One possibility not considered here is that some younger pastors who are dissatisfied stop being pastors, which would in part explain why older, more experienced pastors report higher rates of life satisfaction—the satisfied ones stick with it longer.
That's a very good point, Matthew. It's a survivorship bias thing. And that's hard to really mitigate because the confounding factor is that pastors who were ten years in 1980 had a completely different religious environment than pastors who are currently a decade into their careers.
I've been a UCC pastor for over 20 years, and anecdotally, it feels like a lot of my peers are feeling tired, burned out, and on the edge. I know quite a few people who have left ministry. Or, they are hanging on to retire soon. Lots of mental health and physical health issues, too. The pandemic seems to have changed the dynamic. Again, this is anecdotal evidence. I wonder if, when reporting about yourself, people feel like they are not "allowed" to be honest. As in, I am being obedient to my vocation, and part of my faith is that my personal satisfaction about ME, doesn't factor in. Or, as time goes on, you get used to this norm that is overworking, stressful, and focused on others, instead of your own happiness.
I'm a conservative Pentecostal pastor (think A/G) and I too find these results to be the polar opposite of what I and my peers are feeling. I know many that have left the ministry or are hanging on for dear life. And yes, COVID and politics since 2020 have played a huge role in the dissatisfaction. I'm really struggling with the results of this particular analysis. It's not at all what I'm experiencing or see others experiencing.
RE: people feel like they are not "allowed" to be honest.
I wondered about that, too: after all, pastors are s'pozed to be able to take what's thrown their way by God and to complain about it would seem to be an unChristian (unGodly) response to the challenges God has given them.
There's another perspective, one perhaps more important than satisfaction among the current clergy. That is people with the talent and interest to serve in that capacity who considered Divinity School but opted for something else based largely on various heads ups they had received from people already there. Since I know most about Judaism, perhaps part of that non-Christian component that got the lowest satisfaction score, we have a Rabbi shortage, one outlined at some length in The Atlantic recently: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/02/american-rabbi-shortage-synagogues-denominations/677423/ For a variety of reasons, young Americans are not becoming Catholic priests or nuns in great numbers, despite being socialized in parochial schools and Catholic youth organizations, though they attend very fine Catholic colleges in great numbers. Don't really know about the Protestant youth feeder organizations but as families disaffiliate, the pool of young adults available for ministry will likely decline. So there are satisfaction scores from people already in place, but perceptions of satisfaction relative to other alternatives from those who screened themselves out from a ministry career. As The Atlantic article noted, this trend is very hard to measure. The author used declining enrollment data in the denominational and non-denominational Jewish seminaries, making the assumption that the decline over about forty years, and trending that way despite entry of women to greatly expand the eligibility pool, with ample numbers of Jewish liberal arts graduates of top colleges, to conclude that students perceived better options for career attainment.
I would like to see the data on the general population by age group to compare to the clergy. Is there a bigger jump in the clergy vs the general population?
There are ample data on physician satisfaction with their careers, which fall far below the clergy satisfaction presented here, though this is a fairly recent trend.
Ironically, the most satisfied of medical specialists are pediatricians and geriatricians....both of which are also among the lowest paid of specialists.
Go figure.
I'm a former health care journo who covered aging....and the info is a couple of years, old, too, but I don't thing anything has changed.
I am a mid-council exec in the PCUSA and have struggled to reconcile the pessimism of recent data with the apparent satisfaction of our clergy. Covid brought incredible stress, as you observe, but for the most part our clergy seem to have been resilient in equal measure. I concede that I don’t know the secret inner lives of our pastors, but your analysis is a better fit with what I see.
Consider that PCUSA has a pretty high bar with regards to ordination. PCUSA pastors are pretty well equipped with education, psychological skills and support, and even income. In short, better resourced then many. PCUSA Congregations are pretty established and resilient. Session / Deacon structure provides another layer of leadership and support. Also, the ECO split was a clarifying event, perhaps dampening the stress from the associated social issues.
Yes, that's my biggest surprise too -- particularly regarding Catholic clergy. Their lifestyle certainly *seems* harder, which is why there's a shortage of priests. And my own anecdotal experience with Catholic priests suggests frequent problems with alcoholism.
I can only think that they're being helped by two factors: those who stay with the life are a rare breed that is cut out for it, and the opportunities for male bonding and camaraderie (I'm not trying to allude to homosexuality), rare among grown men in most parts of our society, are able to offset the lack of a wife and family.
I do wonder, though, how much of the increasing satisfaction with pastoring over time has to do with the attrition of the less-than-satisfied from the job (or generational effects, as Brad Grizenko alluded to in his question).
IMO, it's not going to be reassuring as they have to wait several decades (and deal with increasing partisanship in their congregation) to reach the mostly satisfied level.
This is my question, too. As someone who left the ministry, even when I was in it, I would have answered fairly high on the satisfaction score, because I have deep faith and spiritual practices that bring me great satisfaction even when my job didn't. I wonder if it's not the job, per se, but the faith of the people in the jobs that leads to these higher scores.
One possibility not considered here is that some younger pastors who are dissatisfied stop being pastors, which would in part explain why older, more experienced pastors report higher rates of life satisfaction—the satisfied ones stick with it longer.
That's a very good point, Matthew. It's a survivorship bias thing. And that's hard to really mitigate because the confounding factor is that pastors who were ten years in 1980 had a completely different religious environment than pastors who are currently a decade into their careers.
