On Being a Parsonage Family

Our friend Jessica Miller Kelley (identifiable to UM folks as the editor of Circuit Rider and to BHS friends as Matt Kelley's wife!) writes one of my favorite blogs, called The Parsonage Family. (Matt's been know to write there as well.) Since Jessica is seminary-educated, married to a parish minister, mother to an adorable toddler and generally fabulous, we tend to view life from a similar perch. They are literally a parsonage family right now; that is, they live in the parsonage provided by the church Matt serves. Over at Itty Bitty Hill, we are a figurative parsonage family now; that is, we own our own home, but are still the pastor's family...which comes with a pretty unique set of stressors.

In this post, Jessica writes about some recent research about pastors and their families. Some of it is pretty scary stuff. Stuff like the fact that pastors have the second-highest divorce rate of any profession. Some of it is stuff we can't do anything about. And some of it is stuff that I'm glad we're learning now, while we are young (and yes, 30 is YOUNG in church leadership these days!) and can hopefully establish habits now that can keep us healthy (okay, help us get healthy) for years and decades to come. Yes, I said decades. Crazy to think that John and I probably have 40 more years in the ministry...if we last. Wondering why that might be difficult? Scurry on over to Jessica's post and check it out. If you want to see the full list of statistics, check out this article from honoluluadvertiser.com. If you are a pastor, are married to a pastor, are friends with a pastor, have a pastor, once knew a pastor, have ever seen a pastor, were raised by a pastor or are raising a pastor, please check it out.

And then, as the articles say, hug your pastor...and his or her family.