Work-Family Spillover Experiences of Women in Ministry

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WORK-FAMILY SPILLOVER EXPERIENCES OF WOMEN IN MINISTRY

A DISSERTATION

SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS

FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

IN THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE

TEXAS WOMAN’S UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF FAMILY SCIENCES

COLLEGE OF PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION

BIRNEY JOSHUA FISH B.A., M.A.

DENTON, TEXAS

DECEMBER 2018

DEDICATION

To my amazing and loving wife, Ashley. To my incredibly supportive family. To

Jesus, you are my light and my shepherd; it is in you that I do all that I do and find my purpose and strength.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank the countless individuals who provided their assistance, gentle guidance, and timely encouragement throughout the process of my doctoral work.

To my committee members Dr. Aaron Norton, Dr. Linda Brock, and Dr. Karen Petty thank you for your amazing leadership and wisdom that more than aided me in completing this dissertation. Thank you to all of my professors, both in my master’s and doctoral programs, at Johnson University and at Texas Woman’s University. In particular, I would like to thank Dr. Glen Jennings and Dr. Sarah Woods. I am forever grateful for the impact the two of you have had on me academically and professionally, but most of all personally as you challenged me to not only to be a better therapist but a better person.

I would also like to thank the amazing women who agreed to participate in this study. Thank you for allowing me the honor to hear your personal stories and experiences of what it means to be a woman, a wife, and a mother in ministry. You have taught me more than this dissertation could possibly illustrate. I wish you all the best as you continue to pursue your passion and calling.

Finally, I would like to gratefully acknowledge the countless others who have contributed to my ability to complete this dissertation process through your encouragement and support. To my parents, Mark and Sheila; my sisters, Johanna and

Shannon; the leadership and members of Cross Bend Christian Church; Sarah Proctor;

Vika Claytor; and the faculty, staff, and students at Johnson University, thank you. Last

iii but certainly not least, I would like to thank my amazing wife, Ashley. No one carried me through my graduate studies more than you. Thank you for your countless sacrifices, support, and patience throughout this doctoral journey. Your prayers and encouragement have meant more to me than I could ever express. I could not have completed this process without you.

ABSTRACT

BIRNEY JOSHUA FISH

WORK-FAMILY SPILLOVER EXPERIENCES OF WOMEN IN MINISTRY

DECEMBER 2018

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand the experiences of women in ministry, and their perceptions on the impact ministry have had on their marriages and families. The theoretical framework for this study was based on Reuben

Hill’s (1949; 1958) family stress theory and Murray Bowen’s (1976; 1978) family systemic theory combined with a phenomenological approach to provide a voice to the experiences and values of a previously understudied population of individuals within the field of ministry. The researcher utilized in-depth interviews to collect and analyze data with 13 female participants, who had served in at least one ministry position while being married. All interviews were digitally recorded and then transcribed. After the transcription process, data were coded, and emergent themes were identified. Six major themes, numerous sub-themes, and seven values statements emerged from the data analysis process. This study helps to expand what is known about the impact a career in ministry can have on personal, marital, and familial relationships through the perceptions of the often understudied, yet ever-increasing, population of female clergy. This research has implications for individuals employed or entering vocational ministry, the spouses and families of women in ministry, ministry educators, family life educators, family

v scientists, employers of women in ministry, and restorative professionals and organizations who work with ministers and their families (i.e., family therapists).

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

DEDICATION ...... ii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...... iii

ABSTRACT ...... v

LIST OF TABLES ...... xi

LIST OF FIGURES ...... xii

I. INTRODUCTION ...... 1

Statement of the Problem ...... 2 Significance of the Study ...... 3 Theoretical and Methodological Framework of the study ...... 4 Research Questions ...... 5 Definition of Terms...... 6 Delimitations ...... 7 Potential Researcher Bias ...... 8 Summary ...... 8

II. LITERATURE REVIEW ...... 10

Introduction ...... 10 Ministry ...... 11 Ministry Compared with Other Helping Professions...... 13 Women in Ministry ...... 14 History of Women in Ministry ...... 19 Work-Family Spillover and Burnout ...... 20 Work-Life Spillover and Burnout in Women ...... 23 Ministry Burnout Compared with Other Helping Professions ...... 26 Work-Family Spillover and Burnout in Ministry ...... 26 Work-Related Stressors Particular for Women in Ministry ...... 33 Impact of Spirituality and Religion on Marriages ...... 37 Issues in Clergy Marriages...... 37 Impact of Ministry Stress on Clergy Marriages ...... 38 vii

Impact of Ministry Relocation on Clergy Marriages ...... 41 Issues in Clergy Families ...... 42 Importance of Social Support on Clergy Marriages and Families ...... 44 Impact of Ministry Stress Specific to Clergywomen Marriages and Families ...... 47 Summary ...... 49

III. METHODOLOGY ...... 52

Introduction ...... 52 Research Design...... 53 Methodological Framework ...... 54 Methodological Appropriateness ...... 54 Theoretical Framework ...... 56 Role of the Researcher ...... 58 Validity, Quality and Trustworthiness ...... 60 Procedure ...... 61 Interview Questions ...... 69 Participants ...... 71 Saturation ...... 72 Ethical Considerations of the Study ...... 73 Summary ...... 75

IV. RESULTS ...... 76

Introduction ...... 76 Data Analysis ...... 76 Coding Methodology ...... 79 First Cycle of Coding ...... 80 Second Cycle of Coding ...... 81 Third Cycle of Coding ...... 82 Findings from the First Cycle Coding ...... 84 Attribute Coding ...... 84 Structural Coding ...... 88 Findings from the Second Cycle Coding ...... 90 Major Themes from Research Question 1 ...... 92 Obstacles ...... 92 Metacognitions ...... 103 Major Themes from Research Question 2 ...... 107 Ministry’s Impact on Marriage and Family ...... 107 Balance of Ministry and Family Demands Creating and Sustaining Boundaries ...... 116 Growth ...... 129 Major Themes from Research Question 3 ...... 136 Support and Resources ...... 136 viii

Additional Cycle Two Findings ...... 160 Internal Factors for Entering Ministry ...... 161 External Factors for Entering Ministry ...... 162 Enjoyment in Ministry ...... 165 Findings from the Third Cycle Coding ...... 167 Ministry is a Calling...... 168 Men and Women Have Different Experiences in Ministry ...... 169 Ministry Work will Impact the Family ...... 170 Family should be the Priority over Ministry Work ...... 172 If Married, a Supportive Spouse Plays an Important Role in Helping a Woman in Ministry Conduct Long-Term Successful Ministry Work .....174 Husbands of Women in Ministry Need a Support System ...... 175 Women in Ministry Need Other Women in Ministry ...... 177 Final Thoughts ...... 178 Summary ...... 178

V. DISCUSSION ...... 180

Introduction ...... 180 Discussion of Findings ...... 181 Research Question One: Stressors ...... 182 Research Question Two: Impact ...... 191 Research Question Three: Resources...... 202 Values Coding ...... 207 Theoretical Framework ...... 219 Strengths of the Study ...... 222 Conclusions ...... 223 Limitations ...... 228 Implications...... 229 Recommendations for Further Research ...... 233 Summary ...... 236

REFERENCES ...... 238

APPENDICES ...... 256

A. Recruitment Email ...... 256

B. Recruitment Flyer ...... 259

C. Initial Telephone Call Script ...... 261

D. Consent Form ...... 264

E. Demographic Information ...... 267

F. Interview Guide ...... 269

G. Follow-up Telephone Script...... 273

H. List of Referral Sources ...... 275

LIST OF TABLES

Table Page

Table 4.1. Sample Demographics: Age, Marital Status, Children ...... 85

Table 4.2. Sample Demographics: Ministry Experience ...... 87

Table 4.3. Research Questions and Major Themes...... 91

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure Page

Figure 4.1. Subthemes for Major Theme of Obstacles ...... 93

Figure 4.2. Subthemes for Major Theme of Metacognitions ...... 104

Figure 4.3. Subthemes for Major Theme of Ministry’s Impact on Marriage and Family

...... 109

Figure 4.4. Subthemes for Major Theme of Balance of Ministry and Family Demands: Creating and Sustaining Boundaries ...... 117

Figure 4.5. Subthemes for Major Theme of Growth ...... 130

Figure 4.6. Subthemes for Major Theme of Support and Resources ...... 138

xii

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Although job-related stress is common to most occupations, a sustained amount of job-related stress, when left unattended, often leads an individual to work-life spillover and ultimately work-related burnout (Brewer & Shapard, 2004). The professional field of

Christian congregational ministry is no exception. Due to common expectations placed on full-time ministers, including the often-assumed constant availability and demand to be a source of strength to congregational members facing stressful situations, the needs of ministers, and the needs of their marriages and families often go unchecked or ignored

(Darling, Hill, & McWey, 2004). Whether these expectations come from the members of the congregation or the minister’s self-imposed expectations the results are the same, job- related work-life spillover can build up to long-lasting ramifications (Angerer, 2003).

Some of the known long-lasting impacts of job-related stressors include deterioration in family time and a felt sense of cohesion, conflict in marital relationships, work-to-family conflict, and compassion fatigue (Hill, Darling, & Raimondi, 2003; Jacobson, Rothschild,

Mirza, & Shapiro, 2013; Wells, Probst, McKeown, Mitchem, & Whiejong, 2012).

It has been shown that the level of impact and response to work-life spillover can differ between women and men (Probst et al., 2017; Purvanova & Muros, 2010).

However, what is unknown is if women in ministry respond differently to work-life spillover than men in ministry. Given the relevant literature, the impact of work-life 1

spillover may be even stronger for women in ministry positions compared to men in ministry. Similarly, it is unknown whether women in ministry have unique lived experiences of work-life burnout, or whether women in ministry perceive their marriages and families to be impacted by their work. This phenomenological study was an examination of women in ministry and their perceptions of lived-experiences in relation to work-life spillover and the impact on their marriages and families.

Statement of the Problem

Individuals in professional ministry may see their positions as a calling rather than an occupation (Frame & Shehan, 2004). It is this sense of being called by a higher authority to hold and maintain a specific ministry position, which God himself has called and gifted that particular clergy member for, that increases the felt sense of importance for enduring a life of service in ministry that goes beyond the basics of employment (i.e., holding a salary, contributing to society). Therefore, from this perspective, individuals in ministry may be particularly susceptible to job-related impacts on their personal well- being, spirituality, and relationships.

However, as noted by Lewis, Turton, and Francis (2007), full-time ministry professionals are rarely thought of as individuals that struggle with work-life spillover.

Therefore, little research has been carried out over ministry professionals in relation to work-life impact, and even less research has been done with the work-related stressors specific to women in ministry (Cody-Rydzewski, 2007). A review of literature showed that although there was a fair amount of literature among the field of marriage and family

therapy regarding work-life spillover, there remained a gap in research when it came to the impact of work-life spillover on more specific occupations. Therefore, it was the goal of this research to add to the literature regarding the impact of work-life spillover when it comes to women in ministry.

Significance of the Study

In a review of literature, Jackson-Jordan (2013) pointed out that research has predominately been focused on male clergy and she called for future research of clergy to address the often-overlooked female cohort of clergy. Likewise, Lee (2010) called for future research to explore the differences across genders on how they face the stress of ministry. Furthermore, Wells et al. (2012) pointed out that although there have been several studies investigating the impact of work-life spillover on family life, there has only been a small amount of research exploring the impact work-life spillover has on clergy families. More specifically, Darling et al. (2006) called for future research to investigate the impact of gender on family stress issues. Other studies have pushed for future research to address the impact of work-life spillover on clergywomen and the subsequent impact on their role as mothers (Sharp & Huebner, 2014). Still other researchers have pointed out the hole in the relevant literature regarding the impact of ministry work on female clergy marriages (Lee, 2007; Murphy-Geiss, 2011). Overall, the literature on work-family spillover, and the effects of stress from ministry occupations, requires a more specific focus on unique aspects of this process in the ministry field, as

well as an investigation of work-life spillover effects for women within ministry occupations.

Therefore, the purpose of this study was to understand the experiences of women in ministry, and their perceptions on the impact ministry have had on their marriages and families. Additionally, this study looked to build on current research pertaining to women in ministry and work-life spillover in order to assist individuals who work with female ministers and their families, in career preparation, during their career in ministry, or therapeutically. Since, as mentioned previously, little had been done over women in ministry and the impact of work-family spillover, the gathering and evaluating of information obtained from this study can benefit a larger often overlooked audience. This study looked to expand what was known about families and marriages; with emphasis on the effect working in ministry has on women for balancing work-life spillover. From a theoretical standpoint, the researcher looked to expand what was known about how families respond and understand stressors, and the subsequent impact this has on family and relational functioning.

Theoretical and Methodological Framework of the Study

The theoretical framework for this study was based on Reuben Hill’s family stress theory. According to Hill (1949), the impact a stressor can have over the family hinges upon three contributing elements. Hill (1958) formed an equation showing how these elements interact, and the significant role that all three factors play. In Hill’s (1958)

ABC-X model of family crisis A (the stressor) interacts with B (the family’s available

resources) which interacts with C (the family’s definition of the stressor) to produce X

(the amount of impact the stressor will have on the family). This theoretical model of understanding stress, impact, and the family’s role was utilized for this study to examine work-life spillover in ministry.

This qualitative study utilized a phenomenological approach to understand individual experiences and meanings of women in ministry centralized around the idea of entrance into ministry, burnout in ministry, and how the two may be intertwined. The purpose of the phenomenological approach, according to Spiegelberg (1975), is to

“investigate and describe phenomena as consciously experienced” and “as free as possible from unexamined preconceptions and presuppositions” (p. 3). According to

Patton (2002), the goal of a phenomenological approach is to grasp the meaning of lived experiences by looking at how individuals “perceive it, describe it, feel about it, judge it, remember it, make sense of it, and talk about it with others” (p. 104). Therefore, guided by a phenomenological framework and through in-depth interviews, this study attempted to glean information out of the meanings women in ministry gave to their lived experiences in ministry and their perceived level of impact ministry has had on their marriages and families.

Research Questions

Several research questions were formulated given the purpose of this study to understand the experiences of women in ministry, and their perceptions on the impact ministry has had on their marriages and families. The following research questions served

as a guide for this study in order to address gaps in the literature regarding experiences of women in ministry and subsequent work-life spillover:

1. How do women in ministry perceive and describe stressors from their work in

ministry?

2. What beliefs do women in ministry have about the impact their ministry work has

had on their spousal and familial relationships?

3. What resources do women in ministry perceive to be helpful with work-life

balance?

Definition of Terms

For this study, the terms below were defined as follows:

Stressor – an excessive amount of pressure from a force that an individual/family has little to no preparation for, and therefore challenges the individual/family to manage the hardship by allowing the event to hold a high level of impact and become potentially crisis producing (Hill, 1949).

Burnout – consistent, prolonged occupational stress leading to a level of depleted energy, motivation, or satisfaction, and ultimately emotional exhaustion (Barnard &

Curry, 2012).

Minister – an individual in a paid leadership position at a Christian, bible-based congregation, or in a paid leadership position through a parachurch organization.

Congregation – a group of similar-valued individuals who are brought together by a desire to worship, fellowship, educate and encourage one another, centralized around

bible-based principles, often lead by one or more ministers.

Work-life spillover – the level of impact work-related stressors influence life outside of work (i.e. marriage and family interactions).

Delimitations

Due to the timeframe of this study, the researcher limited the length of allotted interviewing time for each participant to a single interview. Likewise, this study was limited to females in ministry to provide insight into this unique demographic of vocational clergy. This study was limited to female ministers who serve in a vocational

(part-time or full-time) setting within a protestant Christian church, regardless of congregational size. To better understand the long-term impact of ministry on personal relationships, participants were limited to women who had served a minimum of six months in a vocational ministry at any point in their occupational career. Likewise, to best understand the impact of ministry on marriage, each participants needed to have been married for at least part of her time while serving in a ministerial role. The participants were not limited by the presence, or lack, of children in their families. This study aimed to capture the ministry experiences of women from early to late adulthood.

Therefore, the age range of participants was initially set to include women between the ages of 22-65 in order to capture a population of adult women clergy who may have experienced work-life spillover effects; this age range was reflective of the research questions. It was not appropriate to recruit participants younger than age 22, as these women may not have experienced work-life spillover given the limited amount of time

they would have served in ministry, and the decreased likelihood that they would have experienced marriage. The outer limit of 65 years was broaden to age 80 after the inquiry of a potential participant that was beyond the age of 65 to participate in the study. It was determined that the increased age range would provide more in-depth qualitative findings on female ministry experiences and the greater longitudinal impact ministry work had on marriages and families.

Potential Researcher Bias

The researcher had previous experience in both part and full-time ministry.

Therefore, there was potential for personal bias from the researcher’s lived experiences in ministry when interpreting and analyzing the interviewed ministers and their ministry- related experiences. In addition, being a male might have caused the researcher to be biased to the unknown impact of gender on ministry roles. The researcher took steps to maintain neutrality in the interpretation and analysis, to allow the lived experiences of the individuals that were interviewed to remain unencumbered by any previous bias or assumptions the researcher might have had. Some of the checks that were set in place for this study to account for and guard against impact from researcher bias were the use of triangulation in both data collection and data analysis, multiple coders, and member checking with participants post-interview.

Summary

There has been evidence that work-life spillover is present in several fields of work, as well as gender differences in work-life spillover (Adams, Hough, Proeschold-

Bell, Yao, & Kolkin, 2016; Angerer, 2003; Evans & Fischer, 1993; Martinengo, Jacob, &

Hill, 2010; Purvanova & Muros, 2010; Richman, vanDellen, & Wood, 2011). However, there has been limited research regarding the impact that work-life spillover has had in ministry occupations. More specifically, there has been even fewer research studies carried out on the impact of work-life spillover unique to women in ministry. It was the interest of this study to explore whether the literature over work-life spillover remained relevant when compared to the lived experiences of women in ministry. Likewise, this study looked to shed light on the often-overlooked differences gender played when it came to work-life spillover specific to work in ministry. Therefore, this phenomenological study sought to understand the lived experiences of women in ministry, with a focus on spillover effects from ministry work to personal life and well- being, specific to the perceived impact their occupation has had on their marriages and families.

CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW

Full-time vocational Christian ministers face a number of job-related stressors unique to ministry that when left unchecked has been shown to produce emotional exhaustion, a lack of job satisfaction, or even burnout (Miner, Dowson, & Sterland,

2010). A lack of personal, as well as relational, resources have been shown to be some predictive factors in producing work-life spillover, emotional exhaustion, and burnout among Christian ministers (Barnard, & Curry, 2012). However, what are ministers to do when their work-issues spill over into their relationships, particularly their marriages and families? Some factors that have been shown to buffer the impact of ministry job-related stressors are ministers who create and maintain healthy boundaries and who have an ability to manage their time effectively (Doolittle, 2010). Furthermore, what influence does gender have on ministry-related stressors and the subsequent work-life spillover?

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand the experiences of women in ministry, and their perceptions on the impact ministry have had on their marriages and families. Three questions were used to guide this research and to explore related literature to this study.

1. How do women in ministry perceive and describe stressors from their work in

ministry?

2. What beliefs do women in ministry have about the impact their ministry work has

had on their spousal and familial relationships?

3. What resources do women in ministry perceive to be helpful with work-life

balance?

Chapter II is a review of the related literature pertaining to experiences of ministry in relation to ministry stress, work-life balance, and previous research that addressed the relational impact ministry work has had clergy marriages and families.

Chapter II focuses on available research prior to this study as well as what gaps remain in the literature for future research.

Ministry

Entrance into ministry is often seen as a calling, or a life purpose, for many ministry professionals who see their occupation as more than simply a vocation or job to be completed. Therefore, there are certain concessions ministry professionals frequently make in regards to job compensation, not only financially, but also at times relationally.

Due to this sense of calling, many clergy may feel the need to hide any dissatisfaction with their occupation because they may feel morally obligated to withhold criticism on the profession (Rose, 1999). Doolittle (2007) noted this willingness to compromise on employment benefits in a study done on parish-based clergy. Doolittle stated that while ministry falls in line with most of the other helping professions, ministry professionals

are driven by a sense of purpose. A common characteristic for clergy is the lack of compensation, given their level of education, when compared with other helping professions.

In a study by Tomic, Tomic, and Evers (2004) it was determined that clergy professionals who enter into ministry due to the attractiveness of the occupation had a greater likelihood of eventually succumbing to ministry stressors. Tomic et al. (2004) echoed the findings of other researchers that there is something about the “call” to ministry that holds ministers in the ministry profession. In the same study by Tomic et al. it was found that if clergy professionals were given a choice of staying in a ministry profession or switching to a different profession, 76% of clergy professionals stated they would not consider switching professions.

As mentioned above, clergy professionals share some similarities with other helping professions; however, there are unique characteristics that should be noted. At times, stress in the personal life of a minister is accounted for simply due to association with stressful situations via close contact to daily problematic circumstances of the congregational members they serve (Miner, 2007a). Darling et al. (2004) pointed out that the expected empathy from clergy professionals for congregational members is often on continuous demand with disregard to the clergy’s personal marriage and familial needs.

Likewise, Chandler (2009) asserted that a continued exposure to stressful demands on the time of clergy professionals takes a toll on the minister’s ability to spiritually renew him

or herself, and thus creates a spiritual dryness that leaves a small amount of emotional resources to pull from to maintain their empathic abilities.

Similarly, when a minister does experience a personal crisis there are often limited resources and support that the minister feels he or she can utilize for their personal needs. Miner (2007a) mentions the juxtaposition that although ministers are frequently seen as a source of empathy and support there is often little if any support during a minister’s personal times of stress. On a similar note, stress in ministry often presents itself through the common everyday tasks that being in ministry demands of ministers such as weekly sermon writing, home visitations, and an overall sense of never being finished in respect to ministry work (Tomic et al., 2004).

Ministry Compared with Other Helping Professions

Three aspects of burnout from the Maslach Burnout Inventory (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment) were analyzed in a comparison study between clergy, social workers, counselors and teachers to determine how these professions experience and respond to work-related stressors (Adams et al.,

2016). It was determined that clergy experience higher levels of depersonalization than counselors and social workers, and higher levels of burnout in relation to personal accomplishment than counselors. One factor, attributed by the researchers, which led to this increased level of burnout by clergy, was the ambiguous nature of pastoral work.

Consequently, it is this high level of ambiguity that contributes to the difficulty of

measuring the impact of work-related stressors and consequential burnout among clergy and other helping professions due to work-life spillover.

As mentioned above, many clergy enter into ministry because they feel “called” to enter into a vocation of ministry service, trusting that God will enable them with the required talents and abilities to lead the congregations they serve (Barnard & Curry,

2012). This added element of being “called” into ministry serves to increase motivation to withstand ministry work-life stressors even if the signs are present that the potential for burnout is a foreseeable issue, signs other helping professionals might be more likely to heed. Since many ministers see their work as a calling, rather than just a job, their potential for work-life spillover can become overwhelming as their work is seen as a way of life with the need to be on call twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week (Frame &

Shehan, 2004). The job of a clergy professional to bear the weight of service for the call of working towards a higher purpose is often seen as an honor. Therefore, the duty of a clergy professional comes with additional expectations that other professions may not entail. Spencer, Winston, Bocarnea, and Wickman (2009) pointed out that often the clergy profession is the first line of support called during a time of crisis for many families.

Women in Ministry

As Adams (2007) reported, women account for a majority of the participants within religious congregations; however, their presence in the leadership of these same congregations is remarkably still low. Adams concluded that while many secular

companies and organizations have knowingly, or unknowingly, created a glass ceiling for women in career level achievement, religious organizations have traditions, often tightly held traditions, that have created a unique “stained glass ceiling” for women in congregational leadership. One of the earliest references to the term “stained glass ceiling,” or the barrier that prevents women from obtaining equal career achievement in a ministry vocation when compared to men, was by Goldman (1992), in a New York Times article that addressed the issues women in ministry faced.

Over the life of the Christian church, certain scriptures have been used to exclude women from congregational ministry. Two of the often-quoted sections of scripture regarding the topic of women in ministry are 1 Corinthians 14: 34-35 “Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says. If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church,” and 1

Timothy 2:11-12 “A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet” (New

International Version). Although the interpretation of these and other sections of scripture have been greatly debated, these scriptures have been used to create a barrier for women to gain entrance into a ministry vocation (Gundry & Beck, 2005).

Nonetheless, there has been a marked increase in women who are entering ministry in recent years, as well as a rise in women who are being ordained into ministry by an ever-increasing number of denominations. In a 2009 survey by the Barna Group it

was reported that the percentage of women holding senior pastor positions among protestant churches doubled in percentage from 5% in the 1990s to 10% in 2009. A 2015 study by Faith Communities Today covering 4,400 faith congregations in America revealed a comparative number of 8.6% of senior ministry positions, or sole leadership positions, being held by women.

This dramatic increase has come primarily since the 1970s (Chaves, 1997).

However, the ability for women to obtain professional positions in the ministry field, although changing over the past several decades, still does come with notable difficulties.

In a study carried out by Sullins (2000), clergy within the Episcopal church were evaluated in order to determine if there was a disproportionate representation of clergy along gender lines when it came to certain levels of ministerial career status rankings

(i.e., the position of bishop compared to deacon, a lower rank in the Episcopal church). It was determined that there was an imbalance in occupational status when it came to women in congregational positions. Specifically, women were more likely to be placed in subordinate positions (i.e., deacon) when compared to their male counterparts, who were more likely to receive more prestigious positions (i.e., bishops or priests). In addition, this gender inequality among positional ranking was found to be consistent over time, with female clergy never seeing the same rate of promotion as their male counterparts during their careers as clergy. In an analysis over career attainment for clergy following their formal training, it was determined that women take 33% longer to find their first ministerial job when compared to their male cohorts (Chang, 1997). In a 2010 review of

literature on women in ministry, de Gasquet found that there was a disproportionate difference between the more widely accepted position of women serving in unofficial volunteer roles rather than church ordained authority positions. This was found to be true even though the actual services provided by the women, for the studied congregations, were similar to the services provided by the paid or official leadership positions often held by males within the same church.

Dudley (1996) pointed out that simply using Biblical proof texts to determine whether women should be permitted to obtain congregational leadership positions does little to produce attitudinal change on this topic. However, it has been shown that one of the most impactful catalysts for changing beliefs about women in ministry is firsthand observation on the effectiveness of women in congregational leadership positions. Simon and Nadell (1995) observed the perceptions of men on the role of women in congregational leadership and the manner that women in ministry conducted their ministerial duties. Men in ministry did not report having seen any of these differences between their approach to ministerial duties compared to the approaches taken by women in ministry. However, women did report perceiving their approaches to ministry to be different from their male counterparts (less formal, more engaging, more approachable, and more people oriented). Likewise, in an earlier study by Simon, Scanlan, and Nadell

(1993) on the differences and similarities between women ministers in Protestant denominations and female rabbis serving Jewish congregations, both Protestant clergywomen and women rabbis held similar gender-related understandings that women

were more approachable, person-centered, and less formal when compared to males in similar roles. Similarly, utilizing the responses from 1,239 female clergy in the United

Kingdom, Robbins (1998) found that almost two-thirds of the reporting clergy believed that women contributed different gifts to ministry compared to male clergy. However, it was also determined that although a majority of female clergy understood there to be a clear difference between specific gender approaches to ministry, the differences offered by women were not seen as a better approach, rather simply a different approach when compared to the ministerial approaches of male clergy.

When it comes to characteristics of men and women in ministry, certain differences and similarities have been highlighted. Robbins, Littler, and Francis (2011) carried out a study to determine personality differences between clergywomen and clergymen. No significant differences were found between women and men in ministry when it came to extraversion, neuroticism, psychoticism, or the lie scale. The clergymen in the study tended to be more “tenderhearted” (less masculine) when compared to men from other occupations, and the clergywomen in the study were less emotional than women in general, less feminine. Through an analysis of a national sampling of clergy from the United Church of Christ and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) it was determined that female clergy held just as strongly, if not stronger, to professional values and orientations when compared to male clergy (McDuff & Mueller, 2002). One explanation McDuff and Mueller suggested was that female clergy are more likely than male clergy to enter ministry as their second career, having obtained a different career

earlier in life. Therefore, the career values and professional expectations they developed in their previous career, intentionally or unintentionally, carried over into their new ministerial career.

History of Women in Ministry

Whether their stories have been told, or not, women have played an important role in the advancement of spiritual movements. However, for a majority of early church history the spiritual and religious leadership of women was prohibited by most Protestant denominations (Adams, 2007). One example of this was women serving as early missionaries for groups like the Quakers. These same women were often arrested, imprisoned, and returned to England for their efforts to advance their mission (Schneider

& Schneider, 1997). Female ordination is not a new practice as there are records as far back as 1853 when Antoinette Brown was the first woman to be ordained in the

Congregational Church (Lehman, 2002). Full clergy rights were given to women in almost seven percent of denominations in America by 1890. It was not until 1956 that the

United Methodist Church began full ordination rights for women.

Despite the increased trend toward acceptance of women in ministerial leadership positions during the later portion of the twentieth century, many churches still did not favor women serving in ministry and this acceptance rate stayed minimal prior to the

1970s (Chaves, 1997). A feminist revolution took hold in the 1970s that began to change the ability of women to be accepted into leadership positions within mainstream

Protestant denominations (Carroll, Hargrove, & Lummis, 1983; Stewart-Thomas, 2010).

Perl (2002) argued that this increase of women entering ministerial leadership positions allowed for a new style of ministry to develop. The number of female clergy rose dramatically between 1970 and 1990 from 3% to around 10%. Today around half of all denominations in America allow women to serve in ministry positions, compared to only

7% at the beginning of the 20th century (Chaves, 1996). However, even though the number of women serving in ministry positions among mainline Protestant denominations has doubled (from 7-15%), the number of women in clergy positions remains low (Konieczny & Chaves 2000; Lehman, 2002). In 1997, Chang put the number of women serving as religious leaders around 10%. With the increase of women serving in ministry over the past 40 years comes an elevated level of work-life spillover that has been noted by several authors (Carroll et al., 1983; Hale, King, & Jones, 1980; Lehman,

2002; Zikmund, Lummis, & Chang, 1998).

Work-Family Spillover and Job Burnout

Although work-life spillover has garnered an increasing focus in recent decades, stress in the workplace is not a new concept. Early research on work-related burnout viewed the issues of occupational burnout as an individual problem, and the flaws associated with that individual’s character, behaviors, or ambition. When it comes to job- related burnout, the individual factors and environmental factors have historically been observed in isolation of one another. It has not been until recently that the individual factors have been studied in the context of occupational environmental factors (Maslach,

Schaufeli, & Leiter, 2001). This shift in the study of job-related stress and burnout has provided a more systemic understanding on the development of burnout.

In a large sampling of Canadian workers, Schieman and Glavin (2016) found that there was a strong positive association between pressures at work and subsequent blurring of work-family boundaries. At first, in an effort to handle pressures from the workplace, the participants brought their work home in an attempt to alleviate some of the pressures they were feeling at work; however, this only served to normalize their occupational pressures and thus created more of an unclear boundary pattern.

Consequently, when roles between work and family became blurred it became increasingly more difficult to detach from work.

One of the contributing factors to burnout that Angerer (2003) illustrated was the need for the individual employee to develop an acceptable level of compromise between the needs of their employer and their own personal needs. When it comes to the motivation for an individual to continue to be satisfied with the personal investment and sacrifice they were experiencing in a workplace, Angerer determined that there must be both extrinsic and intrinsic rewards. External rewards may come in the form of money, prestige, or security. Internal rewards include job satisfaction, teamwork, problem solving, and creativity. However, Angerer (2003) argued that work-life spillover and ultimately job-related burnout may become increasingly unavoidable when internal rewards are no longer present, even if external rewards are represented.

Another factor often pointed out as a leading factor in work-life spillover and burnout is the request by employers for employees to multitask during their workday in an effort to increase productivity without having to increase hours worked (Angerer,

2003). However, in a study over polychronicity, Korabik, van Rhijn, Ayman, Lero, and

Hammer (2016) found that a preference for doing several things at the same time was related to lower work overload, which was related to lower levels of work-family conflict, and consequently a higher overall family and life satisfaction level.

Another common factor that Angerer (2003), shared which led to work-life spillover was the idea that there is a battle for control that exists between an employee and their employer. When the employee does not feel that they have any ability to control important facets of their job, they are more likely to experience elements of burnout, such as exhaustion, cynicism, and ineffectiveness. Hwang and Ramadoss (2017) determined that high levels of job control, supervisor support, and coworker support were significantly related to higher levels of job satisfaction among both men and women.

Likewise, it was shown that work-family conflict contributed to a lower level of job sastifcation. An increased level of job control correlated to a decrease in work-family conflict for women, but not for men. It was hypothesized that women are more directly influenced by the impact that having a greater level of job control provided on work- family conflict due to their tendency to carry out more of the housework and child-care when compared with men. Therefore, work-family conflict decreased for women when they had a greater sense of job control.

In a nine-year longitudinal study by Cho and Tay (2016), it was determined that a negative work-to-family directional spillover left employees with less life satisfaction at a nine-year follow-up. However, a positive family-to-work directional spillover was coupled with a higher life satisfaction rating at a nine-year follow-up. These results remained even after accounting for baseline life satisfaction, health, gender, income, and personality. Likewise, in a 2016 meta-analytic review carried out by Fellows, Chiu, Hill, and Hawkins covering literature published between 1986 and 2014, it was determined that a significant negative relationship could be found between work-family conflict and the relationship quality of couples. Although this connection between work-family conflict and overall relationship quality was found to be significant, it was only able to account for four percent of the variance in the overall quality of couple relationships. The level of impact work-family conflict had on couple relationships was found to be significantly greater in North American couples when compared to European and Asian couples. Likewise, the level of impact was far less for dual-working couples compared to couples where only one partner worked. It was determined that there was more tolerance for work-interference in the couple relationship when both partners worked.

Work-Life Spillover and Burnout in Women

The effects of burnout have been shown to vary along gender lines. Utilizing 183 studies, Purvanova and Muros (2010), conducted a meta-analysis to determine if a relationship could be found between gender and burnout. It was determined that women and men are likely to report different subsets of burnout factors. Women were more

likely to express emotional exhaustion leading to levels of burnout, whereas men were more likely to report that it was the depersonalization element of burnout that most impacted them. Therefore, Purvanova and Muros determined that women were more likely to suffer the consequences of work-related emotional exhaustion when compared to their male counterparts.

