Posted on 07/26/2010 6:52:33 PM PDT by WhatNot
"At our recent Reform & Resurge Conference in Seattle, my good friend Pastor Darrin Patrick from The Journey in Saint Louis spoke frankly of the burden that pastoral ministry is. I have pushed myself to the edge and over the edge of burnout throughout my nearly ten years in vocational ministry. Subsequently, I have been doing a great deal of research that I am compiling in hopes of not only improving my own life but also the lives of the leaders at Mars Hill Church and the churches in our Acts 29 Network." ~Mark Driscoll
Part 1 — Some Statistics
The following statistics were presented by Pastor Darrin Patrick from research he has gathered from such organizations as Barna and Focus on the Family.
•Pastors
◦Fifteen hundred pastors leave the ministry each month due to moral failure, spiritual burnout, or contention in their churches.
◦Fifty percent of pastors' marriages will end in divorce.
◦Eighty percent of pastors and eighty-four percent of their spouses feel unqualified and discouraged in their role as pastors.
◦Fifty percent of pastors are so discouraged that they would leave the ministry if they could, but have no other way of making a living.
◦Eighty percent of seminary and Bible school graduates who enter the ministry will leave the ministry within the first five years.
◦Seventy percent of pastors constantly fight depression. ◦Almost forty percent polled said they have had an extra-marital affair since beginning their ministry.
◦Seventy percent said the only time they spend studying the Word is when they are preparing their sermons.
•Pastors' Wives
◦Eighty percent of pastors' spouses feel their spouse is overworked.
◦Eighty percent of pastors' spouses wish their spouse would choose another profession.
◦The majority of pastor's wives surveyed said that the most destructive event that has occurred in their marriage and family was the day they entered the ministry.
Pray for your pastor. Preferably with him there!
Ping
The results of ministry empowered by self rather than the power of the Spirit.
Not Catholic seminaries — at least the good ones.
They are bursting at the seams. A couple years ago we had over 100 seminarians at our local seminary.
I don’t have the figures for this year, yet, but will have them within a month.
Pray for our priests!
This might be of interest to you.
I wonder if one root of the problem is the concept we have of a single man being “the” leader of a church. Paul told Timothy to appoint elders (plural), not find the one man who is most leadership-worthy and put him in charge. There is a growing understanding that multiple eldership is the Biblical model, rather than putting one man at the top, painting a bulls-eye on his face and playing target practice with his sanity.
Thanks but I’ll stick with my school H.S.U, Holy Spirit University :)
VERY interesting.
I know a bunch of “broken marriages” among Episcopal priests. It’s very sad.
Fifty percent of pastor’s marriages end in divorce and the culture wants priests to marry. What a joke . The Church does not need another problem.
I think that if everyone in the Church took part in a minsitry, that would go along way to helping out the Pastors, there is no shortage of ministry opportunites, but there is a shortage of people willing to get involved.
These statistics need to be used whenever one proposes married priests. Driving this message home to our unenlightened buddies in a christian fashion will facilitate their learning process.
Yep!
Just sayin'....
That may be a good thing, on the other hand it may be a bad thing. Depending on how things have gone since, but it has always been my observation, that in this sinful world, things usually get worse, never better.
I am so tired of preacher types inventing studies and statistics out of thin air to support their anecdotal suspicions. Where is the study??? And why do all the percentages end in zero or 5?
“Fifty percent of pastor’s marriages end in divorce”
Source?
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