Journal of Psychology and Theology

2003, Vol. 31, No. 4, 329-338

Copyright 2003 by Rosemead School of Psychology

Biola University, 0091-6471/410-730

329

The concept of burnout was first used byFreudenberger in 1974. He concluded thatyoung social workers who were employed in

substance abuse projects could be subject to depres-sion after a few years. Although these professionalswere initially found to be highly suitable for theirjobs, it was, as Freudenberger posited, quite likelythat their emotional state was caused by increasedfeelings of powerlessness. It was very striking thatthe subjects of his study did not harbor such feelingsduring the weekends or holidays.

In the most widely used definition (Maslach,1993), burnout is described as “. . . a psychologicalsyndrome of emotional exhaustion, depersonaliza-tion, and reduced personal accomplishment that canoccur among individuals who work with other peo-ple in some capacity. Emotional exhaustion refers tofeelings of being emotionally overextended and

depleted of one's emotional resources. Depersonal-ization refers to a negative, callous, or excessivelydetached response to other people, who are usuallythe recipients of one's services or care” (pp. 20-21).

Schaufeli, Maslach, and Marek (1993) found fiveaspects that corresponded to the definitions ofburnout they had studied. First, people sufferingfrom burnout showed symptoms of restlessness anddissatisfaction, such as emotional exhaustion,fatigue, and depression. Second, both mental andbehavioral problems stood out, although sometimesthere were physical complaints as well. Third,burnout was connected with the jobs of the personsinvolved. Fourth, it also appeared that the symptomsof burnout showed up in people who had not previ-ously had any psychical complaints. Last, people suf-fering from burnout appeared to be less effective intheir daily work, and work performance sufferedbecause of negative attitudes and behavior.

More often than not, people displaying symp-toms of burnout have rather low opinions of them-selves. Moreover, they do not have a positive opin-ion of their work performance, which in turn has anegative influence on their self-esteem and self-respect (Karsten, 2000). People who have fallen vic-tim to burnout usually do not like their job anylonger. They have become void of energy and haveno zest for life. In some cases they do not even takepleasure in their hobbies. They cannot rid them-selves of the problems they are having in their jobs,and they even shrink from daily routines such asposting a letter or paying a bill. They are unable tofocus on anything, and organizing things has becomea problem for them. Another striking feature of peo-ple suffering from burnout is that mental organiza-tional principles seem to have abandoned them: theycannot distinguish between essentials and details, letalone set priorities. They sleep poorly and are nolonger able to relax. As a result, they may develop

BURNOUT AMONG DUTCHREFORMED PASTORSWILL EVERS

WELKO TOMIC

The Open UniversityThe Netherlands

The present study examined the degree of burnoutamong Dutch reformed pastors and aspects that maybe conducive to the onset of burnout. They wereasked to report how difficult they found their tasksand what options they had to alleviate the pressureof work they experienced. Compared with otherhuman service professionals the results show thatpastors have relatively high scores on emotionalexhaustion and relatively low scores on depersonal-ization. Pastors have relatively low scores on person-al accomplishment. Those who say they are experi-encing severe pressure of work appear to have highscores on the three burnout dimensions. Role ambi-guity and lack of social support appear to intensifyreported feelings of burnout. This article concludesby discussing some of the pastor's own suggestionsas to how to relieve work pressure.

Correspoondence concerning this article should be addressed toWelko Tomic, Faculty of Social Sciences, P.O. Box 2960, 6401 DLHeerlen, the Netherlands. Email welko.tomic@ou.nl

330 BURNOUT AMONG PASTORS

neurotic complaints, such as feelings of guilt, anxi-ety, depression, or obsession (Karsten, 2000).

