Research Review: Managing Stress
For several generations, mainline denominations have been studying the various elements and intersections of clergy health. Such research has lead to numerous clergy health initiatives from the various denominations. Such programs prompted a unique research and intervention program for Adventist clergy in 2013.
Priority one for the NAD Ministerial Association is to support pastors. This includes supporting pastors’ health. Our research and intervention program has five lofty goals.
Identify and address specific health challenges faced by clergy members.
Empower clergy to adopt healthier life practices to enhance their overall quality of life.
Improve clergy health outcomes through evidence based programming.
Provide clergy with practical, ready and easily available resources, tools, strategies, and support methods to encourage self care practices, improve their physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, financial, social and relational health and enhance their overall well-being.
Implement on-going programming, initiated with a pilot study and then expand to a wider scale across the NAD.
Our first piece in the Research Review series, explored a 2021 study conducted by the Institute of Church Ministry at Andrews University entitled, “What Can Be Done to Save The Health of Adventist Pastors.” This vast, complex, research endeavor seeks to address numerous aspects of life and health of pastors, and serves to help us gather data and present facts about the state of NAD clergy. With this data, we can cultivate strategies and tools that help us to best support and meet the needs of our pastors and their families.
In this installment, we will discuss data collected from a survey about pastoral concerns and family stressors. Using that research, we’ve attempted to streamline suitable recommendations to help them achieve optimal success as “First Family” within our local churches. In the research, it is noted that the responsibility of reducing pastoral family stress and legitimate pastoral concerns, is in fact a partnership between the pastor and his family, along with the body of Christ at large. This cannot be overstated.
The survey explores the significance of six major areas of concern for pastoral families:
Role Demands/Expectations and Boundaries
Impact of Pastoral Role Demands/Expectations on Spiritual Life
Lack of Support/Feeling Alone
Finances
Conflict
Stress Management
Role Demands/Expectations and Boundaries
Research indicated that pastoral families feel as if not enough boundaries are in place to prevent their spouse/parent from having to prioritize the church more than their family at home. Adding insult to injury, the church then places seemingly unreasonable expectations on the family to be model citizens for the congregation and the community, with no regard or justification to their humanity being just as feeble as anyone else’s.
Check out this resource: Boundaries in Pastoral Care
Impact of Pastoral Role Demands/Expectations on Spiritual Life
Data collected showed that most pastors, spouses, and children indicated that their spiritual life was waning due to a lack of time for personal spiritual development and genuine communion with God, caused by in part the toll spiritual leadership takes on the family.
Check out this resource: The Balanced Pastoral Life
Lack of Support/Feeling Alone
Pastoral families shared that unsolicited high expectations have created unnecessary stress and concern. Pastoral families also stated that they experience isolation and loneliness due to a lack of support from reliable sources. Being unable to be vulnerable within a safe space, directly contributed to increased mental and physical health issues. Admittedly, they are often isolated in physical proximity due to where they live, and a lack of trusted support to help them shoulder the load of their problems.
Check out this resource: Help, I’m Lonely
Finances
All family members agreed that at the end of the day, there was an inadequate number of resources available to execute the prescribed notion for pastor’s kids to receive Christian education, and without at times long-term settling within a given community, it is difficult for spouses to maintain adequate employment to contribute to the household.
Check out this resource: The StewardShift Podcast
Conflict
Pastoral families felt as if they were on the front lines to face conflict that arose behind church at large issues that the pastor was presumed to explain and largely support, and often at the expense of the pastor’s family being looked to as the model for such causes and expectations.
Check out this resource: 10 Conflict Resolution Tips for Pastors
Stress Management
Pastoral families seemed to report a significant level of depression and anxiety. This admission also led discussion about unhealthy coping mechanisms (diet, substance use, excessive and/or inappropriate media) used to try and cope with the demands of being a First Family.
Check out this resources: Preventing Pastoral Stress and Burnout
We have accepted as our task the challenge of reducing pastoral family stress and legitimate pastoral concerns, in partnership with the pastor and his/her family, along with the body of Christ at large. As we continue this series to unpack a deeper study about the needs of our pastoral families, perhaps a simple premise we can prayerfully consider is how to best execute the instructions laid out in scripture, treat people how you want to be treated. Be kind, gentle, and always forgive as Christ has been our example.
