My sister-in-law, who works at a newspaper, passed along this article to me recently, with the tagline, "If you want to be rich, get an MBA. If you want to be happy, go for an MDiv." The article talks about results of a study by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. The study found that clergy had the highest job satisfaction - a whopping 87% said they were satisfied with their jobs, followed by firefighters and physical therapists.
The study also found that clergy topped the list as 'happiest', with 67% of clergy responding that they were "generally happy." In general, those most satisfied with their jobs were either in helping professions of professions with a great deal of creative expression, and those with the least satisfaction were those in low-skill jobs or with customer service positions.
There were mixed reactions to the study - some were not surprised that clergy were so satisfied, since clergy enter the field "with no expectation of getting rich and every expectation of being able to make some difference in the world." But one researcher at least was surprised at the high satisfaction rating because clergy also have such stressful jobs.
I'd be interested to know more about who was included in the study - which kind of pastors, which denominations, etc., and I could probably find that out if I had more motivation...
Pastors, what do you think? Are you satisfied? Happy? Surprised at the research?
6 comments:
I'm satisfied right now. But I am somewhat surprised at this because I've seen so many burned out pastors in our own denomination who just gripe or degrade their people. There is such a negative attitude in many of our "more seasoned" pastors. My prayer is that I never find myself in that boat.
Interesting...
I have both an M.Div. and a degree akin to an MBA (a Masters in Health
Admin...) so I should be both happy and rich!
Since I'm now a pastor I'm not rich, but I'd have to say that after a year and half I'm pretty happy and content with being a pastor; more content than when I was making twice as much or more money in my various administrative capacities.
I do wonder as Greg does about the numbers of those who seem unhappy or who burn out in the ministry.
I'm constantly being made aware of those types of stories, so it would be interesting to figure out how reflective of reality this study really is.
Maybe it's just a bigger deal when one drops out of the ministry than it is if one drops out of business or administration. I never heard anyone say "oh, what a loss" when I or others I knew chose to drop out of the business world to move on to do something else...and it wasn't that I was bad at what I did.
I think there's more pressure in the ministry to keep ministers in the fold than there is to keep others in those various occupations. When a minister leaves the fold its a big big deal.
Aren't clergy somewhat programmed to think that everything is okay? I mean, if we really thought that the church was in trouble, would we be so satisfied. Our job just seems really prone to illusion that I just don't trust the results of the survey.
A burned out pastor may have a served at a church like the one I go to. Preaching the scripture can get you called before pastor-parish and actually claiming the Bible is true gets calls to the district superintendant trying to get you transfered.
Praise God, he keeps sending us pastors willing to accept the abuse. And God bless the Pastors who come into the fray.
Aren't clergy somewhat programmed to think that everything is okay? I mean, if we really thought that the church was in trouble, would we be so satisfied. Our job just seems really prone to illusion that I just don't trust the results of the survey.
That's what I was thinking.
It would be nice if those figures were right. They are so different from other studies that one must
wonder. The Church of God did a study with money from Lilly and found the state of their clergy more like the other clergy studies than this one.
I can't find anything on the NORC site about how the study was conducted or about their sample population. The the NORC study looked into job satisfaction of many types in the US. The clergy results were only one part of the whole. Thus, the article about its findings was only from that one part.
I've created a web page in response to this study. I invite you to
visit it. bachdevelopment.com/page22.html It contains the results of clergy studies many of us are aware of. It also contains a link to an
article about why we should not take overly positive reports about clergy without a grain of salt.
These figures make on wonder if the clergy "must act that way" has
come into play here!
One of the dissertations for the Pulpit and Pew study at Duke found clergy saying one thing on surveys and another when they wrote about themselves and their ministries.
Dr. Gary L. Pinion, founder of Encouragement Dynamics, has written a book Crushed, The Perilous Journey Called Ministry. In it he addresses this issue of
surveying clergy as sometimes being like nailing "jelo" to a tree.
Two have said maybe those clergy were trying to put their best foot
forward or give a good testimony for God. Either one is a clergy 'must act that way.'
The desire to be seen as successful and/or cultural competitiveness results can also operate in masking an overly positive response. Who knows how many are hiding their pain behind a mask. Clergy let these masks fall when they find the
'safe place' that these clergy crisis/support ministries provide.
There are 108 Clergy crisis and support ministries listed on the ER page of my church health site. They are spread over 30 states with the most in CA, NC, CO, OH and TX. I have been able to e-mail the
directors of 87 of these ministries which included yourself. So far, I have heard back from 29. from CA, CO, Fl, GA, MA, MT, NC, NH, NJ,OH, SC, TN, UK, WA, WI, and
WV. An overwhelming number find this study counterintuitive to their own experience and/or extensive travel and/or they had some serious methodology
questions about the research.
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