Faith Today - May/June 2015

KINGDOM MATTERS

Research project focuses on
clergy wellness

Calling clergy for a project on being well

Broken Walls lives up to its band name Unique First Nations band has beautiful mission

THE PRIMARY MINISTRY of the three-member Christian band Broken Walls ( www.brokenwalls.com) is to break down the walls between the First Nations people of Canada and non-Aboriginal people. The band, based in Tyendinaga Territory in Ontario, has toured the world, combining the distinct sounds of Native American rattles, a pow wow drum and Mohawk wind flute with contemporary instruments.

While they love to play their music for an audience, connecting with community members and building relationships is a top priority. With nine albums under their belts, Broken Walls is gaining a reputation of great respect among Aboriginal people across North America and around the world.

“I go in and
figure out the
[local] customs,
and in general speak to the church
population and make them aware of
the issues,” says Jonathan Maracle,
the band’s founder and lead vocalist.
“Broken Walls is a tool to help build
relationships.”
The band has done several two-
week trips to isolated communities
in Alaska. “We sleep on the floors of
gymnasiums and present our suicide
prevention workshops,” says Maracle,
who believes building relationships
and visiting the same communities
over and over is crucial to this kind
of ministry. “There’s no microwave
solution. We have to be in it for the
long term, for the next generation and
the generation to follow.”

–LISA HALL-WILSON

CONVERSATIONS OVER SEVERAL years with clergy and the pastoral teams who support them led

Wanda Malcolm to devise the Wycliffe Wellness Project ( www.wycliffewellnessproject.com).

Launched in July 2014, the project aims to understand what gives clergy the most stress – and the most satisfaction.

“In interviews with clergy about what they found most stressful about ministry life, they could easily describe ministry’s greatest stressors,” says Malcolm, a clinical psychologist and professor of pastoral psychology at Toronto’s Wycliffe College. Clergy often report that “the more satisfying something can be, the more stressful it is if it doesn't go well,” she says.

Malcolm likens the survey to a kind of “vocational wellness checkup” that’s completely confidential. It’s also not the most common research method, since the project will unfold over a period of ten or more years. “People’s experience changes over time.

Even at the best of times you only
get a snapshot, so participating
several times will give a series of
snapshots.”
Survey participation is
voluntary, and clergy can opt out
at any time, but Malcolm hopes
the information clergy receive
about their vocation along with
the confidential postsurvey
conversation will encourage them
to continue participating.

Malcolm is still looking for participants who should be either active in a church or working as chaplains in schools, prisons, hospitals or the military. They must complete a set of questionnaires. Afterward, participants are invited to have a conversation with one of the research team to discuss what the results mean.

It’s not possible
to nail down one
thing that causes
stress, Malcolm says.
“Personality is part of
it, but doesn’t capture
it completely. You
could be even-keeled
and get a really
tough parish and the
experience could be
desperately stressful.”
Malcolm hopes
the research will help in a
number of ways – insight and
encouragement for clergy
themselves, plus invaluable
research to pass on to students
preparing for ministry life. Once
sufficient data are collected to
produce a statistical analysis, the
results will help point the way to
best support clergy wellness.

But Malcolm says the real value is sharing feedback with individual clergy and seeing the light come on. In the conversations she’s had so far, “Participants find it easy to see which area to zoom in on … to focus on making a difference … and to think how they might engage in the satisfying things more often, those things that nurture their well-being as a person.”