In a 2016 longitudinal study by Westrupp et al., it was determined that older maternal age was associated with higher levels of work-family conflict for women. It was concluded that as mothers advance in the workplace, subsequent work demands increased. When these new levels of workplace demands were coupled with the already present family demands, mothers were unable to feel supported by the resources that were available for them.

In a 2011 study, Richman et al. observed women who worked in male-dominated fields to evaluate how they coped with the pressures of working in traditionally masculine fields. A key finding from this study was that women, regardless of working in a male-dominated occupation or not, were found to achieve a greater level of success in their field of work when they had a supportive social network surrounding them. In particular, family support was shown to be an important factor in preventing issues from work-life spillover. Women are more equipped to handle challenges that arise in a male- dominated field when they receive encouragement from their family about their chosen career fields. Characteristics of having this social network included an increased sense of

belonging, which produced an increased level of interest and an increased sense of inclusiveness.

Gassman-Pines (2011) explored the experiences of working mothers of pre-school children it was determined that the mothers’ at-work-interactions with work supervisors did have a direct impact on at-home interactions with their children. It was found that the more criticism a working mother received at her workplace the greater the likelihood she would have of holding to a harsh and withdrawn parenting style. On the contrary, positive interactions with work supervisors corresponded to warmer parent-child interactions in the home. Overall, an employer that is willing to address work-related stress and burnout is more likely to have a more efficient work environment, more enthusiastic and loyal employees, and consequently a more satisfied customer population (Angerer, 2003). In another study by Gassman-Pines (2011), it was determined that the amount of night hours a mother worked was negatively associated with the mother’s mood and mother-child interactions, and a decline in positive child behaviors. However, this same study was unable to determine a relationship between weekend work and positive or negative family outcomes. It is this later issue that has a greater impact among women in ministry, as they are more likely to work on weekends.

Taylor et al. (2000) proposed that women and men handle stress differently.

Taylor et al. suggested that in the face of stress women are not best characterized by the fight-or-flight pattern of adversity, rather they are best characterized by a tend-and- befriend pattern of coping with stress. Contained within their theoretical proposal was

that women, in the face of stress, tend to their offspring, join with their social groups in an effort to reduce vulnerability, and contribute to larger, particularly female, social networks in an exchange for resources and responsibilities. Probst et al. (2017) determined that there is evidence that men and women react differently under stress conditions. It was found that under stress there was a decrease in motivation to provide caretaking among men, but not for women. More research needs to be carried out to determine if this tendency to tend-and-befriend is compounded along gender-lines with women, which could make them more susceptible to burnout and work-life spillover.

This could be even more influential within the fields of helping professionals like ministry where relational, emotional, and spiritual issues are common.

Ministry Burnout Compared with Other Helping Professions

In a study by Tomic et al. (2004), Maslach and Jackson’s (1981) elements of burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment) were analyzed in relation to individuals who work in a human service profession. It was determined that clergy scored significantly lower on emotional exhaustion and depersonalization when compared to general practitioners, teachers, and nurses, and significantly lower on personal accomplishment when compared with dentists, physical therapists, nurses, elderly caretakers, and social workers for the Salvation Army.

Work-Family Spillover and Burnout in Ministry

Grosch and Olsen (2000) suggested that burnout in ministry was a systemic combination of external and intrapersonal factors, and to best assist ministers who

experience work-related stressors, attention should be given to both internal and external factors. Additionally, in a 2013 review of literature, Jackson-Jordan found several commonalities in literature specific to burnout and resilience in the clergy profession.

Several common factors impacting a clergy’s ability to be resilient in the face of stress and potential burnout included the quality of interpersonal skills, relationships the clergyperson had outside of the congregation, connections to peers and mentors, personal level of spirituality, and the ability to establish boundaries. Therefore, the following is a review of literature accounting for the external and the internal stressors leading to work- life spillover.

External factors in ministry work-related stressors. One of the primary factors leading to work-life spillover and stress comes from external work-related demands. In a

1999 study, Lee evaluated the overall impact of ministry demands on clergy. Lee determined that ministry demands had a significant impact on shaping individual clergy’s personal understanding of his or her emotional well-being. Consequently, the work-life spillover from ministry demands can greatly impact the clergy’s personal and family life, as the ability to leave their work at the workplace due to the nature of their work can be difficult for clergy.

The ability to successfully, or unsuccessfully, separate ministry demands from personal life has been tied to factors that impact personal and family demographics.

Wells et al. (2012) studied how the external work-related stressors impacted boundary- related stressors among ministers relative to various familial relationships. It was

determined that clergy with children reported higher levels of both work-related and boundary-related stress. Married clergy reported higher levels of boundary-related stress, but lower levels of work-related stress compared to unmarried clergy. Older clergy reported showing lower levels of both work and boundary-related stress. Clergy who held degrees from a higher level of education maintained a higher level of both work and boundary-related stress. Therefore, depending on time of life and family demographics, clergy may respond differently to work-related stress and work-life spillover.

An individual’s perceptions of external factors may serve to impact levels of influence from external stressors. Lee and Iverson-Gilbert (2003) evaluated questionnaire responses from 312 protestant clergy to determine the role that demand, social support, and perception of stress played in influencing a minister’s well-being and attitude toward ministry. It was determined that a minister’s perception in relation to the meanings of what is, or what is not, considered a stressor would ultimately have a larger impact on overall stress levels when compared to actual ministry demands. An element that was not addressed in this study was the perceptions that the family may have regarding ministry demands, since the family may not share the same calling to ministry that the minister holds to. Furthermore, only 24 of the 312 respondents for this study identified themselves as a woman. Therefore, further studies could be beneficial to determine the impact that perception of experiences may have among women in ministry.

A review of available literature revealed that at times external factors came from within the local congregation the minister was serving. In a study of new ministers within

their first 12 months serving in ministry, Miner (2007) found that these first-year ministers reported the relational ministry stressors as the aspect of ministry that contributed the most to their overall sense of personal stress. When clergy and the congregations they served were evaluated for their level of conservative or liberal theological views it was shown that theological understanding could serve as a factor when it comes to job satisfaction. Clergy who shared similar theological views, liberal or conservative, with their congregations, or clergy that were more conservative than their liberal congregations seemed to report higher levels of job satisfaction (Mueller &

McDuff, 2004). However, clergy who held more liberal stances than their conservative congregations on their theological understandings tended to report a lower level of job satisfaction. The implications for the role that gender played in job satisfaction was not addressed in this study.

In regards to limiting the impact of external factors on minsters, Doolittle (2010) determined that clergy who engaged in and maintained interests and activities outside of their ministry occupations were less likely to experience burnout. Some other external factors Doolittle found to be associated with a decreased level of burnout and prevention of work-life spillover included the presence of mentors, attendance at retreats, regular exercise, an active level of personal spiritual renewal, and scholarly reading. Contrary to critics who insist that ministers ought to maintain a limited network of interaction,

Doolittle found that maintaining outside relationships and activities did not undermine the call into ministry but enhanced this call. Therefore, encouraging members of the

clergy to participate in outside relationships and activities may serve to strengthen ministers’ health, in turn indirectly strengthening the health of the congregation.

Internal factors in ministry work-related stressors. Several intrapersonal factors have been found to be more prevalent among clergy who experienced a greater level of work-family spillover from vocational stress compared to clergy who did not.

Some common characteristics found among clergy who experience higher levels of vocational stress include those who are younger, clergy with depression, those who lack satisfaction from their personal spiritual life, and those who feel they have been placed in an unhealthy church congregation (Doolittle, 2010). Brewer and Shapard (2004), as well as Randall (2007) found in reference to clergy chronological age, that clergy age, rather than the actual years a clergyperson has served in vocational ministry, was more of a predictive factor for potential negative impact of vocational stress. Therefore, the younger the clergyperson the greater the risk of burnout. Additionally, Francis, Kaldor,

Shevlin, and Lewis (2004) found that younger clergy were more likely than their older counterparts to demonstrate symptoms of emotional exhaustion. One of the factors for this higher level of emotional exhaustion may be that younger clergy reported experiencing higher levels of work pressure than clergy who were older (Tomic et al.,

2004). Likewise, Brewer and Shapard (2004) suggested that perhaps older employees have developed coping skills to handle their potential burnout levels and that their younger counterparts had not.

Several personality factors, introversion and neuroticism, have been shown to provide a noticeable impact on burnout levels among clergy (Fancis, Robbins, Rolph,

Turton, & Rolph, 2010). Introverted clergy, due to continuously being engaged in many extraverted-oriented vocational experiences, have been shown to be more likely to report lower levels of job satisfaction coupled with higher levels of emotional exhaustion

(Francis, Wulff, & Robbins, 2008).

It has been shown that one of the most important factors of resiliency to ministerial stress is the clergy’s ability to intentionally balance demands between life and work, while at the same time being intentional about maintaining healthy relationships

(Meek et al., 2003). It was found that having an active and intentional spiritual life was another factor that was emphasized by clergy who thrived in ministry. Golden, Piedmont,

Ciarrocchi, and Rodgerson (2004) concluded that although it is important to account for personality types and work environment factors of clergy, it is also significantly important to account for the individual spiritual health of clergy members. Doolittle

(2007) found a correlation that clergy who reported a higher level of personal spirituality also had a greater level of personal satisfaction. However, this same higher level of personal spirituality among clergy correlated to greater levels of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. In a study by Chandler (2009), she determined there was a link between spiritual dryness and emotional exhaustion among clergy. Clergy who reported a more positive attitude towards prayer also reported lower levels of emotional exhaustion

and depersonalization, coupled with higher levels of personal accomplishment (Turton &

Francis, 2007).

Having a greater understanding of one’s self has been shown to be an influential factor in buffering work-life spillover stress for clergy working in vocational ministry. It was determined that clergy with greater levels of differentiation of self, a concept introduced by Murray Bowen (1976, 1978), were less likely to experience symptoms of burnout (Beebe, 2007). Likewise, clergy who are deemed to have a higher level of personal differentiation of self were more likely to utilize a collaborative approach to conflict management, rather than utilizing an avoidant or accommodating approach often used by clergy with lower levels of differentiation of self. In a study by Zondag (2004), it was concluded that the more aware clergy members were of the impact he or she was making on his or her congregation, the greater the level of job satisfaction he or she experienced. Likewise, clergy who had higher levels of self-compassion experienced lower levels of emotional exhaustion and higher levels of job satisfaction (Barnard &

Curry, 2012).

Finally, in a longitudinal study of 340 clergy, carried out by Randall (2004) to evaluate factors that correlated to clergy leaving ministry, it was determined, that clergy who reported higher levels of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a lack of personal accomplishment were more likely to report that they were considering leaving ministry. Randall suggested that if clergy were better evaluated for factors of ministry stress, those reporting higher levels of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a

lack of personal accomplishment could be supported in specific areas in an effort to prevent them from leaving ministry vocations. In particular, it was determined that clergy within their first ten years of ministry work were most susceptible to these negative thoughts and would be the demographic of ministers who would benefit the most from targeted interventions. This finding corresponded with findings among secular vocations, that employees who had been employed longer in a particular field of work were less likely to experience burnout when compared with employees who were new to a particular field of work (Brewer & Shapard, 2004). In addition, it has been suggested that perhaps individuals who are more likely to eventually experience burnout were the individuals who were also more likely to leave a particular job early on, which compound this finding (Brewer & Shapard, 2004). It should be noted that these studies did not take into account whether employees were married or whether they had children, and the potential impact this might have on the longevity of an employee in a particular field of work.

Work-related Stressors Particular for Women in Ministry

The available research regarding work-related stressors specific to women in ministry has been minimal. Typically, the research on burnout for women in ministry has been in comparison to burnout of men in ministry. It has been shown that female clergy report higher levels of work-stress than their male counterparts (Wells et al., 2012). In a large sampling of 874 clergywomen by Robbins and Francis (2010) it was determined that women whose personality types are introverted are more likely to be prone to

burnout-type symptoms, such as emotional exhaustion. Likewise, women who preferred to operate from a more cognitive base, when compared to those who preferred an emotive tendency of operation, were shown to be more prone to these same symptoms of burnout.

It was hypothesized that this increased risk of burnout symptomology could be attributed to prolonged requirements to operate in extraverted and emotive environments outside of one’s preferred method of operating.

Certain elements of work-life stress and burnout for women in ministry, particularly depression, have been focused on in several studies. In a study over 189 clergywomen by Shehan, Wiggins, and Cody-Rydzewski (2007), it was shown that the level of work satisfaction for women in ministry had a negative effect on depression.

However, across the clergywomen studied, as the level of ministerial commitment increased so did the level of depression. Similarly, Jacobson et al. (2013) determined that depression among clergy was a strong predictor of increased risk for potential burnout. In a study by Rayburn (1991), she found that clergywomen were more likely to be under more perceived pressure, strain (actual wear and tear), more depressed, and utilize less coping strategies when compared to nuns. Rayburn hypothesized that clergywomen may experience more of the stressors of ministry compared to nuns as they are working to change the historically held perceptions of women in ministry.

Some of the common factors found for stress and burnout among clergywomen have been categorized as gender-specific issues. Frame and Shehan (2004) conducted a qualitative study over 190 women in ministry to determine what general and specific

challenges women faced in carrying out their ministerial duties. From a general standpoint, women in ministry reported challenges in regards to gender-based discrimination, church bureaucracy, and lack of role models. Likewise, a lack of overall congregational support has been shown. Dudley (1996) found that the support of women in ministry positions primarily came from other women, younger congregational members, and congregational members who were more formally educated. More specific stressors facing women in ministry included balancing work and family time, finding time for self-care, lack of support, and time for personal spiritual renewal. In a qualitative study of over 190 clergywomen, certain key elements of what it means to be female in a male-dominated occupation were uncovered (Frame & Shehan, 2005). Both positive themes (being caring, nurturing, and relational towards congregational members) and negative themes (lower status, lower pay, and fewer role models) arose from the qualitative interviews with the clergywomen. Another theme that emerged from this study was that women in ministry seem to find it difficult to balance ministry demands with personal and family demands. Other themes from this study were concerns over financial issues, fatigue, loneliness, and isolation.

McDuff (2001) looked to explore if there was a difference of job satisfaction between men and women in occupational ministry. It was determined that women, although receiving lower pay and less desirable churches, reported higher levels of job satisfaction when compared to their male counterparts in similar job positions. The primary difference as concluded by McDuff was in what the female clergy valued as

important when compared to male clergy. Women were more satisfied to remain in the positions they currently hold compared to men, and women were more likely to be content to accept what is considered marginal ministry positions. In a study over 1,819 men and women serving in full-time ministry, McDuff and Mueller (1999) found that women were more likely than their male counterparts to receive lower pay, as attributed to their placements in smaller congregations. However, women were more likely than their male counterparts to receive more social support in the form of increased levels of congregational support, informal benefits, colleague support, and denominational hierarchy support. One of the primary factors McDuff and Mueller pointed to for this increased level of support was the tendency of women to have a more positive personality. Likewise, it was concluded that male clergy were more likely to be supportive of female clergy, as they did not see them as serious competitors for potential positions they may wish to achieve.

Perl (2002) looked to determine if differences in ministerial approaches could be found between male and female clergy. Women in ministry were found to invest more time than their male counterparts in personalized elements of ministry or one-on-one ministry. Although, the between-gender differences in the approaches taken to ministry were not substantial, it was enough of a difference to be noted by Perl as something more than trivial.

Impact of Spirituality and Religion on Marriages

An increased involvement in religious services has been shown to impact personal and relational factors (Vaaler, Ellison, & Powers, 2009). A married couple who is actively involved in a spiritual community has a lower rate of divorce when compared to married couples who are not actively involved in a spiritual community. However, this only holds true if their religious beliefs are not vastly different. In couples that are made up of mixed faiths or where the female partners are more theologically conservative in their Christian beliefs, or Christian affiliation than their husbands, the risk of divorce becomes much greater. According to Ellison, Burdette, and Wilcox (2010), both a couple’s high level of shared religious beliefs and in-home religious practices (i.e., prayer, scripture study) are associated with higher levels of relationship quality.

Likewise, relationships where both partners attended religious services together regularly reported greater levels of relationship satisfaction. In a recent study by Li, Okereke,

Chang, Kawachi, and VanderWeele (2016) it was determined that among US women, frequency of religious service attendance could be associated with a decreased risk of certain types of depression. However, it has yet to be determined if this finding holds true for women serving in vocational ministry.

Issues in Clergy Marriages

In an attempt to understand marital infidelity among clergypersons, Thoburn and

Whitman (2004) surveyed 186 male Protestant ministers about personal extra-marital relationships. It was determined that among the clergy studied, marital affairs tended to

develop out of a professional context with individuals within the congregations in which the clergy served. Likewise, these affairs tended to develop during a time of disconnection between the clergy professional and their partner. These clergy affairs tended to be emotional rather than sexual in nature and were brief unless they had become sexual. No female clergy were utilized as participants in this study. Little has been done to determine the current divorce rate among clergy. However, in a Pulpit and

Pew National Survey of Pastoral Leaders (2001), it was determined that of 822 responding pastors 3.5% described their status as divorced or separated, and another

10.4% reported being remarried after a divorce.

If what was mentioned above regarding the findings by Vaaler et al. (2009) that couples who are actively involved in a spiritual community are less likely to divorce is accurate, than more research needs to be addressed in this area regarding the potential impact this may have for clergy professionals and their spouses.

Impact of Ministry Stress on Clergy Marriages

In order to evaluate the impact of vocational ministry stress on clergy marriages and families, Lee (1995) pointed out there needed to be some level of systemic evaluation. Lee reasoned that within the context of a clergy family lies a convergence of familial, congregational, and denominational systems. Research covering the impact of ministerial stress on spousal relationships, although primarily focused on male clergy and their wives, has shown a significant impact. Blanton and Morris (1999) studied clergy and their spouses to determine the level of impact ministry work-related stressors had on

physical symptomatology and emotional well-being. It was determined that work-related stressors had more of an impact on both clergy and their spouses when compared to economic and demographic variables. The most impactful element of work-related stress was the lack of a social support network. This lack of a social support network most greatly impacted the physical symptomatology for wives of ministers. Morris and

Blanton (1994b) studied 272 clergymen and their wives across six denominations to determine the impact that work-related stress had on marital and family relationships. It was determined that both clergy and their spouses were inversely influenced across five levels of work-related stressors (intrusiveness to family boundaries, time demands, financial compensation, social support, and mobility) when it came to marital, parental, and overall life satisfaction. It was suggested that there should be a greater emphasis placed on increasing social support services for clergy and their spouses at both the congregational and denominational levels.

Darling et al. (2004) set out to determine the impact that stress had on coping and the quality of life for both clergy and clergy spouses. Utilizing Hill’s family stress theory and Hill’s (1958) ABC-X model of family stress it was determined that clergy spouses had greater psychological and physiological stress when compared to clergy. This was attributed to frequent interruptions to family life that ministry brought upon the family, leaving the clergy spouse to take care of the family alone. However, clergy spouses reported greater levels of coping than clergy. Compassion satisfaction was higher for clergy than for clergy spouses, indicating that although clergy may feel the fatigue from

compassion, they also benefit from the positive satisfaction of helping others in their time of need. Clergy spouses also report feeling the impact of compassion fatigue, minus the benefit of compassion satisfaction. For both clergy and clergy spouses it was concluded that spiritual resources had the largest impact on overall quality of life. It is unclear what impact gender would have on this study, if the clergy studied were women instead of men and the clergy spouses were men instead of women.

When it comes to coping with clergy-related vocational stress, clergy tend to lean on their spouses to handle the negative impacts of ministry. In an analysis of several different studies, certain similarities to how most clergy handled work-related stressors were found (McMinn et al., 2005). It was determined that a majority of clergy handled their work-related stressors through intrapersonal methods (spiritual devotion, hobbies, exercise, and taking time off work). Likewise, many clergy depend on their spouses as a resource. However, this in turn can put added pressure on clergy spouses, as they are often seen as the sole interpersonal resource for stress of the clergy professional. Finally, it was concluded that clergy rarely look outside the immediate family for resources to cope with challenges from work-related stress. In a rare study over the impact of ministry on the spouses of clergywomen, it was determined male spouses of clergywomen are changing the traditional mold of what a clergy spouse should look like (Murphy-Geiss,

2011). Over 3,000 clergy spouses were surveyed to determine how the role of clergy spouses was changing over time. It was found that although the traditional (maintaining the home and children, not holding an occupation, etc.) understanding of what is to be

expected of a clergy spouse is still being upheld, it is slowly beginning to change. This change is credited to an increase in female clergy, and subsequently an increase in male spouses of clergy. It is the later increase that is accredited with the primary shift from what is seen as traditional to a nontraditional role of the clergy spouse. Male spouses of clergy are more likely to break from the mold of what a clergy spouse is to look like via holding a career of their own, and less expectations from congregational members on what it means to be a clergy spouse. Murphy-Geiss suggested that as an increasing number of women accept clergy positions the role and definition of what it means to be a clergy spouse will continue to shift.

Impact of Ministry Relocation on Clergy Marriages

One of the largest stressors found in ministry work-life spillover was ministry- forced relocation. Angerer (2003) stated that the modern workplace was seeing a decline in connectedness between workplace teamwork and co-worker connectivity, leading to an increase in work-related stress and burnout. Part of the decrease in coworker connectivity may be due to the decline in workplace longevity. Employees may not want to take the time to get to know their colleagues if they believe they will be fired, or transferred, within the next several months. Similarly, in a study carried out by Frame and Shehan

(1994), it was determined, when it came to frequent involuntary relocation, wives of ministers reported significantly higher levels of stress, a greater level of negative perceptions regarding their most recent move, lower coping resources, and overall lower well-being compared to their husbands, who were serving in vocational ministry. For

wives of clergypersons the involuntary relocation brought about disruptions in social networks, as well as creating an overall lack in desire to make connections in their new setting due to apprehensions about potentially needing to move again. Clergywomen were not utilized in this study, as the researchers were unable to find enough women to produce significant research results.

Issues in Clergy Families

Several different researchers, primarily along gender-specific lines in families where the male is the clergy professional, have studied the impact of ministry work on family life. In an effort to think systemically, Ostrander and Henry (1990) stressed the importance of accounting for the stressors that are present in clergy families and in families in general, but to also account for the additional stressors created by the interaction between the family system and the various church systems. Hill et al. (2003) carried out a study to understand boundary-related stress (demanding responsibilities and busy schedules), and how clergy and clergy families handled this stress. Clergy and clergy spouses were interviewed in focus group sessions. It was determined that most of the stress experienced by clergy and clergy spouses was either directly or indirectly associated to boundary-related issues (personal time, relocation stress, lack of personal space, feeling of isolation, and intrusions). It was concluded that clergy who can create and maintain reasonable and appropriate boundaries between work and family experienced less stress in family life. Gender of clergy was not accounted for in this study.

Morris and Blanton (1998) found that clergymen and their wives cited family boundary intrusiveness, lack of social support, and mobility stresses (uncontrolled, frequent, and unwanted relocations) as impacting their family functioning. Although both clergymen and clergy wives reported the impact of these stressors, clergy wives reported a greater level of influence on family functioning. Only male clergy and their wives were utilized in this study. Specific to gender differences, clergywomen report different impact levels of concern when it comes to clergy-work spillover into family life. Rowatt (2001) carried out a survey of 55 male ministers, 25 female ministers, 22 wives of male ministers, and 6 husbands of female ministers in order to look at what specific stressors ministers and their families faced. For the most part, male and female clergy reported similar ministry stressors. However, female ministers were more likely to report higher levels of stress in time expectations, emotional exhaustion, lack of quality family time, lack of confidants and intimate friendships. Rowatt concluded that more robust research carried out on husbands of female clergy is needed to make stronger conclusions about what stressors female ministers and their families face.

Utilizing Hill’s (1958) ABC-X model of family stress, Darling, McWey, and Hill

(2006) carried out a study to determine the impact children had in clergy families. It was determined that having children in clergy families did create added stress, and that this added stress could be predicted utilizing the ABC-X model of stress. However, the paradox that was found through this study was that although there was added stress in clergy families with children, the overall quality of life for these families was the same

level as it was for families without children. It was determined that the addition of children into clergy families brought an added sense of meaningfulness and reward that helped counterbalance the negative effects of the aforementioned additional stress. This study did note that determining differences between families of clergywomen versus clergymen would be beneficial to evaluating the full impact of children in clergy families, but differences between clergy gender was not accounted for in this study.

Nesbitt (1995) studied the reverse impact of marriage and family on career attainment. Episcopal priests were evaluated to determine gender differences on the role marriage and family had on upward career mobility and attainment. It was found that marriage was a consistent and positive influence on the ministerial careers of male clergy.

For women, there was no found difference, positively or negatively, to being married.

Therefore, it was pointed out by Nesbitt that although not being married for male clergy was often seen as a liability to ministerial career attainment, a single clergy woman would not have to contend with such issues. Likewise, having children did not serve as a benefit to career attainment or advancement for clergywomen. It was concluded that the two most important variables in career attainment for male clergy, male-gender and having a wife, are resources female clergy do not have the ability to obtain.

Importance of Social Support on Clergy Marriages and Families

It has been shown that a partner’s perception of their spouse’s employer as supportive of their family is an important variable to increasing overall employee work commitment and decreasing family-to-work conflict (Wayne, Casper, Matthews, &

Allen, 2013). The more an organization was willing to be a family-supportive organization the greater the likelihood that organization’s employees would be committed to their employer. Likewise, a higher perception of family-support from an organization the less employee work-to-family conflict was reported, which in turn related to the employee’s spouse being more supportive of work commitment levels and schedules.

Finally, if the employee felt that their partner was positively committed to the organization the greater the likelihood the employee will be more invested into the organization.

Lee (2007) carried out a study on clergymen and their wives utilizing Hill’s

(1958) ABC-X model of family stress to determine the role that stress, support, and perceptions of demands and stress had on both personal and ministry outcomes. It was determined that clergymen reported feeling higher levels of demand than their wives, but that they also reported higher levels of support when compared to their wives. The one exception to higher levels of support was in the subcategory of family support where wives reported higher levels of support than their clergy husbands. Lee concluded that satisfaction with social support was the most important factor when it came to both overall well-being and attitude towards ministry, but no significant differences were found between satisfaction of social support between clergymen and their spouses.

Therefore, maintaining a high level of satisfaction in regards to social support networks is important not only for the well-being and attitude towards ministry among clergy, but for

their spouses as well. Due to a small response rate of women in ministry, Lee did not include female clergy in this study.

In a study by Morris and Blanton (1994a), 28 denominations in the United States were surveyed to determine what each denomination saw as stressors for clergy and what stressor support networks they were providing for the clergy in their denominations. A majority of the denominations expressed their awareness of the stressors that clergy face.

However, only a few of the denominations were found to be adequately addressing these known stressors. Likewise, it was shown that more attention needed to be given to support-resources for the family members of the clergyperson rather than the family- members providing the sole support for the clergyperson. Morris and Blanton (1995) did a follow-up study addressing the perceptions of denominational support from the perspective of clergy husbands and their wives, built out of the aforementioned study on denominational support. Clergymen and their wives responded that they felt their denominational heads were providing basic support services (financial support and career development), but that they were falling short on other more important support services

(relational and family-oriented services). Therefore, although denominations are aware of stressors, as found by Morris and Blanton (1994a) their attempts at addressing the stressors are not meeting the most pressing needs of the clergy and their spouses.

Clergywomen and their spouses were not utilized in this study. Likewise, it has been shown that younger-aged clergy could receive a greater benefit from resources (Randall,

2007). However, it has not been shown if this greater impact of resources would hold true for spouses of younger-aged clergy.

Impact of Ministry Stress Specific to Clergywomen Marriages and Families

Several studies have started the research on how work-to-life spillover influences the marriages and families of clergywomen. Cody-Rydzewski (2007) carried out a study in order to determine the impact that being a clergywoman had on the marital balance of power, in particular in reference to spiritual authority. It was determined that the traditionally dominate gender roles, where husbands are the primary leader of the household, remained the same even as the professional roles and social status among husbands and wives changed. This study found that authority in the church did not equate to authority in the home. However, clergywomen did report a sense of leadership when it came to spirituality in their homes. The role of spiritual leader was often not contested as many of the clergywomen stated that their husbands were either ambivalent or contentious toward religion. Clergywomen reported sensing jealousy from their husbands due to their role in a high authority position outside of the home. Therefore, clergywomen were more likely to report that they took on and maintained an unhealthy balance of household work in an effort to reestablish authority towards their husbands. Most clergywomen reported a sense of resentment from their husbands and families for taking on a position of spiritual leadership. Likewise, clergywomen reported they felt unsupported or even belittled in their attempts to pursue a career in ministry. In an effort to pursue their call to ministry clergywomen report the felt-need to sacrifice and

compromise more than their male counterparts (i.e., maintaining housework and efforts to not be seen as the leader of their household) to achieve the same goals.

Shehan, Schultz, and Wiggins-Frame (1999) carried out a study on clergywomen from the United Methodist denomination on how being uniquely female impacted their work as clergy in a male-dominated profession. The researchers found that the need to balance work and family demands was impacted by their need to confront challenges of being female in a historically male profession. Likewise, Shehan and Schultz discovered that women reported utilization of the same “mothering” and caring mentality they use to address issues in family life with issues in congregation life within their ministry work.

However, this extra level of caring came at a cost. Clergywomen’s increased likelihood of providing mothering-care for their congregations, compared to their male counterparts, which resulted in higher levels of depression.

In a 2014 qualitative study by Sharp and Huebner, these differences between clergywomen and clergymen were once again addressed. Clergywomen were interviewed in order to better understand their experiences with negotiating for maternity leave. It was concluded that the ability of the clergywomen to successfully negotiate their maternity leave with their congregations depended upon the health of the congregations they were serving (i.e., receptive congregations were more stable and could maintain their anxiety about staff transitions). One of the unintended benefits found for all the clergywomen interviewed was the increased ability to advocate for work and family-life balance after their maternity negotiations. Finally, it was found that clergywomen interpreted the

congregations’ responses to their maternity leave needs, whether positively or negatively, as a direct reflection on the ministry performance. Consequently, it was suggested by

Sharp and Huebner (2014) that clergywomen should be encouraged to understand congregational responses to negotiated requests as a reflection of the health of the congregation and church leadership rather than a reflection of their personal ministerial abilities.

Summary

Although the number of women serving in church leadership positions has increased over the past several decades, the percentage of women serving in senior leadership positions at the time of this literature review was around 10% (Barna Group,

2009; Chaves, Anderson, & Eagle, 2014). Therefore, a natural limitation to understanding the impact of vocational ministry on women has been due to the limited sample of women engaged in paid ministry positions compared to men.

A secondary limitation in literature related to the disproportionate percentage of ministry positions along gender lines revealing that many of the studies concerning the impact of ministry on marital relationships have been carried out over wives of men in ministry. Therefore, the experiences and stressors experienced by clergy wives may be different from clergy husbands. Likewise, in general literature the impact of working mothers on children has been debated (Bianchi & Milkie, 2010). However, the short or long-term impact of mothers working in ministry has not adequately been addressed.

One question that needs to be addressed is how female clergy handle stress and potential burnout differently than their male counterparts. As shown in this literature review, research on stressors within vocational ministry has predominately been gender- specific focusing primarily on male clergy. One of the reasons for this skewed understanding of women in ministry has been that women are often simply not in paid church positions. Adams (2007) noted that women make up a majority of congregational members but are underrepresented in the leadership of the church. Little research has been carried out on clergywomen and their family roles as mothers (Frame & Shehan,

2004; Sharp & Huebner, 2014). Recently there has been a greater call to evaluate the impact of ministry stress on women and their vulnerability to long-term impacts of this stress (Jackson-Jordan, 2013). As shown in this literature review clergymen and their spouses have been the focus of most current research, the detailed understanding regarding the impact of ministry work on clergywomen and their spouses has yet to be adequately addressed.

After examining the literature for this study, it was determined that ministers are not immune to the negative impacts of job-related stressors on their personal relationships, with emphasis on spousal and familial relationships. Certain topics emerged from previous research that corresponds with findings from family stress theory showing the importance of stressors, how these stressors are defined, and the perceived availability of needed resources. This study looked to expand and complement prior research in this area.

Overall, a review of the literature has shown that there are a growing number of women entering ministry positions. However, at the time of this study there remained a level of stigma that came with women being in ministry. Likewise, as noted above, only a small amount of research has been carried out over women in ministry. Even less research has been done over the impact on the marriages and families of women working in ministry. What is yet to be learned is how the experiences of women in ministry can be compared to the experiences of men in ministry. Are the impact levels from work-life stress the same across gender-lines? Are there experiences in ministry that are unique to women? What stressors are perceived to be problematic from the perspective of women in ministry? How does marriage impact the experiences of women in ministry? Are women receiving levels of support comparative to their male counterparts? It is critical to study women in ministry so that these questions, and more, can be addressed. This study had implications not only for the generation of women in ministry at the time of this study, but more importantly for the future generations to come.

CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

Although commonly an overlooked profession in the work-life spillover research, ministry professionals are not immune to job-related stressors and emotional pressures that have the potential of leading to emotional burnout (Lee, 2010; Miner et al., 2010).

Even less understood is the impact of work-life spillover on women who are serving in a ministry vocation (Cody-Rydzewski, 2007). Therefore, the purpose of this study was to understand the experiences of women in ministry, and their perceptions on the impact ministry have had on their marriages and families. The literature review in Chapter II supports the need to study the work-life spillover of women in ministry. Consequently, this phenomenological study explored perceptions about work-life spillover among clergywomen in Protestant ministry.

This chapter presents the methodology of the research that was used to explore the experiences of work-life spillover as reported by women in ministry. The chapter starts with a description of an explanation for choosing a qualitative phenomenological design, and how this particular design helped to address the goals of this study. Next, the chapter discusses the validity, trustworthiness, and quality in relation to this study. This is followed by a detailed section that provides an explanation for the methods of data

collection and analysis. This section encompasses the measures of data collection that included: a) interviews, b) fieldnotes, and c) audio recordings; as well as the methods of data analysis that included: a) coding, b) member checking, and c) the use of theory. The section that follows consists of interview questions that were asked of the participants in order to collect data to answer the research questions. Next, a description of the participants and the interview settings is given, followed by an explanation of ethical considerations. Finally, this chapter concludes with a summary.

