Flourishing in Ministry: How to Cultivate Clergy Wellbeing

by Matt Bloom

Overview

Pastoral work can be stressful, tough, demanding, sometimes misunderstood, and often underappreciated and underpaid. Ministers devote themselves to caring for their congregations, often at the expense of caring for themselves. Studies consistently show that physical health among clergy is significantly worse than among adults who are not in ministry. Flourishing in Ministry offers clergy and those who support them practical advice for not just surviving this grueling profession, but thriving in it. Matt Bloom, director of the Flourishing in Ministry project, shares groundbreaking research from more than a decade of study. Flourishing in Ministry project draws on more than five thousand surveys and three hundred in-depth interviews with clergy across denominations, ages, races, genders, and years of practice in ministry. It distills this deep research into easily understandable stages of flourishing that can be practiced at any stage in ministry or ministry formation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781538118955
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	10/09/2019
Pages:	152
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Matt Bloom is the principal investigator on the Flourishing in Ministry project (funded by the Lilly Endowment, Inc.) and the Faith and Flourishing at Work project (funded by Templetone Religion Trust). He is associate professor at the University of Notre Dame and director of the Wellbeing at Work project. Matt has studied and published academic and practitioner articles on wellbeing at work for more than twenty-five years.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments Introduction 1 Daily Wellbeing 2 Resilience 3 Authenticity: The Confident and Quiet Self 4 Thriving: Meaning, Purpose, and Connectedness 5 Pathways to Ministry 6 Living a Calling and Becoming a Pastor 7 Social Support 8 The “Stages” of Ministry 9 A Way Forward References Index About the Author

Editorial Reviews

Matt Bloom is a rare hybrid. As an astute scientist with decades of experience, he knows his way well through the sociological studies and the psychological research on leadership and professional and personal wellbeing. But as a person of deep empathy and sensitive listening, he also knows the profundity of ministerial life. He understands the mystery of holy calling, the often paradoxical nature of discernment of God’s will, and the long and complex journey of growth in grace. Consequently this book is a remarkable and significant contribution, a multi-layered conversation among many disciplines and voices, and an important resource for pastors and those who care about their flourishing. No one could have done this better than Matt Bloom.

G. Long

Pastors, denominational leaders, people in congregations, and seminary faculty and administrators will benefit greatly from Bloom’s astute analysis of clergy well-being. Bloom draws on his research with pastors and the extensive scientific research on well-being to give us a comprehensive way of understanding what is integral to pastoral flourishing for the sake of the church and the world.

Kathleen A. Cahalan

Matt Bloom is a rare hybrid. As an astute scientist with decades of experience, he knows his way well through the sociological studies and the psychological research on leadership and professional and personal wellbeing. But as a person of deep empathy and sensitive listening, he also knows the profundity of ministerial life. He understands the mystery of holy calling, the often paradoxical nature of discernment of God’s will, and the long and complex journey of growth in grace. Consequently this book is a remarkable and significant contribution, a multi-layered conversation among many disciplines and voices, and an important resource for pastors and those who care about their flourishing. No one could have done this better than Matt Bloom.

Thomas G. Long

A genuine treasure trove of wisdom on what promotes flourishing in ministry and what derails it. Informed by a rich set of data—surveys and interviews with ten-thousand pastors from diverse settings—this book not only captures key factors behind thriving, it offers concrete means to sustain wellness. This invaluable guide and the bigger project from which it grows are destined to transform how we think about the lives and wellbeing of congregational pastors.

Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore

Flourishing in Ministry provides a nonthreatening (and, more important, non-guiltinducing) opportunity to identify obstacles to flourishing, as well as actionable suggestions for overcoming them. Perhaps most critically, Bloom holds congregations and denominations accountable for forming and sustaining healthy clergy, acknowledging that individual choices and actions alone are not enough to guarantee that a pastor will flourish. Despite my initial skepticism, I finished the book grateful for the project’s work, equipped with language to articulate factors in life and work impacting my own wellbeing, and armed with tools to improve it. I have recommended it to several of my “similar others”—and I commend it to the readers of Interpretation.

Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology - Amy Starr Redwine

I believe there are few professions or vocations that face as steep a challenge as the pastor’s. The accelerating cultural changes and weakening of the institutions of religion make it a very difficult time to be a pastor. Matt Bloom has done us all an important favor. He provids an empirical examination of these struggles and highlights the cultural and institutional transitions, but even more, he takes us into the existential sense that a pastor feels about her or his vocation. This highly readable, intricately researched, and timely book is a must-read for anyone who forms, or cares about the formation of, clergy.

Andrew Root