Last week a friend of mine mentioned that she heard a statistic that on average, pastors spend about four minutes in prayer each day. The following is a list of statics along with my opinion regarding the statistic in italics.
According to Shiloh Place Ministries (shilohplace.org), which drew its information from Focus on the Family, Ministries Today, Charisma Magazine, TNT Ministries, and other respected groups: (HT: Historicity)
• 50% of pastors’ marriages end in divorce.
According to a few books that I've read about the sacred union of marriage, Christians have about the same rate of divorce, if not slightly higher, than people who don't claim to be Christians. I thought to myself, "Well, a lot of those people must be nominal Christians that don't really live for God but just claim Christianity as their religion." Unfortunately, I don't think pastors qualify for the "nominal Christian" category...
• 70% of pastors continually battle depression.
According to http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/the-numbers-count-mental-disorders-in-america/index.shtml, only 9.5% of the adult population has been diagnosed with clinical depression. 15% of clinically depressed people commit suicide.
• 80% of pastors and 85% of their spouses feel discouraged in their roles.
• 95% of pastors do not regularly pray with their spouses.
This is absurd in my opinion. If we truly hold value in prayer, there is no reason to disregard the necessity of prayer with our families, including one's spouse.
• 70% of pastors do not have a close friend, confidant, or mentor.
I think this greatly contributes to the discouragement in ministry and even depression. We are relational beings, in need of each other. Jesus' prayer for us was that we would be one with each other as He was one with His father. 70% of pastors aren't even one with one other person, let alone a community of Christians.
• 50% of pastors are so discouraged they would leave the ministry if they could, but have no other way to make a living.
• 80% of pastors spend under 15 minutes a day in prayer.
A lot of the problem-statistics that are in this list most likely stem from this problem-statistic. We need God. Period. It's not my place to say 15 minutes of prayer is an inadequate amount of time to spend in prayer each day, but...it's inadequate. Maybe for a new Christian, just converted, even five minutes in prayer will produce change. But for a seasoned pastor? Who (probably) spends over 40 hours a week in a church office counseling his people, meeting about the next outreach, preparing for this Sunday's message, etc. ... yikes.
• 70% of pastors only study God’s Word when preparing a message.
• Nearly 40% of pastors have had an extra-marital sexual affair since entering ministry.
Disgusting. Don't worry, I don't think pastors' wives are completely innocent either. If 40% of pastors have had this type of affair, what about Christian's in general? Don't get me wrong, I have an attitude of grace toward any sin, and I am certainly not above sin or temptation - this just shouldn't be happening. This could be contributed to by the fact that 70% of pastors don't have a friend! Who are we to be accountable to?
• 80% of seminary graduates who enter ministry will leave the ministry within the first five years.
• 80% of pastors’ wives feel their husbands are overworked.
• 80% of the adult children of pastors sought professional help for depression.
Our most important ministry should be ministering to our children and fulfilling their need to be loved. Certainly 80% of the depressed children of pastors aren't all the pastors' faults...but I'm sure a large percentage is.
• 90% of pastors said their training was inadequate for ministry.
Having been through ministry school, I know the areas of text books that I skimmed, I know what I flashed memorized just to get an 'A', and I know what content I knew like the back of my hand. In ministry school I know people who cheated on tests, lied about reading the text books they were supposed to read, lied about their attendance of classes and lectures and lied about volunteering their time in a specific ministry task to get a grade. I know a lot of people in ministry school who haven't read through the Bible, even though it was required, I have seen people with fairly ungodly life-styles...planning to be your pastor one day or your childrens' pastors. 90% of pastors feel inadequately trained, but I wonder what percentage of those pastors actually gave schooling their all.
• 85% of pastors report that their biggest problem is dealing with abstinent elders, deacons, worship leaders, worship teams, board members, and associate pastors.
• 90% of pastors said the hardest thing about ministry is uncooperative people.
Hahah I believe it.
• 70% of pastors are grossly underpaid.
Once again, I believe it. Lol
Once• 80% of pastors’ wives feel unappreciated by the congregation.
• 90% of pastors said ministry was completely different from what they thought it would be.
• Only 70% of pastors felt called of God into ministry when they began.
• Only 50% of pastors felt called of God into ministry three years later.
• 80% of pastors’ wives feel pressured to be someone they are not and do things they are not called to do in the church.
This should never be. No one should be pushed into a role they do not feel called to be in. People have gifts for a reason and they don't have gifts so that someone else would step up and be used.
• Over 50% of pastors’ wives feel that their husbands entering ministry was the most destructive thing to ever happen to their families.
Hope you enjoyed!!
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