a pastor’s concerns.
However, the ministers of Hennepin County may be pointing out a far greater dilemma. Is it possible that the inner ear of John Q. Public as noted in the Psychology Today listings has picked up the discordant overtones of an ambivalent and frustrated profession . . . a profession that has not resolved the mismatch of perceiving, desiring, and preparing for one kind of ministry and accepting and implementing something else?
In any case, we stick with our original conclusion. We find the study of Hennepin County ministers reassuring. The possibility of a small victory is enough incentive to send them forth each morning to “do battle.” Most evenings they finish the day with a sense of gratitude and accomplishment. The mechanics of reality include frustration, but the heart of the matter is “seeing someone ‘fly’ for the first time.”
Can we imagine what would happen if desire and demand were complementing one another instead of competing with each other?
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