Research Design

The design of this research study was a qualitative phenomenological approach in order to best understand the unique stressors and experiences of women in vocational ministry and meet the aim of this study. The nature of a qualitative study is not to be able to predict the future, but to help understand and illustrate the lived experiences of the participants studied in their unique context (Creswell, 2013). Through the utilization of a qualitative approach, the unique descriptions of the lived experiences of clergywomen served to most accurately illustrate this particular phenomenon of work-life spillover.

Through the use of a qualitative approach, this study gave voice to the lived experiences of women in ministry within the framework of the following three research questions.

1. How do women in ministry perceive and describe stressors from their work in

ministry?

2. What beliefs do women in ministry have about the impact their ministry work

has had on their spousal and familial relationships?

3. What resources do women in ministry perceive to be helpful to achieving a

healthy work-life balance?

Methodological Framework

From a methodological standpoint, this study utilized a phenomenological approach to understand how participants perceived and made sense of their experiences.

Phenomenology focuses on understanding meaning rather than generating theories

(Marshall & Rossman, 2011). More specifically, a qualitative phenomenological design was utilized in this research study because the intent of this approach best fit the purpose of this research study. The problem that was investigated was the impact of work-life balance on the professional and personal lives of women in ministry. Therefore, the goal of this study was to understand the experiences of women in ministry, and their perceptions on the impact ministry have had on their marriages and families. According to Moustakas (1994), perceptions are the primary source of knowledge. Therefore, the phenomenon under investigation was the perceptions of interviewed women in ministry regarding work-related stressors and work-life balance.

The following sections provide a more in-depth explanation for the chosen research method and the appropriateness of the design selected to investigate the purpose of this study.

Methodological Appropriateness

Through the utilization of a phenomenological approach, the phenomena of lived experiences were obtained through the interview responses of women in ministry.

McCloskey and Taggart (2010) emphasized that the qualitative phenomenological design is most appropriate when seeking to capture human behavior and personal experience.

The aim of this study was to provide a context in which women in ministry are given an opportunity to speak freely about their experiences serving in ministry and their perceptions of work-life balance. Therefore, a phenomenological approach was most appropriate. Further, from a phenomenological framework, structural themes, and descriptions from the gathered data can be collected that will illustrate beyond the surface level into the essence of the lived-experiences (Moustakas, 1994). Giorgi (1997) pointed out that in order to best understand a studied phenomenon a synthesis of found themes should be combined into meta-statements in order to demonstrate the uniqueness of that particular phenomenon. Therefore, this study combined the found codes about work-life spillover for women in ministry into meta-themes to best understand the commonalities among the studied participants.

Moreover, a phenomenological methodology was chosen to achieve the goal of obtaining an in-depth conceptualization from the meanings women in ministry placed on their lived experiences from their own words. The qualitative approach to research does a better job of obtaining the emotions of the participants rather than just gathered responses to surveys connected to numerical values (Van Manen, 1990). Furthermore, Creswell

(2009) pointed out that qualitative research is more appropriate than quantitative research when little is known about the phenomenon or concept. At the time of this study, the known information about women serving in ministry was still small. Therefore, initial

qualitative work critical to the creation of a foundational understanding is necessary before quantitative approaches regarding this particular demographic of participants and subject matter could be effective.

Theoretical Framework

This study was framed by Reuben Hill’s (1958) family stress theory through a phenomenological perspective. Hill’s (1958) ABC-X model of family stress provided a firm theoretical groundwork to better understand how families define and respond to stress. Hill (1949) determined that there were three factors that contribute to how a family understands and handles stress: 1) the stress or the event itself, 2) the perception of available resources, and 3) the degree to which the family considers the event as stressful.

Therefore, the impact that a stressor will have on a family largely depends on Hill’s

(1958) second (the resources a family has) and third (a family’s definition of a stressful event) factors mentioned above. However, as Hill (1958) explained, each of the three factors play an important role and should be seen as an equation in which each factor: “A

(the stressor) → interacting with B (the family’s access to resources) → interacting with

C (the definition the family gives to the stressor) → produces X (the level of impact a stressor can have on a family)” (p. 141).

In light of Hill’s family stress theory, the responses of the ministers interviewed were evaluated in reference to job-related stressors, resources, and how they define work- related stressors, to better understand the meanings women in ministry gave to their ministry experiences. Subsequently, the responses were evaluated to determine how the

meanings influenced the marriages and families of women in ministry. As mentioned in

Chapter II, previous research on clergy marriages and families have utilized Hill’s (1958)

ABC-X model of family stress theory to explore the impact of ministry stress on quality of life for clergymen and their spouses, the impact of children in clergy families, as well as the overall impact ministry stress has on personal and professional outcomes among male clergy and their spouses (Darling et al., 2004; Darling et al., 2006; Lee 2007).

Therefore, it was the goal of this study to expand upon these previous studies to better understand the perceived impact of work-life spillover for women in ministry. Hill (1958) proposed that the amount of knowledge and training a family obtained prior to a stressor had a great deal of influence on how an individual and their family would be able to handle stressful events that could have much more damaging effects on a different family. Therefore, prior knowledge, training, and influence were elements of analysis for this study to assist with future research that may prove certain items to be moderating factors to the perceived impact ministry work has on clergy marriages and families.

Additionally, this research was guided by Murray Bowen’s (1976; 1978) family systems theory. From a family systemic approach to understanding an individual, the individual should be viewed within the context of the family systemic unit consisting of all parts of the system, rather than viewing each member out of context from the rest of the family. Likewise, symptomatic problems within the family are seen as a systemic issue of the family unit rather than an issue with an individual inside the system.

Therefore, in this study the participants, their marriages, and their families were

accounted for in order to best understand the full contextual impact of ministry work-life spillover on the family system.

Role of the Researcher

In order to conduct successful qualitative research, the researcher must approach the study from the perspective that both the researcher and the participants will provide the study with unique constructions of reality (Erlandson, Harris, Skipper, & Allen,

1993). Therefore, the researcher’s construction of reality pertaining to common stressors in ministry and the balance between ministerial work and personal life are overtly stated in this study. Since the researcher was employed in full-time ministry, there are certain assumptions he already held, such as observations of common stressors both personally experienced and seen. These observations included, but were not limited to, the types of individuals who entered occupational ministry and the resources that were accessible to this population of clergy and their families. As a result, the researcher’s interest on the impact ministry has had on the familial and spousal relationships of women in ministry had emerged. Consequently, the role of the researcher was to separate his personal construction and perceptions of what it meant to be in ministry, as these perceptions pertained to this study, in order to hear the perceptions of the participants, all while framing the exploration of the statements made by the participants in the context of the aforementioned theoretical framework.

The role of the researcher in this study was to interview each of the participants and document the lived experiences both professionally and personally of women in

ministry. The researcher took field notes and recorded interviews as the participants were asked questions pertaining to their experiences during ministry. A copy of the interview guide can be found in Appendix F. The researcher had personally experienced the impact of ministry stress on both his professional and personal relationships. Consequently, the researcher took steps to avoid bias and assumptions he might have held about ministry.

Since the researcher already had knowledge and experiences in ministry, he was cautious not to lead the participants by implying answers or using verbal and non-verbal cues to obtain certain responses. Likewise, the researcher did not utilize ministers he already knew as participants in order to take precautions against bias. The researcher utilized peer-coding when reviewing the data to ensure confirmability that he did not persuade the answers of the participants or introject his personal experiences of ministry into the interviews.

Creswell (2009) pointed out that it is imperative for a qualitative researcher to identify any personal biases, values, or background factors that could impact their understanding of collected data. One of the methods often utilized in qualitative research to avoid this type of bias is through the use of bracketing. Moustakas (1994) emphasized that in phenomenology, bracketing was particularly important for the researcher, so that the participants’ perceptions of a phenomenon would stay unaltered rather than being filtered through any prejudgments or prior beliefs on the part of the researcher. Therefore, in an effort to not interfere with the responses of the participants as Creswell (2013) suggested, the researcher intentionally identified and wrote out his perceptions and

beliefs about ministry to consciously set aside and suspend these pre-study perceptions and beliefs prior to conducting the interviews and data analysis.

Validity, Quality, and Trustworthiness

Obtaining trustworthiness in qualitative research is what Lincoln and Guba (1985) referred to as the efforts taken by the researcher to assure the audience that the study is accurate and reliable. Likewise, Nueman (1997) stated that validity in qualitative research is produced through strategic steps taken to guarantee that an “indicator actually captures the meaning of the construct” that the researcher set out to observe (p. 138). Johnson

(1997) suggested that trustworthiness and validity can be achieved in qualitative research using several strategies, two of which (triangulation of data collection and triangulation of analysis) were utilized in this study. Kimchi, Polivka, and Stevenson (1991) pointed out that through using triangulation in both the data collection and data analysis, the researcher has the ability to identify reoccurring patterns, cross-validate the gathered information, and to confirm that the findings are accurate. Therefore, for this study, the researcher carried out triangulation in both data collection and data analysis in an effort to assure accurate and reliable findings. The triangulation process is illustrated in detail in the following sections.

Creswell (2009) emphasized that self-reflection by a researcher about any predisposition he or she may have about the study is important to address in order to create quality research. Creswell went on to explain the importance of the researcher recognizing that the background of the researcher may overtly or covertly impact the

findings. Therefore, as mentioned above it was the duty of this researcher to explore and set aside any personal experiences that could have potentially impacted the study, which in turn helped to lend credibility to the study. Other methods that were utilized in this study included reflexive journaling and researcher field notes, which Loh (2013) pointed out as methods that could assist in the credibility, transferability, and dependability of a study. According to Leech and Onwuegbuzie (2007), the purpose of qualitative research is not to transfer and apply the findings to a broad population outside of the studied participants, rather the purpose is to obtain meaning and understanding about the phenomenon studied from a specific group of participants. The focus of this research study was limited to the experiences and perspectives of women in ministry.

Procedure

The following sections describe the data collection and data analysis procedures.

They include data collections in the form of interviews, fieldnotes, and audio recordings.

Data analysis was triangulated as well and included the use of coding, member checking, and analysis via theory.

Data collection. Denzin (1978) pointed out that through the use of triangulation in data collection methods, a more accurate representation of information is achieved, which otherwise left to a single collection method would fail to provide a full picture of available information. Data in this study was collected using interviews, fieldnotes, and audio recordings.

The data collection portion of this study began after approval was obtained from the Institutional Review Board of Texas Woman’s University and the Graduate School.

The recruitment strategy process occurred in three ways. First, distribution of emails with the attached recruitment flyer (see Appendix B) and recruitment email (see Appendix A) were sent out to protestant churches in the East Tennessee area in order to solicit potential participants that these congregations might have been aware of. Second, the recruitment of participants occurred through the distribution of an email with attachments of the recruitment flyer (see Appendix B) and the recruitment email (see Appendix A) at faith- based higher education institutions. Finally, the researcher recruited through the distribution of an email with attachments of the recruitment flyer (see Appendix B) and the recruitment email (see Appendix A) with contacts he had in the ministry field to recruit participants they knew of that fit the criteria for this study. Once the potential participants contacted the researcher, he would utilize the telephone (see Appendix C) and email (see

Appendix A) scripts to inform the participants about the study, and what their involvement in the study would require. The telephone and email scripts included information about the researcher, the purpose of the study, request for participation in the study, and method to contact the researcher. In addition to the aforementioned methods of participant recruitment, the researcher utilized snowball sampling by using research participants to identify potential participants (Goodman, 1961). If participants, or other contacts, knew of women that fit the requirements for this study their contact information was obtained.

Interviews. Seidman (2006) highlighted that the art of interviewing is to gather the lived experiences of individuals and the meanings they give to those experiences.

Therefore, this qualitative study used phenomenological inquiry through in-depth interviews to obtain the lived experiences of women in vocational ministry. After initial contact was made by the potential participant, the researcher made contact with each potentially eligible participant through an initial phone call or email to review the purpose of the study, answer any questions they might have had, to inquire about their willingness to participate in the study, as well as their availability and preference for participating in a 60 to 90-minute interview. An outline of the initial phone contact is available in Appendix C. If the individual was willing to participate, an interview date, time, and preferred location was scheduled. All participants were informed during the initial contact that their interview would be approximately 60 to 90 minutes in length.

The participants were informed that the interview would cover their experiences in ministry, and subsequent balance of work and family life. Likewise, the participants were given instructions that should a question be asked that they feel was too sensitive to answer they could elect to decline answering that question. Finally, any potential names of possible participants were solicited during this initial contact.

The consent form includes the following information: who was conducting the study, the criteria for the study, the purpose of the study, length of interviews, the potential risks of being involved in the study and how they would be managed, confidentiality, ability of the participant to opt out of the study at any time, and that their

provided information would be secured and destroyed after the completion of the study.

A copy of the consent form can be found in Appendix D. Only the researcher had access to the information that allowed for member-checking post interviews.

Next, the researcher met with each participant in a 60 to 90-minute phone, video, or face-to-face interview at the agreed upon date and time set up during the initial phone or email contact. The participants chose the interview style (phone, video, or face-to- face) that was most convenient for them. It was recommended that the location of the interviews regardless of method (phone, video, or face-to-face) be held in a quiet location that would be conducive to a distraction free environment throughout the duration of the interview. The researcher conducted all phone and video interviews from his personal office in order to assure the highest level of security, confidentiality, and uninterrupted time. At the beginning of each interview, the researcher reviewed the purpose of the study, the procedures, risks and benefits, as well as the confidentiality process. The researcher verbally covered the informed consent (see Appendix D) to ensure that the participants understood what they were agreeing to by participating in this study, followed by their agreement to the informed consent acknowledging that they understood the study. At the completion of the participant’s agreement and signing of the consent form, the researcher began each interview by asking each participant a series of short questions contained on a brief demographic questionnaire. A copy of this questionnaire can be found in Appendix E.

At the beginning of the interview process, the participants were informed that at any point during the interview they could ask any questions they might have had. At the conclusion of the interview, another opportunity was given to participants to address any questions they might have had at that point. Likewise, if the participant chose to be involved in the member-checking process she was contacted several weeks after the completion of her interview and provide with an opportunity to ask questions or provide addition input that she may have thought about since the time of the interview.

An outline of the interview script with interview questions was followed for the remainder of the interview process in order to gather the lived experiences of work-life spillover for women in ministry. A copy of the interview questions and script can be found in Appendix F. It was anticipated that participants would speak openly. If any of the participants needed further clarification on the purpose of the research, the process of the interview, or any of the interview questions, the researcher did his best to address their concerns. An audio recorder was used during the interview process to ensure that the transcriptions of the interviews were accurate and captured all the responses from each participant, as well as any clarifications provided by the researcher. As mentioned above, for all participants who agreed to and provided contact information, a follow-up phone call or email was sent to verify if there was any additional information they wanted to submit, and that the information collected was what they desired to provide. A script of the follow-up phone conversation can be found in Appendix G.

Fieldnotes. During and immediately following the interviews, fieldnotes were recorded accounting for data the researcher felt appropriate and important to note that might not have been picked up via the interview or audio recordings. Emerson, Fretz, and

Shaw (1995) explained fieldnotes as a reminder to the observer that the participant’s account of what happened is one account but not necessarily a comprehensive or precise account, and thus leaves room for the observer’s thoughts to be accounted for and collected. Specifically, the researcher looked for non-verbal cues and other non-auditory responses to interview questions that the audio recordings alone may otherwise have missed. The fieldnotes were integrated into the transcription process and were locked in a file-cabinet in the researcher’s office during data collection and destroyed at the completion of data analysis.

Audio recording. In an effort to obtain the essence of the interview and the participants’ answers, the researcher utilized audio recordings during participant interviews. The audio recordings were also helpful in data analysis to provide an accurate rendering of what the participant shared during the interviews to maintain the exact language and voice inflections from each participant, which otherwise may have been lost if based solely upon the researcher’s personal recollections or fieldnotes. All of the collected data was stored in a locked file-cabinet in the researcher’s office. Any recorded data was stored on a password protected computer and backed up on a password protected external hard drive.

Data analysis. Leech and Onwuegbuzie (2007) recommended the importance of utilizing at least two, or preferably three, data analysis procedures in order to triangulate the data analysis in an effort to produce substantial qualitative data. The data analysis was ongoing and occurred alongside data collection. In order to obtain accurate and trustworthy data, the data analysis was aided by three different analysis approaches consisting of coding, member checking, and the use of the study’s theoretical framework.

Coding. Saldaña (2016) stated that a code is a word or set of words that explains and captures the spirit of what is being said in such a way as to categorize data into information subsets. The researcher using the audio recording device transcribed each interview immediately following the interview in order to maintain the integrity of what had been collected. Next, the data were coded and categorized into patterns and themes.

According to Saldaña (2016), it is important to utilize several cycles of coding in order to best understand themes within a phenomenological study. The process of the first and second cycles of coding methods and the particular approaches to coding are as follows.

The first cycle of coding methods that were utilized in this study were attribute coding and structural coding. Attribute coding is basic descriptive information such as age, gender, religious denomination, etc. Structural coding arranges the segments of collected data in relation to the specific research questions in an effort to frame the overall interview and collected data. The second cycle of coding methods were a way, according to Saldaña (2016), to better reorganize and reanalyze the data coded during the first cycle of coding methods.

The second cycle of coding was pattern coding and focused coding. Pattern codes look for patterns within the data explained by larger patterns or meta-themes. Focused coding is another method to streamline the initial coding done in the first cycle into more precise coding themes. In addition to the researcher, two peer coders were utilized to review the collected data for themes. Both of the co-coders were selected for their role in this study due to their prior training and understanding of qualitative research and coding methodology, as well as training and knowledge regarding family systems theory at the graduate level. In addition to this previous training, the researcher met with each of the co-coders prior to their involvement on the present study to clarify and illustrate the specific processes for the qualitative coding approaches utilized in this study. The researcher and the co-coders bracketed any preconceived notions of the outcomes prior to the reading of the transcriptions and attempted to create codes and themes based solely on the participants’ responses. Both additional coders signed a confidentiality agreement prior to their contribution to the study.

Member checking. Member checking, according to Lincoln and Guba (1985), in the data analysis process should be considered “the most crucial technique for establishing ‘credibility’” (p. 314). Once the researcher had completed the interviews, the participants who agreed at the time of the signing of the informed consent (see Appendix

D) to be contacted post-interview were given an opportunity in a follow-up phone or email contact to voice concerns and make additions or corrections to their interview

transcriptions. A script for the follow-up phone conversation can be found in Appendix

Use of theory. As presented earlier in this chapter, this study utilized Reuben

Hill’s (1949) family stress theory and Bowen’s family systems theory as a framework for the research questions and to understand and analyze the collected interview data. The collected data were analyzed in the context of themes based upon the ABC-X theory of family stress. The principal themes from the ABC-X theory consist of a) initial stressors, b) available resources, c) interpretation of the stressors, and x) the subsequent impact the stressor had on the family (Hill, 1958). Consequently, the analysis process was done through the perspective and context of family crisis theory to understand if the given elements of family crisis theory helped to illustrate the work-life spillover for women in ministry. Bowen’s family systems theory provided a lens through which to view the overall impact work-life spillover had on clergywomen, their marriages, and their families. The influence of family crisis theory and family systems theory can be seen in the coding themes found in Chapter IV and in the discussion of results in Chapter V.

Interview Questions

The following questions are a list of the research questions and subsequent interview questions that guided this study. A detailed interview script can be found in

Appendix F.

Research Question 1: How do women in ministry perceive and describe stressors from their work in ministry?

a. “How did you first get into ministry?”

b. “What do you enjoy about ministry?”

c. “Do you feel like the experiences of being a woman in ministry

are different than the experiences of men in ministry? Why, or

why not?

d. “What are frequent stressors you face during your time in

ministry?”

Research Question 2: What beliefs do women in ministry have about the impact their ministry work has had on their spousal and familial relationships?

a. “How do you balance the demands of ministry with the

demands of your personal relationships?”

b. “Has there been a time when ministry positively or negatively

impacted your marriage or family time? In what ways has

ministry been beneficial? In what ways has it negatively

impacted your marriage and/or family time?”

c. “How does your spouse and your family view your work in

ministry?”

Research Question 3: What resources do women in ministry perceive to be helpful to achieving a healthy work-life balance?

a. “If you need emotional or tangible support who are you able to

lean on, and how?”

b. “If you were able to start your time in ministry over again,

what would you do differently to make sure you were able to

thrive during your time in ministry?”

Participants

The participants in this study included female ministers who were serving, or had served, vocationally in a protestant Christian ministry. It was the goal of the researcher to obtain interviews from women with a broad range of ministry experience, with an inclusion criterion of at least six months’ experience in the vocation. Likewise, it was the priority of the researcher to find participants at various levels of ministry (senior, associate, student, etc.) to more accurately obtain a comprehensive understanding of experiences of women in ministry. Another inclusion criterion was that the participants were currently, or at one point in time, worked a minimum of 20 hours a week in ministerial work. Race/ethnicity was not an exclusion criterion in participant selection.

The researcher was able to gain access to participants due to his connections in ministry and networking connections available to the researcher via established ministerial relationships and contacts. In addition to connections to ministry networks, snowball sampling, and participant referrals were utilized to obtain additional participants.

The participants were selected based upon the inclusion criteria described above

(i.e., of current or past involvement in ministry) as well as the inclusion criterion of marital status, including a current or previous marriage during their time in ministry.

Whether the participants had children was not an exclusion criterion for this study.

However, the presence of children in the home was noted when examining qualitative themes. Likewise, an inclusion criterion was that participants were serving or had served in a protestant Christian ministry; however, selection of participants was not limited to any one particular denomination.

Saturation

According to Fusch and Ness (2015), the goal of a qualitative study is to reach data saturation, and data saturation is when no new information can be obtained, and additional coding is no longer possible. Likewise, Seidman (2006) proposed two criteria to obtaining the correct number of participants, sufficiency, and saturation. First, the researcher must ask if the information provided by the participants is diverse enough for the given population that others outside the participant sampling, but within the population studied, would be able to relate to the experiences of the participants interviewed. Secondly, the data needs to reach a saturation point at which the addition of new participants would only be a repetition of known data. Based on the information collected in Chapter II (Guzman & Teh, 2016; Sharp & Huebner, 2014) combined with the suggestions by Seidman (2006) regarding reaching a point of saturation, the researcher estimated that in order to avoid achieving a false point of saturation 13 participants would be needed for this study. It was determined that if the researcher had concluded that new information and codes were still possible after 13 interviews, further participant interviews would have been solicited. However, it was agreed upon by the

researcher and co-coders that the collected data had reached a saturation point at 13 participants.

Ethical Considerations of the Study

Erlandson et al. (1993) proposed that instead of looking at ethical considerations as though they are oppressive, a researcher should look proactively at ethical considerations with the understanding that ethical guidelines are a beneficial way to improve the study. The following is an explanation of some of the ethical safeguards and considerations that were used in this study. In order to insure confidentiality, fieldnotes and transcripts did not contain identifiable participant information. Raw data was kept on a file that was password-protected on a password-protected computer. In an effort to proactively address potential participant anxiety, the participants received procedural information about the interview with the caveat that they could decline answering any questions they did not want to answer. Likewise, the participants were informed that at any time should they have concerns they could drop out from the study altogether.

Another important ethical consideration for this study was the participants’ full and complete informed consent. The informed consent form (see Appendix D) was given to and discussed with the participants at the beginning of the interviewing process, prior to the interview questioning about their work-life experiences in ministry. The contents of the informed consent are detailed below. The informed consent form included the following information: who was conducting the study, the criteria for the study, the purpose of the study, length of interviews, the potential risks of being involved in the

study and how they would be managed, confidentiality, ability of the participant to opt out of the study at any time, and that their provided information would be secured and destroyed after the completion of the study. Likewise, during this time of consent, it was important that the participants understood what measures were in place to protect and provide confidentiality (Dunn & Chadwick, 2004). Participants in this study were given, and asked to sign, an informed consent form acknowledging and agreeing to the study’s procedures prior to their involvement in the qualitative interview process. Participants were free to withdraw informed consent at any time during the study and instructions for withdrawing consent and discontinuing participation was provided to all participants.

The participants received full disclosure regarding how the information they provided would be collected and utilized for the research. The process and details of data collection, analysis, and storage can be found in the informed consent form (see

Appendix D). The consent form also covered the extent of confidentially. This form was provided to and signed by each participant in order to guide and assert that all processes and procedures related to confidentially for participants and participant data would be maintained. Precaution was taken to ensure that all the participants in this study felt comfortable and had the ability to withdraw from the study at any point if they felt the need to do so. If a participant wanted to seek out a professional mental health worker due to their participation in this study the researcher provided them with a list of mental health resources (see Appendix H). Only the researcher had access to the information that allowed for member-checking post interviews.

Summary

Chapter III was an examination of the methodology that was utilized in this study.

A qualitative phenomenological study was utilized to understand the lived experiences of women in ministry. Trustworthiness and validity was considered throughout the project, with an emphasis on the triangulation of data collection and data analysis. Chapter IV provides the reader with the findings and themes from the collected data and the subsequent data analysis.

CHAPTER IV

RESULTS

The purpose of this study was to understand the experiences of women in ministry, and their perceptions on the impact ministry have had on their personal lives, as well as the impact ministry has had on their marriages and families. To gather pertinent data, the researcher utilized a qualitative methodology combined with a phenomenological approach using in-depth interviews with women in ministry. This chapter reports the results from an analysis of data that were collected from the interviews with the participants. The qualitative interviews were structured around questions regarding the participants’ self-reported descriptors of ministry stressors, the impact their ministry work has had on their marriages and families, and perceived available support and resources. All interviews were recorded and then transcribed verbatim. The sample for this study consists of 13 participants. In this chapter, the researcher presents a description of data analysis and coding methodology followed by demographics of the sample and a narrative of the emergent themes.

Data Analysis

A phenomenological qualitative research approach provided the researcher an opportunity to understand the unique experiences of women in ministry, and their

perceptions regarding the impact ministry has had on their marriages and families. The following research questions served as a guide for this study in order to structure the framework of this study and better understand the experiences of women in ministry and subsequent work-life spillover:

1. How do women in ministry perceive and describe stressors from their work in

ministry?

2. What beliefs do women in ministry have about the impact their ministry work has

had on their spousal and familial relationships?

3. What resources do women in ministry perceive to be helpful with work-life

balance?

Semi-structured interviews were conducted, utilizing open-ended interview questions, with follow-up questions, and prompts, when needed, to gain clarity on the participants’ statements. To safeguard the participants’ confidentiality, a separate numeric code was assigned to each participant. At the completion of all 13 interviews, each recorded interview was transcribed verbatim. To enhance trustworthiness of the study, in addition to the researcher, two co-coders reviewed all thirteen transcripts separately and independently coded each transcription for themes. Prior to their role in the data analysis, the researcher and the co-coders bracketed any preconceived notions of the outcomes prior to the reading of the transcriptions and attempted to create codes and themes based solely on the participants’ responses. After the researcher and co-coders had completed a review of all the transcribed interviews, discussions occurred between

the co-coders and the researcher, and an agreement was reached for the emergent codes and themes.

Any disagreements on the clarity of the emergent codes and themes were resolved by the researcher’s deciding decision due to his role as the lead researcher in this study.

The qualifications of the co-coders and their role in the data analysis will be discussed in more detail below. The process of triangulation in this study involved crosschecking, comparing the transcribed data with field notes, and follow-up member checking with each participant to provide consistency and credibility to the study. Each participant was contacted several weeks after the interview had taken place for member-checking, which was to provide an opportunity for each participant to add any further information to what they had already shared in their initial interview. Eight of the thirteen participants did not respond, and the remaining participants stated that they did not have any further information to add to what they had already shared during their initial interview. The data were also compared to the theoretical framework and cross-checked with other findings from the co-coders.

The researcher shortly following the interview transcribed each interview, which had been recorded by an audio recording device, in order to maintain the integrity of what had been collected. Next, the data were coded and categorized into codes and themes through a process of cycles that will be described below.

Coding Methodology

According to Saldaña (2016), it is important to utilize several cycles of coding in order to best understand themes within a phenomenological study. The first cycle of coding methods that were utilized in this study were attribute coding and structural coding. The second cycle of coding methods were a way, according to Saldaña, to better reorganize and reanalyze the data coded during the first cycle of coding methods. The second cycle of coding was pattern coding and focused coding. The data analysis in both of the coding approaches utilized in this second cycle of coding methodology was aided by the assistance of co-coders. After the transcribed interviews had been mined for codes and themes it was determined by the researcher that a separate set of information, which had not yet been captured by the first and second cycle of coding, was emerging.

Therefore, the researcher chose to carry out a third cycle of coding in order to account for this unique level of emergent codes that were separate from the previous codes illustrated in the first two cycles of coding. The co-coders were once again utilized in this third cycle of coding. A discussion of each cycle of coding can be found in the sections that follow.

In order to understand the true phenomenological approach to this study, it is important to understand the findings of the present study in the context of emic and etic ways of understanding human behavior as developed by Pike (1967). Throughout the data collection and data analysis, the researcher observed the emic responses of the participants as they provided their perspectives on what they believed to be true about

their experiences of being a woman in ministry. However, it should be noted that through the process of the following coding methodology the determination of the researcher in collaboration with the co-coders developed an etic understanding of the collected data as they looked to illustrate what they believed to be the important findings regarding the collected experiences.

First Cycle of Coding

In the first cycle of coding, the researcher utilized both attribute and structural coding approaches. According to Saldaña (2016), attribute coding is basic descriptive information such as age, gender, religious denomination, and other identifying characteristics about the participants from the study. The demographic information that was illustrated by the attribute coding consisted of age, marital status, number of children, years in ministry, current employment status, average hours of ministry work per week, and the diversity of denominations that were represented by the participants in this study.

Additionally, structural coding was utilized in the initial cycle of coding.

Structural coding arranges the segments of collected data in relation to the specific research questions in an effort to frame the overall interview and collected data (Saldaña,

2016). It was this larger level of coding that structured the participant’s responses to interview questions within the framework of this study’s research questions. The participant responses to each question were structurally organized under the corresponding interview question to aid in the coding process.

Second Cycle of Coding

In the second cycle of coding the researcher utilized both pattern and focused coding approaches. According to Saldaña (2016), pattern codes look for patterns within the data that are explained by larger patterns or meta-themes. Focused coding is another method to streamline the structural codes from the initial cycle of coding into more precise coding themes.

In addition to the researcher, two co-coders were utilized for the second cycle of coding to review the collected data for themes. Both of the co-coders were selected for their role in this study due to their prior training and understanding of qualitative research and coding methodology, as well as training and knowledge regarding family systems theory at the graduate level. In addition to this previous training, the researcher meet with each of the co-coders prior to their involvement on the present study to clarify and illustrate the specific processes for the qualitative coding approaches utilized in this study. Both of the additional coders signed a confidentiality agreement prior to their involvement and any contribution they made to the study. Small portions of the transcript that had been coded by the researcher were shown to the co-coders prior to their involvement in the coding process in order to illustrate the coding process of the second and third coding cycles, which were the cycles that the co-coders were utilized on for this study.

Next, the researcher addressed any questions that the co-coders had concerning the coding methodology. In addition, the researcher had each co-coder demonstrate a

sample of their coding to determine their level of confidence in the data-analysis process.

It was at this point in the data analysis process that the researcher and co-coders highlighted and noted common terms, phrases, and sentences that described basic topics of role, experience, and the impact ministry work has had on the marriage and family life for each participant. Once the co-coders had each separately completed their coding analysis of the transcribed interviews, the researcher and the co-coders came together to discuss their findings. Comparisons were made between the codes identified by the researcher and the co-coders. Similarities in the coding methodology were noted and integrated into the final coding analysis. Any differences in the coding findings were discussed between the researcher and the co-coders; however, the researcher ultimately held the final say in what codes and themes were utilized in the data analysis due to his role as the lead researcher for this particular study. The common codes were combined into several categories. These categories of terms were organized into major themes, which the researcher felt best described the roles and experiences of the participants. The agreed upon codes and themes appear as major findings in the study. The researcher determined six major themes that emerged from the transcribed interviews after reviewing the analyzed transcripts from each co-coder combined with the analyzed transcripts of the research and the analysis from the first cycle of coding.

Third Cycle of Coding

As mentioned earlier, a third cycle of coding was utilized for the transcribed participant interviews. The need for this third cycle of coding developed from an

awareness from both the co-coders and the researcher that there were common values that had emerged from the transcribed interviews that were not represented within the first two cycles of coding. Therefore, the researcher utilized a values coding approach to understanding values statements that were emerging from the participant interviews.

According to Saldaña (2016), values coding looks at the particular attitudes, beliefs, and values tied to the participants’ worldviews within the collected data.

During this cycle of coding, the transcribed interviews were evaluated for subjective values, attitudes, and beliefs stated by the participants during their interviews.

These value statements were then organized in a similar fashion to the organization process of the major themes listed above with common values statements being organized together to determine what larger value statements would adequately encompass these emerging values, attitudes, and beliefs. Comparisons were made between the values statements identified by the researcher and the co-coders. The researcher addressed similarities and differences in an effort to arrive at common values statements. The researcher, due to his role as the primary researcher of this study, settled any differences.

The common values statements were combined into several categories. These categories of terms were organized into overarching values statements that were agreed upon by the researcher and co-coders to encompass the various categories all the identified values statements fell into. Seven overarching values statements emerged from the transcribed interviews. These seven main values statements will be illustrated in detail within this chapter.

Findings from the First Cycle Coding

This section of research findings consists of the findings from the first cycle of coding. The researcher utilized both attribute and structural coding approaches for this first cycle of data analysis. The attribute coding process consisted of the demographic information of age, marital status, number of children, years in ministry, current employment status, average hours of ministry work per week, and the diversity of denominations that were represented by the participants in this study. This first cycle of coding also consisted of the structural coding process. During the structural coding process, the researcher arranged the segments of collected data in relation to the specific research questions in an effort to frame the overall interview and collected data (Saldaña,

2016). It was this larger level of coding that structured the participant’s responses to interview questions within the framework of this study’s research questions.

Attribute Coding

The research consisted of 13 women who currently serve, or who have served in ministry positions. The demographics of the participants are shown in Table 4.1 below.

The age range of the participants was from 30 to 73 years with a mean of 48.3 years, a median of 47 years, and a standard deviation of 10.7 years. Marital Status for the participant consisted of eleven who were married, one who was divorced and remarried, and one who was divorced and single. The number of children for the participants ranged from zero to five children with a mean of 2.4 children per participant, a median of 3 children, and a standard deviation of 1.4 children.