Studies on Burnout Among Pastors in the USAand the Netherlands

Hall (1997) published an outstanding article inwhich he described the literature on the personalfunctioning of pastors in the United States. He divid-ed this functioning into six areas, three of whichinclude emotional well being, stress, and burnout.Emotional well being seems to be negatively related tounrealistic expectations, time constraints and lack oftime (Ellison & Matilla, 1983). York (1982) found thatpastors' mean scores on the Maslach Burnout Inven-tory did not differ from those of human service pro-fessionals in general. The question is whether findingsof stress and burnout among American pastors applyto pastors in other Western societies. Studies in theNetherlands about burnout among various humanservice professionals have produced results compara-ble to those in the United States. For instance, Brouw-ers and Tomic (2000) showed that teacher burnoutwas significantly related to classroom management(cf. Emmer & Hickman, 1991). In a study on burnoutamong carertakers for the elderly (Evers, Tomic, &Brouwers, 2001) evidence was found that aggressiveclients' behavior contributed to the occurrence ofburnout symptoms among staff working with theelderly (cf. Lanza, 1988, 1992, 1995). We may there-fore conclude that burnout is a phenomenon thatoccurs among various human service professionalsboth in the United States and in other Western soci-eties such as in the Netherlands, where studies havebeen published on burnout among teachers, nurses,doctors, social workers, police officers, and securityofficers (Schaufeli, Maslach & Marek, 1993).

Muller (1992) states that pastors should beincluded in the category of human service workersbecause of the various roles and activities that makeup a pastor's job, such as the roles of counselor,teacher, preacher, and manager. In fulfilling theseroles, pastors are clearly involved with other people,working not only for them but also with them. Con-sequently, it may be assumed that pastors in theNetherlands are likely to suffer from burnout symp-toms to the same extent as other human service pro-fessionals do.

Hall (1997) posits that a review of existing empir-ical studies should serve as a signpost for futureresearch on the psychological and spiritual difficul-

ties experienced by pastors. In a qualitative studyinvolving 398 senior pastors, Meek, McMinn, Bur-nett, and Brower (2001) state that the word clergyappears in only four of the more than 22,000 articlespublished in APA journals in the past twelve years.The current situation in the Netherlands is almostidentical to the one depicted by Hall (1997) andMeek et al. (2001), in so far as there are scarcely anystudies describing pastors' psychological functioningin an increasingly hectic society characterized bymaterialism and secularization. In our study, wefound four publications on this subject in the Dutchlanguage. Keizer (1988) wrote about job satisfactionamong Dutch pastors; we also found publicationsfocusing on pastors, power and powerlessness(Brouwer, 1995), stress and pressure of work (Leest,1997); and finally, an article by Van der Wal (2000)dealing with Roman Catholic clergy who hadbecome worn out by their jobs. Further data havebeen acquired among pastors in the Netherlandsrevealing that they experience work pressure,increasing workloads, role ambiguity, a lack ofappreciation by parishioners or support from col-leagues (Karsten, 2000); in the literature, theseappear to significantly correlate with burnout.

Work Conditions Among Human ServiceProfessionals and Pastors in the Netherlands

Teachers, nurses, and pastors have at least twothings in common: first, they work closely with peo-ple, and second, their work in the classroom, thehospital, or the parish is becoming increasingly diffi-cult. The increase in work pressure may cause ahuman service professional to suffer psychologicalcomplaints resulting in full or partial disability.

Work-related mental strain among various cate-gories of professionals has been examined both in theNetherlands and abroad. For instance, in the Nether-lands Van Veldhoven and Broersen (1999) examinedwork pressure and work-related stress among theDutch working population. Their study involved 15branches of industry and 8100 employees. The resultssuggested that employees who had received advancedtechnical or academic training (at a technical schoolor a university) were, relatively speaking, confrontedwith large amounts of work and a demanding workpace more often than counterparts who had attendedonly secondary or primary school. The group that hadreceived advanced technical or academic training alsodisplayed a greater degree of emotional exhaustion, in

EVERS and TOMIC 331

particular when working in education and the nursingprofession. Van Veldhoven and Broersen (1999) con-cluded that the emotionally taxing work performed bythese professionals, combined with severe work pres-sure, resulted in high levels of absenteeism and disabil-ity owing to mental strain. Long-lasting exposure toemotionally taxing tasks, which have to be performedunder stressful conditions, may lead to the depletionof someone's energy and resources, commonly called“burnout.”

Keizer (1988) shows that pastors suffer fromsevere work pressure. An important part of a pastor'sjob is “pastoral care”, which means that he or she isconfronted with the personal problems, relationshipproblems, illness, suffering and death of other peo-ple. This aspect of the pastor's job may be emotion-ally taxing. In our study we have attempted toexplore whether pastors suffer from emotionalexhaustion, the most striking symptom of burnout,and if so, to what degree.

