Post Calendar
-
Podcast Feeds
Dec
9
According to Shiloh Place Ministries (shilohplace.org), which drew its information from Focus on the Family, Ministries Today, Charisma Magazine, TNT Ministries, and other respected groups: (HT: Historicity)
• 1,500 pastors leave the ministry permanently each month in America.
• 4,000 new churches start each year in America.
• 7,000 churches close each year in America.
• 50% of pastors’ marriages end in divorce.
• 70% of pastors continually battle depression.
• 80% of pastors and 85% of their spouses feel discouraged in their roles.
• 95% of pastors do not regularly pray with their spouses.
• 70% of pastors do not have a close friend, confidant, or mentor.
• 50% of pastors are so discouraged they would leave the ministry if they could, but have no other way to make a living.
• 80% of pastors spend under 15 minutes a day in prayer.
• 70% of pastors only study God’s Word when preparing a message.
• Nearly 40% of pastors have had an extra-marital sexual affair since entering ministry.
• 80% of seminary graduates who enter ministry will leave the ministry within the first five years.
• 80% of pastors’ wives feel their husbands are overworked.
• 80% of the adult children of pastors sought professional help for depression.
• 90% of pastors said their training was inadequate for ministry.
• 85% of pastors report that their biggest problem is dealing with abstinent elders, deacons, worship leaders, worship teams, board members, and associate pastors.
• 90% of pastors said the hardest thing about ministry is uncooperative people.
• 70% of pastors are grossly underpaid.
• 80% of pastors’ wives feel unappreciated by the congregation.
• 90% of pastors said ministry was completely different from what they thought it would be.
• Only 70% of pastors felt called of God into ministry when they began.
• Only 50% of pastors felt called of God into ministry three years later.
• 80% of pastors’ wives feel pressured to be someone they are not and do things they are not called to do in the church.
• Over 50% of pastors’ wives feel that their husbands entering ministry was the most destructive thing to ever happen to their families.
Comments
8 Comments so far
-
-
Theologica
Check it out here.
-
Parchment and Pen Blog- An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later.
- Internet Monk
- Faith and Theology
- An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later.
-
Warning: Attempt to assign property of non-object in /home/ttpstude/public_html/blogs/wp-includes/rss.php on line 428
Powered by FireStats
Wow…those are some scary stats. I wonder if primary reason for these problems with pastors is due to the mere nature of pastoring a flock of people, or due to pastoring in a Postmodern, American culture? Or perhaps a combination of both?
I wonder if early Church pastors suffered the same level of depression, marital unfaithfulness, et al?
Interesting. Not saying it’s wrong, but I don’t meet these pastors. My dad retired joyfully from the pastorate and is an interim pastor in retirement. My brother and I both are pastors, and my sister is married to a pastor. All thriving in ministry. My dad did very well representing a winsome ministry template
Too many pastors are extreme. Either flying under the radar and lazy, or trying to do everything and burning out. Perhaps this polarity has led to much of this disfunction.
What kind of pastors? churches? seminaries? It’s a good thing for some pastors to leave, some churches to close, and some seminaries to close. It would be better if some pastors never entered the ministry, some churches never started, and some seminaries never were founded.
In the church where I grew up, the clergy denies the deity of Christ, His virgin birth, His miracles, His atoning death, His resurrection, and on and on. The denomination that owns it is liberal (duh). The seminaries that supply that church and the denomination are liberal, deny Christ, and deny the Bible as the written Word of God. My parents and some of my childhood friends still attend that church or are members of other churches in the same denomination.
It’s a good thing for churches and clergy like that to fold their gills, sink to the bottom of the pond, and die.
It would be interesting to separate the above stats by theological camps. Perhaps there’d be no difference, but as Matt wrote above, the circles I run around in do not have such turnover.
These stats on pastors are staggering. As a lay person in a church, I woke up to my responsibility to the pastor. I read a book called,”Where Are the Armorbearers” by Bryan Cutshall. It changed my life. The book verifies your stats about pastors and it written to address this crisis in the church.
My observation is that Church fights are almost exclusively about personalities and power not about doctrine. As an interim specialist, I’ve worked in three countries and eight regions in the USA from New Mexico to Alaska. All the churches had had some history conflict. They ranged from ultra conservative to ultra liberal. It is possible that the conservative churches had a longer list of issues to get upset about and maybe one ore two more people “spoil’en for a fight.” But on the whole I’d stick with the personalities and power struggles as the culprit. In other words we are not very practiced in the fine art of living as Christians in the power of His love.
The statistics you give are frightening. I have my doubts about their voracity. I.like several others who commented don’t see that kind of situiation where I serve. I do think the statistics must include as one writer commented that some preachers need to be doing something else, and some churches need to close.
I feel like Paul & wish I were out of this hell! If God told me what a pastor was to face - give a stampeding herd of elephants instead.
I have seen these statistics in action, and it’s evident in many pastors in the church today. All of you have some truth’s in your statements but the main problem is that these pastors aren’t cultivating and growing in their walk with Christ. They aren’t having a prayer time, the aren’t in love with studying the Word, and they aren’t leading in their own families. This means that pastors are relying on their own strength to bring them success, this will never bring success. If the stats are going to change then the pastors need to change they way that they live their daily lives. They are starving themselves and in turn starving the church.