Care For Pastors: Learning From Clergy and Their Spouses

Abstract

Pastors and their spouses face unique challenges because of the nature of pastoral work, and yet most manage these challenges successfully. Five studies are presented which help distinguish between intrapersonal, family, and community forms of care. Pastors rely heavily on intrapersonal forms of coping such as spiritual devotion, hobbies, exercise, and taking time away from work. The marriage relationship is also quite important for most clergy and spouses. Relationships outside the immediate family are not commonly identified as coping resources. Implications are discussed.

Positive Coping among Wives of Male Christian Clergy

“…Relationships outside the family were mentioned infrequently, which is consistent with the findings of McMinn et al (2005) for clergy and clergy spouses. However, many respondents did mention relationships outside the family later in the interview, as will be discussed later.…”

“…Whereas McMinn et al (2005) found clergy to rely mostly on intrapersonal coping and family relationships, many of the clergy wives interviewed in this study described the importance of friendship and support outside of family relationships. Approximately twothirds of the respondents (68%) mentioned friendships outside their immediate family.…”

“…Approximately half those who mentioned talking with a counselor did so in the context of a formal counseling relationship, and the other half sought advice or conversation with counselors who were also friends or associates. As with clergy (McMinn et al 2005), our respondents also turned to family relationships to help them cope with stress. Two-thirds (68%) mentioned a supportive marriage and 40% identified other helpful family relationships.…”

“…Marital relationships appear to be extremely important for both clergy (Hall 1997;Meek et al 2003;McMinn et al 2005) and clergy spouses. A recent survey of women married to men in ministry revealed that "97 percent said their marriages are strong and almost all feel supported in their marriage (93%) and in their parenting (90%)" ("What Wives Want," 2005, p. 9).…”

Patterns of Stress and Support Among Adventist Clergy: Do Pastors and their Spouses Differ?

“…Yet further research should also address a suggestive but non-significant pattern of difference between pastors and their spouses: why was the number of supportive relationships more consistently related to ministry attitude for spouses, but not for pastors? McMinn et al (2005) have suggested that male pastors tend to adopt private, intrapersonal or at best intrafamilial coping strategies for dealing with stress, while their wives may rely upon a somewhat broader network of friends. If this is a valid generalization, is it a gendered difference, or a matter of role expectations?…”