In his study, Brouwer (1995) found that pastors inthe Dutch Reformed Church had an average work-week of 55 to 60 hours. Assuming that pastors spendthis amount of time engaged in their tasks, the ques-tion raised by Brouwer was whether the number ofhours they work is related to their experience of workpressure. Brouwer established adequate proof thatthese two factors are related in his study. Pastors doexperience severe work pressure because of the num-ber of hours they spend working. In the same study,pastors also indicated that they experience work pres-sure when much-valued clerical activities outside theparish have to be abandoned. A poorly organizedwork situation is another factor that contributes tosevere work pressure, for example when there is noclear job description and no timetable for the variousactivities to be performed. A much heard complaintamong pastors is, “I do not know where my workstarts and where it ends.” Brouwer (1995) states thatthe job of a pastor may also be characterized by ten-sion and strain. Most of his respondents indicatedthey had experienced a personal crisis or a period dur-ing which they were overworked. His study demon-strates that pastors face daily pressures caused by largequantities of work, their work situation, or the unreal-istically high expectations of their parishioners.

A pastor's field of action consists of various taskswith accompanying roles (Muller, 1992). The pastormust be able to give consolation and support to peo-ple wrestling with problems and crucial questions;he must be an efficient manager capable of getting

along well with parishioners; he must be able torecruit volunteers and kindle enthusiasm in them.He is expected to plan and organize work well;moreover, he should be able to write a good sermon,and to conduct appealing religious services. He mustbe able to discuss matters of religion and faith, andat primary schools he must teach children catechism.If a pastor does not live up to the expectations ofparishioners, role ambiguity may develop. Brouwer(1995) found that recognition and appreciation arevery important for the pastor. The respondents callthe parishioners' appreciation an important factorfrom which they derive feelings of self-respect.Appreciation and respect for their work appear to bemotivating factors and incentives in their lives. Doesthis also apply to appreciation expressed by their col-leagues? How important is peer support?

The characteristics of their work and relatedquestions justify conducting a systematic investiga-tion into the degree to which pastors exhibit symp-toms of burnout. The most important goal of thisstudy is to try to find out whether, and if so, to whatdegree, pastors suffer from burnout. If the facts areindicative of the existence of burnout among pas-tors, a comparison will then be made betweenburnout among pastors and burnout among otherhuman service workers. Part of our research amongDutch pastors will also focus on the question raisedby Hall (1997) as to whether pastors experiencemore stress and diminished emotional well being.Our study will also examine which conditions arerelated to burnout among pastors and the possibleinfluence of these conditions on the onset ofburnout. In this connection, we will refer to workpressure, role ambiguity, and social support. Wewill furthermore examine which factors of a pas-tor's work are related to work pressure. The fivemain tasks of a pastor that will be taken intoaccount are administration, management, pastoralcare, catechism, and education. We will try to findout which of these five main tasks pastors regard asdifficult. We will also look at ways of making thepastors' work less difficult. Finally, we will look intoa possible correspondence between burnout symp-toms and the respondents' gender and age.

METHOD

Participants

The participants were Dutch reformed pastorsregistered as such in the Dutch Reformed Church

332 BURNOUT AMONG PASTORS

annual (“Generale Synode,” 1998) and working in aparish. About 1210 pastors were sent a questionnaire.A total of 726 questionnaires, or 60%, were complet-ed and sent back to us. A total of 592 respondentswere male (82% of the respondents), and a total of130 (18%) were female. The mean age of the pastorswas 46, the youngest was 27 and the oldest was 66.

Measures

Burnout. As stated before, emotional exhaustion,depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplish-ment are the dimensions of the burnout construct.We used the Dutch version of the Maslach and Jack-son questionnaire (MBI-NL) to measure the level ofburnout among the pastors who responded (Maslach& Jackson, 1981; Schaufeli & Van Horn, 1995). Thisself-report instrument consists of 20 questions, 8items measuring emotional exhaustion, 5 items mea-suring depersonalization, and 7 items measuring per-sonal accomplishment. The items are measured on a7-point scale, ranging from “never” to “every day.”Scores on the scales are added separately. Highscores on emotional exhaustion and depersonaliza-tion, and low scores on personal accomplishment areindicative of burnout. An example of a question fromthe emotional exhaustion sub scale is “I feel empty atthe end of a working day.” The following item istaken from the depersonalization sub scale, “I reallydo not care what will become of my parishioners.”An example item on the personal accomplishmentsub-scale is “I have the feeling that I have accom-plished many valuable things in this job.” The itemswere written and the survey administered in Dutch,although they are presented here in English.