Table 4.1.

Sample Demographics: Age, Marital Status, Children

Sample Demographics: Age, Marital Status, Children (Total Sample Size, n = 13) Age (in years): Range (30 – 73) Distribution 30 – 34 1 7.7% M = 48.3 35 – 39 1 7.7% SD = 10.7 40 – 44 4 30.7% Median = 47 45 – 49 3 23.1%

50 – 54 1 7.7%

55 – 59 1 7.7% 60 – 64 1 7.7% 65 – 69 0 0% 70 – 74 1 7.7% Marital Status: Married 11 84.6% Divorced (Remarried) 1 7.7% Divorced (Single) 1 7.7% Number of Children Range (0 – 5) Distribution 0 2 15.4% M = 2.4 1 1 7.7% SD = 1.4 2 3 23.1% Median = 3 3 5 38.4% 4 1 7.7% 5 1 7.7%

As shown in Table 4.2, the number of total years served in ministry positions for

each participant ranged from 10 to 35 years with a mean of 20.8 years, a median of 20 85

years served, and a standard deviation of 7.9 years. Eleven of the 13 participants were working in a paid vocational ministry position when they were interviewed for this study, while the remaining two participants had been but were no longer employed in vocational ministry positions. The mean number of hours worked when serving in a ministry occupation was 47.3 hours per week, with a median of 45 hours, and a standard deviation of 10.9 hours. Four participants did not provide an average number of hours worked per week.

Table 4.2.

Sample Demographics: Ministry Experience

Sample Demographics: Ministry Experience (Total Sample Size, n = 13) Years in Ministry: Range (10 – 35) Distribution 10 – 13 1 7.7% M = 20.8 14 – 17 4 30.7% SD = 7.9 18 – 21 5 38.5% Median = 20 22 – 25 0 0%

26 – 29 0 0%

30 – 33 1 7.7% 34 – 37 2 15.4% Employed in Vocational Ministry at Time of Interview Yes 11 84.6% No 2 15.4% Average Hours of Ministry Work (Per Week) Range (30 – 68) Distribution 30 – 35 2 15.4% M = 47.3 36 – 41 0 0% SD = 10.9 42 – 47 3 23.1% Median = 45 48 – 53 1 7.7% 54 – 59 2 15.4% 60 – 65 0 0% 66 – 71 1 7.7% No Response 4 30.7%

The participants represented a variety of ministry positions during their time working in ministry. The participants reported working or having worked within the following positional areas of ministry: Associate Minister, Associate Pastor, Campus

Ministry, Children’s Minister, Children’s and Family Minister, Church Planter,

Congregational Small Group Minister, Director, Director of Women’s Ministries, Family

Minister, Hospital Chaplain, Instructor of Bible, Interim Minister, Missionary, Pastoral

Chaplain, Preacher, Senior Pastor, Small Groups Minister, Spiritual Director, Spiritual

Formations Minister, Women’s Minister, Young Adults Associate Minister, and Youth

Minister. The participants reported having held ministry positions in the following denominations: American Baptist, Brethren, Church of Christ, Disciples of Christ,

Episcopalian, Evangelical Free Church of America, Independent Bible Church, Lutheran, and Presbyterian.

Structural Coding

The following questions are a list of the research questions and subsequent interview questions that guided this study. The participant responses to each question were structurally organized under the corresponding interview question to aid in the structural coding process. A detailed interview script can be found in Appendix F.

Research Question 1: How do women in ministry perceive and describe stressors from their work in ministry?

e. “How did you first get into ministry?”

f. “What do you enjoy about ministry?”

g. “Do you feel like the experiences of being a woman in ministry

are different than the experiences of men in ministry? Why, or

why not?

h. “What are frequent stressors you face during your time in

ministry?”

Research Question 2: What beliefs do women in ministry have about the impact their ministry work has had on their spousal and familial relationships?

d. “How do you balance the demands of ministry with the

demands of your personal relationships?”

e. “Has there been a time when ministry positively or negatively

impacted your marriage or family time? In what ways has

ministry been beneficial? In what ways has it negatively

impacted your marriage and/or family time?”

f. “How does your spouse and your family view your work in

ministry?”

Research Question 3: What resources do women in ministry perceive to be helpful to achieving a healthy work-life balance?

c. “If you need emotional or tangible support who are you able to

lean on, and how?”

Findings from the Second Cycle Coding

After the completion of the first cycle of coding, the collected data was analyzed through a second cycle of coding analysis using pattern and focused coding. At the completion of the second cycle of coding, the researcher and the co-coders agreed on six major themes along with subthemes under each major theme that emerged from the transcribed interview responses of the participants. The six major themes fit within the three research questions for this study.

1. How do women in ministry perceive and describe stressors?

2. What beliefs do women in ministry have about the impact their ministry work

has had on their spousal and familial relationships?

3. What resources do women in ministry perceive to be helpful to achieving a

healthy work-life balance?

Table 4.3 below is an outline of the six major themes and how they fit within the context of the research questions.

Table 4.3.

Research Questions and Major Themes

Research Question Major Theme

Research Question 1: How do women in Major Theme 1: Obstacles ministry perceive and describe stressors from their work in ministry

Major Theme 2: Metacognitions

Research Question 2: What beliefs do Major Theme 3: Ministry’s Impact on women in ministry have about the impact Marriage and Family their ministry work has had on their spousal and familial relationships?

Major Theme 4: Balance of Ministry and Family Demands: Creating and Sustaining Boundaries

Major Theme 5: Growth

Research Question 3: What resources do Major Theme 6: Support and Resources women in ministry perceive to be helpful to achieving a healthy work-life balance?

Within each section below, a figure provides an illustration of each major theme and the subthemes that have been encompassed by each of the six major themes. The subthemes consist of the codes the researcher and co-coders agreed covered the collected qualitative data, which ultimately led to each of the six major themes listed in this section. In order to be considered a subtheme at least three participants needed to share in the context of that particular subtheme as this would be a representative of over one-fifth of all participants mentioning that particular idea or concept as important during their

interview process. The coding process that developed the six major themes mentioned above came from the structural coding process in the first cycle of coding, and the pattern and focused coding processes in the second cycle of coding. The following sections are a discussion of the six major themes that emerged from the participant interviews.

Major Themes from Research Question 1

Two major themes emerged from the collected data pertaining to the first research question and how women in ministry perceive and describe stressors from their work in ministry. The first of these major themes is obstacles and the second is metacognitions.

These themes are illustrated in detail below.

Obstacles

The first major theme of obstacles emerged from participants’ responses to the first research question regarding how women in ministry perceive and describe stressors from their work in ministry. This theme also emerged when participants were asked about their ability to balance work and family life. The first level of subthemes under the primary theme of obstacles consists of: expectations and demand, lack of opportunities, lack of recognition, and lack of respect. Other subthemes also emerged within the framework of this major theme and the flow of these subthemes can be seen in Figure 4.1 below.

It should be noted that a potential emergent subtheme of obstacles was lack of friendships. This lack of friendships grouping of codes was only overtly mentioned by participant 2 even though it was alluded to by several other participants. Therefore, lack

of friendships was not officially used as a subtheme under the major theme of obstacles.

The organization of the subthemes and the corresponding codes under the major themes of obstacles, are illustrated in the figure below:

Expectations and Misconceptions Demand

Lack of Opportunities

Lack of Obstacles Public vs. Private Recognition

Having to Earn Respect

Staff and Self-Questioning Lack of Respect Leadership of Qualifications Issues

External Questioning of Discouragement Qualifications

Scripture

Figure 4.1. Subthemes for Major Theme of Obstacles.

In an analysis of the transcription from the participants’ interview responses it was determined that the theme of obstacles was a clear major theme. Perceived stressors

and roadblocks were acknowledged by all participants as obstacles for carrying out their work in ministry.

Expectations and demand. The first of the five subthemes under the theme of

Obstacles is Expectations and Demand. There are certain expectations and levels of demand that were both spoken and unspoken for women in ministry. Sometimes these felt demands came from external sources, such as cultural pressures.

Participant 11: “Right now, I believe, in all denominations, that you are working in a traditionally male role. Like in the hospital if you walk into someone’s room and say,

‘I’m the chaplain.’ They will say, ‘Oh my gosh, I didn’t know a woman could do that.’

There is still this part of general cultural expectations that clergy are male.”

Participant 3: “Strong expectations for us to be full-time moms, as well as working in the ministry.”

Other times these expectations came from within the congregations these women serve.

Participant 8: “Everybody thinks they’re your boss because they all put a dollar in the plate on Sunday mornings…I think there’s this sense within everybody, that they own a piece of you because they pay your salary.”

Even their congregations were uncertain as of how to handle women in ministry.

Participant 5: “Expectations on us in family life are different than they are on our spouses, and churches aren’t willing to change their own perception of how family life is supposed to work or work with women who are experiencing those changes.”

Still other times demands of ministry feel unobtainable and unrealistic.

Participant 2: “I think the greater challenges for me was that I was a family minister I was there to equip and support families in their spiritual lives, yet the church demanded of me things that we would never demand of those families. In fact, opposite of what I would encourage those families to do”

The pressures of these expectations and demands were ongoing.

Participant 5: “Our friend, who he’s an accountant, she’s a vet. When they leave the office, they leave the office. But if my daughter has a volleyball game, or someone has passed away and needs their minister, well we have to be there. So, we are going to miss the volleyball game.”

Participant 13: “Sometimes being able to leave work at work. We don’t just have those nine to five jobs where I turn the computer off and go home. Being involved with people means that sometimes you carry that home and we have to work really consciously to leave that and not to want to carry burdens that are not ours.”

Misconceptions. Often the felt expectations and demands that showed up where in the unwanted misconceptions and unfair stereotypes that women in ministry reported feeling.

Participant 4: “What I’ve found is that a lot of people who are egalitarian or who are very affirming of women in ministry want to like push it for you and let you do everything, and that’s not always what I want to do and people who are assume the worst of you, and that you are there to push against stuff and that’s not the case either.”

Participant 6: “If we are being persistent about something, or being very insistent, or really being, not being submissive, not being that you know technically submissive female-type figure that many have come to expect. It comes across as being very domineering and we often get labeled in ways that I think is unfair”

Participants frequently reported feeling the pressure of being a representative for all women in ministry.

Participant 1: “Being first in ministry as a woman or with it being controversial that brings a lot of shift and I don't like being the center of controversy.”

Participant 5: “Women in ministry are kind of like the social experiment, and so it’s fun and trendy and cool, until it’s not anymore. And then it’s hard and nobody is really interested in asking why or how to make it better…I think it’s more stressful for women because they feel the weight of all females’ ability to do ministry rests on how people perceive me in ministry, that’s incredibly stressful.”

Participant 7: “Being one of the first women to serve was...actually, it was exciting, and in some ways, it was daunting.”

At times this increased level of scrutiny was found in the details of their ministry work as illustrated by Participant 6, “choosing what to wear if you have to get up in front of the pulpit on a Sunday morning. Well you have to ask is my skirt too short or is my skirt too long? Should I wear tights? Should I wear hose? Should I just wear pants...there isn't quite that level of intensity and scrutiny placed on our male counterparts getting up in front of the pulpit.”

Participant 5 talked about this level of scrutiny when it came to maternal responsibilities and pregnancy. “So that’s a real stress to know that your time is limited not because of anything you might do, but because the trends may change, or because you can get married. Or start having kids, and suddenly churches go ‘Oh that’s a liability, we didn’t really want’…this should be an excited and amazing time in my life and I’m terrified to tell the people I work with I’m pregnant, so I don’t just get fired immediately.”

Lack of opportunities. Another common obstacle that was mentioned by the participants was the lack of opportunities. At times this lack of opportunities comes from within the ministry the participant is serving. Participant 13 discussed a time when she felt the lack of opportunities in her freedom to speak in front of the congregation like her male counterparts. “Not fully being empowered to do the job that I have to do… I cannot get in front of the church and give a sermon or lesson or challenge to them about what it means to be a church that values family ministry. I have to do that through someone else, if it gets done at all. So there are many, many, many things that I can do, but there are some things that I am not able to do. The youth minister can get up, he can do that. He gets those opportunities. I don’t.”

Other times this lack of opportunity created obstacles that came from the lack of potential career opportunities.

Participant 1: “There were times when we were kind of, I was feeling kind of stuck when there's no way for me to move because there are so few opportunities for

women then it meant we need to move…for a woman having so few opportunities it often does mean a big move. It’s not like there’s a job down the street. That was really hard. That was very hard for me to wait even though I felt like it was best especially for our children and our family as a whole. I just feel like I was at a dead end on what could actually be my ministry.”

Lack of recognition. Another obstacle for the participants was the lack of recognition they would receive for the work they had done or the title they had earned.

Participant 2: “…like taking ownership of something that I had worked hard to put into place once it was in the place that he [a male ministry colleague] could now champion it, but he had not done the hard work. He was sitting in his office.”

Public vs. private. It was reported that this lack of recognition often depended upon whether it was public or private.

Participant 2: “Our elders often call me, not ‘executive minister’ or ‘senior minister’ which in our congregation that was supposed to be the person leading so they often call me ‘senior minister’ behind closed doors”

Participant 13 also talked about the hypocrisy of being able to have authority in private as opposed to public spaces, “a second thing that is so challenging is just the hypocrisy. I attend a church where I pray, I pray with our shepherds. I have led elders’ meetings, leadership team meetings. I am empowered to do those things, but something changes in certain settings.”

Lack of respect. Even when given a higher level of authority, participants commonly mentioned another subtheme of a lack of respect that created another obstacle.

Participant 4: “The second time that I preached I had an interesting experience where I was preaching and I had gotten about two (pause) I said a prayer and opened my eyes and got about a sentence in, and someone stood up and flipped me off and walked out. I don’t know many men who have had that experience.”

Participant 2: “I think that the authority issue that I mentioned. Both sides of it.

That side of a congregate looking at me and thinking well the pulpit minister can override you because he's a pulpit minister, which was not how our leadership system was set up but it was it was very much the male head and the female subordinate. But now applied to the hierarchy of the church so I'll just go to the male head because they're over you.”

Having to earn respect. The desired level of respect was something that several participants discussed as something that they had to earn, prove, or work hard to obtain.

Participant 2: “As a female I feel like I had to earn that and justify it often, until like my last five years of ministry there”

Participant 5: “It’s different because we have to, we as females have to prove that we are able to do this work, because our denomination does not have a belief that we can or should for most of its’ life.”

Participant 8: “Women have to work harder to, to be perceived as voices worthy of being listened to…sometimes I let people say things to me, and treat me in ways that I would just never imagine being spoken to or being treated in another profession.”

Self-questioning of qualifications. The participants talked about a level of questioning that often accompanied the validation of qualification to perform their ministerial duties. At times this questioning of qualifications was self-imposed.

Participant 1 talks about this self-questioning, “it's daily in the life of a woman in ministry about whether or not what I can do or should be doing ministry.”

External questioning of qualifications. However, the participants reported that this questioning of ministry qualifications most often came from external sources, from those around them.

Participant 1: “Even for my Colleagues and women I know who are pastors in ministry denominations that have ordained women or called women into ministry, they still faced conversations about what level they can [obtain] in that denomination.

Whether or not they can be senior pastors even in denominations that have been ordaining women for many years, like the Nazarenes and Methodists, it's still a glass ceiling for women.”

Participant 4: “Even from a young age, I wanted to go into ministry, um, there was a lot of pushback from other people when I told them.”

Participant 4: “So I got a lot of pushback even in college, a lot…or even most of my peers didn’t think that I should be there, peers in my program, in the Bible program. I never got that from my professors, I’m sure some of them didn’t believe that, but specifically from my peers.”

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Staff and leadership issues. Still other times, this lack of respect arose from issues with ministry staff and leadership.

Participant 6: “Church leadership…they had told me, ‘no you don’t need to take on project ‘X’ you know whatever that project might be. You don’t need to take on that, we need that to be handled by somebody else.’ So, I said, ‘okay,’ but they would not communicate that to the congregation. And so, I was getting berated and belittled, and you know, verbally attacked at church by people who thought that was my job to handle project ‘X’ when in reality I was told not to. And yet, they were not speaking up and communicating that, and there even came a letter to the church leadership saying when are you going to ask this person, when are you going to ask her to finally step up and do her job?”

Participant 6 went on to say, “church leadership is typically business class males, you know, so those who work in high level industries, most often, that’s a generalization

I realize. Males, then there isn’t necessarily this same frame of reference or scope, or understanding, of what different might look like and should look like and how to respond and what to preemptively say to others so that the female minister isn’t maybe feeling attacked or threatened, or you know inundated with issues of self-worth.”

Participant 2 mentioned a similar disconnect from ministry leadership: “Lack of communication that can happen between myself and the rest of the leadership team and how that has stunted because that causes miscommunication that causes hurt feelings that

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causes lack of being able to deal with conflict on either side in a healthy way and there's just so many ramifications of a communication barrier between genders.”

Discouragement. Participants mentioned that at other times this external questioning of their qualifications for working in a ministry vocation came in the form of discouragement.

Participant 13: “When I went to college to study youth ministry, there was only two other girls in my whole class that were youth and family majors. More came later, a lot more actually. I remember people telling me straight up when they asked what I was majoring in they would just be like, ‘oh, you can’t do that.’”

Participant 2: “There was a period of time in fact I didn't major in ministry. In fact, I didn't major in ministry, and at the undergraduate level I had a different major because of all the resistance I hit in the Bible department.”

Participant 4: “A lot of pressuring to do worse, or to do things to help them out, or derogatory comments.”

Participant 1: “I feel it in my body, you know, in my bones and my stress of my body. I feel that way too. That there are so many people against the very thing that I feel passionate about, that I feel called to. That if I didn't I would not be obeying God or following God's lead in my life, so I find that a continual stress is something that I have got counseling about several times.”

Scripture. Finally, the external questioning was often accompanied by prohibitive scriptures, which several participants pointed out as an obstacle that they had faced.

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Participant 11: “So you have to deal with these passages that seem to say that women don’t have equal, aren’t equally invited into roles like this, and I don’t think that men have to deal with that kind of stuff.”

Participant 1: “That's often the question, can you do this, does scripture allow it, does God allow it, and does the church allow it.”

Participant 8: “But there was a time, quite a time actually, where I just didn’t even tell people what I did, because I grew weary of the jaw dropping, or the series of questions, or occasionally a reprimand. Um, on Biblical authority from what I did. So, I think there’s the issue of, of being taken seriously.”

Metacognitions

The second major theme of metacognitions emerged from participants’ responses to the first research question regarding how women in ministry perceive and describe stressors from their work in ministry. The subthemes under the primary theme of metacognitions consisted of: internal fears, proving value and worth, criticism, and feeling undervalued. The organization of these subthemes, which are the codes that correspond to the main theme of metacognitions, are illustrated in Figure 4.2 below:

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Internal Fears

Proving Value and Worth Metacognitions

Criticism

Feeling Undervalued

Figure 4.2. Subthemes for Major Theme of Metacognitions.

This second major theme of metacognitions emerged out of the codes that developed from the transcribed participant interviews that focused on the internal thought processes that created stressors to the participants’ ministry work. These internal thoughts were, at times, a reflection of their personal ideas concerning women in ministry and, at times, a reflection of their perception on the thoughts of others around them regarding women in ministry.

Internal fears. The participants talked about the internal fears that they faced during their work in ministry. Many of the internal fears that they faced came from their perceptions of what others would think about the quality of their work.

Participant 10: “Performance anxiety feeling …there aren’t many other women ministers around me, physically…and the pressure of what if what I’m striving to do fails, then that performance anxiety of, well then they’re going to think it’s because I’m a women.”

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The participants explained that their internal fears came from a place of feeling as though the work that was being done was not enough.

Participant 6: “And I felt like I was giving everything I could, but it was never viewed as enough, and so while that, I know, was enough of a unique experience in all of those factors hitting at one time.”

Participant 3: “There's a sense of not being sure you're doing enough for other people.”

Participant 6: “She is doing everything she can and yet still is coming up short in a number of people’s eyes.”

Participant 6 described the importance of seeing beyond the personal insecurities and fears which could lead to a desire to give up. “A drawback to working in ministry is recognizing that, and I could see through those things that Satan was kind of attacking my insecurities and attacking where he knew that he could get me frustrated the easiest, and potentially give up on something.”

Participant 8 pointed out that growth came through the ability to handle the internal fears with experience. Participant 8: “The hardest thing for me was learning to not take things personally…but that took some growing up. The thickening of my skin came with age.”

Proving value and worth. Another internal thought battle the participants’ reported facing was the battle to prove value and worth. One example of this was when

Participant 6 shared, “Because I feel like I have to go so far above and beyond just to be

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viewed as being competent even though I might be, in some instances, more highly credentialed for the most appropriate person to carry out a task on the ministry staff, I feel like I have to sometimes fight for my position there because I’m female versus male.

If I bring a problem to our church leadership about something, they may hear, um, and really be trying to hear, or act as if they’re hearing, and yet because it’s not a problem they experience, it’s not at their forefront of being rectified.”

Criticism. Along the lines of proving the value and worth that a woman has in the ministry field, was the criticism that came with being a female serving in a ministry leadership position.

Participant 8: “People get upset about everything in churches, (laughs) and they feel really unbelievably free to tell you.” Participant 8 went on to tell a story of a time when she had an encounter with criticism from within the congregation she was serving:

“And he was yelling and the veins were coming out around his face and his neck. When I came home and told my husband about it, he was like ‘that’s it, that’s it, I just can’t take this anymore.’ I said, ‘No, we’ll be fine, he’ll get over it. Sunday will come.’ That stuff happens, and I’m not sure if that stuff happens to men, because I haven’t been a man.”

At other times the criticism came in the form of perceived criticisms that would wage war on the metacognitions of the female minister regarding her ability to balance work and family life. Participant 6: “I’m concerned that people will think that, maybe I will not be able to do my job, or do it properly because I will be worried about my kids

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being there, or my husband being there…maybe I am assuming that people will think I’m not really able to focus on my work if my family is there, you know.”

Feeling undervalued. A final subtheme that emerged under metacognitions was the feeling of being undervalued in the ministry position the participants were serving.

Participant 6 conveyed a similar message to other participants by saying, “I think, often times, especially if you are dealing with females working in children’s ministry, it’s kind of viewed as that second-hand ministry…I would come off the summer, and I would sit in an elder’s meeting with the entire staff, and the elders would go on, and on, and on, to the youth minister about how he really needed to take time for himself, and take time for his family, and take time, you know, it’s just not good for him to stay so busy. And then, never once in any of those years was anything ever said to me.”

Major Themes from Research Question 2

Three major themes emerged from the analysis of collected data pertaining to the second research question regarding the beliefs that women in ministry had about the impact their ministry work has had on their marriage and family relationships. The first of these major themes was ministry’s impact on marriage and family, the second was balance of ministry and family demands: creating and sustaining boundaries, and the third was growth. These three themes are illustrated in detail below.

Ministry’s Impact on Marriage and Family

The third major overall theme and the first theme under the second research question was ministry’s impact on marriage and family. This major theme emerged from

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participants’ responses to the interview question about times when ministry had positively or negatively impacted their marriages and families. This theme also emerged when participants were asked about the views of their spouse and family regarding their work in ministry. The subthemes under the primary theme of ministry’s impact on marriage and family consists of: pressures on family, avoiding personal issues, impact on children, stress on spouse, lack of resources for spouses, spouse’s role, and healthy communication. The organization of these subthemes, which are made up of the codes that correspond to the main theme of ministry’s impact on marriage and family, are illustrated in Figure 4.3 below:

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Pressures on Family

Avoiding Personal Issues

Impact on Children

Ministry's Impact on Marriage and Stress on Spouse Family

Lack of Resources for Spouses

Spouse's Role

Healthy Communication

Figure 4.3. Subthemes for Major Theme of Ministry’s Impact on Marriage and Family.

The researcher and the co-coders determined that a common theme throughout the transcribed interviews was that ministry work did indeed play a large role on the spouses and families of the participants. This impact was multifaceted and across all familial relationships that will be shown in the subthemes below.

Pressures on family. Participant 3 illustrated one of the ways that participants talked about the pressures on their families. Participant 3 talked about ministry impacting her family in relation to how her family became idolized as the perfect family and the pressure it created to maintain that façade.

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Participant 3: “Then it blew me away how there was just this identity as a missionary family you're almost held up as idols sometimes and there's a part of me that really appreciated that identity and then a part of me that was like, ‘oh that was an ego building thing,’ and that's not really, that's not always healthy to be looked at in that way.”

Avoiding personal issues. Participant 3 went on to mention that one of the consequences of being an idolized family was that it allowed her family the ability to avoid addressing character flaws while serving in ministry.

Participant 3: “…but we know there were character flaws that could be set aside on the mission field, and from being away from getting to live our own lives and not having someone, not answering directly to someone everyday like a mission team or eldership or Ministry team that was paid or salary…and I guess the bottom line is, if there are some red flags that come up, don't blow those off.”

Other participants mentioned a similar belief as participant 3 that their work in ministry allowed for them personally and as a family to avoid issues that should have been addressed.

Impact on children. The participants reported that during their time in ministry the individuals in the ministries where they served became like family to them. In particular, the children of the ministers became attached to the individuals they met through their mother’s ministry work.

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Participant 8: “My kids really grew up with the church being extended family.

And being the PK’s, you know the preacher’s kids, they got birthday presents and

Christmas presents, and lots of attention, and they loved it…When I left this church that I served for over two decades, my daughter was getting ready to start high school, and she was absolutely heart-broken. I mean sobbed, and sobbed, and sobbed, for months.”

Participant 8 went on to explain that the ability of the minister’s children to have an interactive and front-row seat to their mother’s work had both healthy and unhealthy impacts on their children.

Participant 8: “I think they would both tell you they loved it. I really do. My daughter wrote a poem about being a pastor’s daughter. Despite the fact that my son thinks Christianity is oppressive, he has really great memories of growing up in that church with me. So, I feel guilt, but that may just be the perpetual mother’s guilt.”

Participant 2: “They knew who was involved even if we tried to keep it to ourselves. They knew people were acting un-Christ-like they saw that people were acting very un-Christ-like, and there's tension and most kids don't have to experience that when they go to church.”

Stress on spouse. The participants reported that their children were not the only family members that were impacted by ministry work. Several of the participants talked about the stress their spouse has had during their time in ministry.

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Participant 5: “My husband has expressed to me that people say some really ridiculous things to him about “oh, your wife’s in ministry, does that mean that you are actually not the man of the house, or the spiritual head of your home?”

Participant 2: “For him and I, the more difficult things had been he always joked around about being the minister's wife because he's always the tag along everywhere.”

Participant 6: “I said, ‘you do realize there may be days that you will hear people say ugly things about me and you just have to stand there and listen to it, you can’t react.’

That’s just part of ministry. That’s part of knowing that people are often passionate about their church, there’s not a whole lot of middle ground, either they are pretty apathetic or pretty passionate about it, and if you make a choice that they don’t like, they’re going to make sure that you know, or make sure others know.”

Participant 11 talked about her husband’s stress and frustrations with being a single parent on Sundays. “That hasn’t been my story, because my husband has a very stressful job. Over time when you talk about burnout, I think we both have sort of burned out. Like I think he is sort of burned out from being the primary parent on Sundays.” She went on to say “My suspicion is that, that is more of the exception than of the rule. I hear a lot of people talk about it, and I do believe that it is a generational thing, that maybe for people in their early 30s there is a little more of a different, that the norms have changed a little bit more so that this is maybe not as hard. But I still think that these cultural narratives are big and strong. So, I think that as much as the woman is stepping into a non-traditional role, she is also asking her husband to step into a nontraditional role. Even

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if he works to be really progressive and supportive, taking care of children is hard and it’s taxing.” Participant 9 expressed a similar Sunday stressor for her husband that “he said he didn’t like being left alone.”

Participant 8 discussed the frustrations her spouse had with the demands of ministry, “I think it irritated him that I was so preoccupied on Saturday night, or all day

Saturday and Saturday night.” She went on to talk about her spouse’s frustrations with how she was being treated in her ministry position, “I think that he grew really weary of watching, and not being able to, or it not being his place, to speak, but knowing the sort of stuff I put up with he hated that, and he hated not being able to say something…but I learned not to take things personally. I don’t think that was his experience from a distance.”

Participant 4 talked about how she was able to handle the expectations that her husband was feeling from individuals within her ministry. “Me having poor boundaries.

My husband actually, a year and a half ago, started experiencing burnout. So, we have had to set a lot of very clear boundaries for him, he was running too many things here and people were starting to have expectations of him that weren’t fair, so we have kind of backed off some, he no longer does anything with children’s ministry.”

Lack of resources for spouses. Some participants reported feeling that a lack of resources was common in a ministry position, as pointed out by participant 5. “Our resources are more limited,” the amount of resources and support for husbands of ministers is even smaller. Participant 4 also talked about this lack of support for husbands

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of ministers, “there is actually a lot of support out there for ministers’ wives, but there is really not for ministers’ husbands. And most of the husbands of ministers who are women, who I know, very few are around his age, so I think some of it is just him trying to figure it out and learning where to go for that support.”

Spouse’s role. As mentioned above, the participants spoke about the expectations that were put on their spouses from the individuals within the congregations they were serving.

Participant 1: “It was like the church didn't know what to do with us anymore as a couple and now that the woman was doing some of these things that what did it mean for him [her husband], and so it affected his opportunities for years and he was just kind of okay with that. He had his confidence he handled it, but we noticed it was obvious that the fact that I was participating took away from his opportunity.”

Participant 1 mentioned that her marriage was unique in that both she and her husband were serving in ministry positions. “I guess it created, it could have created, what we could call competition or hurt for one or the other of us, and I guess I would admit moments I would call it more strange, or odd, who was asked to do what. But it was never, it did not ever feel easy or rude. It was just an awkward transition and it was like, why can't we both be celebrated as church leaders, or preachers, or why does it have to be one or the other?” She went on to say that “it was awkward and sometimes uncomfortable. Some of what we consider a more negative impact I think would be just when two people in a relationship, in a marriage, are called into similar things decide

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whose vocational path to emphasize, or choose, because it’s hard to have jobs that you want at the same place at the same time, that’s rare.”

The participants reported that in other situations, the role of the spouse was not as clear.

Participant 11: “I think about all of the fathers, who have preached every Sunday, and their wives have made them breakfast through the years, made sure their shirt is pressed, made them breakfast and gotten the kids dressed and gotten the kids to church, and keep the kids out of their father’s way so that he can do this important work and we don’t have a cultural template for men to do the same thing for women.”

Participant 12 talked about her desire to protect her husband’s identity, “I get a little sensitive when I think his identity getting lost in my position…and I don’t want his identity and his serving at our church, or his spiritual service to take away from ways in which God is calling him to lead simply because his wife just happens to be on staff….If he were the pastor, I would honestly feel better about living in his shadow, than him living in mine.”

Healthy communication. Healthy communication between family members and spouses was another area commonly mentioned by the participants on how their ministry work had positively impacted their families. One example of this was when participant 4 mentioned how her time in ministry had allowed her the opportunity to set up healthy communication with her spouse and with those around them when it came to her work in ministry.

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Participant 4: “My husband and I, have set up clear communication that if he needs me, and I’m not being attentive and we need time, he lets me know.”

Balance of Ministry and Family Demands: Creating and Sustaining Boundaries

The fourth major theme that emerged from participants’ responses to the interview question regarding their ability to balance the demands of ministry with the demands of their personal life was balance of ministry and family demands: creating and sustaining boundaries. This theme also emerged when participants were asked about what resources they utilized to achieve a healthy work-life balance. The first level of subthemes, under the major theme of balance of ministry and family demands: creating and sustaining boundaries, consisted of both the personal boundaries and the interpersonal boundaries. The framework for the progression of subthemes under this major theme is illustrated below in Figure 4.4:

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Prioritizing Knowing Limits Protecting Family Personal Boundaries Time Allowing for Differences of Opinion

Balance of Ministry Maintaining Balance and Family Demands: Creating Prioritizing Family and Sustaining Boundaries Boundaries on Time

Lack of Weekends Interpersonal Balancing Boundaries Responsibilities Guilt Keeping Ministry Hours Flexible

Managing Expectations

Figure 4.4. Subthemes for Major Theme of Balance of Ministry and Family Demands:

Creating and Sustaining Boundaries.

Learning how to balance the demands of ministry work with the demands of family life was not an easy task as mentioned by several participants. This major theme served to encompass the varied explanations by the participants regarding how they balanced the work and family demands through the creation and maintenance of personal and interpersonal boundaries.

Participant 2: “Our marriage, especially within my first ministry, it was really, really hard, and at times we're surprised our marriage made it. Some of that was being twenty and at new jobs and ‘adulting’ for the first time, and not knowing how to set

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boundaries within a congregation but wanting to keep a job. But you know some of that was just the demands of that congregation, that they couldn't set their own boundaries and stay by them.”

Participants shared their attempts to balance the demands of ministry and family life most often through the use of boundaries to schedule and protect marriage and family time.

Participant 3: “We were very adamant about having a date night every Friday night, and then the way the schools were, the kids were out by noon each day and so each

Friday afternoon was dedicated to the family…part of our routine is to have specific family time and specific date time.”

Participant 5: “As far as there are only so many hours in a day that exist, in the waking time, and there is more to do than is ever going to get done. We are partners, which helps. We have had to learn to say that is just not going to happen this time, we have got to let it go. Either in how our home is kept, or in, this kid wants to do this specific activity and there is no one who can drive you there at this point, I’m so sorry.”

Participant 10: “Certain segments of the week that I kinda blocked out for being at home or being or doing other things, and I guard that real closely.”

Participant 5: “As far as the glass house…there are times that we are going to turn our phones off and lock doors and you are going to leave us alone, and we are all going to be here together, just us. And that has been an intentional practice for our family that I think has helped alleviate some of the stress and negatives of being in ministry.”

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Participant 9: “I need to have quietness. And when my husband comes home, there needs to be those nights that we have together that we protect, in ministry.”

Personal boundaries. In order to find a healthy balance of work and family life the participants expressed the need for personal boundaries. Below are two subthemes of personal boundaries that aid in the creation and maintenance of personal boundaries: knowing limits and allowing for difference of opinions.

Knowing limits. The first area of creating personal boundaries shared by the participants was knowing personal limits. Participant 1 mentioned knowing the personal levels of “when I take on too much in ministry.”

