Resilience in Ministry: Listening to the Voice of Church of Scotland Ministers

ABSTRACT

The present study analyses the qualitative text written on the back page of a quantitative survey concerned with resilience in ministry among ministers serving in the Church of Scotland. Of the 505 ministers who took part in the survey, 176 wrote further (sometimes detailed) comments on the back page (35% participation rate). Three main themes emerged from these comments concerned with different aspects of resilience in ministry. The first theme concerns definitions of resilience from the perspective of ministers. The second theme concerns the challenges to resilience highlighted by ministers including workload and stress, ill health and family issues, tensions with changing theology and apathy to Christianity, conflicts with congregations, and problems with wider church structures. The third theme concerns the coping strategies and support mechanisms identified by ministers as essential for resilience including personality and self-care resources, and interrelationships with family, friends, peers, the church institution, and outside agencies.

KEYWORDS:

• Resilience
• clergy studies
• ministry
• quantitative surveys
• qualitative data

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ursula McKenna

Dr Ursula McKenna is Senior Research Fellow within the Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit, Centre for Education Studies, University of Warwick, UK.