Firewall: Health Essentials for Ministers and Their Families

Abstract

Ministerial formation is an essential function of Christian education. Its goal is for ministers and their families to experience a lifetime of fruitful service. When formation does not take into account forces of deformation commonly experienced in ministry, the result is malformation that leads to failure under stress with devastating consequences. Statistics suggest that ministers are not adequately prepared to handle common stressors encountered in ministry environments. At least four common stressors in ministry should be addressed in curricular design for ministerial formation to build a “firewall” of protection for ministers and their families to ensure better long-term outcomes.

Voice of the Clergy Wife: A Phenomenological Study

“…With time and timing for clergy and clergy families, there is an expectation of always being accessible with no time limit (Flynn, 2009). Pastors’ wives must center their schedule on their husbands.…”

“…For Kanter's (1977) emotional climate concept, the pastor's wife would be no exception. The emotional climate the pastor's wife feels where her husband's employment is concerned is most often expressed in the lack of social support and friendship (Lee, 2007; Morris & Blanton, 1994), the loneliness (Flynn, 2009), and the strategies she uses to cope (McMinn et al., 2008). People, the pastor's wife, or both are cautious to form meaningful relationships, and while the pastor's wife may be surrounded by a crowd, she can feel lonely.…”

“…With the abundance of literature surrounding the well-being of pastors, relatively little attention has been given to their supporting spouses who often carry the weight of stressed husbands, children, household duties, church activities, and sometimes their own occupations. Some studies have included ministers' wives in researching their stress and life satisfaction (Blanton & Morris, 1999; Darling, Hill, & McWey, 2004; Hill, Darling, & Raimondi, 2003; Morris & Blanton, 1994), yet there remains a need to understand the specific challenges faced by clergy wives which may or may not coincide with what their husbands' experience from day to day (Flynn, 2009). In fact, Darling et al.…”