Work-related issues. Work-related variables arework pressure, role ambiguity, and social support(peers and home). The items were measured on a 6-point scale using a “strongly agree” to “strongly dis-agree" response format. We used the following sixitems to measure work pressure. “I can organize mywork in such a way that I will be ready with time tospare.” “Unexpected tasks prevent me from planningmy work well.” “Work will be left to me that shouldhave been finished.” “I come across so many questionsin my job that I have hardly any free time.” “It is diffi-cult for me to combine the pastor's job with my house-hold duties.” “My work is so much fragmented that Ionly have time to partly prepare most of the tasks.”

We measured role ambiguity with two items. Thefirst was “In my opinion it is hard to live up to expec-

tations of my work as a pastor.” And second: “I amconfronted with many different expectations of mywork as a pastor.”

Five items measured social support. “If I’m terri-bly busy at work, my wife/husband takes over myhousehold tasks,” “I can talk to my wife/husbandabout my worries and doubts about my work,” “Mywife/husband is always ready to help out if I’m pre-occupied with my work,” “Other pastors are alwaysready to substitute for me when I ask them to,” and“If I have a problem, I can always turn to anotherpastor for advice or help.”

Finally, the questionnaire included two openquestions concerning the difficulty of the job, andways of possibly lightening the pastor's burden.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Burnout Symptoms Among Pastors

The main purpose of this study was to examinewhether, and to what degree, pastors suffered fromburnout symptoms and work-related issues. Ourfindings are described in this section.

As far as the first dimension of burnout is con-cerned, the results show that 11% of the respondentsreport suffering frequently from emotional exhaustion.Extrapolation to the entire Dutch population of pastorswould mean that about 140 of them suffer from emo-tional exhaustion. Fewer than 3% of the pastors indi-cate suffering feelings of depersonalization, i.e. behav-ing in a cold, cynical, and callous way towards theirparishioners. The majority of the pastors (62%) reportfeeling accomplished in their work, i.e. they are of theopinion that they are quite skilled in their profession.Percentages were determined by adding the categories“often,” “very often,” and “always.”

Regarding the relationships between the threedimensions of burnout, we may conclude that themore pastors suffer from emotional exhaustion, themore they show symptoms of depersonalization,and the less they feel a sense of personal accomplish-ment. Feelings of personal accomplishment alsodiminish when the level of depersonalization increas-es (see Table 1).

Comparison Between Pastors and OtherHuman Service Professionals

We furthermore intended to compare the level ofburnout among pastors to the burnout levels of a ref-erence group composed of police officers, carers for

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334 BURNOUT AMONG PASTORS

the elderly, teachers, and other human service work-ers. Because the current study has more than onetest, we adjusted the alpha level downward to con-sider chance capitalization (Sankoh, Huque, &Dubey, 1997; Tabachnick & Fidell, 1996). Theresults can be found in Table 2. The results showthat the responding pastors have significantly higherscores on emotional exhaustion than the category“reference group” (t = 6.64; df = 1378, p < .001).Compared to the result of the reference group, pas-tors not only score lower on depersonalization (t =8.21; df = 1588, p < .001), but also on personalaccomplishment (t = 8.37; df = 1561, p < .001).

Work-Related Variables

Pressure of work, social support, and role ambigu-ity. The items concerning work pressure demon-strate that at least 28% of the pastors, or a total of350 pastors, suffer from work pressure. The numberof pastors suffering regularly from severe work pres-sure is about 160. The factor “work pressure” seemsto be closely related to dimensions of burnout andappears to be one of the main stressors among ourrespondents. The higher the scores on work pres-sure are, the more the pastors report symptoms ofemotional exhaustion and depersonalization, thecore of burnout. Work pressure has a negative corre-lation to personal accomplishment (Table 1).

Both home and peer support have a negative cor-relation to emotional exhaustion and depersonaliza-tion and a positive correlation to personal accom-

plishment. Two items were used to measure roleambiguity. After inspecting the results, the internalconsistency was found to be unsatisfactory (α = .51).Consequently, the two items were analyzed as sepa-rate variables. The answers to the items on role ambi-guity show that they are related positively to the coreof burnout and negatively to personal accomplish-ment. The pastors who receive little social supportand experience a large degree of role ambiguity (i.e.the mutual expectations between pastor and parish-ioners do not coincide) are very likely to report highscores on the two dimensions of burnout.

