[DEBORAH] POTTER: Joe Stewart-Sicking is an Episcopal priest who teaches pastoral counseling and studies why clergy are more stressed than most of us.<\/p>\n
STEWART-SICKING: What makes the clergy vocation and occupation really different is that you work for God ultimately. If that work environment isn\u2019t meaningful to you, you\u2019re doing a lot of things like, you know, doing budgets or checking spelling on a bulletin, or office management, that\u2019s going to really hit home, because you think your job should be about God.<\/p>\n
POTTER: Add to that a new source of stress for many pastors in mainline Protestant denominations: as church membership dwindles they feel pressured to reverse the trend.<\/p>\n
STEWART-SICKING: And a lot of pastors think that church growth is really the measure of their success, you know, and a lot of people are having to learn to deal with shrinking numbers, shrinking budgets, even closing churches.<\/p>\n