Heart & Soul
Kevin A. Miller
April 1, 1999
For the past 20 years, Leadership has unleashed its editors and research staff to interview and survey pastors. Being journalists, we've never felt bashful about asking probing questions on topics such as sex, money, and power. You've answered—candidly.
Recently, I pored through three thick notebooks bulging with two decades of reports and selected ten questions-and-answers I found intriguing.
We asked probing questions. You answered candidly.
1. How do you feel about ministry? Conventional wisdom bemoans crisis proportions of pastors discouraged and depressed, stressed and burned out. With due respect, our research consistently shows otherwise. For example, 91 percent of pastors say they feel "very positive" or "positive" about ministry. Nearly all feel satisfied (91 percent "very satisfied" or "satisfied"), and they want to stay in ministry (75 percent "definitely want to stay" and 21 percent "prefer to stay"). Sorry, doomsayers, there is no professional crisis.
2. Since you've been in ministry, have you had sexual intercourse with someone other than your spouse? Yes: 12 percent; no: 88 percent. This 12 percent, though nothing to cheer, is lower than the equivalent figure in the general population, 15-35 percent, according to Sex in America: A Definitive Study (Little Brown, 1994).
3. [Of those involved in inappropriate sexual activity:] Did the church find out? Yes: 4 percent; no: 96 percent. Hmmm.
4. Are sexual fantasies about someone other than your spouse harmful, harmless, or it depends? It was a statistical dead heat: Harmful (41 percent), Harmless (39 percent). My reading of the Bible and good psychology says pastors in this 39-percent group are kidding themselves.
5. How much money do you make? Although it's difficult ...
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