Other Factors

We also examined whether there were other fac-tors in the lives and environments of pastors that cor-related with one or more dimensions of burnout. Anegative correlation between age and emotionalexhaustion was found. Though the correlation is sig-nificant, less than 2% of the variance is shared. Gen-der does not have any correlation with burnoutdimensions. Men and women are equally at risk offalling victim to burnout. The respondents who aremembers of the Evangelical Grouping show slightlyhigher scores on emotional exhaustion [F(6,726) =2.51; p < .05], and depersonalization [F(6,726) =3.87; p < .05] than the adherents of other denomina-tions. Evangelical actually refers to a movementrather than to a particular grouping. Local churchesare bound neither by a hierarchical church structurenor by a coordinated synod.

Table 2Mean Scores on Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalization, and Personal AccomplishmentAmong Pastors and a Reference Group1

ReferencePastors Group

N = 726 N = 1811M SD M SD t

Emotional Exhaustion 14.42 7.37 12.57 7.62 5.64*Depersonalization 4.76 3.11 5.95 3.72 8.21*Personal Accomplishment 26.62 4.97 28.52 5.85 8.36*

*p < .0011Reference group is composed of police officers (Kop, Euwema & Schaufeli, 1999), elderly caretakers (Evers, Tomic & Brouwers, 2001),

teachers (Brouwers & Tomic, 2000), and social workers (Sietsma, 2000).

EVERS and TOMIC 335

Taxing Tasks

The pastors involved in this study reported whichtasks they look upon as being difficult and taxing. Theresults can be found in Table 3. In the Pastoral Carecategory, funerals are found to be emotionally taxing.As one of the pastors said, “A memorial service mustalways be fit into my weekly schedule, making it neces-sary to postpone other matters.” Pastors would like tovisit parishioners more than they are able to: “I reallyregret that I can only occasionally visit my parish-ioners. Very often I only visit them in times of crisis.”Tension and stress in this category is also caused bydiscrepancies between mutual expectations. Onerespondent remarked, “In my opinion, the most diffi-cult aspect of my work as a pastor is how to deal withmy parishioners’ unrealistic expectations concerningindividual pastoral care.” Another said, “Expectationsrelated to individual pastoral care which I cannot fulfilmake my work difficult, especially when these expec-tations are not explicitly worded.” Yet another respon-dent admitted that, “Coping with evangelical tyrants isvery difficult for me.” We found that some respon-dents had difficulty coping with the idea that they hadto live up to all their parishioners’ expectations:“Always being there for them makes my life difficult.”

Relatively speaking, many of the pastors indicat-ed that they viewed the organizational, administra-tive and management tasks as the most difficult partsof their job. “The present organization of theChurch, my parish, is out-of-date.” In many cases,they found chairing meetings a difficult task. As oneof them told us,The rise of a new form of administration, the attempts to cre-ate a federation of Protestant churches, means an increase inthe number of administrative tasks, but they produce little orno positive effects. I often have the feeling that I have to spendtoo much time on them. It is frustrating to see that it almostalways comes to nothing.

Besides meetings characterized by laborious con-sultations, there are also conflicts between the pastorand the church council that lead to strain and compli-cate the organization of religious activities. Manyrespondents complain about getting stuck with thejob of organizing and planning activities, particularlybecause they lack secretarial support and are short onvolunteers: “It is difficult to find enough parishionerswho are prepared to contribute their share to theparish time and again.” The following quotation alsounderlines the difficult position of the pastor,I do not want my church to become what is known as a 'vicars-church,' in which the pastor or vicar is the spider in the web;no, I want it to be our church, a community of believers, acongregation supported and formed by every parishioner whois capable of contributing his or her mite.

One pastor expressed his feelings of isolation inthe following words: “I am often solely in charge ofthe whole parish. The pastor is responsible for every-thing.” Another respondent refers to the lonelinesshe experiences in his job: “The diversity, the exactingnature of my work and the responsibility I have tobear are very burdensome aspects of my job.” Thewide range of tasks that pastors are expected to takeon is regarded as a very difficult part of the job. It isboth the quantity of work that pastors carry out andthe fragmented nature of that work which con-tributes to its difficulty. As one respondent stated, “Iffragmentation causes a pastor to lose all track of thesituation, monitoring the various processes becomesvery difficult.”