Participant 4 stated “if you don’t have clear boundaries that’s a huge stressor…I think that church members, who love me dearly and I love them dearly, don’t always think about the lack of boundaries. There’s this idea that subconsciously I think about

‘Well, we pay you and…’ so boundaries have really been a big stressor at times.”

Prioritizing. Participants shared their efforts to create limits through the use of prioritizing. Participant 13 expressed her belief that prioritizing the tasks that are necessary to complete and letting go of the less important tasks as a way to create personal boundaries. “I live with a constant guilt of one or another one of my roles is not being done well. Either my role as family minister, my role as mom, my role as aunt, my role as whatever….what I’m doing really well, what that looks like is a daily time with

God of ‘What do you have for me, today? Where’s my energy need to go, today’….It’s

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just like I didn’t plan for those things and I had to let go of my ‘to-do’ lists and know that

I can only do what I can do, because I’ve got to sleep and I need to eat.”

Protecting family time by limiting technology. Another approach to creating boundaries for balancing work and family life in ministry mentioned by the participants was learning to protect family time by limiting technology.

Participant 4: “We love travel, so we intentionally every year take two trips around five plus days, and we try to do a long trip, like ten days, every year, intentionally somewhere where I can’t use my cell phone, because if I can use it, I will.”

Participant 10: “I do certain things like set a ‘do not disturb’ setting on my phone at a certain point at night, and you know I’m not going to be available to text. I was getting texts…at three in the morning…then also, you know, if we’re sitting at dinner and

I start looking at text messages you know, the family around me or not just my family, will feel neglected. But most ministers get a lot of communication on their phone. Uh, so

I have the ‘do not disturb’ at night, and I put my phone or iPad aside when I’m about to be face to face with, especially my husband.”

Participant 4: “I try not to check my email on the weekends.”

Allowing for differences of opinion. A second element of creating personal boundaries that came out through the participant interviews was allowing for differences of opinions.

Participant 2 talked about the ability to agree on having a difference of opinion even with her husband in order to maintain a separation between church work and family

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life. “One of our primary stressors there was that my husband became a deacon and so he had an enormous amount of leadership tasks put on his plate and I had mine. When we went home it was stuff that the church is in tension about, we have differences of opinion on that, partially because I was in on all the meetings, and he was in a few of the meetings, so then we carried it home, his volunteer role and my staff role.”

Interpersonal boundaries. The second primary subtheme under the major theme of balancing family and ministry demands was interpersonal boundaries. Although some of the reasons for boundaries given by the participants were for personal reasons, a large portion of the defense in favor of boundaries came from the need to protect interpersonal relationships. Therefore, according to many of the participants there was a great need to create and maintain interpersonal boundaries when working in ministry, in order to balance work and family life demands.

Prioritizing family. The first and most common role of interpersonal boundaries according to the participants was to prioritize family life.

Participant 9: “First Corinthians, in chapter 6, says that the married woman cares about the things of her husband and her family. And Titus 2 says the older women are to teach the younger women how to love her husband, love her children and manage her home, so if you’re being a godly women and you’re gone, no matter how much you’re doing all this wonderful ministry stuff, I would tell you to get home tonight”

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Participant 3 explained that when there was pressure to do both work and life, family life had to win out. “It’s best for my children, what is best for me personally, what is best for my family.”

Participant 12 stated that she intentionally guarded her time off with her family.

“Here’s the balance, I leave work at three o’clock in the afternoon every Thursday. So

I’m home with her by three. This helps because I make my own schedule, and I did that on purpose because I work Sunday through Thursday, and I take Friday off. And I guard

Friday with my life. No one gets in on Friday. Friday is me and my daughter day. It is the two of us. We spend the whole day together. Friday is me and my daughter day. If I have to be the pastor on call and do something like that on a Friday, I take off another day of the week.”

Participant 12: “Me and my husband are both necessary for my daughter, unless

God were to take one of us up out of the way, but me and my husband both fill unique roles for my daughter, she needs a dad and I can’t replace her dad. And she needs a mom, and I can’t replace her, he can’t replace me as a mom. But when you watch how she feels the absence of one of us, she feels it more when I’m absent…if something’s wrong with my daughter I can’t even get my head around a job.”

Maintain balance. Several participants stated that in order to balance the demands of work and family life, you need to determine what a healthy level of work life looks like and then create and maintain this healthy balance. Most of the participants noted that

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there was a constant tension that existed between work demands and family demands that seemed to never be satisfied.

Participant 10: “The other stressor is when I’m pulled to be at work, or with the people I’m ministering with. If I’m pulled there too much, is my family at home feeling neglected, or that they are second best. That is a constant struggle for me.”

Participant 11 talked about the Sunday morning work and family life tension that many of the other female ministers expressed concern about. “The hardest thing for me is, being a mom and minister on Sunday mornings...that I never have a lot of support for my children on Sundays. The only real support I have for my kids on Sundays is my husband who is tired from a busy week at work, and who doesn’t want to be a single parent on Sunday mornings. So I end up being mom and minister and I feel this sense of a hundred percent of myself needs to be going in both directions at the same time, which is impossible. You can’t fully do both at the exact same time and do them both well. So naturally it is frustrating because you don’t feel like you are doing either of them well.

Even after I have tried a million different solutions. A couple years ago I toyed with the idea of getting a babysitter and leaving my kids at home on Sunday mornings. But then I thought, ‘Well that’s not what I want. I want my children to come to church’…or do I hire a nanny to be with me on Sundays to take care of my kids, but then my kids are screaming, ‘I don’t want to be with the nanny, I want to be with mommy.’”

Participant 4 shared her concern of whether this balance was even achievable when talking about the examples of mothers who are ministers. “They really start having

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kids and stop being ministers. I have some [females friends in ministry] who manage to do it, but most of them are part-time. That is really one of the factors that my husband and I are considering about not having kids is because if I want to do full-time ministry, and if I want to continue, I’m not really sure how to balance that. The fact is, it is not really shown very well.”

Other participants talked about the difference in expectations between male and female ministers and the need to advocate for your rights as a mother and a minister.

Participant 4: “Men have managed to be fathers and ministers for years, and I think some of that there is still a lot of different expectations for men and women, as mothers and as fathers, especially if you are traditional at all.”

Participant 6: “If I need to pull my laptop open at home and work and be trusted that I’m going to get my work done and taken care of and not take advantage of the situation because you know I have a sweet son who has the flu and needs his mom at home while he’s not feeling good.”

Boundaries on time. Another approach the participants mentioned to creating a healthy balance of work and family life was to create boundaries and limitations on the ratio of time spent between ministry work and family life each week.

Participant 1: “Experience time management and time commitment, and still being able to give, if you have a family, giving time to your family has been one of the hardest thing to figure out how to balance. All of that with time so that you know it has

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not been easy. Even with a husband who's fully supportive it's been very hard. Ministry takes up every minute that you have if you're not careful.”

Participant 1: “The temptation of women is to try to do everything, and to take on too much and trying to balance it all is a temptation for many women.”

Finally, participant 3 reminded women in ministry to “limit some of your church” time if it gets in the way of family time.

Balancing responsibilities. Other participants emphasized the ability to meet the needs of ministry and the needs of family life by creating a balance of all responsibilities.

Participant 11: “If you can find a way of being able to juggle the rest of the week I think that, that’s really good.”

Participant 13: “The call to ministry for some of us is just as strong as that call to be a mom. I can’t live without it, and that doesn’t always mean paid, like getting the blessing I have now with getting insurance and getting a paycheck and all that. But that is not something I can put away for something else. It is as equal a call in my life as being a mom is. I think so much of ministry I get to bring my kids along with me.”

Several participants talked about the needs of family that at times has to be sacrificed due to the demands of ministry.

Participant 11: “However, Sunday is Sunday and you can’t, you can’t move

Sunday, so you know, multiple things are just going to pile up on Sundays. Multiple church responsibilities and family responsibilities are going to pile up and one is going to

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win out…your family responsibilities just don’t, you know, you can’t, you can’t fulfill them because you’re a minister and you’ve got to do Sunday.”

Participant 2: “Things like that with the kids. It was hard to know as a working woman what are sacrifices that would have been made regardless of career and what are sacrifices made because of a calling to ministry…a lot of days in church, I wanted to be with my kids, but they had to go sit with somebody else because I was just not able. So I kind of felt like other people had to nurture them.”

Participant 13: “I think, there are times you know, where marriage and kids and parenting have to take a step back for something else.”

Participant 6: “I do feel like I do give up large chunks of time that I don’t get to see my family as much.”

Participant 10: “The main negative impact is the ways that I am pulled away from my husband, or I develop strong ties to a community that he’s not a part of…this summer

I’m going on a four week trip to China and I’m going because I have students going and I need to be with them, but he just couldn’t get away from work.”

Participant 5 talked about the financial tension that is added to the pull between work and family life balance. “It’s incredibly stressful to try and navigate, having three teenage kids and a marriage, and a full-time job that requires you to travel some and trying to find all of that working together when I don’t make a lot of money. So, money can make some of that stress a little easier, to be able to hire people to come in to help

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with stuff at home or with kids, or I don’t have that freedom, at all. So that’s challenging and stressful.”

Lack of weekends. Participants mentioned one of the areas that made it even more difficult to balance the demands of ministry work and family life was that weekends were most often not available for family time.

Participant 8: “I ended up writing my sermons on Saturdays, and I missed a lot of stuff with my kids on Saturdays. I think that’s what I regret the most…even on Saturdays

I showed up at every basketball game. But my mind was elsewhere on Saturdays, Sunday was always coming.”

Participant 13 talked about how ministry work often dictated their family time by taking away available weekends. “There are somethings where you know, I don’t have a choice whether we are there on Sundays or not. I have to be there. We don’t go away on the weekends, because we can’t, because that’s my job. That would be nice to have that piece.”

Participant 4: “My Sabbath day is a Friday when my husband is working, so it’s not time together necessarily.”

Guilt. The lack of available family time and the tension that exists between ministry demands and family demands created a level of guilt for several of the participants.

Participant 11: “I’m burned out of feeling like I’m inconveniencing [my husband] and bugging him on Sundays and having to push my children to be with a parent, who

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kinda doesn’t want to take care of them anyways, or at least doesn’t want to take care of them alone.”

Participant 6 talked about the guilt she had when “feeling like I don’t have enough time with my family.”

Keeping ministry hours flexible. One of the positive aspects mentioned by the participants when it came to balancing ministry and family life was that ministry work allowed for a little more flexibility in hours compared to other occupations. Therefore, providing flexibility in an otherwise rigid aspect of work demands.

Participant 11: “The positive thing about ministry from my perspective in my experience is that ministry is flexible in a lot of ways. Like you can work from home, you can work at night, you can work when your kids are at school…If one of your kids is sick, you can move them around. You can go to your kids’ recitals, and basketball games, or to whatever most of the time.”

Participant 12 talked about how her work schedule has changed over the years in order to meet the current needs of her daughter so she can make the most of her available time. When talking about a small group she was ministering to, participant 12 said “I got to invite them to a group I scheduled, so we meet at six to seven in the morning at church, so I don’t have to give up a night.” Now that her daughter is getting older, participant 12 talked about the next changes in her ministry work schedule. “So my schedule is going to change. I’m not going to work Sunday through Thursday. I’m going to work six days a

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week so I can pick her up from school on school days…every year of her life my schedule has changed.”

Managing expectations. A final approach to managing interpersonal boundaries as talked about by the participants was the ability of the minister to manage their personal expectations they brought into their work and family experiences with the expectations held by those around them.

Participant 3 mentioned this tension in expectations by saying she tried to weigh out the “personal expectations that I would set on myself, but then also when looking around and seeing others what was their expectations towards me.”

Growth

The fifth major theme of growth emerged from participants’ responses to the interview question regarding how ministry had been beneficial for their marriages and families. This theme also emerged when participants were asked about the views of their spouse and family on their ministry work. The first level of subthemes under the primary theme of growth consisted of personal benefits and family growth. Other subthemes also emerged within the framework of this major theme and their impact on the development of the major theme of growth are illustrated in Figure 4.5 below:

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Personal Growth

Personal Benefits Sense of Purpose

Outlet for Nurturing Growth

Provided Experience Creation of Pseudo- and Relational Family Opportunities

Family Growth Benefits to Marriage

Transformation of Family

Benefits to Children

Figure 4.5. Subthemes for Major Theme of Growth.

The fifth theme of growth emerged from the participants discussions about the benefits of working in ministry positions. Despite the stressors mentioned in an earlier theme, each participant placed an emphasis on expressing their positive experiences in ministry work and how they and their families had grown from what they perceived to be a direct correlation to their time in a ministry vocation. Examples of the subthemes, which emerged from the major theme of growth, have been expanded upon below.

Personal benefits. The first subtheme from the major theme of growth was the self-reported personal level of growth. The participants talked about their experiences of growth and life-lessons that they had obtained through their time in ministry work.

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Personal growth. A certain level of personal growth was mentioned by several participants as a benefit they had gained from being in ministry.

Participant 4 talked about the individuals she had worked with during her time in ministry by saying, “I think that’s been the biggest thing is that they teach us a lot, and that we have learned a lot from them.”

Participant 9 reflected on her personal growth and the impact it has had on her family. “I think being a godly person is the most important thing that I can do for my family…and ministry always helps if it’s brought into balance with everything else.”

Sense of purpose. Another common personal benefit of being in ministry referenced by the participants was having a sense of life purpose.

Participant 10: “When I really realized ‘I’m a minister’ and embraced it, um, I kinda became less needy. (laughs) That might sound weird, but I was so insecure with myself because I just never knew who I was, so when I, when God, helped me figure all that out, I became more secure with myself, and therefore, a more pleasant person to be around.”

Participant 11: “There have been other times when it gives him a real sense of ownership like he is contributing to something important. I think for the children too, that there is this sense of like, this is important work.”

Outlet for nurturing. Participant 10 mentioned that her ability to work in ministry provided her with an outlet for her nurturing drive. “Maybe not having children I had too much nurturing to do, and my husband didn’t need that much nurturing.”

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Family growth. The participants not only mentioned personal benefits to being in ministry, but they also mentioned the benefits toward their family’s growth.

Participant 6 talked about how serving in ministry was a constant reminder to work on the health of her family’s spiritual life. “It’s a very prevalent part of our lives. It makes it really easy to not let busyness get in the way of how we practice our spiritual growth as a family, because it is part of what I’m doing for other families.”

Provided experiences and relational opportunities. Participant 1 took some time to talk about the richness and depth of experiences ministry has provided for her family noting that “we have an interesting and exciting life.”

In addition to the diversity in experiences, the participants reflected on the diverse relational opportunities that being in ministry has afforded their families.

Participant 1: “Ministry has opened so many opportunities for us to know so many unique people and interesting people, and to travel to places all over the world.”

Participant 3: “Missionary ministry work exposed our family to other God created cultures and all that goes along with each one of them, the individuality, the diversity…the exposure to a number of people who I admire to this day and got to hang around with them and do ministry with them, and meet new Christians. That people that were willing, that's another thing, people were just willing to change their whole lives, let

God change their whole lives, and just to see how that created new people and seeing that and let that encourage me in my own walk.”

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Creation of pseudo-family. The participants commented that relationships they built during their time in ministry was more than friendships they had gained, but that these individuals had become part of their families. Participant 4 talked about her students, who she minsters to, that “they are our kids, like we really feel that, and I know they know that. Their parents are happy for them to be our kids too. (laughs) A lot of our teens have been a part of our family in a lot of ways.”

Transformation of family. As participant 3 stated “the transformation has been beneficial to my family.” Several other participants would agree with her sentiment.

Participant 11: “I think there is something really inspiring for the whole family about you know doing meaningful work. I think that my husband has always felt like the work I do is meaningful and important.”

Participant 8: “I think it benefited our family. I think my husband would say that too. He would say it was great for our kids…It was great for our family.”

Benefits to marriage.

Specifically several participants saw the benefit to their families through the benefits ministry brought to their marriages. One of the expressed benefits was having a shared sense of purpose and goals for their marriage relationship.

Participant 4: “But for him, it’s a choice and so it gives him a place, as well as the way I think, I think it gives our marriage purpose is the way to word that. It gives us purpose and relationships that we feel like are valuable and people we can pour into…a place where we both minister together.”

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When talking about her husband, Participant 5 said, “We have a mutual set of language and purpose and goals that we share because we both have a ministry background and desire. That’s incredibly helpful. We are on the same path, we are doing the same thing and for us that works.” She went on to say, “it really matters to people that we, my husband and I, are good together. It doesn’t matter so much that they are not going to call if they need one of us, but it does matter to them and so whereas my friend, who is an accountant, if they get divorced their careers are going to continue. It’s going to be devastating, but their careers are going to continue. People are invested in our marriage succeeding so that our careers can continue…We have chosen I think to see that as a gift in some weird convoluted ways that, it is actually care from our congregants, even if it is a little twisted at times”

Participant 13: “The best things that we do are when we get to do ministry together…some of the best times are when he and I get to teach a class together. A parent class is about to start, and that’s one that we get to teach together. That’s actually when some of our biggest fights go on, when we are planning for that. (laughs) But we get better classes out of it, because we do come from different perspectives on some things.

So, some of our greatest connections are just that call together.”

A benefit of ministry work for the spouse as stated by Participant 12 was her husband’s access to extra resources, if and when he needed the access to personal ministry services that may not be readily available to others outside of a ministry leadership position. “My husband has hit a couple of things where…he gets access to

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some of our top leaders and our leaders serving him because of my job. Because they know him, and they care about him as my husband.”

Benefit to children. In addition to the benefits that ministry work can have for a minister’s marriage, the participants mentioned several experiences when they had witnessed ministry work provide benefits for their children.

Participant 4: “I can't even put a measure on how valuable that experience was for me, for us, for our family. We did it together. We experienced it together, and our children care about the people that we met there, the churches that we know where planted there. Now [my children] they’ve both invested in ministry and nonprofit work. It has shaped their lives in ways that now that they're young adults I feel so grateful for.”

Participant 1: “We're very committed to being missional people and having relationships with people outside the church, and so relationships with people from almost every religion you can name because we just believe in raising our kids not only in the bubble of the church but as missional people at their public school, at soccer, at ya know, in every way. So we’ve tried to model that to our kids.”

Participant 2: “It's been really good for my children especially my daughter who has spent more time with me and in ministry…she is in high school now, even when we left she was just starting middle school but she can walk into any classroom and teach a class.”

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Participant 5: “So far, for our kids, ministry has been a good thing. Relationally- wise, I think it has given them a relational foundation I don’t think they would have had otherwise, and I’m grateful for that.”

Participant 2: “My children have found a wider range of people they felt they could communicate with, and love, and be involved with and be a part with so they knew the sixty and seventy-year-olds in our congregation. They knew the people with the walkers. A lot of other kids don't get that opportunity. They knew the parents. They just kind of knew everyone and felt comfortable sitting with other people, and that kind of thing.”

Participant 13: “And for my kids they are getting to see what that looks like, living out the gospel day by day, not perfectly, but I want to raise my children in such a way that all the decisions of our lives revolve around him.”

Major Themes from Research Question 3

One major theme emerged from the collected data pertaining to the third research question regarding the resources that women in ministry perceive to have been helpful to achieving a healthy work-life balance. The major theme in this section was support and resources. This major theme is illustrated in detail below.

Support and Resources

The sixth major theme of support and resources emerged from participants’ responses to the third research question regarding what resources women in ministry perceived to have been helpful to achieving work-life balance. This theme also emerged

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among the responses of the participants to the second research question. The first level of subthemes under the primary theme of support and resources consists of: supportive networks, personal practices, and challenges to support. Other subthemes also emerged within the framework of this major theme. The organization the subthemes, which are the codes that corresponded to the main theme of support and resources, are illustrated in

Figure 4.6.

The final major theme was drawn from the participant discussions on the resources and support systems that had been most helpful to them during their time in ministry. This major theme naturally divided into three subthemes of support networks, which each participant could depend on when they needed encouragement and care, personal practices, which the participants could implement apart from the aid of outside assistance, and finally the challenges to acquiring the adequate support they desired.

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Supportive Helper Spouse Shared Leadership in Home Encourager and Advocate Parents Provides Insight and Accountability

Friends In Ministry

Supportive Children Networks Supportive Staff Positive Work Flexibility Environment Provides Stability Getaways Intergeneartional Support Mentors External Support Mentor Couples Support Groups Support and Solitude Resources Therapy Personal Prayer Practices

Staying Busy

Lack of Other Women Ministers

Husband's Support Frustrations and Insecurities Level Challenges to Support Supportive Yet Concerned Parents Not Supportive Change in Support Over Time Extended Family

Figure 4.6. Subthemes for Major Theme of Support and Resources.

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Supportive networks. The first subtheme under the context of the major theme of support and resources is the supportive networks that are available to the participants.

Some of the supportive networks are interpersonal interactions with individuals that are close to them, others are supportive work environments, and still others are external support networks.

Spouse. The most often mentioned supportive resource for the interviewed participants was their spouse.

Participant 1: “My husband is a hundred percent supportive, there's no doubt about that. He is supportive, and so having that kind of support at home. If I had to also convince my husband or walk against my husband where that was also a source of conflict over my call that would be, I can't imagine how difficult that would be. So having his support is the best encouragement I've had. He is the best support.”

Participant 6: “I have a wonderful husband.”

Participant 9: “I think probably the best way I did it is that I had a very supportive husband who, honestly, these things I’m doing, these were his ideas, not my ideas. I’m a domestic. I love to cook. I like to lead, and now that I learned from my mentor and I could study the Bible, that has become a bigger passion than any of the others, but he has been an encourager. So one of the main things is you need someone who is a cheerleader in your life. If it’s your husband, praise God.”

Participant 4: “And then of course my husband.”

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Participant 5: “When I have a bad day I’m going to come home and gripe to my husband and pour a glass of wine and think that tomorrow is a new day.”

Participant 8: “I have a really good, I think, conversation partner in my husband.

My husband and I are really great conversation partners.”

Participant 10: “So he’s my primary sounding board, you know. We just share where we are spiritually very well.”

Supportive. One of the biggest roles that a spouse played, which a women in ministry found helpful was when their spouses were supportive.

Participant 2: “He's always been very supportive there's never been a time where he encouraged me to leave ministry anything like that. There's been a few times where I might have to leave ministry because I am so burnt out, and he encouraged me to do what's best, but not to make a rash decision. He just sees this as where God has called me and how God's gifted me and his role is to make sure I live into my calling as much as if there's something on his plate.”

Participant 4: “My husband feels like his ministry is supporting me so that I can do my best.”

Participant 5: “My husband has been incredibly supportive”

Participant 5: “He is incredibly supportive. I think he kind of made those decisions for himself at the very beginning of the relationship of this is who she is, and this is who we are going to be together. We have no idea the practicalities of that, but

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here we go. So my husband is incredibly, a hundred percent supportive of my ministry life.”

Helper. Another way that the spouse was viewed as a resource was as a helper and asset to the ministry work the participant had done.

Participant 4: “I feel like my husband is probably my greatest asset in ministry in so many ways.”

Participant 4: “I think that he [her husband] would say that his ministry is supporting me so that I can fully minister to my greatest capacity. And that’s a really big gift. But I think of him more as a co-minister, and I think if you ask any of our teens here, or their parents, they would say the same thing.”

One of the ways that the participants pointed out the ability of their spouse to show their support was in the sharing of the workload in home life.

Participant 1: “Time, and things like that I think, because going back to my husband, we share life parenting. The house things like that it's never been a huge source of stress there are times when because of I think just because things women tend to take on in the family.”

Participant 5: “Ours is a strengths-based marriage, it is the way we jokingly say that to each other and so the work in our home has always been divided among strengths, not because of gender. That helps a ton, you know my husband is a way better cook than

I am so, he handles the food at our house, but I handle the laundry because I am less likely to ruin the clothes.”

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Participant 6: “He’s assumed more roles in the home than maybe he would typically because my job takes me outside of the home, so much more than the average job does.”

Participant 11: “[my husband] feels called by God to take care of everything family related especially on Sundays so that I can be present in my ministry on Sundays.”

Shared leadership in home. A third method that spouses can be a supportive resource for their minister wives was in their open and non-competitive shared leadership at home.

Participant 5: “My husband and I are real open about this…keep ego out of that kind of thing. We are all seeking God together and sometimes that means that one of our kids is going to lead us closer to God and sometimes it means that it’s going to be my husband and sometimes it's going to be me, and that’s all okay.”

Encourager and advocate. Another avenue of where spouses were seen as supportive was through their ability to have been an encourager and an advocate for their wife’s ministry work.

Participant 9: “My husband’s role is to know me well enough where I shine, in terms of where to encourage me, and to support me in that. Basically, to encourage me, as we’ve said.”

Participant 9: “He, again, can be part of the cheerleading and the victory celebration.”

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Provides insight and accountability. A final supportive role that the participants mentioned for their spouse was as someone who provided insight and accountability to their lives.

Participant 13: “He’s really supportive of me, and he’s also encouraging to me to not get too worked up about things I can’t change, and part of that is that he is a counselor”

Participant 6: “there are not a whole lot of people, outside of my husband who I’m really super close with. You know there is three maybe four, because there is so much about my work that has to be guarded.”

Participant 9: “…and also to warn me, or caution me, or to speak truth into my life if he sees something missing.”

Participant 9: “he gave me permission, he gave me encouragement, and he gave me, you know, said when it was time. Because you know it isn’t working right now, the kids at home need you. The teenagers at home need you.”

Participant 10: “I think he loves it, at least that’s the way that he communicates to me. He fully supports what I’m doing. He does let me know when he’s feeling like I’m too far away from him, or if I’m neglecting him, he lets me know.”

Participant 9: “I would just say my husband had to help me sometimes by saying

‘you’re doing too much’ when I was travelling with the church I was gone three weekends with retreats a month and as we worked through it came to realize, ‘You know, this isn’t really all that much fun for our marriage.’ So I basically just knew, this is it.

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I’ve done my last retreat. I’m going to go home and I’m not going to do it anymore this way. So, I think being in touch with who you are, what your responsibilities are, get a cheerleader who can be honest and say, ‘You know what? You’re doing too much.’

Or...you need to do something.”

Parents. A second source of support for women in ministry, as mentioned by the participants in this study, was the resource of their parents.

Participant 3: “My parents were very supportive they were supportive emotionally, physically they came to visit and definitely financially”

Participant 4: “So my immediate family, my parents are fine with it. That’s never been an issue. My mom has always been a huge supporter…when I have spoken at other places she will fly out every time so that she can come hear me every time I preach.”

Participant 4: “My dad…does really help me, like I spend a very long time working on my sermons because that is not something that I really want to do full-time.

So he will go through my manuscripts with me and stuff before I preach”

Participant 8: “I remember my own parents, they were so, so supportive, so deeply supportive, and could not have been more wildly proud. They invited every duck they met, folks in the check-out line of the grocery store, they would tell them to go to this church, and hear this woman preach. (laughs) It was embarrassing, but they were just incredible.”

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Participant 2: “My dad on the other hand had already started talking about spiritual giftedness and that how that should be anybody whoever is spiritually gifted and the more I talked about going into ministry the more he took that up as a cause.”

Participant 6 mentioned her husband’s parents as a source of support due to their level of encouragement for her ministry work, “but they’re all very, very supportive. His family is, um, significantly more conservative, and even so, are still very supportive of the work I do and so that’s been good.”

Friends. A third support resource mentioned by the participants was the support they received outside their family, from their friends.

When asked what or who she used as a primary source of support participant 9 said, “my best friend…we’re still best of friends. We still talk, and I can tell her pretty much anything. I know she would never repeat it and would give me godly, sound advice.” Participant 9 went on to mention a group of friends that she has had and the needed support they have provided for her. “I can’t live without those women…I could probably just lay my heart out, they would know who I am and what I need. And, continue to carry the load with me.”

Likewise, participant 6 mentioned a “few close friends” and how “they’re the ones who pick-up the phone and call and get that support that, you know, that pat and that virtual hug when I need it.”

Participant 11 continued along the same line of thought by stating that one of her best support resources was a “really trusted group of friends.”

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In ministry. In addition to having a group of friends to have as a resource, many of the participants mentioned the importance of having friends who were a part of the ministry world and understood the pressures that came with being in ministry.

Participant 5: “I have a couple of really dear friends who we have been friends for twenty-five years. And they have roles and husbands in ministry so they understand the demands. And their support is incredible, and their friendship is just so important to me.”

Participant 10: “I also have a best friend, and she’s been my best friend since college. And similarly, we kind of parallel each other spiritually, so we, you know, we can share our struggles and our realities with each other.”

Participant 13: “I also have very good friends that understand this world and understand what it is to be in ministry and in a place that I can go and talk to.”

Children. A fourth source of support mentioned by the participants was their children.

Participant 1: “My children are the best. They've been supportive of my education, of my jobs, and my work. They wrote me notes. They pray for me. You know they've been extremely supportive.”

Participant 4: “As far as my children, I think they’re pretty proud of us.”

Participant 13 talked about her sons pride in his mother’s occupation as a minister, but also his confusion about the discouragement of those around her and their disapproval of women serving in ministry leadership positions. “So kind of every year we get this great opportunity to talk through differences and why they believe what they

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believe about a lot of things, but also about women’s roles particularly. And, he is already so, one, mystified that anyone would think that a woman couldn’t do something that the

Spirit was calling her to do…I also have to encourage him too that he has to be a person that speaks up, because sometimes women don’t have a voice. They sometimes don’t have voices when there is not a place for that voice to be heard.”

Positive work environment. A fifth supportive resource for women in ministry was not necessarily a supportive individual, but rather a group of supportive individuals.

The participants reported that when a minister’s work environment was a positive experience it had an impact on home life that created a positive work and home environment.

Participant 3: “Not only at home but with the work. So the environment, the atmosphere served for all of us to have, I think, a higher level of satisfaction and less stress”

Supportive staff. One of the ways that a work environment can be seen as a supportive resource was due to the supportive staff that made up the work environment.

Participant 6: “I have been very blessed to work with some really good staff members, some really good fellow ministers, all of which are male, but that, um, that are directly on staff, that I could go in and I could say, okay I need you to tell me if I’m overreacting to this, or if I’m being ridiculous about this.”

Participant 12: “Mothers can only live out of the confidence of their conscience. It doesn’t matter what culture may say. As a mother, you absolutely can only live out of the

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confidence of your calling as a mom. And my boss even said, “I know you can’t come back to work if you can’t feel like you’re being a good mom…I feel incredibly blessed to be and do what God is calling me to be and do, and feel like not only do I not need to sacrifice being a good wife and mom, but they don’t want me to either.”

Participant 12: “If I at all went to my leadership and said, you know, ‘My husband’s going through a really hard time right now and I just, I want to take some time, so I can support him.’ They’d be like, ‘Yay. What do we need to do to make that happen for you? We will be here when you get back.’ That’s what I would hear. Now I think even the men would hear that, too. But I think it would sound different to me and to them…as a wife. You know.”

Spouses of fellow ministers were also reported as being a source of support.

Participant 4: “My co-minister and his wife. So my co-minister has been in ministry for a very long time and his wife is a therapist. And so, they are full of wisdom and have done burnout and have done tragedy, and done difficult church, and… (laughs)

So they are someone, I turn to both of them a lot for both personal and for work. We meet up with them regularly, and then I meet with them one-on-one regularly. I am really grateful that we do not have the Billy Graham rule here, so that’s not really an issue at our church.”

Participant 13: “Our preacher’s wife here every once in a while, is a place where I can go to, and who I can say ‘this thing about this particular congregation is driving me crazy and I just need to speak it.’”

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Flexibility. A positive work environment also provides a level of flexibility to balance work and family life.

Participant 12 talked about her work environment and “the positive thing is the flexibility that I do have…It was such a blessing to me and my husband. Because I didn’t,

I felt like I could be who God was calling me to be, without sacrificing God’s first call on my life at that point to be a mom.”

Provides stability. Finally, a positive work environment was said to provide stability and consistency in family life.

Participant 11: “Our church has been a place of consistency. A place where the whole family is grounded.”

Participant 13 talked about the stability and rhythm her work provided for her family, “that for them to leave Christ, would mean to leave all the rhythms of their lives.

And that we continue to look beyond ourselves, and that our house is not just for us, and that our money is not just for us that our time is not just for us, but that they are given to us by God and that we need to ask him what he wants to do.”

External support. Although the participants reported many close interpersonal relationships that served as a source of support for them as seen above, they also mentioned several external supportive networks, sources on the outside, that have assisted them in their ministry work.

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Participant 2 mentioned how helpful it was for her to talk with someone on the outside of her ministry congregation, “one of those ladies of elders who moved away became a strong support.”

Participant 4: “I am super-passionate when I am talking to women going into ministry that you have to set up a support system, like ASAP, and like as wide and broad as you can.”

At times the external sources of support served as a buffer to spare the usefulness of other internal sources like a spouse.

Participant 4: “that is also part of the reason why I connect with so many different people and sometimes it’s just nice…you know there are some things that I do want to talk to my husband about, but sometimes I need someone not married, related, or someone who’s not invested at all.”

Participant 6: “I do tend to guard a lot of the particulars of things from my husband, just so that he doesn’t ever view anybody differently.”

Getaways. Participant 4 mentioned supportive resources that got her out of her normal environment. “I have a list of places around me where I could go to seven or eight bed and breakfast places where ministers can stay for free two days.”

Intergenerational support. Another external source of support mentioned by

Participant 1 was the use of intergenerational support. “I was also a part of an intergenerational group of women in which there were women in their seventies and even eighties. We had someone in every decade I think twenties, thirties, forties, all the way up

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to eighties. It was really, really, helpful to me. When the older women who were seventy and eighty-years-old could be supportive of what I was doing it was new for them. It was out of their experience but they cared for me like mothers and were willing to stretch beyond their age group.”

Mentors. Participant 10 mentioned her utilization of a professional mentor in her ministry work.

Participant 10: “I also have a mentor, who is a marriage and family therapy counselor…she is really there to help guide me in leadership. She helps build me spiritually, but then also empowers me in the roles of leadership that I’m in.”

Mentor couples. Several other participants mentioned the use of mentor couples as a supportive resource for both the minister and her spouse.

Participant 4: “We have had people who are mentors for us. My co-minister and his wife have been like family to us and our kids think of them as family too, but they have been in ministry a lot longer, so they’ve been really helpful, helping us like how do we protect our time. How do we protect our boundaries, whether that’s for my husband and I or whether that is me with a parent, or just having people I can say those things to, and have some clear feedback that I can trust, has been a huge game-changer.”

