Power in the Church

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Leading styles

When asked to categorise themselves as one of four leading styles, ministers responded as follows:

• 3% saw themselves as autocratic leaders
• 32% as persuasive
• 4% as consultative
• 21% as participative.

When church officials were asked the same question about their leaders, a different picture emerged:

• 11% though their leaders were autocratic
• 36% described them as persuasive
• 36% as consultative
• 17% as participative.
   

Accountability

When asked ‘to whom are ministers accountable?’

• 6% of ministers said they are accountable to God
• 15% said they are accountable to themselves or no one
• 30% said they are accountable to the church
• 42% said they are accountable to deacons, elders, PCC or other church leaders.
  

Of the ministers polled only 36% said they underwent regular appraisal, but among these the frequency of appraisal varied hugely:

• 13% said they underwent appraisal annually
• 5% said it took place every six months or less
• 2% every 18 months
• 7% every 2 to 3 years
• 67% every 3 to 5 years.

However, this still leaves 64% of all ministers without regular appraisals.
 

Relationships in the church

Ministers rated their relationships with the church they led as follows:

• 38% said it was very good
• 51% quite good
• 5% satisfactory
• 9% not very good.

Church officials’ view was slightly more polarised:

• 46% said it was very good
• 38% quite good
• 12% satisfactory
• 4% not very good.
  

A less positive view of the quality of relationships surfaced with only 13% of ministers agreeing that ‘the church is very open and honest’. Opinions on other issues related to openness were as follows:

• Only 27% of ministers felt they were able to speak the truth in love
• 15% said they were very able to receive criticism
• 5% felt very able to express their anger
• 15% said they were very able to publicly disagree with others
• 18% said people (in their church) were very able to disagree with the minister
• 10% said they very much enjoyed the clash of ideas
• 21% said they never sweep issues under the carpet
• 5% said they very much tend to confront people on issues.
   

Relationships with the opposite sex

Just over half the ministers (52%) said they had special guidelines in dealing with members of the opposite sex. Of these:

• 26% would not see members of the opposite sex on their own
• 13% would always have somebody else around
• 8% would avoid any kind of physical contact.

However, guidelines are not always adhered to:

• 11% said they often ignored the guidelines
• 44% sometimes
• 32% rarely
• 12% never.
   

Over half of ministers (54%) felt they were particularly vulnerable to sexual temptation (11% much more than anybody else; 43% a bit more than anybody else). When asked if they felt tempted to do anything sexually inappropriate with anyone:

• 1% said often
• 19% said sometimes
• 34% said rarely
• 44% said never.

When asked if they had succumbed to the temptation:

• 7% said sometimes
• 14% said rarely.
   

Power exercised in the church

When asked how power was exercised in their churches:

• 4% of ministers said power was exercised ‘over’ people
• 46% said it was exercised ‘within’ the church
• 47% said it was exercised ‘with' people in the church.

When church officials were asked the same questions there was a slight variance:

• 13% of them thought power was exercised ‘over’ people
• 44% said ‘within’ the church
• 38% said ‘with’ people.
   

Co-ercive power
When asked how often the minister imposed his/her own worship style:

• 15% of church officials said the minister’s worship style was imposed very often
• 42% said fairly often
• 31% said rarely
• 10% said never.
   

When asked if the minister was manipulative in church meetings in order to get his/her own way:

• 4% of church officials said this was the case very often
• 11% said fairly often
• 42% said rarely
• 42% said never.
   

When asked if the minister had forced a course of action that was unpopular:

• 9% of church official said their ministers had done so fairly often
• 50% said it rarely happened
• 37% said never.

Ministers’ admissions revealed a different truth:

• 13% said they had forced an unpopular course of action through fairly often
• 72% said they had rarely done so
• 13% said never.
   

When asked whether the minister had been involved in intimidating weaker people into a course of action:

• 6% of church officials said this had taken place fairly often
• 15% said it rarely happened
• 75% said it had never taken place

However,

• Only 1% of ministers admitted to intimidating weaker people into a course of action fairly often
• 26% said they had rarely done this
• 72% said never.
   

Individual freedom
Both ministers and church officials were asked about the freedom that churches have not to follow their minister. Responses were as follows:

• 21% of ministers said there was ‘a lot’ of freedom
• 49% said there was ‘quite a lot’
• 25% said there was ‘a moderate amount’
• 3% said ‘not very much’

Of church officials’:

• 15% thought there was ‘a lot’ of freedom not to follow the lead of their minister
• 38% said there was ‘quite a lot’
• 33% said ‘a moderate amount’
• 9% said there was 'not very much'.

Neither ministers nor church officials said there was ‘no freedom at all’.
 

Ministerial grace
When asked ‘what would happen if the minister felt very strongly that a course of action was of God, but the church felt otherwise?’

• 70% of ministers said they would accept the church’s decision
• whilst 21% would ignore the church’s decision.

Of the church officials

• 58% thought the minister would accept the church’s decision
• whilst 3% thought he/she would ignore it.
   

Unjust treatment of ministers

According to the results of Paul Beasley-Murray’s survey of church leaders:

• 73% of ministers feel they have been unjustly treated by church members
• 28% feel they have been unjustly treated by deacons or elders
• 15% feel they have been unjustly treated by church staff.
   

Baptist ministers in particular felt they had been poorly treated:

• 81% felt they have been unjustly treated by church members
• 39% felt they have been unjustly treated by deacons or elders
• 16% felt they have been unjustly treated by church staff.
   

Church officials, however, had a different perspective when asked the same question:

• Only 59% felt their ministers had been unjustly treated by church members
• 20% felt they had been unjustly treated by the deacons or elders
• 11% felt they had been unjustly treated by church staff.
   

The areas in which ministers felt they had been treated unjustly were varied:

• 57% felt they had been unfairly criticised behind their back
• 45% felt expectations had been too high
• 36% had been verbally attacked in a church meeting
• 35% had been verbally attacked after a service
• 34% had been unfairly criticised to their face
• 23% had been overloaded with work
• 16% had been sidelined or ‘ganged up’ on
• 11% had been forced by influential families in the church
• 5% had received threats of dismissal
• 2% had experienced sexual manipulation
• 8% had been unjustly treated in other ways.
   

Church officials’ perception was different on almost every count:

• 47% believed their minister unfairly criticised behind his/her back
• only 29% thought expectations had been too high
• 21% said the minister had been verbally attacked in a church meeting
• 26% said the minister had been verbally attacked after a service
• 26% said the minister had been unfairly criticised to his/her face
• only 12% believed that they minister had been overloaded with work
• 12% said the minister had been sidelined or ‘ganged up’ on
• 11% said the minister had been forced by influential families
• 4% said the minister had been threatened with dismissal
• no mention was made of sexual manipulation.