Holding church services, which for many pastorsis a weekly and important part of the job, contributesto the difficulties of their tasks. They regard compos-ing a sermon as very difficult; one respondentremarked, “Sometimes I can't help feeling that I lackthe necessary creativity.” Others said, “You have tocome up with something new every week for the

Table 3A Survey of the Tasks that are Considered to be Difficult by Pastors in Percentages of theTotal Number of Respondents

Task Categories Percentage

Pastoral Care 32

Administration, Management, Organization 28

Religious Services and Sermons 24

Catechism 16

336 BURNOUT AMONG PASTORS

same congregation,” and “The religious services aredifficult because you have to satisfy the needs andinterests of the various alignments within the parish.”In this respect, too, parishioners' unrealistic expecta-tions are mentioned. One pastor, for instance, putthe following rhetorical question: “Can you reallyteach people that a religious service is a gathering ofthe community?” Many pastors also add catechism tothe list of difficult tasks. Coping with young membersof the parish and motivating these 14 to 17 year-oldkids is considered to be very difficult.

Solutions

We asked what the respondents thought wouldbe necessary to improve the job of a pastor. The fol-lowing answers are in Table 4. With respect to allevi-ating work pressure, the following suggestions weremade: delegate clerical tasks, have volunteers assistby paying private visits and by helping out at memo-rial services, appoint one or more catechists, set upa liturgy panel, divide up the tasks carried out duringreligious services, and finally, get secretarial andother professional support. Pastors might be betterequipped to carry out their tasks if they had propertraining and supervision. Courses on time manage-ment, dealing with conflicts, discussion techniques,motivating people, and pastoral supervision weresuggested. Respondents suggested that planningand organization could be improved by doing thefollowing: clearly define the total number of tasks,concentrate on the crux of a pastor’s task, institutesmaller parishes, and improve annual planning.Some other respondents mentioned making a clear-er distinction between work and family life, andtraining volunteers and members of the church

council to take on some of the executive administra-tive tasks.

Positive Remarks

The respondents also mentioned positive aspectsof their job. We left some space on the questionnaireforms for pastors to comment on matters that hadnot been specifically inquired about. A few of thesecomments are reproduced below. One respondent'sremark on job satisfaction was “It is a fine job to be apastor, but only if you do something else in addi-tion.” Another said, “After having suffered a sad loss,I was very well taken care of by my parish.” Someoneelse said, “I like my work as a pastor and perform myduties with love, but it is a bit too stressful becausesometimes I lack the time to do everything as well asI should like to do.” And, finally, “I want to indicatethat I am entirely satisfied performing my tasks as apastor.” Satisfaction with the job of pastor is also evi-dent in answers to the question “If I could do it allover again, I would choose a different profession.”Only 2% of the respondents agreed with thisresponse. However, 18% would like to become apastor in another parish.

This article's primary aim was to examine whetherand, if so, to what degree pastors suffer from symp-toms of burnout. Its second aim was to explore work-related variables such as work pressure, role ambigui-ty, and social support. The findings of the currentstudy are based on a rather large sample of 726respondents. Compared to other studies, this is anoteworthy sample size. In a review of empiricalburnout studies among the clergy by Hall (1997), thenumber of respondents ranged from about 180 to260. Meek et al. (2001) investigated 398 pastors.

Table 4Suggested Methods of Alleviating the Pastors's Work in the Percentages of the Total Number of Respondents