Participant 3: “We would have couples come and visit us and their main purpose was to encourage, it wasn't to check on us. It was to love on us to, you know, see the things that we had been involved in, get to meet the people we had been talking about and sharing and just live with us live with us.”

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Support groups. A fifth and popular external network of support mentioned by the participants was having access to support groups.

Participant 3: “You see this with the women preachers that we're having right now, and some of the connections that they have created among them, just having people that are experiencing some of the same things that you can share with them. Talk with them without criticism without judgment, for the most part, but as the supportive environment.”

Participant 4 talked about a support group that she had been a part of for over five years. “We get time to share and there has been a lot of tragedy and a lot of burnout and a lot of vulnerability, but it’s just a place where you know it’s safe and you get to share all of it, and I love that we have that time together. That there are a lot of similar experiences.” She goes on to say, “there was not anything for women so we meet once a month, really ten times a year, except for the summer for seven to eight hours, and we do a time to share what is going on, but we also do spiritual formation together. Some years we do books, some years we have done personality assessments, and kind of studied that.”

Participant 11: “I’m a member of a couple of women’s clergy groups that are an enormous support to me. I can’t even imagine. One is denominational, and one is multi- denominational…both of them are primarily online, but there are meetings face-to-face, but mostly online.”

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Participant 1: “I'm part of a Facebook group of women in ministry so that's been super helpful because they were women from all over the country who know what it's like to feel the things I do. We get together once a year that was invaluable being with other women who really get what I'm going through and know what it's like.” Participant

10 talked about a similar social media support group by saying for her “that’s a great community.”

Other women like participant 4 meet up in several different support groups with women in ministry outside of her church. She said she had “three different women in town who I meet up with once a month. One is her husband is a minister at a church that we…actually they planted us like sixty years ago or something. But I knew them from,

I’ve known them for a very long time. So, I meet up with her once a month, and um, I meet up with another woman who is a minister at a church in town once a month, and then my third meet-up is…in a covenant group.”

Several participants mentioned their educational cohort as a supportive group that they use as an external network for support.

Participant 1: “My education cohort I had you know I have several degrees along the way and when all of those in all of those a lot more people that were for women in ministry, and my professors, my colleagues, and students even if those students were at their pretty conservative churches they could be for me and for the other women in the program and so education was a really great outlet.”

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Participant 4 talked about “a couple of close relationships with other people in seminary” as a source of support she maintains connection with.

Therapy. A final external source of support mentioned by the participants was the use of a professional therapist or spiritual director.

Participant 8: “I’m a big fan of talk therapy, and I have certainly done some talk therapy.”

Participant 7: “I at one point had a really good spiritual director.” Participant 3 also stated that she uses a “spiritual director” to help encourage and support her work in ministry.

Some of the participants found that a therapist who is a Christian was most helpful.

Participant 7: “I have a great therapist, he is a Christian and brings that into the therapy piece.”

Participant 11: “I have a therapist, who also is also a Presbyterian pastor he is also a psychologist, and that’s been a huge help to me.”

Other participants, like participant 1 reported that a secular therapist was most helpful for her. “I've actually found a secular therapist was more helpful to me. I had a secular therapist who was very helpful and who was not a Christian, but was extremely helpful with helping me and I didn't expect that with what my insurance covered so that's what I did. I've also had a Christian therapist who is quite helpful as well. I guess I was surprised by the secular therapist and how it ended up being quite helpful.”

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Participant 6 talked about how she was thankful for her pre-marital therapy that allowed her the opportunity to talk with her fiancé about what he could expect when he was married to someone who worked in ministry. “I needed to make sure he asked my soon to be husband, so that we could converse through some of what this would look like.

And so I think he was able to get a really clear picture of what being married to someone in ministry looks like, now this did not necessarily make it easy.”

Personal practices. The second primary subtheme for support and resources was the personal practices that the participants reported. Although a majority of their support and resources could be found through support outside of their own practices, there were several personal practices such as solitude, prayer, and staying busy that were mentioned by several participants.

Solitude. The first of the personal practices was the practice of solitude or times of silence. Participant 6: “Just even having large periods of time where I just sit in complete and total silence, you know, that to me can be very recharging. Just because it allows me to let my mind work through whatever it needs to work through and not feel like I have to respond to anybody else.”

Prayer. A second personal practice used as a resource was the use of prayer.

Participant 6: “I do a lot through prayer…to just be able to work through thoughts, contemplate things, talk with God on some issues and some concerns, ask for that support.”

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Staying busy. A final personal practice in order to handle the stress of ministry work was the use of staying busy. Participant 8 mentioned this practice which allows her the ability to not dwell on things, “I’ve mostly stayed really busy most of my life and that doesn’t give me time to think about things very much.”

Challenges to support. A final primary subtheme under the major theme of support and resources was the challenges to support that women in ministry faced.

Lack of other women ministers. Participant 12 mentioned a level of isolation that she felt often being the only woman represented in ministry leadership, “the other is because I am the only woman in the room full of men a lot times I feel the effect of isolation…I’m relationally isolated. Having someone else to talk to, having someone else to hang out with.” Participant 12 continued by talking about how being one of the only women in a ministry position created a challenge, “a male and a female can’t, I mean I can’t just go have lunch with one of the guys. They do it all the time, it’s actually a joke around here that our boss has taken everyone on our staff out to lunch except for me.”

Husband’s support level. Another challenge to support mentioned by participant

8 was getting your spouse on board with your vision for doing ministry. “…I would say my husband, he went back and forth. The first ten years of this church, he didn’t go very often, and he pretty much said, ‘We don’t have any weekends’ and complained a lot. And then finally we kind of had a come to Jesus meeting and after a few conversations, he seemed to really get it. That this was who I was, and what I was called to be and you’ve

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either got to complain or get on board, and he got on board even though, as he used to say, ‘these aren’t my people, these aren’t my people.’”

Frustrations and insecurities. A part of obtaining the husband’s support was addressing some of the husband’s frustrations and insecurities. Participant 11 talked about some of these frustrations and insecurities. “There is a sense of frustration that I think my husband has, frustrations that I work really hard, but that I am not very well compensated, because ministry is a low paying job. It’s like, ‘wow, my wife is putting in long hours, but it’s not doing a ton to help our family.’ You know, he still feels like he, he has to be the primary breadwinner, and I think that is a little bit hard. I think he would rather me be doing something that is less meaningful and higher paying, which would alleviate some of the financial pressure that he feels.”

Participant 11: “If your wife is a spiritual leader in your church what does that say when you have these scripts in the back of your mind that say really the man is supposed to be the spiritual leader.”

Participant 11 mentioned that the challenge of getting a spouse onboard with being a source of encouragement and support may be in direct correlation to his personal level of fulfillment in his own occupation, “a sense of ownership and pride, and other times maybe correlating when he’s feeling more burned out at his job.”

Parents. Another challenge to support came from the level of perceived support a woman in ministry felt like she has received or has not received from her parents. Even though, as mentioned above, parents can be a source of support there are times that their

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lack of support can create a challenge. As will be shown below, parents’ support may come across as cautiously supportive yet concerned, or even at times not supportive.

Supportive yet concerned. When discussing the level of support they have received from their parents, several participants mentioned that their parents were supportive, yet concerned and uncertain.

Participant 5: “When I was in college and studying ministry, my dad kind of lost his mind about that, because I was going to a private university that was costing an arm and a leg and here I am majoring in something I am never going to get a job in. And he was very concerned about that, and it wasn’t that he theologically disagreed with my being in ministry. It was, ‘this is not practical.’ And I was grateful that he chose to be supportive in that time anyway.”

Participant 3: “We did let them know we were moving back to the States, it's almost like they breathed a sigh of relief that I never knew they were holding their breath about because they did a good job of giving us their full support. So they were, during that time, very, very supportive and then glad to see us back too.”

Participant 5: “They worry a lot that we, my husband and I, are doing too much and that we are spread too thin…I think they worry about us, I don’t think it is that they are angry or think that we are making a mistake, I think they are just watchful and weary because they’re parents and that’s what parents do.”

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Participant 8: “They were so very unbelievably full-throttle supportive of that twenty-two-year-old girl who came home and said I’m not going to law school. I think they were disappointed. I don’t think they had a clue that I was doing what I was doing.”

Participant 13: “My mother to some extent, although she is a different generation and she was a preacher’s wife and so she spent her whole life working around the rules.”

Not supportive. At times there was a more clear lack of support from parents and in-laws.

Participant 1: “My parents and my husband's parents have struggled more with it.

It hasn't been easy for them and so we've worked through those pains, but it's kind of a constant tension still to this day so that's hard you want your parents to be proud of you and happy for what you're doing, but you know for them if they think that means that you might go to hell for what are you doing then that's a hard conversation. So those have been hard. Those have been hard conversations, but lots of support though from many others.”

Change in level of support over time. Still at other times that level of parental support changed over time. Participant 5 mentions how her parents have increased their level of support both emotionally and financially into the ministry work she had done over the years she had been in ministry, “and now in the work that I do, he is, and both of my parents are, incredibly supportive. They are donors, they donate to the ministry that I serve in, and I’ve come and worked with their church and their church staff, and they have been a part of bringing me along and building my work with me.”

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Extended family. A final challenge to support that was reported by the participants was in the level of support by their extended family.

Participant 4: “Well like extended family…as long as we don’t talk about it, it’s all fine you know, and my mom’s side of the family is all Church of Christ, and I don’t know if a lot of them would say it out loud, or definitely not in public, but I think they are all fine with it. They are probably not going to say it, but some of them are proud of it.

But yeah, I’ve never really received any issues from my family.”

Participant 8: “My aunt and uncle were the ones who were praying for me, and telling me that I was lost. I have not had a single cousin that has ever showed up to hear me preach. They still make snide comments on Facebook.”

Additional Cycle Two Findings

It was determined by the researcher and the co-coders that there were some emergent codes that developed during the second cycle of coding that related directly to the participants’ reasons for entrance into a ministry vocation and their beliefs regarding their enjoyment of ministry that did not fit within the six major themes illustrated above.

However, it was the opinion of the researcher that a discussion of the findings regarding the reasons behind entrance into a ministry vocation and enjoyment of ministry ought to be included in the discussion of the second cycle findings.

In order to fully understand the interactional impact of ministry life and family life, the researcher asked each participant to explain how and why she first entered ministry, as well as what it was she enjoyed about her experiences in ministry. The

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researcher and co-coders determined that the participants’ answers to the reason for how and why they first got into ministry fell into two primary categories: first the internal factors, or the factors from within the participant, and second the external factors, or the factors from outside of the participant leading to entry into a ministry profession. Smaller sub-categories of codes emerged from the collected data between both the larger internal and external factors categories, which are shown below.

Internal Factors for Entering Ministry

Codes that emerged under the internal factors explanations for going into ministry consisted of three common codes: “felt called,” awareness of need, and passion for the church. Examples from all three of these codes are given below:

“Felt called.”

Participant 1: “I just always felt very called into those kinds of

things…just kind of always existing within me.”

Participant 8: “I felt called.”

Awareness of need.

Participant 2: “I grew up in a very small congregation, very small town. I

saw lots of needs that needed to be addressed, but the door wasn’t

open for women in ministry to do that.”

Participant 6: “I knew I wanted to go into Ministry.”

Passion for the church.

Participant 4: “I grew up really loving church.”

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Participant 8: “I absolutely loved it. I knew I had arrived at the place that

my heart danced, and I, I knew I had to figure out a way to do this,

and pulpit ministry really is my passion.”

External Factors for Entering Ministry

Six codes also emerged along the lines of external factors explanations given for entering a ministry vocation. These six codes consist of: grew up in a ministry family, saw it modeled, recommendation, school, experiences, and opportunity. Examples from all six of these codes are given below:

Grew up in a ministry family.

Participant 3: “My mom had been a spiritual director, and had been for

years. So that was something that I was deeply interested in, and so

I pursued that.”

Participant 8: “My grandfather was a minister. I grew up with the church

being very much the center of our lives.”

Participant 9: “I really believe I grew up in a home that valued small ‘m’

ministry to the body of Christ. My parents valued God highly.

They valued the church highly. They valued ministry, small ‘m’

ministry.”

Participant 13: “My father was a minister, my grandfather, my great-

grandfather, great-great, and great-great-great…we were raised to

be, a family of ministry.”

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Saw it modeled.

Participant 4: “A children’s minister, at that church…I distinctly

remember when I was ten telling my parents that I wanted to be

like her. So that is what I wanted to do when I grew up.”

Participant 11: “Friends that had gone to seminary, female friends, and I

just noticed that I was really jealous that I didn’t have what they

had.”

Participant 6: “I started attending a congregation where they had a large

thriving children's ministry, and that was the kind of frame of

reference that I was looking for and wondering about. Once I saw

that, that was the kind of ‘aha’ moment that I had been searching

for and was unable to find thus far.”

Recommendation.

Participant 7: “The priest from the parish I grew up in recommended it to

me…he recommended to me that I consider it, so I did, and that’s

when I was in college.”

Participant 8: “I think it was my sister who said, ‘well, why don’t you just

be one?’ And I thought she had lost her marbles.”

School.

Participant 2: “I basically minored in children and youth ministry.”

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Participant 11: “Realized that I actually have this real academic interest in

studying ministry and theology…so I went to seminary and loved

it, and kind of realized that’s where I was supposed to be and just

decided I would figure it out. So that’s what I have been doing for

twenty years.”

Participant 6: “When I graduated high school and went into college,

women did not go into ministry. You got a mission’s degree to

marry a missionary. That's essentially what you could do. So, when

I said that to my parents they really didn't have a frame of

reference as to what that would look like. So, I just kept going to

school.”

Experiences.

Participant 3: “I did mission trips in college.”

Participant 13: “During that time I really felt the Lord calling me to

ministry, and I didn’t know how to do that, to be in youth ministry.

Along with my sister, that’s when I started doing: planning the

devos and organizing the youth rallies that we went to and camp.”

Opportunity.

Participant 10: “Well, I first kinda fell into it.”

Participant 12: “It wasn’t because I was actually looking to be in ministry.

It was more because I had gotten involved in the church.”

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Enjoyment in Ministry

The researcher and the co-coders found four subthemes among the answers the participants gave about what they enjoyed about ministry: provides a sense of purpose, teaching and preaching, behind the scenes, and relationships. Examples from all four of these subthemes under reasons participants gave for what they have enjoyed about their experiences in ministry are given below:

Provides a Sense of Purpose.

Participant 1: “That's just something I've always enjoyed and wanting to

do, felt called to do, is to just live in the word on behalf of the

community.”

Participant 3: “It's a sense of having a focus on what I believe really

matters for eternity and in my life and in the lives of other people,

that's the, I think that's the heart of it for me.”

Participant 13: “Well it is the place that I feel the Lord’s pleasure with me,

and it is where I am most happy with myself…it brings me life

being able to be in ministry.”

Teaching and preaching.

Participant 1: “I love teaching.”

Participant 9: “I love sitting down with women and teaching them how

they can grow… I learned how to study the Bible from a

mentor…Our pastor at the church we attended, taught me to love

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systematic theology…It’s practical, I like to see them grow…I

teach my Bible studies around the inductive Bible study

method…they can have application for their life.”

Participant 11: “I love to preach and teach. I think that would be the

number one thing I enjoy is trying to figure out how to make

scripture relevant to people in modern life.”

Participant 12: “I love taking the truth of God and bringing a voice of

clarity to it…I’ve always loved theology.”

Behind the Scenes.

Participant 1: “So that process of preparation is probably what I enjoy the

most. I like the preaching moment or the teaching moment, a lot,

but I would say equally like the preparation that goes into that

moment.”

Participant 2: “I really enjoyed, kind of, the more administrative executive

minister kinds of roles I would take on, on occasion.”

Relationships.

Participant 5: “I think the thing that I love the most about my work is

loving on people.”

Participant 6: “I enjoy the relationships with people.”

Participant 7: “I enjoyed, the people. I enjoyed particularly, the one-on-

one.”

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Participant 12: “I love the relationships.”

Participant 11: “I also love just being able to join them in their spiritual

journey alongside people through the ups and downs of life and to

help them answer the questions of where’s God in this particular

situation that you are in right now.”

Participant 4: “Relationships… I love getting to be in the ins and outs and

ups and downs with people and getting to share that.”

Findings from the Third Cycle Coding

As the third part of the coding process, the interview transcripts of all the participants where coded in reference to the participants’ perspectives and worldviews.

According to Saldaña (2016), the process of values coding is an exploration of participant values, attitudes, and beliefs. Using this process of exploring the transcribed interviews seven shared major values statements emerged across all participant interviews regarding their experiences and views of what it means to be a woman in ministry and the impact ministry work has had on their families and marriages. The seven values coding statements are:

1. Ministry is a calling.

2. Men and women have different experiences in ministry.

3. Ministry work will impact the family.

4. Family should be the priority over ministry work.

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5. If married, a supportive spouse plays an important role in helping a woman in

ministry conduct long-term successful ministry work.

6. Husbands of women in ministry need a support system.

7. Women in ministry need other women in ministry.

Ministry is a Calling

A consistent belief and attitude among the participants was that their work in ministry was a designed “calling” from God rather than an occupation that they fell into.

Participant 1: “I just always felt very called into those kinds of things.”

Participant 1: “I feel called to that. If I didn't, I would not be obeying God or

following God's lead in my life.”

Participant 13: “The call to ministry for some of us is just as strong as that call to

be a mom.”

Participant 5: “Make sure that you are clear for yourself about your calling, keep

that at the forefront, because people are going to push and pull and poke at

that, and if you are not confident in this is what God has called me to do your

going to believe them.”

Participant 8: “This was who I was, and what I was called to be”

Participant 10: “If God called you to this, you belong there.”

Participant 12: “But if God wants you, in a vocational ministry and wants you to

get paid for doing what you love, basically, then you take that as a blessing

and you take it as a seasonal blessing.”

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Men and Women Have Different Experiences in Ministry

All 13 of the participants who were interviewed stated that they believed the experiences of women in ministry were different than the experiences of men.

Participant 12: “I do truly believe that men and women are different and when

you put two different people in a ministry and partnering them together, their

experiences are going to be different and you have to allow for the

environment for them to be different.”

Participant 13: “So, it’s different for women because there are more roadblocks.”

Participant 12: “The joys, and the pressures, and the challenges are very

different.”

Participant 11: “Men and women are wired differently.”

Participant 10: “Women are typically more nurturing…I think it seems like the

men I work with are able to detach from the needs of our students a little

better than I am.”

Participant 4: “Especially as a woman, it’s very difficult…I think maybe nurturing

is a good word. I am a nurturer, and not that men aren’t, because there are

plenty of men who are, but there is this tendency to want to nurture and to

please people and that can be difficult in ministry at times, because it’s hard to

know…not hard to know, but it can be really easy for me to slip into that, to

slip into working like a mother, especially if you are working with younger

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children or teens, to slip into a mother role or a big sister role. Um, and you I

feel that’s a lot of what parents want out of ministry right now.”

Participant 10: “Sometimes women approach spiritual matters

differently…women are more likely to apply a spiritual element to a

situation.”

Participant 4: “Men have managed to be fathers and ministers for years, and I

think some of that there is still a lot of different expectations for men and

women, as mothers and as fathers, especially if you are traditional at all.”

Participant 8: “Women have to work harder to, to be perceived as voices worthy

of being listened to.”

Participant 6: “Because I feel like I have to go so far above and beyond just to be

viewed as being competent, even though I might be in some instances more

highly credentialed for the most appropriate person to carry out a task on the

ministry staff. I feel like I have to sometimes fight for my position there

because I’m female versus male.”

Ministry Work will Impact the Family

Another common belief among the participants was that their work in ministry had and would continue to influence their family life on both healthy and unhealthy levels.

Participant 10: “The other stressor is when I’m pulled to be at work, or with the

people I’m ministering with. If I’m pulled there too much, is my family at

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home feeling neglected, or that they are second best. That is a constant

struggle for me.”

Participant 1: “Experience time management and time commitment, and still

being able to give if you have a family give time to your family. This has been

one of the hardest things to figure out, how to balance all of that with time so

that you know it has not been easy, even with a husband who's fully

supportive it's been very hard. Ministry takes up every minute that you have if

you're not careful.”

Participant 13: “I live with a constant guilt of one or another. One of my roles is

not being done well. Either my role as family minister, my role as mom, my

role as aunt, my role as whatever.”

Participant 6: “If you’ve got somebody just going into ministry during the early

years of ministry and early years of marriage all at the same time...wow. I

don’t know that we would have made it as unscathed as we have made it, only

eight years later, but still...eight years later. If I had started working in

ministry at the exact same time that I started, that I got married because it’s

just a lot of pull and it’s just a lot of stress and, um, it’s hard.”

Participant 11: “Our church has been a place of consistency. A place where the

whole family is grounded.”

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Participant 5: “So far for our kids, ministry has been a good thing. Relationally-

wise, I think it has given them a relational foundation I don’t think they would

have had otherwise, and I’m grateful for that.”

Family Should be the Priority over Ministry Work

The participants expressed an attitude that although their ministry work was a calling, their first calling was to be to their family.

Participant 5: “Yes the church is part of that equation, but it’s not all of it, we are

the team. That language has helped our kids even when they were little-bitty.

Being able to understand they’re our first priority. As schedules pull, which

they will, you are still our first priority.”

Participant 3: “Never neglect family time, frequent date nights., non-negotiable

individual child and family times.”

Participant 1: “The temptation of women is to try to do everything and so taking

on too much and trying to balance it all is a temptation for many women.”

Participant 10: “You are not so important that somebody is going to lose their soul

if you take care of your family’s needs. You know there’s no text message

that can’t wait, you know, there’s just nothing. God can save them without

you sacrificing your family for it.”

Participant 9: “I think being a godly person is the most important thing that I can

do for my family. Knowing how this thing always will adjust, that would be

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the beneficial thing, and ministry always helps if it’s brought into balance

with everything else.”

Participant 6: “I’m letting that affect my marriage, I’m letting that affect my kids,

and that’s why part of when I took this job at my congregation that I talked to

the leadership about was that you know we have four kids it’s important that

I’m able to, if I need to, go pick up a child from school today like I had to.”

Participant 12: “You have to be faithful to your season. If you’re a wife, if you’re

a mom, you’ve gotta know what faithful looks like—faithful in your season is,

if you’re a wife, you’re a wife first. If you don’t want to do that, don’t get

married! If you’re a mom, you’re a mom first. And you don’t want to do that,

don’t get married.”

Participant 6: “I need to pull my laptop open at home and work and be trusted that

I’m going to get my work done and taken care of, and not take advantage of

the situation because you know I have a sweet son who has the flu and needs

his mom at home while he’s not feeling good.”

Participant 2: “Protect your marriage, spend time with your husband and don't

even feel guilty about it don't even allow that thought to creep into your

head.”

Participant 9: “Your husband will be happier if you’re giving him love.”

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Participant 13: “If you don’t make keeping your marriage strong, then he [Satan]

is going to use that every time to destroy you. He is really good at destroying

marriages.”

If Married, a Supportive Spouse Plays an Important Role in Helping a Woman in

Ministry Conduct Long-Term Successful Ministry Work

Throughout the interviews the participants attributed the importance of their spouse’s encouragement and support for the level of influence it had on their ability to continue their work in ministry.

Participant 9: “So one of the main things is you need someone who is a

cheerleader in your life. If it’s your husband, praise God.”

Participant 11: “I think that as much as the woman is stepping into a non-

traditional role, she is also asking her husband to step into a nontraditional

role. Even if he works to be really progressive and supportive, taking care of

children is hard and it’s taxing.”

Participant 5: “My husband has been incredibly supportive.”

Participant 4: “I feel like my husband is probably my greatest asset in ministry in

so many ways.”

Participant 1: “I think that if I did not have a husband who is one hundred percent

supportive I could not have stayed in it this long I just needed that support.”

Participant 4: “But I think that he would say that his ministry is supporting me so

that I can fully minister to my greatest capacity. And that’s a really big gift.

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But I think of him more as a co-minister, and I think if you ask any of our

teens here or their parents they would say the same thing.”

Participant 9: “My husband’s role is to know me well enough where I shine, in

terms of where to encourage me, and to support me in that. Basically, to

encourage me.”

Participant 1: “So I think having a spouse who can be as supportive as possible is

really important for women in ministry. If you don't have that I don't know

how we're even, I don't know how they could do it full-time if they're still

expected to do traditional mothering too.”

Participant 5: “Specifically, ministers going into marriage is make sure that the

two of you are able to talk through hard things. Because, this idea of being in

ministry together, it’s going to pull out stuff that you didn’t anticipate coming

into the marriage conversation and you just need to be ready.”

Husbands of Women in Ministry Need a Support System

The participants were cognizant of the need to provide resources for their husbands, whose personal needs and identity tend to be overlooked.

Participant 11: “I think about all of the fathers, who have preached every Sunday,

and their wives have made them breakfast through the years, made sure their

shirt is pressed, made them breakfast and gotten the kids dressed and gotten

the kids to church, and keep the kids out of their father’s way so that he can do

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this important work and we don’t have a cultural template for men to do the

same thing for women.”

Participant 4: “There is actually a lot of support out there for ministers’ wives, but

there is really not for ministers’ husbands. And most of the husbands of

ministers who are women, who I know, very few are around his age, so I think

some of it is just him trying to figure it out and learning where to go for that

support.”

Participant 11: “I think my husband has needed models, and still hasn’t found any

men who have been clergy husbands. So I think there is a space for cultivating

friendships even doing retreats here and there or marriage enrichments, in

maybe a group of four couples or something like that I think that could be

really valuable. Or, or just friendships, where you go out to dinner once in a

while and let the guys just be friends and just share around someone else who

is in this role.”

Participant 11: “I think my husband has experienced a lot of ambivalence

regarding, on the one hand he finds himself feeling very proud of me and that

I, you know, when I preach a sermon that everyone thinks is good he is really

proud of me, but then there’s an insecure part of him that feels like, ‘Wow,

she’s the spiritual one in the family, and she’s the one that the church knows.

And what does that say about me.’”

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Participant 12: “Historically in the church, what happens is the pastor wives are

seen as ‘so and so’s wife’…when you are a woman on the staff, it’s a little

unsure as to how to watch out for my husband. Um, it gets a little sketchy

about that…because my husband is a mature, respectable, very honorable

man. I get a little sensitive when I think his identity gets lost in my position.”

Women in Ministry Need Other Women in Ministry

Due to the uniqueness of being a woman in ministry, female ministers recognize the need to lean on the support and example of other women who serve in ministry positions.

Participant 11: “Women ministers need other women minister friends.”

Participant 3: “I need the connection with women, that I need and I, I just see it

also as being a strong example for other women and how they would do the

spiritual life together, as well.”

Participant 9: “Learn how to get along with a variety of women.”

Participant 5: “Stay connected to community and friends because this is a unique

road that they’ve chosen to walk, and you need people both inside and outside

of that experience speaking into it, who are a hundred percent for you, not for

your church but for you. Not that your church is bad, your church is probably

great, but you need people for you.”

Participant 10: “What I want women to do as ministers is wherever the other

women are coming from, wherever their priorities are, support each other.

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You know, we’ve been left out by enough others that we should not leave

each other out. Whether someone doesn’t have a degree, someone doesn’t

want to be in front of other people…. We need to be supportive of each

other.”

Final Thoughts

The data analysis process for this study was thorough as the researcher utilized three cycles of coding to accomplish a comprehensive reflection and analysis over the collected data. The first two cycles of coding were originally planned within the methodological strategy of analysis; however, it was determined that a third cycle of coding could benefit the analysis process by providing an even more in-depth phenomenological approach to understanding the ministerial and life experiences of the participants. This fluid approach to data analysis fit nicely with the phenomenological context that framed this study and allowed the findings to accurately represent the shared experiences of the participants. Although this third cycle of coding provided an almost separate framework through which to view the collected data, it was the researcher’s belief that this final cycle of coding provided this study with a layer of enriched analysis that captured the attitudes and beliefs of the participants that will be further discussed in the following chapter.

Summary

This chapter presented the results of a phenomenological research study that explored the experiences of women in ministry, and their perceptions on the impact

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ministry have had on their marriages and families. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 participants. The demographic characteristics of the sample, six major themes that emerged from the analysis along with their subthemes, seven values coding statements, and verbatim participant quotes used to illustrate the themes, subthemes, and values coding were presented in this chapter. The analysis of the participants’ interviews in the first and second cycle of coding revealed the following six major themes: (1) obstacles; (2) metacognitions; (3) ministry’s impact on marriage and family; (4) balance of ministry and family demands: creating and sustaining boundaries; (5) growth; and (6) support and resources. Additionally, the values coding analysis in the third cycle of coding revealed seven values coding statements: (1) ministry is a calling; (2) men and women have different experiences in ministry; (3) ministry work will impact the family;

(4) family should be the priority over ministry work; (5) if married, a supportive spouse plays an important role in helping a woman in ministry conduct long-term successful ministry work; (6) husbands of women in ministry need a support system; and (7) women in ministry need other women in ministry. The next chapter includes a discussion of the findings from this study. A summary of the study and a discussion of the six major themes and seven values coding statements are presented. Finally, conclusions, implications, limitations of the research, and recommendations for future research are addressed.

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CHAPTER V

DISCUSSION

This qualitative study explored the experiences of women in ministry and their perceptions regarding the impact ministry has had on their personal lives, as well as their perception on the impact ministry has had on their marriages and families. The researcher utilized a qualitative methodology combined with a phenomenological approach through in-depth interviews with women in ministry to provide a voice to the experiences and values of a previously understudied group of individuals within the field of ministry. In- depth interviews from 13 female participants who had served in at least one ministry position while being married were collected and analyzed. The in-depth interviews were structured around the following three research questions:

1. How do women in ministry perceive and describe stressors?

2. What beliefs do women in ministry have about the impact their ministry work

has had on their spousal and familial relationships?

3. What resources do women in ministry perceive to be helpful to achieving a

healthy work-life balance?

Six major themes, numerous sub-themes, and seven values statements emerged from the data analysis process, which were reported in Chapter IV. The subthemes that

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emerged in the data analysis process consisted of the codes the researcher and co-coders agreed covered the collected qualitative data, which ultimately led to each of the six major themes listed in this section. In order to be considered a subtheme at least three participants needed to share in the context of that particular subtheme as this would be a representative of over one-fifth of all participants mentioning that particular idea or concept as important during their interview process. This chapter includes a discussion of the major themes and values statements that emerged from the three cycles of coding in the data analysis. In addition, this chapter contains a discussion of the theoretical framework for the study, strengths of the study, conclusions, limitations, implications, and recommendations for future research.

Discussion of Findings

This section is a discussion of the findings from the previous chapter, how the findings relate research questions for this study, and how the findings relate to relevant literature. Table 4.3 below is an outline of the six major themes and how they fit within the context of the research questions.

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Table 4.3.

Research Questions and Major Themes

Research Question Major Theme

Research Question 1: How do women in Major Theme 1: Obstacles ministry perceive and describe stressors from their work in ministry

Major Theme 2: Metacognitions

Major Theme 4: Balance of Ministry and Family Demands: Creating and Sustaining Boundaries

Major Theme 5: Growth

Research Question 3: What resources do Major Theme 6: Support and Resources women in ministry perceive to be helpful to achieving a healthy work-life balance?

Research Question One: Stressors

The first research question for this study was to explore how women in ministry perceived and described stressors from their work in a ministry vocation. As will be shown below, a vocation in ministry often comes with a sense that a higher authority,

God, has called or designed that individual to serve in that particular ministry occupation.

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As Rose (1999) pointed out, this sense of calling has been shown to cause those in ministry to avoid criticism of their profession and to hide their dissatisfaction out of a sense of moral obligation. Therefore, determining the stressors that produce daily and even long-term strain on ministers, their marriages, and their families can be difficult to obtain. Occupational factors such as reasons for entering a ministry profession has also been shown to mitigate the impact occupational stressors have over clergy professionals

(Tomic et al., 2004). Below is a discussion of the findings from the participant responses for research question one, which asked the participants to describe what they perceived to be stressors in their ministry work.

Obstacles. The first of the major themes that was found regarding research question one was obstacles. These were the factors that the participants saw as preventing them from being able to thrive during their time in ministry. At times these obstacles where only seasonal and short-term; however, at other times these obstacles became more chronic in length. Five subthemes emerged from the major theme of obstacles: expectations and demand, lack of friendships, lack of opportunities, lack of recognition, and lack of respect.

Doolittle (2007) found that while ministry falls in line with most of the other helping professions, ministry professionals are driven by a sense of purpose and it is this sense of purpose that cause clergy to compromise on what they would normally not accept from a different occupation. Participant 8 reported feeling that “women have to work harder to, to be perceived as voices worthy of being listened to…sometimes I let

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people say things to me and treat me in ways that I would just never imagine being spoken to or being treated in another profession.” Another participant in this study stated,

“our friend, who he’s an accountant, she’s a vet. When they leave the office, they leave the office. But if my daughter has a volleyball game, or someone has passed away and needs their minister, well we have to be there. So, we are going to miss the volleyball game.” Participant 2 talked about some of these unrealistic and unbalanced ministry expectations, “I think the greater challenges for me was that I was a family minister. I was there to equip and support families in their spiritual lives, yet the church demanded of me things that we would never demand of those families. In fact, opposite of what I would encourage those families to do.” Spencer et al. (2009) pointed out that often the clergy profession is the first line of support called during a time of crisis for many families causing them to not be available for their own family’s needs.

Several of the participants stated that one of the major obstacles for them was that the ministries they served in were unaware of how to handle females in ministry leadership positions. At times it was not a lack of awareness that there were gender differences that needed to be addressed in order for women to thrive during their time in ministry, rather it was often an uncertainty that these ministries had on how to address and handle these differences. Participant 5 stated, “Expectations on us in family life are different than they are on our spouses, and churches aren’t willing to change their own perception of how family life is supposed to work, or work with women who are experiencing those changes.” A review of relevant literature revealed similar inefficiency

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on the part of church congregations on how to handle work-life stressors, expectations, and consequential spillover impacts. Morris and Blanton (1994) surveyed 28 denominations in the United States to determine what each denomination recognized as stressors for clergy and what stressor support networks they were providing for the clergy in their denominations. A majority of the denominations expressed their awareness of the stressors that clergy face. However, only a few of the denominations were found to be adequately addressing these known stressors. Likewise, it was shown that more attention needed to be given to support-resources for the family members of the clergyperson rather than the family-members providing the sole support for the clergyperson. In a follow-up study Morris and Blanton (1995) found that clergymen and their wives reported feeling that their denominational heads were providing basic support services

(financial support and career development), but that they were falling short on other more important support services (relational and family-oriented services). Therefore, although denominations are aware of stressors, as found by Morris and Blanton (1994), their attempts at addressing the stressors are not meeting the most pressing needs of the clergy and their spouses.