Never heard the term survivor bias before....but when I read it I didn't have to look it up.
Same thing with teachers....re Matthew Shadle's comment.
I taught for 14 years, then moved on to an equally rewarding career: service journalism.
In those 14 years I witnessed some seriously sad attrition....hence they obviously weren't having the same experience in the classroom that I was.
Yup...that's what I was thinking, too. Definitely skews the metrics.
I've been a UCC pastor for over 20 years, and anecdotally, it feels like a lot of my peers are feeling tired, burned out, and on the edge. I know quite a few people who have left ministry. Or, they are hanging on to retire soon. Lots of mental health and physical health issues, too. The pandemic seems to have changed the dynamic. Again, this is anecdotal evidence. I wonder if, when reporting about yourself, people feel like they are not "allowed" to be honest. As in, I am being obedient to my vocation, and part of my faith is that my personal satisfaction about ME, doesn't factor in. Or, as time goes on, you get used to this norm that is overworking, stressful, and focused on others, instead of your own happiness.
I'm a conservative Pentecostal pastor (think A/G) and I too find these results to be the polar opposite of what I and my peers are feeling. I know many that have left the ministry or are hanging on for dear life. And yes, COVID and politics since 2020 have played a huge role in the dissatisfaction. I'm really struggling with the results of this particular analysis. It's not at all what I'm experiencing or see others experiencing.
RE: people feel like they are not "allowed" to be honest.
I wondered about that, too: after all, pastors are s'pozed to be able to take what's thrown their way by God and to complain about it would seem to be an unChristian (unGodly) response to the challenges God has given them.
There's another perspective, one perhaps more important than satisfaction among the current clergy. That is people with the talent and interest to serve in that capacity who considered Divinity School but opted for something else based largely on various heads ups they had received from people already there. Since I know most about Judaism, perhaps part of that non-Christian component that got the lowest satisfaction score, we have a Rabbi shortage, one outlined at some length in The Atlantic recently: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/02/american-rabbi-shortage-synagogues-denominations/677423/ For a variety of reasons, young Americans are not becoming Catholic priests or nuns in great numbers, despite being socialized in parochial schools and Catholic youth organizations, though they attend very fine Catholic colleges in great numbers. Don't really know about the Protestant youth feeder organizations but as families disaffiliate, the pool of young adults available for ministry will likely decline. So there are satisfaction scores from people already in place, but perceptions of satisfaction relative to other alternatives from those who screened themselves out from a ministry career. As The Atlantic article noted, this trend is very hard to measure. The author used declining enrollment data in the denominational and non-denominational Jewish seminaries, making the assumption that the decline over about forty years, and trending that way despite entry of women to greatly expand the eligibility pool, with ample numbers of Jewish liberal arts graduates of top colleges, to conclude that students perceived better options for career attainment.
Astute observation. Will read the Atlantic article. Thanks for sharing the link.
I would like to see the data on the general population by age group to compare to the clergy. Is there a bigger jump in the clergy vs the general population?
There are ample data on physician satisfaction with their careers, which fall far below the clergy satisfaction presented here, though this is a fairly recent trend.
Ironically, the most satisfied of medical specialists are pediatricians and geriatricians....both of which are also among the lowest paid of specialists.
Go figure.
I'm a former health care journo who covered aging....and the info is a couple of years, old, too, but I don't thing anything has changed.
I am a mid-council exec in the PCUSA and have struggled to reconcile the pessimism of recent data with the apparent satisfaction of our clergy. Covid brought incredible stress, as you observe, but for the most part our clergy seem to have been resilient in equal measure. I concede that I don’t know the secret inner lives of our pastors, but your analysis is a better fit with what I see.
Consider that PCUSA has a pretty high bar with regards to ordination. PCUSA pastors are pretty well equipped with education, psychological skills and support, and even income. In short, better resourced then many. PCUSA Congregations are pretty established and resilient. Session / Deacon structure provides another layer of leadership and support. Also, the ECO split was a clarifying event, perhaps dampening the stress from the associated social issues.
Wow. I'm honestly so surprised there's not major differences between denominations. Not what I'd expect!
Yes, that's my biggest surprise too -- particularly regarding Catholic clergy. Their lifestyle certainly *seems* harder, which is why there's a shortage of priests. And my own anecdotal experience with Catholic priests suggests frequent problems with alcoholism.
I can only think that they're being helped by two factors: those who stay with the life are a rare breed that is cut out for it, and the opportunities for male bonding and camaraderie (I'm not trying to allude to homosexuality), rare among grown men in most parts of our society, are able to offset the lack of a wife and family.
Definitely counterintuitive! Young would-be pastors should be seeing this data. It might help more of them to stick with their choice.
I do wonder, though, how much of the increasing satisfaction with pastoring over time has to do with the attrition of the less-than-satisfied from the job (or generational effects, as Brad Grizenko alluded to in his question).
IMO, it's not going to be reassuring as they have to wait several decades (and deal with increasing partisanship in their congregation) to reach the mostly satisfied level.
Is the assumption in the research that there is a direct correlation between job satisfaction and life satisfaction?
This is my question, too. As someone who left the ministry, even when I was in it, I would have answered fairly high on the satisfaction score, because I have deep faith and spiritual practices that bring me great satisfaction even when my job didn't. I wonder if it's not the job, per se, but the faith of the people in the jobs that leads to these higher scores.
Thank you for reading your posts (even if we didn't get that last paragraph)
Ha! Yeah, the transition sucked there. I tried to patch it up.