Ministers in Crisis
What are ministers saying trigger crisis? Ask Ministers to tell you what they do, and the answers will be varied and wide-ranging depending on the nature of their ministry placement. Ask them why they decided to become a Minister, and the answer will be pretty similar. Ministers feel called by God through the church into a life of service. Yet, ask Ministers how they experience their job, and many will tell stories of vocational crisis, burn out, bullying, depression, anxiety and deep sense of sadness. In response to such stories, in 2007 the Bethel Council with the CTM Spiritual Formation Advisor, established a Task Group to investigate the experience of crisis amongst clergy across the Synod.
The Task Group was gathered from people concerned with ministry welfare in the Synod and began to read research in this area and to collect stories of ministers experiencing crisis. Issues were identified such as: stress, church decline, unrealistic expectations, hostile or bullying behaviour within placements, early retirement, ill health, isolation, marriage break-up and spiritual crisis. It became clear that a disturbing number of clergy experience some form of crisis in the course of their ministry and that existing church institutional structures have limited capacity to provide adequate prevention or support. The Task Group also noted factors in the changing social context and decline in church membership that creates additional challenges to clergy wellbeing.
In 2008, Prof Barry Fallon was invited to work with the Task Group in identifying the trigger factors leading to crisis in ministry and gather data about how these factors could be addressed. Whilst aware that many of the issues raised may also impact people in lay ministry, the Task Group’s focus includes the variety of ministry placements exercised by ordained ministers: agency, community, chaplain, presbytery, synod and congregation. You can download the research report for discussion with your community.
The Task Group will continue meeting to distribute the research and develop recommendations to the Synod. Your feedback and comments are welcome. Email joan [dot] wrighthowie [at] ctm [dot] edu [dot] uca [dot] au