There has been a dramatic increase of women in ministry leadership positions since the 1970s (Chaves, 1997). However, the percentage of women in senior leadership positions remains relatively low at 8.6% in a 2015 study by Faith Communities Today.

The growing pains of transition for women in ministry still was reported by several of the participants in this study.

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Participant 4: “What I’ve found is that a lot of people who are egalitarian or who

are very affirming of women in ministry want to like push it for you and

let you do everything, and that’s not always what I want to do and people

who are assume the worst of you, and that you are there to push against

stuff and that’s not the case either.”

Participant 6: “If we are being persistent about something, or being very insistent,

or really being, not being submissive, not being that you know technically

submissive female-type figure that many have come to expect. It comes

across as being very domineering and we often get labeled in ways that I

think is unfair”

Participant 1: “Being first in ministry as a woman or with it being controversial

that brings a lot of shift and I don't like being the center of controversy.”

Participant 5: “Women in ministry are kind of like the social experiment, and so

it’s fun and trendy and cool, until it’s not anymore. And then it’s hard and

nobody is really interested in asking why or how to make it better…I think

it’s more stressful for women because they feel the weight of all females’

ability to do ministry rests on how people perceive me in ministry, that’s

incredibly stressful.”

One of the largest stressors found in a review of the literature covering ministry work-life spillover was ministry-forced relocation. Angerer (2003) stated that the modern workplace was seeing a decline in connectedness between workplace teamwork and co-

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worker connectivity, leading to an increase in work-related stress and burnout. Part of the decrease in coworker connectivity may be due to the decline in workplace longevity.

Employees may not want to get to know their colleagues if they believe they will be fired, or transferred, within the next several months. Similarly, in a study carried out by

Frame and Shehan (1994), it was determined, when it came to frequent involuntary relocation, wives of ministers reported significantly higher levels of stress, a greater level of negative perceptions regarding their most recent move, lower coping resources, and overall lower well-being compared to their husbands, who were serving in vocational ministry. For wives of clergypersons the involuntary relocation brought about disruptions in social networks, as well as creating an overall lack in desire to make connections in their new setting due to apprehensions about potentially needing to move again.

Participant 2 discussed the continued movement in a ministry occupation and the consequential toll it had on social networks. “It was very difficult for us to make friends that were like couples friends, who we could trust…the kind of friend that you would call and say hey I just wanted to go and have coffee. You know, I didn't have anyone my age that I could do that with in my place in life. My husband didn't really either.” This can be further complicated by the short stays at ministry locations. She went on to say, “I had support outside of the congregation, but each time we move you have to redevelop that.”

Goldman (1992) talked about the barrier that prevents women from obtaining equal career achievement when compared to men in ministry referring to it as a “stained- glass ceiling.” Adams (2007) concluded that while many secular companies and

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organizations have unknowingly, or knowingly, created a glass ceiling for women in career level achievement, religious organizations have traditions, often tightly held traditions, that have created a unique “stained glass ceiling” for women in congregational leadership. Participant 1 talked about this barrier, “even for my colleagues and women I know who are pastors in ministry denominations that have ordained women or called women into ministry, they still faced conversations about what level they can [obtain] in that denomination. Whether or not they can be senior pastors even in denominations that have been ordaining women for many years, like the Nazarenes and Methodists, it's still a glass ceiling for women.” Another participant in this study talked about the feeling of many women in ministry towards needing to prove their value and worth in a ministry leadership position. “It’s different because we have to, we as females have to prove that we are able to do this work, because our denomination does not have a belief that we can or should for most of its’ life.” Participant 1 in this study talked about the lack of opportunities that faced ministers and more specially women in ministry, “There were times when we were kind of, I was feeling kind of stuck when there's no way for me to move because there are so few opportunities for women then it meant we need to move…for a woman having so few opportunities it often does mean a big move. It’s not like there’s a job down the street. That was really hard. That was very hard for me to wait even though I felt like it was best especially for our children and our family as a whole. I just feel like I was at a dead end on what could actually be my ministry.” Frame and

Shehan (2004) found that women in ministry reported challenges in regard to gender-

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based discrimination, church bureaucracy, and lack of role models. Similarly, Frame and

Shehan (2004) found a lack of overall congregational support for women in ministry.

Another common obstacle towards the thriving of women in ministry is the level of conflict and miscommunication in the workplace that can have a spillover impact on family life. Angerer (2003), pointed out that work-life spillover was the idea that there is a battle for control that exists between an employee and their employer. When the employee does not feel that they have any ability to control important facets of their job they are more likely to experience elements of burnout, such as exhaustion, cynicism, and ineffectiveness. Still other studies have found a connection between a sense of job control or work satisfaction and the postiive or negative impact on the family (Hwang &

Ramadoss, 2017; Cho & Tay, 2016). Participant 2 talked about the obstacle of having a disconnect with fellow ministry leadership teammembers. “Lack of communication that can happen between myself and the rest of the leadership team and how that has stunted because that causes miscommunication, that causes hurt feelings, that causes lack of being able to deal with conflict on either side in a healthy way and there's just so many ramifications of a communication barrier between genders.”

As mentioned earlier in this study, scripture has been a source of discouragement towards the acceptance of women in ministry leadership positions. Several of the participants talked about these scriptural interpretations that created obstacles for their time in ministry. Participant 11 stated, “so you have to deal with these passages that seem to say that women don’t have equal, (pause) aren’t equally invited into roles like this, and

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I don’t think that men have to deal with that kind of stuff.” Participant 1 went on to say,

“That's often the question: Can you do this? Does scripture allow it? Does God allow it, and does the church allow it?”

Metacognitions. Metacognitions, or internal thoughts, of the participants in this study served to be as much an obstacle towards their ability to thrive in ministry leadership positions as the external obstacles outside of their control mentioned above.

These problematic metacognitions reflected personal insights concerning their time in ministry and, at times, a reflection of their personal perceptions over the thoughts of others around them regarding what it means to be a woman in ministry. In a study to determine the role that demand, social support, and perception of stress played in influencing a minister’s well-being and attitude toward ministry. It was concluded that a minister’s perception in relation to the meanings of what is, or what is not, considered a stressor would ultimately have a larger impact on overall stress levels when compared to actual ministry demands (Lee & Iverson-Gilbert, 2003).

The participants in this study explained that their internal fears came from a place of feeling as though the work that was being done was not enough. Participant 3 stated,

“there's a sense of not being sure you're doing enough for other people.” Frame and

Shehan (2004) pointed out that since many ministers see their work as a calling, rather than just a job, their potential for work-life spillover can become overwhelming as their work is seen as a way of life with the need to be on-call twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

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Another internal battle the participants’ reported facing was the battle to prove value and worth, which paralleled the external criticism that came with being a female serving in a ministry leadership position. At other times the negative metacognitions came in the form of perceived criticisms that would wage war on the internal perceptions of the female minister regarding her ability to balance work and family life. Likewise, these metacognitions came from a feeling of being undervalued in the ministry position the participants were serving. One participant from this study shared, “because I feel like

I have to go so far above and beyond just to be viewed as being competent even though I might be, in some instances, more highly credentialed for the most appropriate person to carry out a task on the ministry staff, I feel like I have to sometimes fight for my position there because I’m female versus male. If I bring a problem to our church leadership about something, they may hear, um, and really be trying to hear, or act as if they’re hearing, and yet because it’s not a problem they experience, it’s not at their forefront of being rectified.” These metacognitions are important to address as Randall (2004) found that clergy who report higher levels of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a lack of personal accomplishment are more likely to report that they were considering leaving ministry. Likewise, depression among clergy was a strong predictor of increased risk for potential burnout (Jacobson et al., 2013).

Research Question Two: Impact

The second research question looked to understand the impact that ministry work had on the spousal and familial relationships of women in ministry. The participants in

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this study expressed that ministry did indeed have a heavy influence on their marriage and family life. Many of the impacts that ministry had on their marriages and families came from the stressors mentioned earlier in this chapter. Chandler (2009) asserted that a continued exposure to stressful demands on the time of clergy professionals takes a toll on the minister’s ability to spiritually renew him or herself, and thus creates a spiritual dryness that leaves a small amount of emotional resources to pull from in order to maintain their empathic abilities. Furthermore, Wells et al. (2012) found that female clergy were more likely to report higher levels of work-stress when compared to their male clergy counterparts. It was this depleted amount of emotional energy combined with an increased demand from their ministries of available personal time that participants in this study saw as most often impacting their families.

Ministry’s impact on marriage and family. The third major theme of ministry’s impact on marriage and family emerged from participants’ responses to the interview question about times when ministry had positively or negatively impacted their marriages and families. This theme also emerged when participants were asked about the views of their spouse and family regarding their work in ministry. The participants in this study saw ministry impacting their marriages and families through: pressures on family, avoiding personal issues, impact on children, stress on spouse, lack of resources for spouses, spouse’s role, and healthy communication. This impact was multifaceted and across all familial relationships.

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A majority of the felt impact ministry had on the participants’ marriages and families was reported by the participants as outside the family pressure for the participants’ marriages and families to achieve and maintain an unobtainable perfect family façade due to their work in ministry. Several of the participants talked about the stress their spouse has had during their time in ministry.

Participant 5: “My husband has expressed to me that people say some really

ridiculous things to him about “oh, your wife’s in ministry, does that mean

that you are actually not the man of the house, or the spiritual head of your

home?”

In a study by Cody-Rydzewski (2007), it was shown that clergywomen often report sensing a level of jealousy from their husbands due to their wives’ role in a high authority position outside of the home. Therefore, clergywomen are more likely to report that they take on and maintain an unhealthy balance of household work to subside their husband’s feelings of jealousy.

The impact of ministry on the family has been shown in previous research to influence parenting styles. The more criticism a working mother receives at her workplace the greater the likelihood she will have of holding to a harsh and withdrawn parenting style (Gassman-Pines, 2011). On the contrary, positive interactions with work supervisors correspond to warmer parent-child interactions in the home. Ministry’s impact on parenting is not only dependent upon the felt criticism the mother feels at home, but the participants in this study discussed the impact of ministry on their spouse’s

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parenting responsibilities. One of the participants talked about her husband’s frustrations parenting on Sundays. “Over time when you talk about burnout, I think we both have sort of burned out. Like I think he is sort of burned out from being the primary parent on

Sunday…I think that as much as the woman is stepping into a non-traditional role, she is also asking her husband to step into a nontraditional role. Even if he works to be really progressive and supportive, taking care of children is hard and it’s taxing.”

Lee (1999) found that the work-family life spillover from ministry demands could greatly impact the clergy’s personal and family life, as the ability to leave their work at the workplace can be difficult for clergy.

Participant 8 discussed the frustrations her spouse had with the demands of

ministry, “I think it irritated him that I was so preoccupied on Saturday

night, or all-day Saturday and Saturday night.”

Along the lines of a spouse struggling with the demands of their partner’s ministry work, a partner’s perception of their spouse’s employer as supportive of their family is an important variable to increasing overall employee work commitment and decreasing family-to-work conflict (Wayne et al., 2013). Likewise, the participants in this study found it difficult to balance the demands and expectations individuals from within their ministry work placed on their spouses.

Balance of ministry and family demands: Creating and sustaining boundaries. The fourth major theme that emerged from participants’ responses to the interview question regarding their ability to balance the demands of ministry with the

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demands of their personal life was balance of ministry and family demands: creating and sustaining boundaries. This theme also emerged when participants were asked about what resources they utilized to achieve a healthy work-life balance.

It has been shown that most of the stress experienced by clergy and clergy spouses is either directly or indirectly associated to boundary-related issues (personal time, relocation stress, lack of personal space, feeling of isolation, and intrusions) (Hill et al., 2003). The ability to successfully, or unsuccessfully, separate ministry demands from personal life has been tied to factors that impact both intrapersonal and interpersonal relationships. Depending on time of life and the demographics of both clergy and clergy families, clergy may respond differently to work-related stress and work-life spillover.

Wells et al. (2012) determined that clergy with children reported higher levels of both work-related and boundary-related stress. Likewise, married clergy reported higher levels of boundary-related stress, but lower levels of work-related stress compared to unmarried clergy. Regarding age, older clergy report showing lower levels of both work and boundary-related stress. Similarly, clergy who hold degrees from a higher level of education maintained an increased level of both work and boundary-related stress. Level of education was not taken into account when analyzing participant responses for this study.

Learning how to balance the demands of ministry work with the demands of family life was not an easy task as mentioned by several participants in this study. The participants described a variety of ways they had attempted to balance the demands of

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ministry work with the demands of family life through their utilization of both intrapersonal and interpersonal boundaries. It has been concluded that clergy who can create and maintain reasonable and appropriate boundaries between work and family experienced less stress in family life (Hill et al., 2003). Several participants in this study reported attempts to utilize boundaries to schedule and protect marriage and family time.

Participant 3: “part of our routine is to have specific family time and specific date

time.”

Participant 10: “Certain segments of the week that I kinda blocked out for being at

home or being or doing other things, and I guard that real closely.”

Participant 9: “When my husband comes home, there needs to be those nights that

we have together that we protect.”

In efforts to find a healthy balance of work and family life the participants in this study expressed the need for personal boundaries through being strategic with which information to share, knowing limits, and allowing for differences of opinions with those around them.

Participant 4 stated “if you don’t have clear boundaries that’s a huge stressor…I

think that church members, who love me dearly and I love them dearly,

don’t always think about the lack of boundaries. There’s this idea that

subconsciously I think about ‘Well, we pay you and…’ so boundaries

have really been a big stressor at times.”

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Although some of the reasons for boundaries given by the participants were for personal reasons, a large portion of the participants’ defense in favor of boundaries came from the need to protect interpersonal relationships. The first and most common role of interpersonal boundaries according to the participants was to prioritize family life.

Several participants stated that in order to balance the demands of work and family life, you need to determine what a healthy level of work life looks like and then create and maintain this healthy balance. Most of the participants noted that there was a constant tension that existed between work demands and family demands that seemed to never be satisfied.

Participant 10: “The other stressor is when I’m pulled to be at work, or with the

people I’m ministering with. If I’m pulled there too much, is my family at

home feeling neglected, or that they are second best. That is a constant

struggle for me.”

Another approach the participants mentioned to creating a healthy balance of work and family life was to create boundaries and limitations on the ratio of time spent between ministry work and family life each week. Many of the participants referenced weekends as being the hardest time to balance ministry work and family life.

Participant 8: “I ended up writing my sermons on Saturdays, and I missed a lot of

stuff with my kids on Saturdays. I think that’s what I regret the

most…even on Saturdays I showed up at every basketball game. But my

mind was elsewhere on Saturdays, Sunday was always coming.”

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Participant 4: “My Sabbath day is a Friday when my husband is working, so it’s

not time together necessarily.”

Gassman-Pines (2011) determined that the amount of night hours a mother worked was negatively associated with the mother’s mood and mother-child interactions, and a decline in positive child behaviors. However, this same study was unable to determine a relationship between weekend work and positive or negative family outcomes. Both the impact from night hours and the weekend work are relevant to women in ministry as these are often times that they spend doing ministry work.

The lack of available family time and the tension that exists between ministry demands and family demands eventually created a level of guilt for several of the participants. It has been shown that work-family conflict contributes to a lower level of job sastifcation (Hwang & Ramadoss, 2017). An increased level of job control has been connected to a decrease in work-to-family conflict for women, but not for men. Hwang and Ramadoss hypothesized that women are more directly influenced by the impact that having a greater level of job control provided on work-family conflict due to their tendency to carry out more of the housework and child-care when compared with men.

Therefore, work-to-family conflict decreased for women when they had a greater sense of job control.

Participant 11: “I’m burned out of feeling like I’m inconveniencing [my husband]

and bugging him on Sundays and having to push my children to be with a

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parent, who kinda doesn’t want to take care of them anyways, or at least

doesn’t want to take care of them alone.”

One of the positive aspects mentioned by the participants when it came to balancing ministry and family life was that ministry work allowed for a little more flexibility in hours compared to other occupations.

Participant 11: “The positive thing about ministry from my perspective in my

experience is that ministry is flexible in a lot of ways. Like you can work

from home, you can work at night, you can work when your kids are at

school…If one of your kids is sick, you can move them around. You can

go to your kids’ recitals, and basketball games, or to whatever most of the

time.”

Schieman and Glavin (2016) found that there is a strong positive association between pressures at work and subsequent blurring of work-family boundaries. At first, in an effort to handle pressures from the workplace, tasks from work are brought home in an attempt to alleviate some of the pressures they are felt at the workplace, however it was determined that this only served to normalize their occupational pressures and thus created more of an unclear boundary pattern. Consequently, Schieman and Glavin concluded that when roles between work and family become blurred, it becomes increasingly more difficult to detach from work.

A final approach to managing interpersonal boundaries as talked about by the participants was the ability of the minister to manage their personal expectations they

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brought into their work and family experiences with the expectations held by those around them. Often these felt expectations were in direct relation to being female in a male-dominated field. Shehan and Schultz (1999) found that the need to balance work and family demands could be compounded by the need of women in ministry to confront challenges of being female in a historically male profession.

Growth. The impact of vocation in ministry on a minister’s life, marriage, and family should not be seen as solely negative. There are many opportunities for growth that the participants reported in this study for them personally, as well as for their spouses and families. On a personal level of growth, the participants talked about the beneficial experiences during their time in ministry which led to their own growth and maturation process. Often the participants saw their personal growth as beneficial for the family. As one participant noted, “I think being a godly person is the most important thing that I can do for my family…and ministry always helps if it’s brought into balance with everything else.”

Another common personal benefit of being in ministry referenced by the participants was having a sense of life purpose. Participant 10 stated, “when I really realized ‘I’m a minister’ and embraced it, um, I kinda became less needy. (laughs) That might sound weird, but I was so insecure with myself because I just never knew who I was, so when I, when God, helped me figure all that out, I became more secure with myself, and therefore, a more pleasant person to be around.” This benefit was seen across the family as another participant noted for her family, “there have been other times when

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it gives him [her husband] a real sense of ownership like he is contributing to something important. I think for the children too, that there is this sense of like, this is important work.”

Participants also saw a benefit of ministry work in the fullness and depth of experiences their occupation had provided for their family. In addition to the diversity in experiences, the participants reflected on the diverse relational opportunities that being in ministry has afforded their families. The participants commented that relationships they had built during their time in ministry were more than simply friendships, but that these individuals had become part of their families. The specific benefit of ministry work to their marriages was also noted by several participants as it provided their marriages with a shared sense of purpose and goals for their marriage relationship. Another benefit for ministry marriages as mentioned by participant 5 was that the individuals who she was ministering to were invested in the health of her marital relationship. “It really matters to people that we, my husband and I, are good together. It doesn’t matter so much that they are not going to call if they need one of us, but it does matter to them and so whereas my friend, who is an accountant, if they get divorced their careers are going to continue. It’s going to be devastating, but their careers are going to continue. People are invested in our marriage succeeding so that our careers can continue…We have chosen I think to see that as a gift in some weird convoluted ways that, it is actually care from our congregants, even if it is a little twisted at times.”

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In addition to the benefits that ministry work can have for a minister’s marriage, the participants mentioned several experiences when they had witnessed ministry work provide benefits for their children. One participant stated, “So far, for our kids, ministry has been a good thing. Relationally-wise, I think it has given them a relational foundation

I don’t think they would have had otherwise, and I’m grateful for that.” Likewise,

Darling et al. (2006) concluded that the addition of children in a minister’s family could provide an added sense of meaningfulness and reward that helped counterbalance the additional normal strain that having children might bring to a family. The participants in this study who had children noted how their children played an important role in encouraging them in the ministry work that they were doing.

Research Question Three: Resources

The third research question for this study was to explore which resources women in ministry saw as being the most helpful in achieving a healthy work-life balance. Many times, the needs of women in ministry are overlooked as they are frequently seen as a source of empathy and support; however, there is often little if any support during a minister’s personal times of stress (Miner, 2007a). As will be shown below, the resources that were perceived to have been most effective for the participants in this study can be varied and may change over time. Doolittle (2010) determined that clergy who engaged in and maintained interests and activities outside of their ministry occupations were less likely to experience burnout. Some other external factors Doolittle found to be associated with a decreased level of burnout and prevention of work-family spillover included the

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presence of mentors, attendance at retreats, regular exercise, an active level of personal spiritual renewal, and scholarly reading. Often these resources are whatever is most practical and applicable at the time of need. One of the most effective and most commonly mentioned resources for the participants in this study was the connection between social support networks. It has been shown that maintaining a high level of satisfaction in regards to social support networks is important not only for the well-being and attitude towards ministry in clergy, but for their spouses as well (Lee, 2007).

Support and resources. The sixth major theme that emerged from the interviews with the participants in this study was the resources and support systems that had been most helpful to them during their time in a ministry vocation. Within this major theme it was determined that three subthemes emerged consisting of support networks, which each participant could depend on when they needed encouragement and care, personal practices, which the participants could implement apart from the aid of outside assistance, and finally the challenges to acquiring the adequate support they desired.

Some of the supportive networks, which emerged in the present study, consisted of interpersonal interactions with individuals that were close to them, others were supportive work environments, and still others were external support networks. In a 2013 review of literature, Jackson-Jordan found a clergy’s ability to be resilient in the face of stress and potential burnout included the quality of relationships the clergyperson had outside of the congregation and connections to peers and mentors to name a few. The

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most often mentioned supportive resource for the interviewed participants was their spouse.

Participant 1: “My husband is a hundred percent supportive, there's no doubt

about that. He is supportive, and so having that kind of support at home. If

I had to also convince my husband or walk against my husband where that

was also a source of conflict over my call that would be, I can't imagine

how difficult that would be. So, having his support is the best

encouragement I've had. He is the best support.”

Participant 2: “He's always been very supportive. There's never been a time where

he encouraged me to leave ministry anything like that. There's been a few

times where I might have to leave ministry because I am so burnt out, and

he encouraged me to do what's best, but not to make a rash decision. He

just sees this as where God has called me and how God's gifted me, and

his role is to make sure I live into my calling as much as if there's

something on his plate.”

Participant 4: “My husband feels like his ministry is supporting me so that I can

do my best.”

These findings go along with previous research where it has been shown that if the employee felt that their partner was positively committed to the organization the greater the likelihood the employee will be more invested into the organization (Wayne, et al., 2013). According to work done by McMinn et al. (2005), it was determined that

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clergy rarely look outside their immediate family for resources to cope with challenges form work-related stress. However, McMinn et al. went out to say that this in turn can put added pressure on clergy spouses, as they are often seen as the sole interpersonal resource for stress relief of the clergy professional. In a 2016 longitudinal study by Westrupp et al., it was concluded that when new levels of workplace demands were coupled with the already present family demands, mothers were unable to feel supported by the resources that were available for them. Consequently, one of the ways that the participants pointed out the ability of their spouse to show their support was in the sharing of the workload in home life. Participant 11 commented, “[my husband] feels called by God to take care of everything family-related especially on Sundays so that I can be present in my ministry on Sundays.”

Still another method the participants viewed their spouses as a supportive resource was in their open and non-competitive shared leadership at home. Other participants saw their spouse as supportive when they would encourage and or advocate for their work in ministry.

A second resource of support for women in ministry, as mentioned by the participants in this study, was the resource of their parents.

Participant 8: “I remember my own parents, they were so, so supportive, so

deeply supportive, and could not have been more wildly proud. They

invited every duck they met, folks in the check-out line of the grocery

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store, they would tell them to go to this church, and hear this woman

preach. (laughs) It was embarrassing, but they were just incredible.”

At times, the support the participants mentioned came from outside their family systems, from their friends. Many of the participants mentioned the importance of having friends who were involved in ministry at some level and could understand the pressures that came with being in ministry.

One of the supportive groups that participants viewed as a supportive resource was the individuals that they worked alongside. The participants reported that when a minister’s work environment was a positive experience it had an impact on home life that created a positive work and home environment. Likewise, the spouses of fellow ministers were also reported as being an appreciated source of support. A positive work environment was seen to also provide a level of flexibility, stability, and consistency when it came to assisting in the work-life balance for the participants. Participant 11 noted, “our church has been a place of consistency. A place where the whole family is grounded.”

Although the participants reported many close interpersonal relationships that served as a source of support for them as seen above, they also mentioned several external supportive networks, sources on the outside of the individuals they minister to, that have assisted them in their ministry work. At times the external sources of support served as a buffer to spare the usefulness of other internal sources like a spouse.

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Participant 4: “that is also part of the reason why I connect with so many different

people and sometimes it’s just nice…you know there are some things that

I do want to talk to my husband about, but sometimes I need someone not

married, related, or someone who’s not invested at all.”

Other external support systems mentioned by the participants included: getaways, intergenerational support, mentors, mentor couples, therapy, educational cohorts, and support groups, both face-to-face and via online social media.

Finally, still another source of support for the participants consisted of personal practices including: times of solitude, prayer, and staying busy. This goes along with the research by McMinn et al. (2005) that a majority of clergy handled their work-related stressors in intrapersonal methods: spiritual devotion, hobbies, exercise, and taking time off work. Meek et al. (2003) found that having an active and intentional spiritual life was another factor that was emphasized by clergy who thrived in ministry. Clergy who reported a more positive attitude towards prayer also reported lower levels of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, coupled with higher levels of personal accomplishment

(Turton & Francis, 2007).

Values Coding

As shown in the previous chapter, seven major values statements were found to encompass the participants’ perspectives and worldviews. According to Saldaña (2016), the process of values coding looks for shared values, attitudes, and beliefs regarding the experiences the participants report. In regards to the participants of this study, the

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transcribed interviews were analyzed for values codes within the third cycle of coding.

The codes that emerged within this third cycle of coding revealed seven major values statements regarding how the participants in this study understood the work of women in ministry and the impact ministry work has had on their families and marriages. The following is a discussion of the values coding.

Ministry is a calling. It has been shown that ministry is often seen as a calling or a life purpose, and the participants in this study only further illustrated this commonly held value. Some of these value statements included: “I just always felt very called into those kinds of things,” “this was who I was, and what I was called to be,” and “I feel called to that if I didn't I would not be obeying God or following God's lead in my life.”

Tomic et al. (2004) concluded that it was this sense of being “called” that held ministry professionals in the ministry professions even in the face of difficult work-related stressors.

Many of the participants in this study used this sense of calling to help them persevere in the face of opposition to their position in ministry leadership. One of those statements was made by participant 5: “Make sure that you are clear for yourself about your calling, keep that at the forefront, because people are going to push and pull and poke at that, and if you are not confident in ‘this is what God has called me to do’ your going to believe them.” Participant 10 stated her belief about the importance of this calling when she gave her advice regarding what she would tell other women in ministry when facing opposition. “If God called you to this, you belong there.”

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Certain concessions have been shown, which individuals in ministry leadership frequently make in regards to job compensation, not only financially, but at times relationally. This willingness to compromise on employment benefits was noted by

Doolittle (2007) in a study done on parish-based clergy. Doolittle stated that while ministry falls in line with most other helping professions, ministry professionals are driven by a sense of purpose. A common characteristic for clergy is the lack of compensation, given their level of education, when compared with other helping professions. This willingness to sacrifice for the call was noted by Participant 11 in reference to her husband’s reactions to these concessions and its toll on their relationship.

“There is a sense of frustration that I think my husband has, frustrations that I work really hard, but that I am not very well compensated, because ministry is a low paying job. It’s like, ‘wow, my wife is putting in long hours, but it’s not doing a ton to help our family.’

You know…I think he would rather me be doing something that is less meaningful and higher paying, which would alleviate some of the financial pressure that he feels.”

Men and women have different experiences in ministry. A value that was seen throughout the responses of the participants in this study was that men and women have different experiences in ministry. Several of the participants in this study attributed their perception of gender differences in ministry to the different obstacles they have had to face.

Participant 13: “So, it’s different for women because there are more roadblocks.”

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Participant 12: “The joys, and the pressures, and the challenges are very

different.”

Participant 8: “Women have to work harder to, to be perceived as voices worthy

of being listened to.”

Participant 6: “Because I feel like I have to go so far above and beyond just to be

viewed as being competent, even though I might be in some instances more

highly credentialed, or the most appropriate person to carry out a task on the

ministry staff. I feel like I have to sometimes fight for my position there

because I’m female versus male.”

In a study carried out by Simon and Nadell (1995), women reported perceiving their approach to ministerial duties to be different from their male counterparts (less formal, more engaging, more approachable, and more people oriented).

When compared to male ministers, female ministers were more likely to report higher levels of stress in time expectations, emotional exhaustion, lack of quality family time, lack of confidants and intimate friends (Rowatt, 2001).

Participant 11: “Men and women are wired differently.”

Participant 10: “Sometimes women approach spiritual matters

differently…women are more likely to apply a spiritual element to a

situation.”

Participant 12: “I do truly believe that men and women are different and when

you put two different people in a ministry and partnering them together, their

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experiences are going to be different and you have to allow for the

environment for them to be different.”

In another study on gender differences to ministry approaches it was self-reported by clergy that they believed female clergy contributed different gifts to their ministry occupations compared to male clergy. However, the differences in approaches were not seen as a better than approach, rather simply a different approach (Robbins, 1998).

McDuff and Mueller (2002), found that female clergy held just as strongly if not stronger to professional values and orientations when compared to male clergy. One explanation

McDuff and Mueller suggested was that female clergy are more likely than male clergy to enter ministry as their second career, having obtained a different career earlier in life.

Therefore, the career values and professional expectations they developed in their previous career, intentionally or unintentionally, carried over into their new ministerial career.

Probst et al. (2017) determined that there is evidence that men and women react differently under stress conditions. It was found that under stress there was a decrease in motivation to provide caretaking among men, but not for women. More research needs to be carried out to determine if this tendency to tend-and-befriend is compounded along gender-lines with women, which could make them more susceptible to burnout and work- life spillover. This could be even more influential within the fields of helping professionals like ministry where relational, emotional, and spiritual issues are common.

Participant 4 talked about this tendency to be a nurturer, “especially as a woman, it’s very

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difficult…I think maybe nurturing is a good word. I am a nurturer, and not that men aren’t, because there are plenty of men who are, but there is this tendency to want to nurture and to please people and that can be difficult in ministry at times, because it’s hard to know…not hard to know, but it can be really easy for me to slip into that, to slip into working like a mother, especially if you are working with younger children or teens, to slip into a mother role or a big sister role. Um, and you, I feel that’s a lot of what parents want out of ministry right now.” Still another participant, participant 10 said,

“women are typically more nurturing…I think it seems like the men I work with are able to detach from the needs of our students a little better than I am.”

Ministry work will impact the family. Another common belief among the participants was that their work in ministry had and would continue to influence their family life on both healthy and unhealthy levels. Cho and Tay (2016) carried out a nine- year longitudinal study to determine the impact of work on family life. It was determined that a negative work-to-family directional spillover left employees with less life satisfaction at a nine-year follow-up. However, a positive family-to-work directional spillover was coupled with a higher life satisfaction rating at a nine-year follow-up. These results remained even after accounting for baseline life satisfaction, health, gender, income, and personality. Furthermore, Lee (1995) pointed out that in order to evaluate the impact of vocational ministry stress on clergy marriages and families there needs to be some level of systemic evaluation. Lee reasoned that within the context of a clergy family lies a convergence of familial, congregational, and denominational systems. Therefore,

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the impact from ministry work must be evaluated from a systemic approach taking into account the numerous interpersonal relationships that surround the minister, the least of which is the familial system.

One of the ways the participants in this study referenced how ministry impacted their families was through their fears that their spouse would view their work in ministry as the catalyst for their neglect of marriage and family responsibilities.

Participant 10: “The other stressor is when I’m pulled to be at work, or with the

people I’m ministering with. If I’m pulled there too much, is my family at

home feeling neglected, or that they are second best. That is a constant

struggle for me.”

Several participants mentioned the impact on their marriages and families from feeling a constant pull to be on-call in a ministry vocation.

Participant 1: “Experience time management and time commitment, and still

being able to give if you have a family give time to your family. This has been

one of the hardest things to figure out, how to balance all of that with time so

that you know it has not been easy, even with a husband who's fully

supportive it's been very hard. Ministry takes up every minute that you have if

you're not careful.”

The participants in this study saw the impact of ministry on marriage and family life as inevitable.

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Participant 6: “If you’ve got somebody just going into ministry during the early

years of ministry and early years of marriage all at the same time...wow. I

don’t know that we would have made it as unscathed as we have made it, only

eight years later, but still...eight years later. If I had started working in

ministry at the exact same time that I started, that I got married because it’s

just a lot of pull and it’s just a lot of stress and, um, it’s hard.”

The impact that ministry has on the marriage and family should not be viewed solely has a negative impact, at times the participants in this study referred to the impact as a positive impact.

Participant 11: “Our church has been a place of consistency. A place where the

whole family is grounded.”

Participant 5: “So far for our kids, ministry has been a good thing. Relationally-

wise, I think it has given them a relational foundation I don’t think they would

have had otherwise, and I’m grateful for that.”

Family should be the priority over ministry work. The participants expressed an attitude that although their ministry work was a calling, their first calling was to be to their family. Meek et al. (2003) concluded that one of the most important factors of resiliency to ministerial stress is the clergy’s ability to intentionally balance demands between life and work, while at the same time being intentional about maintaining healthy relationships (Meek et al., 2003). This healthy balance according to the participants in this study was to provide a greater emphasis towards the needs of family

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over the needs of ministry. Importance was also given by the participants of prioritizing their marriage over their ministry. Participant 2 stated, “Protect your marriage, spend time with your husband and don't even feel guilty about it don't even allow that thought to creep into your head.” Participant 13 warned, “If you don’t make keeping your marriage strong, then he [Satan] is going to use that every time to destroy you. He is really good at destroying marriages.”

