Vocational stress in Adventist ministers

In 1956 Samuel Blizzard conducted what has become a classic study of role strain within the American Protestant parish ministry.¹ In this study, 690 clergymen were asked to rate six roles the minister fills (preacher, pastor, priest, teacher, organizer, administrator) from three perspectives: importance, effectiveness, and enjoyment. Blizzard then compared these ratings with a detailed study of how 480 rural and urban ministers spent their time. Table 1 details the results of Blizzard's study.

Several significant findings emerged from this study. Blizzard's most striking finding, however, was the "administrative dilemma"—the discrepancy between the amount of time spent in administration and the low importance, effectiveness, and enjoyment ministers ascribed to filling that role. In spite of the fact that they considered administration least important of all their activities, ministers spent more time administrating than doing anything else.

Commenting on Blizzard's study, D. P. Smith wrote: "Ministers did not enjoy administration very much, and felt they were not very effective in it. The frustration that is suggested by such a disparity seems to be borne out by almost every study that is made on the subject. Clergymen, on the whole, do not like their organizational and administrative responsibilities, believe that these duties are not important, and feel they do not do such things well, yet they find themselves spending more time in them than in anything else." ²

An Episcopal study confirmed that the administrative role engenders conflicts in ministers. The researchers gave parish clergy a list of 13 different clergy activities and asked them to rank from it their five most important activities and five least important activities. The clergy ranked administration third on the list of activities that they considered least important and seventh on the list of activities that they enjoyed least and yet indicated that it took the largest chunk of their working time. Furthermore, they indicated that they spent 62 percent of the time they devoted to church activities doing the five activities they liked least. ³

Another area of conflict the clergy involved in the Episcopal study identified revolved around their intellectual activities. They ranked reading and study second in enjoyment but fourth and fifth in time spent. Likewise, Blizzard found that pastors spent only 27 minutes per day on sermon preparation, yet they have a scholarly image as a role model. When ministers were asked to name any persons whom they admire or who have greatly influenced the way they think and act as a minister, almost half mentioned seminary professors, and a greater proportion mentioned well-known authors. Pastors often hold their scholar-mentors as an ideal, although they spend the major portion of their time as practitioners.

In order to determine the sources and extent of the role strain Seventh-day Adventist ministers in the North Pacific Union Conference (NPUC) experience, I expanded and modified the Blizzard model.⁴ I asked these ministers to rate nine practitioner roles from six different perspectives: importance, effectiveness, enjoyment, time spent, importance to local congregation, and importance to conference administration. One hundred thirteen of the 175 pastors in the NPUC completed and returned the surveys.

In addition to the pastors, I surveyed all 15 conference presidents, treasurers, and executive secretaries of the NPUC, asking them to rank in importance the same nine roles. Each of them responded. I also had the NPUC computer center randomly select 200 names from the union conference's membership list. I then asked each of these church members to rank the same list of roles according to importance. With numerous follow-up letters and phone calls, I secured a 100 percent response.

This model differed from Blizzard's in several respects. First, unlike the independent time study Blizzard conducted, this study asked for the pastors' perceptions as to how they utilize their time. An estimate based on the pastors' perceptions may represent a more accurate statement of conflict since it represents the pastors' psychological environment.

Second, this study was concerned with pastors' perceptions of how two corporate role senders—conference administration and the local church—prioritize the importance of clergy work roles.

Finally, to capture more accurately the task of Adventist ministry, this study used a larger set of roles. The nine I identified comprised counselor, teacher, preacher, visitor, administrator, public evangelist, personal evangelist, denominational representative, and social worker.

I assumed that when the ministerial subjects rated the roles in order of importance they would reveal their concept of an ideal ministry and the goals under which they function in the pastorate. The effectiveness measure was designed to ascertain the minister's level of personal involvement in relation to each professional role. We may regard each pastor's sense of effectiveness as a clue to his ministerial motivation. The enjoyment measure was designed to index the sense of enjoyment the pastor derived from role performance. The time spent category evinces how pastors see these roles working at the operational level of church ministry. And the conference and constituency data allow one to compare the actual expectations of these two corporate role senders with the pastors' perceptions of their expectations. Table 2 summarizes the evaluation of roles across the categories.

Conflicts Adventist pastors face

Several important findings surfaced from this study:

1. Administration. One major finding was that the Adventist ministry also faces the conflict regarding the administrative role. The pastors sampled reported a high time investment in administration (2) and yet rated their enjoyment of it low (6). Furthermore, these pastors tended to overestimate the importance conference administrators and laity attach to this role.

2. Counseling. The counselor role raises another conflict. Pastors tend to rate the importance of this role (6), their effectiveness in the role (6), their enjoyment of it (5), and the time they spent doing it (6) at a consistent level. There is, however, a considerable discrepancy between the importance they assign to this role (6) and how the congregation values it. The church members surveyed indicated that they regarded this role of the pastor as second in importance only to preaching.

