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.
Lifted from: http://theresurgence.com/mdblog_2006-05-24_death_by_ministry
4 comments:
Yes Van,those are some brutal numbers, and Eric, statistics that you were pretty much aware of some time ago. So, that being one side of the story, what is the other side? Just like to hear a few reasons you have just launched into a Pastor position regardless of these numbers. No fair including the powerful working at Blaze, maybe the top 10 reasons you are willing to face these odds.
Love Dad
The greater difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests. -Epicuus (Greek Philosopher, BC 341-270)
Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors.
You have come into a hard world. I know of only one easy place in it, and that is the grave.-Henry Ward Beecher
I ask not for a lighter burden, but for broader shoulders. -Jewish Proverb
All those statistics are very real and painfully known among those who work in the church. My life has the scars to show it. But it's part of the cross that must be taken up in order to wear the crown.
His grace is sufficient.
Not that there aren’t better ways to avoid some of those pitfalls, there are, but some of it is simply the path. You learn the hard way and hopefully survive and are able to help more healthier paths of service emerge.
But wisdom isn't earned easily and sometimes the road travelled to get the wisdom, can't be skipped. In some ways it is the only way forward...death, cross and tribulation. The sooner one learns to accept it, the sooner they can find God in it or through it.
There is no escaping the pain of the nails...we follow a crucified Lord who still bears on His body the affects of serving the purposes of God on this brutal planet.
Should we not expect to be wounded healers too?
Pastor Eric you obviously 'get it' and God is blessing that! The last phrase 'wounded healers' really touched me. It's so rare and beautiful when we can embrace and find joy in that aspect of Christ and even in our own lives.
Well said good and faithful servant.
Love Dad
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