Are Rural Clergy Worse Off? An Examination of Occupational Conditions and Pastoral Experiences in a Sample of United Methodist Clergy

cholars have shown that clergy work can be stressful, and that these occupational strains can lead to negative physical and mental health outcomes. Despite the fact that nearly one third of all congregations in the United States are rural, little work has examined how occupational conditions and clergy experiences might vary systematically by geographical context. This study uses recent data from United Methodist Church clergy in North Carolina to test extant depictions of rural ministry, which typically portray rural churches as challenging occupational settings. It finds that although rural clergy face several unique challenges (such as multi-church ministry and lower salaries), they report lower levels of several stressors and more positive experiences. These differences disappear once controls are added, suggesting that rural ministry per se is neither particularly harmful nor beneficial when compared to ministry in other settings. S Andrew Miles Department of Sociology Duke University Rae Jean Proeschold-Bell Duke University Global Health Institute Duke University Center for Health Policy and Inequalities Research Please direct comments to Rae Jean Proeschold-Bell at [email protected]. This is a pre-copy-editing, authorproduced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Sociology of Religion: A Quarterly Review following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version, Miles, A., & ProescholdBell, R.J. (2012). Are rural clergy worse off?: An examination of occupational conditions and pastoral experiences in a sample of United Methodist clergy. Sociology of Religion: A Quarterly Review, 73(1), 23-45. DOI:10.1093/socrel/srr025 is available online at: http://socrel.oxfordjournals.org/cont ent/73/1/23.abstract?sid=02329c26da9e-4ab0-880b-d32bd0161248.