For more than 20 years, Leadership has unleashed its editors and research staff to interview and survey pastors. Being journalists, we’ve asked probing questions on topics such as sex, money, and power. You’ve answered—candidly.
I pored through three thick notebooks bulging with two decades of reports and selected ten questions-and-answers I found intriguing.
- 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”).
- 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).
- [Of those involved in inappropriate sexual activity:] Did the church find out? Yes: 4 percent; no: 96 percent. Hmmm.
- 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.
- 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 2000 medians for senior pastors ($46,256) and solo pastors ($33,312) straddle the median salary for U.S. households in 2000 ($41,349). Yet pastors earn much less than most other professionals with the same level of education.
- Have you ever asked for a raise? Yes: 51 percent; no: 49 percent. We then asked those who requested one, “What happened when you asked for a raise?” Surprise! 50 percent got all of what they asked for, another 25 percent got some of what they asked for. Moral of the story: Ye have not because ye ask not.
- 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.
- [Of those forced out:] Was the church told why? 63 percent of the time, no. Is this healthy?
- [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 friend 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.
- 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 Miller is editor of Leadership Weekly, editor-at-large of Leadership Journal and is a featured speaker at the National Pastors Convention in February 2002.
Check out NationalPastorsConvention.comfor all the details, to request a free brochure, and to register.
To reply to the editors of this newsletter, write Newsletter@LeadershipJournal.net.
Sign up for the Church Leader’s Newsletter and receive a new article plus useful information in your inbox every week!
Copyright © 2001 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal.Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.
