Bahaya namun bahagia

Berikut ini stastistik pendeta dari “Pastors At Greater Risk” by H. B. London Jr. and Neil Wiseman, Regal Books, 2003.

• 80% of pastors say they have insufficient time with spouse and that ministry has a negative effect on their family.
• 40% report a serious conflict with a parishioner once a month.
• 33% say that being in ministry is an outright hazard to their family.
• 75% report they've had a significant stress-related crisis at least once in their ministry.
• 58% of pastors indicate that their spouse needs to work either part time or full time to supplement the family income.
• 56% of pastors' wives say they have no close friends.
• 45% of pastors' wives say the greatest danger to them and family is physical, emotional, mental and spiritual burnout.
• 21% of pastors' wives want more privacy.
• Pastors who work fewer than 50 hours a week are 35% more likely to be terminated.
• 40% of pastors considered leaving the pastorate in the past three months.

Kalau anda mulai merasa sesak, maafkan saya, berikut ini statistik tambahan:

• 1500 pastors leave the ministry each month due to moral failure, spiritual burnout, or contention in their churches.
• 50% of pastors’ marriages will end in divorce.
• 80% of pastors and eighty-four percent of their spouses feel unqualified and discouraged in their role as pastors.
• 50% of pastors are so discouraged that they would leave the ministry if they could, but have no other way of making a living.
• 80% of seminary and Bible school graduates who enter the ministry will leave the ministry within the first five years.
• 70% of pastors constantly fight depression.
• Almost 50% polled said they have had an extra-marital affair since beginning their ministry.
• 70% said the only time they spend studying the Word is when they are preparing their sermons. [Compiled by pastor Darrin Patrick]

Agar terjadi ekuilibrium, maka saya sertakan pula di bawah ini sebuah reportase yang terang. Sekarang anda boleh merasa lega dan tersenyum lebar.

Service to others not just a job
Clergy happiest in U.S. work force, survey indicates
By KRISTINA HERRNDOBLER Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle
April 20, 2007, 2:05PM

Clergy may complain about their salaries or the blurred boundaries between their work and private lives, but apparently they are as happy as it gets.

That's according to a study on job satisfaction and general happiness by the University of Chicago, in which 87 percent of clergy polled said they were very satisfied with their jobs. Clergy also topped the happiness scale, with 67 percent saying they were very happy.

When researchers asked those questions of 27,500 randomly selected U.S. workers over the course of nearly two decades, only 47 percent of people said they were very satisfied with their jobs and 33 percent said they were generally very happy. The survey did not show whether job satisfaction and happiness rates had changed over the years.

After clergy, the most satisfied workers were firefighters at 80 percent and physical therapists at 78 percent, according to the report released Tuesday.

Roofers ranked dead last, with only 25 percent saying they found their work satisfying.

The most satisfying professions are those that involve helping others, noted report author Tom W. Smith of the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.

Even so, he called the clergy's rankings striking, saying they were the study's single strongest finding.

They are also a bit surprising, said J. Pittman McGehee, a former dean of Houston's Christ Church Cathedral who now works as Jungian analyst, counseling both clergy and their families.

After learning of this study, McGehee asked a group of clergy their thoughts: "They laughed out loud when I said 87 percent," he said. "They were shocked."

Out of respect for ordination, the clergy surveyed may have felt constrained to tell researchers that they were satisfied and happy in a way that other workers wouldn't, he said.

Nonetheless, McGehee said most clergy love their calling, meaning the teaching, preaching, pastoring and sacramental part of it. They aren't fond of the politics, the pay and the administrative duties.

"The vocational part of it is as fulfilling as any job could be," he said. "The job is a hard one because of all the things you are asked to do, none of which you are trained for and none of which you are called to do."

When Jackson W. Carroll, a professor emeritus of religion and society at Duke Divinity School, set out to study ministers' job satisfaction some years back, he assumed the results would show low satisfaction and morale.

“We were surprised to find that clergy were both basically satisfied and highly committed to their calling,” Carroll said. "That was not what we had expected to find based on informal conversation and listening to clergy in gripe sessions."

Numerous studies have been done on the satisfaction rates of clergy from various religions and denominations, he said, and they overwhelmingly show high levels of satisfaction, likely because they feel their work is not just a job but a calling from God, he said.

But for their wives and families, who may not feel the same calling, it can be a tough life.

Ginger Kolbaba, the daughter of a pastor and co-author of the new novel Desperate Pastors' Wives, said that she has seen how spiritually satisfying her father's life has been to him, especially when he can help people.

But his job took its toll on their family, she said.

"I'm one of the fortunate ones, in that I didn't do a lot of outward rebelling, like doing drugs and partying," she said. "But I turned it inward to anger. Kids don't sign up for the gig."

Austin pastor Dan Davis, a former businessman who now heads pastor covenant groups, said there is a tremendous amount of pressure on those he meets with, and their families, including overbearing church boards and sharing parishioners' struggles and pain. But the end goal is worthy, he said.

"There is a deeper satisfaction that comes from knowing you are connecting people with God," Davis said. "You don't experience that in the secular world." [kristina.herrndobler@chron.com]