A survey recently released on in the July/August edition of Facts & Trends magazine shows that many Protestant pastors in the US experience pressure to maintain a healthy family life in their pastoral ministry.
The study has successfully interviewed a representative sample of 870 Protestant church ministers across denominational lines in the US. Ellison Research, based in Phoenix, asked pastors about the health of their family and the pressures associated with being the family of a minister.
The vast majority - Ninety-four percent - of Protestant clergy agree with the statement "There is extra pressure being married to a minister", including 54 percent who strongly believe this. In addition, Ninety-one percent also agree that "There is extra pressure being the child of a minister", including 46 percent who feel this way strongly.
Probably the reason behind this will be attributed to the "role model" image of pastors they want to keep in front of the congregation. Eighty-eight percent agreed with the statement "Churchgoers often expect pastors' families to be 'better than' other people's families", including 34% who feel strongly about it. Southern Baptists and Pentecostals, particularly, feel this kind of pressure on their families.
Through the statistics, it can be observed that Protestant pastors are very concerned about keeping a healthy family life in face of busy pastoral ministry. Six out of ten pastors agree "Your role as a pastor leaves you with insufficient time for your family".
When asked to rate the health of their family relationships, using a scale of 1 (extremely unhealthy) to 5 (extremely healthy), the average rating pastors give to their relationship with their spouse recorded 4.3, with 47 percent saying this relationship is extremely healthy. Evangelical ministers are found to be more likely than mainline Protestant ministers to call this relationship extremely healthy, with 49 percent versus 37 percent.
It also appeared that pastors who have no children under age 18 are particularly likely to report a healthy spousal relationship.