One participant illustrated that the language her family used helped to remind their children and ultimately her and her husband that family was first. “Yes, the church is part of that equation, but it’s not all of it, we are the team. That language has helped our kids even when they were little-bitty. Being able to understand they’re our first priority. As schedules pull, which they will, you are still our first priority.” Participant 10 gave unique emphasis to this value when she said, “you are not so important that somebody is going to lose their soul if you take care of your family’s needs. You know there’s no text message that can’t wait, you know, there’s just nothing. God can save them without you sacrificing your family for it.” Several participants suggested that priority be given to family time by setting up non-negotiable times (i.e. date nights, and family trips).

If married, a supportive spouse plays an important role in helping a woman in ministry conduct long-term successful ministry work. A common theme and value that the participants stressed throughout their interviews was that a supportive spouse contributed an important role. Many of the women noted the importance of having a

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healthy support system but gave special emphasize to the role that a supportive spouse played in their ministry work. Several of the participants noted that their spouse was not only a supportive resource, but as participant 4 shared, “my husband is probably my greatest asset in ministry in so many ways.” Participant 1 in this study added, “I think that if I did not have a husband who is one hundred percent supportive, I could not have stayed in this long I just needed that support.”

Several of the participants in this study stated that they could not have carried out a successful ministry in the often male-dominated field of ministry leadership if it had not been for the willingness of their spouse to embrace nontraditional responsibilities.

Participant 11 emphasized her belief in the value of having a supportive husband who is willing to be progressive by stepping into a nontraditional role. “I think that as much as the woman is stepping into a non-traditional role, she is also asking her husband to step into a nontraditional role. Even if he works to be really progressive and supportive, taking care of children is hard and it’s taxing.” Richman et al. (2011) found that family support was an important factor in preventing issues from work-life spillover. Women are more equipped to handle challenges that arise in a male-dominated field when they receive encouragement from their family about their chosen career path. Characteristics of having this social network included an increased sense of belonging, which produced an increased level of interest and an increased sense of inclusiveness. Participant 1 stressed her belief in the value of a supportive spouse when she stated, “so I think having a spouse who can be as supportive as possible is really important for women in ministry. If you

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don't have that I don't know how we're even, I don't know how they could do it full-time if they're still expected to do traditional mothering too.”

Husbands of women in ministry need a support system. Darling et al. (2004) determined that clergy spouses had greater psychological and physiological stress when compared to clergy. This was attributed to frequent interruptions to family life that ministry brought upon the family, leaving the clergy spouse to take care of the family alone. The reported experiences of the participants in this study paralleled this finding, as several of the participants reported the strain ministry work took on their spouse due to increased parenting responsibilities, particularly on Sundays. McMinn et al. (2005) reported that this increased level of responsibility coupled with the desire of ministers to have their spouse as a resource can put high levels of stress on spouses of ministers.

Many of the participants in this study recognized this increased level of stress and talked about their desire to have support systems for their spouses. Participant 4 stated, “There is actually a lot of support out there for ministers’ wives, but there is really not for ministers’ husbands. And most of the husbands of ministers who are women, who I know, very few are around his age, so I think some of it is just him trying to figure it out and learning where to go for that support.”

Blanton and Morris (1999) found the most impactful element of work-related stress was the lack of a social support network, and this lack of a social support network most greatly impacted the physical symptomatology for wives of ministers. Although research on the impact of ministry work on the spouses of women in ministry has been

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limited up to the point of this study, it appears that the participants agreed that the toll of ministry work might be seen in their spouse’s well-being. Several of the participants mentioned their desire to have not only support systems for their spouses, but other husbands of ministers who can serve as role models on how to handle the stressors of having a wife in a ministry vocation. Participant 11 mentioned the potential to have retreats with other couples where the wife is in a ministry leadership position for marriage enrichment and cultivating friendships all in an effort to provide husbands of ministers with role models.

Women in ministry need other women in ministry. When it comes to the support that women need in order to successfully carry out their ministerial duties a common values theme that came from the participants in this study was that women in ministry need other women in ministry as a source of support. Participant 11 emphasized this important resource, “Women ministers need other women minister friends.” Along those same lines, Dudley (1996) found that one of the primary support systems for women in ministry came from other women. Participant 3 talked about the importance of having female role models in her life, “I need the connection with women, that I need and

I, I just see it also as being a strong example for other women and how they would do the spiritual life together, as well.”

Doolittle (2010) found that the ability of a minister to create and maintain diverse support networks outside of the congregation where the minister was serving worked to enhance their personal health and renewed their sense of purpose working in a vocational

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ministry. Participant 5 echoed the findings of Doolittle in her desire to see women in ministry “stay connected to community and friends because this is a unique road that they’ve chosen to walk, and you need people both inside and outside of that experience speaking into it, who are a hundred percent for you, not for your church but for you. Not that your church is bad, your church is probably great, but you need people for you.”

Theoretical Framework

The theoretical framework for this study was based on Reuben Hill’s family stress theory and Murray Bowen’s family systemic theory combined with a phenomenological approach to understanding the lived experiences of women in ministry. According to Hill

(1949), the impact a stressor can have on a family hinges upon three contributing elements. In Hill’s (1958) ABC-X model of family crisis A (the stressor) interacts with B

(the family’s available resources) which interacts with C (the family’s definition of the stressor) to produce X (the amount of impact the stressor will have on the family). Hill

(1958) formed his ABC-X equation showing how these three factors interact leading to whether or not a particular acute or chronic stressor would play a significant role in the life of the family. Hill’s theoretical model of understanding the actual stressors in a clergywoman’s ministry life and family life, perceptions of what is and is not considered stress, and the available resources the clergywoman was used as a framework to structure the interview questions to better understand the participants’ lived experiences.

This research was also guided by Murray Bowen’s family systems theory. From a systemic approach to understanding an individual, the individual should be viewed within

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the context of the family systemic unit consisting of all parts of the system, rather than viewing each member out of context from the rest of the family (Bowen, 1976; Bowen,

1978). Likewise, symptomatic problems within the family are seen as a systemic issue rather than an issue with an individual within the system. Therefore, in this study the participants, their marriages, and their families were accounted for in order to best understand the full contextual impact of ministry work-life spillover on the family system.

Utilizing the principles of Bowen’s theory provided a framework to guide the research process and analyze the qualitative findings from the participants’ interview responses. Bowen’s family systems theory provided a lens through which to view the overall impact work-life spillover had on clergywomen, their marriages, and their families. Likewise, the ministry work that clergywomen carry out should be viewed through the systemic theoretical lens mentioned above. Clergywomen must be on guard against being enmeshed into their ministry systems at the expense of their familial systems. This study on work-life spillover for clergywomen focused on the systemic principles of differentiation of self (identifying internal processes and staying connected while managing personal anxiety), triangles (avoiding becoming enmeshed in the system), and societal emotional process (recognizing the societal context and emotional patterns). If clergywomen do not effectively manage their emotional processes, emotional exhaustion, and depersonalization can occur. Also, the sense of personal accomplishment can be diminished. Working in a ministry position creates systemic roles and interactions

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that naturally develop over time, and which create isomorphic processes that can greatly influence the systemic interactions and roles a clergywoman plays in her personal family life regardless of her awareness. A clergywoman’s ability to handle this isomorphic process can positively or negatively influence strategies for navigating this work-life balance. Clergywomen can be impacted by negative interactions in her ministry, which can lead to emotional exhaustion and depersonalization and a decreased sense of personal accomplishment. This impact can be bi-directional, work-to-family, or family-to-work.

In addition to the impact of the theories discussed above, this qualitative study utilized a phenomenological approach to understand the lived experiences and meanings of these experiences for women in ministry. The purpose of the phenomenological approach, according to Spiegelberg (1975), is to “investigate and describe phenomena as consciously experienced” and “as free as possible from unexamined preconceptions and presuppositions” (p. 3). According to Patton (2002), the goal of a phenomenological approach is to grasp the meaning of lived experiences by looking at how individuals

“perceive it, describe it, feel about it, judge it, remember it, make sense of it, and talk about it with others” (p. 104). Therefore, guided by a phenomenological framework and through the use of interviews, this study attempted to glean information out of the meanings women in ministry gave to their particular lived experiences in ministry and their perception on the level of impact ministry has had on their marriages and families.

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Strengths of the Study

The strengths of this study are in direct correlation the qualitative methodology and phenomenological research approach used to capture the lived experiences of women in ministry vocations. This study sought to explore and assemble the perceived impact ministry work has on the personal, marital, and familial relationships as reported by women in ministry.

This study will assist clergywomen, their families, the organizations that prepare and employ women for a vocation in ministry, and family scientists in the following ways:

1. To build on the limited amount of available research on such an important, yet

often neglected research population. Although the impact of stressors and

burnout are as real for men as they are for women, research has been primarily

carried out over men in ministry. As women continue to increase their

presence into the vocational field of ministry, an occupational field that has

been an often male-dominated field, there is a greater need and demand for

more research to be conducted on women and their experiences in ministry.

2. To bring an awareness of needs for clergywomen to the ministry organizations

that employ them, as well as to the institutions that prepare and train them for

entering ministry in order to aid in the success of their ministry careers.

3. To assist current and future women in ministry with the tools they need to

thrive during their time in a ministry vocation.

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4. To bring awareness to the unique position and stressors of spouses of

clergywomen. The experiences of the spouses of clergywomen have gone

largely unresearched, and the resources and support networks for these

spouses need to be developed. According to the findings in this study, an

increased level of research on spouses of clergywomen would serve to greatly

decrease the negative impacts of ministry work-life spillover.

5. To bring awareness of the importance of self-care on a variety of levels (i.e.

spiritually, physically, social resources and support networks) in order to

lessen the negative impacts of ministry work-life spillover.

6. To assist family scientists, educators, and therapists to develop and implement

educational programs for women in ministry, their spouses, their families, and

their employers.

Conclusions

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand the experiences of women in ministry, and their perceptions on the impact ministry has had on their marriages and families. The following are the conclusions drawn from the findings of this study.

Women in ministry enter into a vocation in ministry due to a combination of both internal and external factors. A consistent belief and attitude among the participants was that their work in ministry was a designed “calling” from God rather than an occupation that they fell into. In addition to a sense of feeling called, other internal factors for

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ministry entrance include awareness of the need, passion for the church, and a belief that they hold a natural giftedness. External factors for entrance into ministry include having grown up in a ministry family, seeing ministry modeled, recommendations, school experiences, life experiences, and ministry opportunities. A vocation in ministry provides ministers with a sense of purpose, ability to teach and preach, opportunity to conduct behind the scenes ministry, and most importantly opportunity for relationships.

Women perceive their experiences in ministry to be different than the experiences of men. There are certain expectations and levels of demand that are both spoken and unspoken for women in ministry. Sometimes these felt demands come from external sources, such as cultural pressures. Other times these expectations come from within the congregations these women serve. At times, even their congregations are uncertain as of how to handle women in ministry. Still other times, the demands of a vocation in ministry feel unobtainable and unrealistic. The pressures of these expectations and demands are ongoing.

Often the felt expectations and demands can be characterized through the misconceptions and unfair stereotypes towards women in ministry. Many participants in this study reported frequently feeling the unrequested and daunting pressure to be a representative and trailblazer for all women in ministry. At times, this increased level of scrutiny was found in the details of their ministry work (i.e., the attire they wear, maternal responsibilities, pregnancy, etc.).

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Furthermore, it was concluded that women in ministry feel a career in ministry limits several areas of their personal and professional lives such as: potential career attainment, personal and professional work recognition, friendships, felt appreciation and value, and equal amounts of respect across genders. Several participants reported a feeling of being questioned on their qualifications for being in a ministry vocation from those around them, as well as their own internal questioning whether they should be in their ministry positions. Another internal battle the participants’ reported fighting was the battle to prove value and worth, the need to go above and beyond just to feel as though they had a right to be in the conversation.

Women in ministry recognize that their work in ministry can have both healthy and unhealthy consequences for their families. Many of the participants talked about their awareness over the increased level of stress and outside expectations their spouse has had to endure due to their involvement in a ministry vocation. Often the participants reported that the role of their spouse was not clear and led to work-life spillover issues. The participants in this study reported an awareness and a struggle to utilize personal and family boundaries in attempts to protect their marriages and families from the demands of ministry. Likewise, it was concluded that women in ministry realize that the personal needs and identity of their spouses tend to be overlooked, and that their spouses need to have available resources.

Boundaries are central to maintaining personal limits, finding a healthy ratio of time spent in ministry activities versus quality family time, protecting family time by

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limiting technology, and allowing for differences of opinions. Although some of the reasons for boundaries given by the participants were for personal reasons, a large portion of the defense in favor of boundaries came from the need to prioritize and protect important interpersonal relationships (i.e., marriage and family relationships). Another conclusion from this study is that women in ministry feel the pressure to do both work and life but feel that family life must be the highest priority.

Women in ministry recognize a constant tension that exists between work demands and family demands that seems to never be satisfied. Likewise, the participants mentioned that one of the hardest areas to balance these demands was on the weekend, where the demands of ministry work were heightened. The lack of available family time and the tension that exists between ministry demands and family demands can create a level of guilt for women in ministry. One of the positive aspects mentioned by the participants when it came to balancing ministry and family life was that ministry work allowed for a little more flexibility in hours compared to other occupations.

Overall women in ministry view their occupation from a positive perspective.

Despite the stressors mentioned earlier, each participant in this study placed an emphasis on expressing their positive experiences in ministry work and how they and their families had grown and found purpose from their time in a ministry vocation. In addition to the diversity in experiences, the participants reflected on the diverse relational opportunities that being in ministry has afforded their families. Relationships built during time in ministry is seen more than just friendships gained, but that these individuals had become

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part of their families. Several participants saw the benefit to their families through the benefits ministry brought to their marriages, such as a shared sense of purpose and goals for their marriage relationship. In addition to the benefits that ministry work can have for a minister’s marriage, ministry work is seen by women in ministry to provide benefits for their children.

Another conclusion from this study was that the ability of women in ministry to balance the demands of ministry with the demands of family life is greatly impacted by her work environment. Participants in this study mentioned their connection to a positive work environment with their ability to provide stability and consistency in family life.

When it comes to support, women in ministry view their spouse as one of the most important resources by being an encourager, advocator, and helper. Several of the participants in this study cited their spouse’s willingness to share the household workload as a major source of support. Other sources of support for women in ministry include parents, children, and friendships, specifically friends involved in ministry work. Women in ministry find networks outside of their ministry to be a great source of support (i.e., social media support groups, educational cohorts, therapists, spiritual directors, etc.). At times, the external sources of support serve as a buffer to spare the fatigue of other highly used sources, like a spouse. Finally, due to the uniqueness of being a woman in ministry, female ministers recognize the need to lean on the support and example of other women who serve in ministry positions.

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Limitations

A few limitations were identified during the course of conducting this research study. These limitations are described below to provide additional clarification regarding this study, which covered the lived experiences of women in ministry.

In any study that relies on self-reported retrospective memories, it may be assumed that the present may have an influence on one’s recollection of the past.

Likewise, a level of social desirability bias may have played a role among the participants when responding to the interview questions in order to protect the reputation and public image of the minister or the profession. Since the participates voluntarily chose to be a part of this study, other potential participants that would have qualified for inclusion in this study may have not reached out to the researcher due to a desire to not discuss their experiences while being employed in a ministry position should they have been negative experiences.

Furthermore, during the interview process many of the participants referenced their time in seminaries, colleges, and universities obtaining undergraduate, graduate, and even post-graduate degrees. It has been shown that clergy who hold degrees from a higher level of education maintain an increased level of both work and boundary-related stress (Wells et al., 2012). Level of education was not formally taken into account when analyzing participant responses for this study. Similarly, participant income levels were not accounted for either.

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This study was limited to the recollections of women employed in ministry and the impact that ministry work has had on their marriages and families. The inclusion of spouses and children may have produced different findings. Another limitation of this study was the lack of non-paid ministry workers due to the delimitation qualifier that participants are in a paid position. Other ministry workers could have fit the criteria for this study if it did not include that restriction that they needed to be paid ministers.

Another potential limitation was any overlooked bias on the part of the researcher having been a member of the clergy himself. Although attempts to ensure rigor included triangulation throughout the data collection and data analysis of the study, the researcher’s experiences and bias may still have affected the subjective interpretation of the results. Other researchers may have analyzed the collected data differently. Therefore, replication of this study may produce different findings. The sample was a convenience approach to sampling, which utilized snowball sampling to recruit participants.

Therefore, the participants may not be an accurate representation of the total population of women in ministry. Additionally, due to the small sample size required for a phenomenological qualitative study, caution should be used in generalizing these findings to a larger population.

Implications

As an exploratory qualitative study, the findings from this research suggest a number of implications that could lay the groundwork for future research regarding the impact ministry work have on female ministers, their marriages, and their families. The

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new results and findings gained from this study have implications for the spouses and families of women in ministry, educators of women going into ministry (i.e., university curricula), workplace settings and culture (i.e., church congregations and leadership teams, mission organizations, chaplaincy programs, etc.), restorative organizations who work with ministers and their families (i.e., therapists, mentors, spiritual directors, retreat centers, etc.), and self-of-the-minister issues that may arise while doing ministry work for women who are currently or will be employed in ministry positions.

One of the most obvious implications when it comes to work-life spillover for women in ministry is the assistance this type of research can provide for the spouses and families of women in ministry. Previous research has shown that a significant negative relationship can be found between work-family conflict and the relationship quality of couples (Fellows et al., 2016). The interview responses of the participants in this study expressed a desire for there to be more assistance for their spouses and families, as they feel they may not be adequately prepared to handle the unique stressors a life in ministry work entails.

Another implication is in regard to the educators of women going into ministry, in particular to the methods and content that is used by these educators to prepare females for a career in ministry work. University faculty can use this research to support their classroom and supervision practices with students going into ministry occupations, in particular female students going into ministry. There is a marked increase in recent years of women who are entering and being ordained into ministry positions by an ever-

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growing number of denominations. Therefore, those that prepare individuals for ministry vocations should be aware of the unique experiences of this rising population of future ministers, and how they can best prepare these women to succeed. Several of the participants in this study expressed a lack of preparation for how to handle the pressures and problems that came with being in a ministry profession.

Furthermore, this study has implications for the workplace settings and culture

(i.e., church congregations and leadership teams, mission organizations, chaplaincy programs, etc.). As pointed out by Dudley (1996), one of the most impactful catalysts for changing beliefs about women in ministry is firsthand observation on the effectiveness of women in congregational leadership positions. Therefore, this study can provide foundational understanding to the experiences of women in ministry who are currently serving in the field. The obstacles and issues the participants in this study have described can help to change the policies and practices of workplace settings that have only served to further prevent women from succeeding during their time in ministry.

Another implication is for the restorative organizations who work with ministers and their families (i.e., marriage and family therapists, mentors, spiritual directors, retreat centers, etc.). Ministry families have to face unique issues and pressures of being held to standards as role models for other marriages and families. Therefore, this initial research into the experiences of married women in ministry can serve to help the support systems and resources needed by females in ministry vocations. An implication of this study is to help therapists (i.e., marriage and family therapists) and spiritual directors who work with

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ministry families to put in place practices that would enable them to effectively and efficiently handle the provision of services to the communities, congregations, and families connected to female ministers. It would be wise to give further attention by family therapists to design more formal programs that could aid in the pressures and problems that have a tendency to arise both at the onset of a minister’s career, as well as during their time in ministry.

Likewise, an implication is that women who have a long-term level of experience serving in ministry vocations could intentionally practice mentoring women who are beginning their careers in ministry vocations through teaching and modeling self-care practices, resources, and work-life balancing techniques. On the other side of the age continuum, beginning female ministers could benefit from seeking out experienced female ministers to mentor them on how to balance work and personal life. This mentor relationship has the potential to be symbiotic, as pointed out by several of the participants in this study.

A final method of implication from this study is to assist women who are currently or will be employed in ministry positions. This study shows that there is a benefit in being proactive about self-awareness and self-care, beginning in pre- contemplative stages of preparing for and entering into ministry vocations. As mentioned above this can be introduced and encouraged during educational and vocational preparation times in the life of a minister. However, this can also be carried out through the personal practices that the female minister regularly implements (i.e., personal faith

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practices, physical exercise, basic self-care practices, etc.). Many of the participants in this study expressed their awareness and concern for the bi-directional impact work-to- life and life-to-work spillover can have on their vocational and familial health. Due to the isolative tendency that comes with being in a ministry profession the willingness of female ministers to address self-of-the-minister issues early on is imperative to maintaining a healthy long-term ministry career.

Recommendations for Further Research

The results of this study have revealed additional areas of research that can be examined further. The following are recommendations for future research:

1. Conduct a similar research study covering women in ministry vocations who are

not married. The findings from this present study could then be compared with the

findings from the research with participants who are unmarried to determine the

role marriage has on ministry work-life spillover.

2. Conduct further research to determine if the length of marriage can be correlated

to positive or negative work-life spillover effects. Similarly, are there points at

which the role of marriage plays a larger role in the work-life spillover (i.e. start

of marriage, retirement, specific anniversary years, etc.).

3. The presence or absence of children in the participants’ families was not a

delimitation for the present study; however, future research could be conducted

that looks at the impact ministry work-life spillover has when children are present

or absent in the family home.

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4. Utilize quantitative instruments that can measure areas that may be relevant to

impacting work-life spillover for women in ministry (i.e. including areas such as

anxiety, depression, marital satisfaction, and social relationships).

5. Conduct a similar research study covering the spouses of women in ministry. The

findings from this present study could then be compared with the findings from

the research with the spouses of clergywomen to determine the role perspective

plays on ministry work-life spillover. This would provide the researcher with

more accurate first-hand statements from the spouse of the clergy rather than

reports from the clergyperson about their perceptions of their spouse’s thoughts

and feelings.

6. Conduct qualitative longitudinal research. Research could begin with newly

engaged couples and then continue throughout their married life to gather a more

diverse sampling of lived experiences. Examination of longitudinal studies of the

clergy, their marriages, and their families from the inception of ministry could

provide insight to the roles and experiences of the clergy and long-term impact on

quality of life.

7. Conduct research that explores the reasons for entrance into ministry combined

with the level of work-life spillover impact. The participants from this study

revealed that they had a variety of reasons for why they first entered ministry (i.e.

family influence, recommendations, feeling called, etc.). Research on the role of

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reasons for entrance into ministry and the subsequent level of felt work-life

spillover could be insightful.

8. Furthermore, future research could be done on women who have exited ministry.

If factors for exiting ministry could be compiled, preventative steps could be

taken for women who are considering a vocation in ministry, as well as for

women who are currently in ministry.

9. Based on the findings from this study, another area of future exploration would be

to study the defining and evolving process of gender roles between and within the

marriage for clergywomen and their spouses. Exploration could include

expectations of what gender roles will entail prior to entrance into ministry, as

well as during the initial years. Areas of examination could include housework

responsibilities, spiritual leadership, and parenting responsibilities.

10. Another recommended area of future research could be to conduct research on

family professionals (i.e. family therapists and spiritual directors) regarding the

frequency with which they work with clergywomen and their families.

Exploration could be carried out to determine what tools would be helpful for

these professionals in their training towards work with this specific population.

11. Future research could be conducted regarding policies, such as workplace

policies, that impact clergywomen combined with an exploration of options that

may better address the needs of this population. Specific policies from the church

and the organizational leadership should be explored to determine how more

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congregations and organizations can be proactive on setting up and implementing

healthy policies such as clear job descriptions, maternity leave policies, bathroom

access, flexibility on parenting responsibilities, and positional authority (i.e.

leadership abilities in front of congregations or leadership meetings).

12. Future research ought to be carried out on the seminaries, colleges, universities,

and other institutions that prepare individuals for ministry vocations. The

curriculum of these institutions should include family life education and skills to

handle work-life spillover. In addition, future exploratory research could be

conducted to determine what level of comprehensive personal self-care is being

taught in these educational programs.

13. A final recommendation for future research would be to explore how veteran

clergywomen, those who have been in ministry 20 years or more, acquire positive

coping skills and self-care practices that mitigate work-life spillover. This

research could explore other strategies that are helpful to creating and maintaining

a successful career in a ministry occupation.

Summary

While there has been a limited amount of research covering the impact of ministry stressors on clergymen, there has been even less research on the impact ministry work has on the lives of clergywomen and their families. This qualitative study explored the lived experiences of 13 women in ministry. This chapter provided a discussion of the six major themes and the seven values statements that emerged from the data analysis of the

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transcribed participant interviews in consideration of relevant literature. This chapter also included a discussion of the theoretical framework for the study, strengths of the study, conclusions, limitations, implications, and recommendations for future research. Overall, this research added to the limited body of literature on the experiences of women in ministry, and their perceived impact these experiences have on their marriages and families. The insight gained from this phenomenological approach to exploring the impact a ministry vocation can have on the lives of clergywomen and their families will help to generate increased interest for a growing population of ministry workers and encourage subsequent research to empower these women to thrive during their time in ministry.

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APPENDIX A

Recruitment Email

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Dear ______,

My name is Josh Fish and I am a doctoral candidate currently working on my doctoral dissertation in Family Therapy at Texas Woman’s University. My dissertation research is regarding the impact of ministry work on family life for women. I am emailing you given your involvement in ministry and to ask whether you might be willing to forward the email below, and the attached flyer, to any women who might fit the requirements for this study. Specifically, my goal is to recruit women from 22-65 years of age who are serving, or have served, in a vocational ministry position and who are (or were) married during at least part of their time in ministry. Participation is voluntary and the participants may withdraw from the study at any time without penalty. Please note: there is a potential risk of loss of confidentiality in all email, downloading, electronic meetings, and internet transactions.

Thank you very much for forwarding my request for participants, and for supporting this important research!

Sincerely,

Josh Fish

______

Hello,

My name is Josh Fish and I am a doctoral candidate currently working on my doctoral dissertation in Family Therapy at Texas Woman’s University. My dissertation research is over the impact of ministry work on family life for women. I am choosing to research women in ministry due to the lack of research conducted that seeks to understand the experiences of this group.

Requirements to participate in this study include: (1) You are a woman between the ages of 22 – 65. (2) You have served, or are currently serving, in a vocational Christian ministry position. (3) You are, or have been, married for at least part of your time in ministry.

The level of involvement for all participants includes a one-time 60 to 90-minute phone, video, or face-to-face interview. There will also be an opportunity to participate in a post-interview follow-up if you so choose for a maximum time commitment, including the one-time interview, of one to two hours. All identifiable information will remain confidential and be secured, and any identifiable information about the participants will 257

not be published. Participation is voluntary and participants may withdraw from the study at any time without penalty. Please note: there is a potential risk of loss of confidentiality in all email, downloading, electronic meetings, and internet transactions.

The goal of this study is to increase the limited available research on the experiences of women in ministry, as well as assist mental health providers who work with women in ministry. If you, or someone you know, would fit the requirements for this study, please consider participating or sharing this information. Please also see the attached flyer.

If you are interested in participating in this study please contact me via phone at 214-564-4073 or by email at [email protected]. You may also contact my research advisor at Texas Woman’s University, Aaron Norton, Ph.D. at 940-898-2685

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Thank you for your time,

Josh Fish, M.A. Doctoral Candidate Texas Woman’s University

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APPENDIX B

Recruitment Flyer

259

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APPENDIX C

Initial Telephone Call Script

261

Initial Telephone Call Script

Greetings

“Hello my name is Josh Fish, and I am a doctoral graduate student at Texas Woman’s

University. As part of my doctoral requirements I will be conducting a research study.

My research study explores the experiences of women in ministry and their understanding of how ministry impacts their marriages and families. This is an opportunity to give women in ministry a chance to voice their experiences, and to help future generations of women in ministry to thrive during their time in ministry.”

Purpose

“In addition, this study is to help inform individuals who work with women in ministry, those who educate women for ministry, the spouses of female ministers, and their families about what is helpful to successfully maintain work-life balance for women in ministry.”

The Interview

“If you agree to participate, I will meet you at a time and method that is convenient for you. Your interview can be conducted over the phone, through an online video call, or through a face-to-face meeting. The interview itself will consist of some basic background information and some questions about your experiences of being a woman in ministry and the impact you believe ministry has had over your personal relationships.

For accuracy purposes, the interview will be audio-recorded. However, all personal identifiable information will be protected for confidentiality purposes.”

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Closing

“All participation is voluntary, and you are free to withdraw from the study at any time.

Are there any questions you might have? (Discuss time and method of interview if they agree to participate) Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today and I look forward to getting to sit down with you soon and hearing your story.”

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APPENDIX D

Consent Form

264

265

266

APPENDIX E

Demographic Questionnaire

267

Basic Demographic Questionnaire:

Please answer the following questions:

1) What is your current age? ______

2) What is your current marital/relationship status?  Single  Married  Divorced  Widowed  Other ______

3) How many years have you served in ministry? ______Years serving part-time ______Years serving full-time ______

4) What area, or areas, of ministry have you served in? Please describe each area you have served, estimate the average hours per week for each ministry area, and the length of service. Area of ministry: ______Hours per week: ______Length of service: ______Area of ministry: ______Hours per week: ______Length of service: ______Area of ministry: ______Hours per week: ______Length of service: ______

5) Are you currently employed in vocational ministry?  Yes  No If no, how many years have you been out of vocational ministry? ______

6) What denomination, or denominations, have you served during your time in ministry? ______

6) How many of the years during your time in ministry have you been married? ______

7) Do you have any children?  Yes  No If yes: How many children do you have? ______Ages? ______How many of the years during your time in ministry have you had children? ____

8). May I contact you in the future if I have follow-up questions?  Yes  No

If yes, what is the best phone number to contact you at?

268

APPENDIX F

Interview Guide

269

Participant’s Code: ______

Date of Interview: ______

Introduction

“Hello, my name is Josh Fish. Thank you so much for agreeing to be a part of my study. The reason for this study is to better understand the experiences of women in ministry, and how they feel ministry has impacted their marriages and families. All participation is voluntary and you can withdraw at any time. Can I answer any questions you may have at this point?” (answer any question the participant might have)

“You are welcome to take as many breaks as needed. I will be using an audio recording device to record our conversation for accuracy.”

(Show audio-recorder to participant)

“Let us start with the consent form. I will go over it in detail with you.” (The consent form will be covered with the participant. Questions will be answered, as well as any clarification that is desired)

(If consent form is signed, the interview will proceed.)

“Do you have any questions before we begin?” (any questions the participant might have will be addressed)

“I will turn on the audio-recorder now and we can begin the interview.”

“Let us start with filling out some basic information about your background. You do not have to answer any question you are not comfortable with. Let me know if you have any questions.”

(Turn on audio-recorder and go over demographic questionnaire. Researcher will answer any questions the participant might have. After questionnaire is finished, the interview will continue).

“Thank you. Let us continue with the interview. I will ask a few questions that will serve as a guide for our time together, but I am mainly interested in hearing your voice about your experiences in ministry. You are welcome to speak openly and freely. You can take a break or stop anytime. Do you have any questions at this point?”

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(Researcher will answer any questions)

“Okay, let us begin. Please tell me how you first got into ministry.”

(Next)

“What do you enjoy about ministry?”

(Next)

“Do you feel like the experiences of being a woman in ministry are different than the experiences of men in ministry? Why or why not?”

(Next)

“What are frequent stressors you face during your time in ministry?”

(Next)

“How do you balance the demands of ministry with the demands of your personal relationships?”

(Next)

“Has there been a time when ministry positively or negatively impacted your marriage or family time? In what ways has ministry been beneficial? In what ways has it negatively impacted your marriage and/or family time?”

(Next)

“How does your spouse and your family view your ministry?”

(Next)

“If you need emotional or tangible support who are you able to lean on, and how?”

(Next)

“If you were able to start your time in ministry over again, what would you do differently to make sure you were able to thrive during your time in ministry?” 271

(Next)

“What advice would you give to the future generations of women in ministry? In particular, what advice would you give them regarding their marriages and families?”

“Thank you so much for sharing your story with me. If it is alright with you, I will be making a follow-up call or email to see if there is anything else you would like to share. If you requested a summary of the results, they will be sent to the address you provided. Do you have any questions at this point?”

(Answer any questions the participant might have.)

“Once again, thank you so much for your time and insight. I hope you have a great day.”

Prompts When Needed

“Can you tell me more about that?”

“Can you explain that?”

“Can you give me an example?”

“Let me see if I understand…”

“Is there anything you would like to add?”

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APPENDIX G

Follow-up Telephone Script

273

Follow-up Telephone Script

Follow-Up

“Hello, this is Josh Fish from Texas Woman's University. How are you doing today? I just wanted to check-in to see if you had any more questions about our interview together, or if you wanted to add something that you didn’t get to say during the interview.”

Member Checking

“I also wanted to share some initial results from the transcription to make sure that your words and experiences have been adequately captured. Would that be okay?”

Summary of Findings

“Thank you again for agreeing to participate in my study. If you indicated interest, I will send you a summary of the results to the contact information you provided.”

274

APPENDIX H

List of Referral Sources

275

List of Referral Sources

RESOURCES ACROSS THE COUNTRY

Psychology Today therapist locator www.psychologytoday.com

AAMFT therapist locator www.therapistlocator.net

KNOX COUNTY

Ebenezer Counseling Services 325 Ebenezer Road Knoxville, TN 37923 865-670-0988 www.ebenezercounseling.com

Knox County Therapy Center 2455 Sutherland Ave. Building B Knoxville, TN 37919 865-246-1100 ext. 400

Cokesbury Counseling Center 2025 Castaic Ln. Knoxville, TN 37932 865-246-0445 www.cokesburycounseling.org

Sacred Retreat Counseling 2001 Lake Avenue Knoxville, Tennessee 37916 865-742-7114

SEVIER COUNTY

Sevier County Center 647 Wall Street Sevierville, TN 37862 865-429-0557

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MCMINN COUNTY

McMinn County Center 584 South Congress Parkway Athens, TN 37303 423-507-0887

LOUDON COUNTY

Loudon County Center 1475 Simpson Rd. W, Suite 2 Lenoir City, TN 37771 865-635-0242

HAMILTON COUNTY

Hamilton County Adult Center 601 Cumberland Street Chattanooga, TN 37404 423-266-4742

HAMBLEN COUNTY

Hamblen County Center 310 W. 3rd North Street Building 1 Morristown, TN 37814 423-581-4761

BLOUNT COUNTY

Blount County Center 1704 East Broadway Avenue Maryville, TN 37804 865-681-6990

ANDERSON COUNTY

Anderson County Center 158 Fairbanks Road Oak Ridge, TN 37830 865-483-7743 277