Abstract
From a questionnaire study of 56 clergy couples and concurrent in-depth interviews with ten selected couples, findings and conclusions are reported. The difficulties confronting the pastor and his wife are discussed and suggestions offered to remedy them. Ministers' marriages are currently undergoing some stress due to social changes in our culture and to changes in the concept of ministry. Some promising new developments suggest that the necessary readjustments can be made over time.
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The problem checklists, one for husbands and one for wives, embraced eleven problem areas: Moral/Spiritual/Devotional; Concern for Self; Marital Conflict; Professional Competence; Sex; Money; Children; Identity; Time; Working Wife; and Worry. The checklists were patterned on a problem checklist developed by Ross L. Mooney.
See Rabbi Jack H. Bloom, “Who Become Clergymen?”The Journal of Religion and Health 10 (January 1971):50–76.
The average cash income for these couples (average family size was 4.5 persons) was $14,429, inclusive of income from working spouses.
Seward Hiltner,Theological Dynamics (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1974), p. 19.
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He also serves as Director and Staff Counselor of the Tenafly Pastoral Counseling Center and as Clinical Associate and Supervisor of Student Pastors at Drew Theological Seminary.
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Presnell, W.B. The Minister's own marriage. Pastoral Psychol 25, 272–281 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01761153
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01761153