Suggestions Percentage

Decrease Work Pressure 27

Improve the Approach Taken to Tasks 17

Improve Planning and Organization 16

Have More Time for Study, Spirituality, and Prayer 15

Get More Support 11

Improve Correspondence Between Mutual Expectations 8

EVERS and TOMIC 337

The results show that the incidence of burnoutamong pastors is as high as in similar professionalsworking with or for other people. This is consistentwith York (1982), among others, who also utilizedthe MBI. It may therefore be concluded that pastorsare equally at risk as these other professionals of suf-fering burnout to such a degree that they are unableto continue their work. As in other human serviceprofessions, work pressure, role ambiguity, and lackof social support seem to increase the risk of becom-ing a victim of the burnout syndrome. The correla-tion between work pressure and the core of burnoutis the most significant one. This corresponds withother findings on burnout, which repeatedly suggestthat severe work pressure may be significantly relat-ed to burnout (Hall, 1997; Leiter, 1993; Sparks,Cooper, Fried & Shirom, 1997). Contrary to otherstudies, our results did not reveal a relationshipbetween the variable gender and burnout. Theresponses to our question concerning the difficultyof the job are comparable to the results obtained inprevious studies on the subject. Brouwer (1995)studied the occurrence of emotional and physicalexhaustion among pastors. He found a relationbetween the pastors' exhaustion and the trouble theyexperienced in motivating parishioners to partici-pate in various tasks and activities. “The experienceof getting little or even no support or commitmentfrom the parishioners may be a source of exhaus-tion,” Brouwer (1995, p. 27) states in his study. Ourstudy supports his findings. The respondents'answers indicate that both discrepancies in expecta-tions (in our questionnaire, role ambiguity) and thedifficulty in motivating parishioners to participate invarious tasks are to be looked upon as importantstressors in a pastor's job. Brouwer (1995) alsofound a correlation between a pastor's negativeimage of the parish and depersonalization. Pastorswho had gone through a personal crisis and dis-played symptoms of emotional exhaustion had nega-tive images of their parishioners as well. He did notexamine whether these negative images resulted intheir having a detached and cynical attitude towardstheir parishioners. However, in our study we foundhardly any symptoms of depersonalization. Thereare pastors who are disappointed with the lack ofassistance they receive from parishioners and their“consumer-like” attitudes. Over 28% of our respon-dents suffered from severe work pressure. This is inline with Van Veldhoven and Broersen’s (1999) find-ings that persons who had been through higher edu-

cation suffer relatively more from severe work pres-sure than their counterparts who had completedonly secondary or primary school. Work pressureseems to be a fairly widespread phenomenon. Vander Leest (1997) posits that a pastor's task hasbecome increasingly difficult, owing to seculariza-tion (more and more people are leaving the Church)accompanied by a sharp increase in the older popu-lation of the parishes. Indeed, the aging populationof the parish is another taxing aspect of the job.

CONCLUSION

The various tasks of a pastor can no longer beadequately performed without the parishioners' sup-port (delegation of tasks); however, secularizationand the sharp increase in the aging population aremaking it difficult to delegate difficult tasks to volun-teers. Cooperation with colleagues and professionalsupport seem to be of growing importance to theadequate performance of a pastor's job.

As has been shown in the Results and Discussionsection, the task that the majority of respondentsfound most difficult is pastoral care, which seems togo well beyond the roles mentioned by Muller(1992). In addition to pastoral care, pastors believethat organizational, administrative, and managerialtasks account for the most arduous aspects of theirwork. Quite a few pastors cannot meet the alldemands the pastoral care makes on them and feelthat they fail in their duties.

Our respondents suggested many ways to allevi-ate work pressure. Some of these ideas were quiteconcrete (e.g., secretarial support), while in othercases they were formulated in rather general terms.Solutions pertaining to their private lives, such as get-ting more rest and creating more scope for relax-ation, can be regarded as measures aimed at improv-ing the pastor's personal life. Many of thesuggestions concerned measures that would relievethe pastor of his organizational and managerialtasks, such as delegating tasks and having the help ofvolunteers. Training or improving one's own compe-tencies were also suggested as ways of coping withthe various tasks and activities.

Recognizing the burnout phenomenon among acategory of professional workers is a prerequisite totackling the problem (Evers, Gerrichhauzen, &Tomic, 2000). By drawing attention to the fact thatpastors suffer from burnout, we may have contribut-ed to finding a solution for this socially relevant

338 BURNOUT AMONG PASTORS

problem. The results of this study may offer a newperspective for preventing burnout among pastors.For instance, more attention should be paid toincreasing the pastors' competencies during theirschooling and training. Young pastors could bementored, and consultations with colleagues couldbe promoted in order to ensure that they receive thenecessary peer support and advice.

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AUTHORS

Welko Tomic is a member of the Department of Psychology atThe Open University, Heerlen, the Netherlands. Will Evers is aresearch associate.