The Intersection of Clergy Emotional Health and Congregant Spiritual Health

Abstract

This research focused on the potential intersection of clergy emotional health and congregant spiritual health. Since church discipleship in America continues to decline, along with pastors reporting declining emotional health and congregants reporting declining spiritual involvement, it seemed of value to examine whether clergy emotional health played a significant role in the spiritual health of their congregants. Pastors completed quantitative surveys regarding their emotional health, and their corresponding congregants completed quantitative surveys regarding their spiritual health. All participants used validated survey instruments, one for pastors and one for congregants. Results suggested a course for future research involving pastoral emotional health and congregant spiritual health. However, due to smaller than expected sample sizes of congregants and clergy samples that were too homogenous, most data validation was not possible. Recommendations for future study are subsequently discussed.