Like the pastors, the conference administrators, on the other hand, ranked counseling quite low on their list of priorities. Here the pastors' perception of conference expectations widens the gap. Pastors tended to perceive the administrators as being even less enthusiastic about counseling (8) than they were in reality (7).

Beyond question, these differing external expectations create a state of role conflict.

3. Public evangelism. The pastor's role as public evangelist also generates conflict. The pastors rated the importance of and their effectiveness at and enjoyment of this role low (7). Their congregations appear to agree, rating it seventh in importance. However, both the administrators' ranking of public evangelism and the pastors' perception of the importance administrators attach to it reveal other areas of role conflict and vocational stress.

Pastors believe that their "employers" rate the public evangelism role as the second most important role. This perception alone could generate tension and anxiety in the minds of some pastors. The data seem to confirm not only the perception but also the reality, indicating a real role conflict: Church administrators rated the public evangelism role fourth in order of importance. Since the administrators didn't rate it as highly as the pastors presumed, more accurate communication between pastors and administrators would relieve some of the stress. Nevertheless, the tension is real and deserves greater attention by both pastors and administrators.

4. Personal Evangelism. In contrast to their view of the relationship of public evangelism to their role, pastors consider the task of personal evangelism to be very important. They rate it as the second most important role. In this respect they are nicely aligned with both conference and congregational expectations. Administrators rank personal evangelism as the number one role, while the congregation ranks it as third. Although the pastors tended to devalue their congregations' views of this role (5), they accurately perceived it to be of primary importance to administrators.

Role conflict and job-related stress enter this category in terms of the time pastors were able to devote to this activity. While they rated personal evangelism as second in importance, it ranks fourth in time spent. Apparently other, "less important" roles—such as administration and visitation—are preventing pastors from devoting much time and attention to this important aspect of ministry.

5. Teaching. The role of teacher is yet another one that gives evidence of conflict. This role includes participation in religious education such as Bible classes, planning and/or teaching classes for the church, study, preparation, writing, and/or research.

Next to preaching, the pastors sampled enjoyed the teaching role the most. Moreover, they identified this role as their second most effective. But these pastors ranked teaching fifth in terms of time spent. Unlike the administrative role, which ranks low in enjoyment and high in time spent, the teaching role ranks high in enjoyment but is not permitted adequate expression. These upsidedown priorities unquestionably indicate role strain.

6. Visiting. A final area of conflict this study uncovered appeared in the pastor's role as visitor. Once again pastors rate rather consistently the importance of this role (4), their effectiveness (3), their enjoyment (4), and the time spent (3). The conflict is quite apparent, however, when we compare the pastors' perceptions of the importance congregations attach to this role with the congregations' actual rating.

Whereas pastors believe that congregations regard visitation as the pastor's second most important role, the church members surveyed actually ranked it sixth. Member visitation appears to be less important to the general membership of the NPUC than preaching, counseling, personal evangelism, and teaching. Since pastors typically respond and behave on the basis of their perceptions, this inaccurate perception could certainly contribute to role tension.

Differing expectations engender stress

Space precludes a lengthy discussion regarding sources of role conflict in the Adventist ministry. Nevertheless, two sources are of special interest and represent the greatest impact on the pastor.

The first source is the discrepancy that exists between the pastors' perceptions of what the conference values as important and the actual importance the conference attributes to the various roles. Because of their perceptions of administration, pastors are experiencing more intense conflict than is justifiable. Church administrators regard the pastor's preaching, counseling, and teaching as more important and public evangelism and denominational representation as less important than pastors realize. This evidence suggests that better communication between pastors and administrators concerning roles and expectations would reduce a major source of role strain for pastors.

The second—and more significant—source of role strain is the discrepancy that exists between the congregation's expectations of the pastor and those of the conference. The congregation values the pastor's role as a counselor considerably more highly than does the conference, and expects significantly less of him or her as a visitor and as a public evangelist. Pastors are caught at the interface between these two groups and must live amidst conflicting signals. The cross-pressures make it difficult for them to perform effectively.

It must be kept in mind that the above considerations are based upon group data; therefore, one ought not to make generalizations about a specific pastor, administrator, or congregation. It is valid, however, to acknowledge that role pressures are present in the ministry of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Furthermore, since the results are based upon group data, we must remember that averages tend to camouflage the fact that each of the roles was given a high rating by some church members. Such a failure to differentiate between roles heightens the sense of ambiguity pastors experience. The sense of role strain is also intensified when key members, however few, are sending mixed signals to the pastor. Ninety-five percent of the members may agree with the pas tor's priorities, but if there is a highly verbal and/or influential minority, that minority can distort what otherwise would be a relatively conflict-free environment.

Given the reality of role conflict, role ambiguity, and role overload it is important that pastors have the tools to minimize the devastating effects. In the next article, which concludes this series, I will examine specific strategies to assist pastors in their efforts to reduce the vocational stress of ministry.