The Burden of Pastoral Ministry

Mark Driscoll (Wikipedia) shares some stunning statistics about pastors. I’m generally skeptical of statistics, but even allowing for a sizable margin of error, these statistics are stunning. Pastor Darrin Patrick from The Journey in Saint Louis compiled these statistics from Barna, Maranatha Life, and Focus on the Family and shared them in a message on the burden of pastoral ministry.

Pastors

• Fifteen hundred pastors leave the ministry each month due to moral failure, spiritual burnout, or contention in their churches.
• Fifty percent of pastors’ marriages will end in divorce.
• Eighty percent of pastors and eighty-four percent of their spouses feel unqualified and discouraged in their role as pastors.
• Fifty percent of pastors are so discouraged that they would leave the ministry if they could, but have no other way of making a living.
• Eighty percent of seminary and Bible school graduates who enter the ministry will leave the ministry within the first five years.
• Seventy percent of pastors constantly fight depression.
• Almost forty percent polled said they have had an extra-marital affair since beginning their ministry.
• Seventy percent said the only time they spend studying the Word is when they are preparing their sermons.

Pastors’ Wives

• Eighty percent of pastors’ spouses feel their spouse is overworked.
• Eighty percent of pastors’ spouses wish their spouse would choose another profession.
• The majority of pastors’ wives surveyed said that the most destructive event that has occurred in their marriage and family was the day they entered the ministry.

Read the whole post.

See also Driscoll’s series entitled Death by Ministry.

• Death by Ministry (Part 1) | Video
• Death by Ministry (Part 2) | Video
• Death by Ministry (Part 3) | Video
• Death by Ministry (Part 4) | Video
• Death by Ministry (Part 5) | Video

HT: Justin Buzzard

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50% of Christian Men Addicted to Porn

A recent Christian Today article discusses the prevalence of porn addiction among Christians. The last several years have seen a huge increase, largely due to the internet. A poll of 1000 Christians showed that 50% of Christian men are addicted to porn.

Yet porn is far from being just a guy problem.

The ChristiaNet.com survey found 60 percent of Christian women admitting to having significant struggles with lust; 40 percent saying they were involved in sexual sin in the past year; and 20 percent struggling with looking at pornography on an ongoing basis.

What “Christian” means is unclear. But even if these stats are remotely accurate, this is troubling indeed.

Read the whole article at Christian Today.

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Tongues and the SBC

A recent study from LifeWay Research asked this question to SBC pastors, non-SBC Protestant pastors, and protestant laity:

Do you believe that the Holy Spirit gives some people the gift of a special language to pray to God privately? Some people refer to this as a Private Prayer Language or the “private use of tongues.”

The study shows that 50% of SBC pastors believe that “the Holy Spirit gives some people a special language to pray to God,” compared to 66% of non-SBC Protestant senior pastors and 51% of laity.

A second question the study asked is what the NT means by “tongues”: whether is it a real language or a special utterance.

A final question dealt with whether public tongues speaking is still a gift for today.

Read the whole report at Baptist Press News.

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