Resilience is a helpful construct when considering how to support clergy well-being. The purpose of this study was to gain knowledge about clergy resilience, specifically those resources that clergy perceived had supported their professional resilience. The study gave attention to aspects of preservice training and professional development that helped to foster clergy resilience and initiatives that clergy desired to further support their resilience. Clergy reported multiple resources that supported their resilience including supports for spiritual life, relational supports, personal aspects, and organizational practices. Spiritual dimensions of support for resilience were prominent for clergy, especially the centrality of calling to ministry, theological meaning-making, and relationship with God. Participants also revealed helpful aspects of preservice training and professional development. Aspects of preservice training included rigorous discernment and screening of their callings and the inclusion of required practices, such as spiritual direction or mentorship. Aspects of professional development included a variety of skill development opportunities, lifelong learning, conferences, and networking with peers. Participants reported their desire for initiatives that included more wellness opportunities and an increased organizational prioritization of clergy wellness.

Christian clergy are at risk of experiencing the negative impacts of role-related stress and adversity, especially burnout. The findings reported in this article were derived from a Canadian mix-methods study that collected data through an online survey with 519 clerics, 13 one-on-one interviews, and interpretation panels. Adversity themes identified related to workload, expectations, isolation, and personal challenges with various subthemes for each. These findings are relevant to those providing care to clergy by providing insights into the challenges they face.

Clergy play significant leadership, educational, and caregiving roles in society. However, burnout is a concern for the clergy profession, those they serve, and their families. Effects include decreased ministry effectiveness, lower sense of personal accomplishment in their role, and negative impacts on quality of family life and relationships. Given these risks, knowledge of the nature of Christian clergy’s current resilience and well-being in Canada may provide valuable intelligence to mitigate these challenges. In summary, the purpose of this research was to describe and analyze the status of clergy resilience and well-being in Canada, together with offering focused insights. Resilience and well-being surveys used by the co-authors with educators and nurses were adapted for use in this study. This instrument was developed to gain insight into baseline patterns of resilience and well-being and included questions across seven sections: (1) demographic information. (2) health status, (3) professional quality of life, (4) Cantril Well-Being Scale, (5) Ego-Resiliency Scale, (6) Grit Scale, and (7) open-ended questions. The findings provided valuable insights into clergy well-being and resilience that can benefit individual clerics, educational institutions, denominations, and congregations. The participants’ current resilience and well-being included high levels of resiliency, moderate grit, and satisfaction with health and wellness. Other significant findings included the impact of congregational flourishing and age. This study found that clergy well-being and resilience was doing well despite the increased adversity of the COVID-19 pandemic. Implications of this study are that clerics may need unique supports based on their age and also whether they serve in a congregation they perceive as flourishing.

The Clergy Resilience Model is a theoretical framework with a systemic perspective that is useful to denominations, individual clerics, and therapists in supporting clergy resilience and well-being. This article describes the development of this framework specific to clergy. As there is limited literature on the nature of clergy resilience or the specific variables that enable clergy to positively adapt to the challenges and adversity they face, the Clergy Resilience Model provides a useful framework to begin to understand clergy resilience as a dynamic process. The Clergy Resilience Model highlights the balance between adversity clergy encounter and supportive resources they have access to, as well as the overarching influence of key spiritual factors on clergy resilience. The Clergy Resilience Model was developed as a tool that may help clergy resilience both on an individual and systemic level by creating awareness of critical factors.