ATLANTA (ABP) -- A moderate Baptist leader says a recent poll showing public confidence in clergy at a three-decade low should be a wakeup call for the importance of maintaining excellence in ministry.

"In a culture that qualifies success as bigger being better, it is easy to lose sight of the claim upon our lives that calls for fidelity to the excellence of God's justice and mercy, grace and healing," said Steve Graham, director of ministerial excellence for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

More than 70 peer-learning groups around the country, like this one in the Kansas City area, meet monthly for worship, spiritual growth, study, discussion of ministry-related issues and fellowship. The program is part of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's Initiative for Ministerial Excellence. (CBF photo)

A recent Gallup Poll found just 50 percent of Americans rate the ethics and honesty of clergy as "high" or "very high." While still relatively robust when compared to other professions, trust in clergy declined by 6 percent in the last year and 17 percent since 1985.

The Atlanta-based CBF recently published a resource to help encourage healthy attitudes toward ministry and life-work balance by educating both the congregation and the minister.

Well-Being and Excellence in Ministry: A Practical Guide for Ministers and Caring Congregations equips ministers and congregations to work together to enhance their church's quality of ministries.

Responding several years ago to address the need for ministers to find renewal and enrichment, the CBF launched the Initiative for Ministerial Excellence with funding from the Lilly Endowment.

The program includes peer-learning groups that meet monthly to build collegial relationships. A ministerial residency program allows graduating seminarians to work with teaching congregations to hone their ministry skills. The initiative also includes sabbatical resources to help veteran church leaders disconnect and recharge their passion for ministry.

"Our calling as ministers is to be Christian first and then clergy," Graham said. "The pursuit of excellence in ministry requires that one engages himself or herself in the discovery of a flourishing Christian way of life."

A Dec. 9 Gallup Poll reported Americans' perceptions of the ethics and honesty of clergy the lowest in the 32 years the survey has been taken. Pollsters said the reason isn't clear, but clergy ratings are below where they were earlier in the decade during the height of the priest-sex-abuse scandal in the Catholic Church.

Robert Kruschwitz, director of the Center for Christian Ethics at Baylor University, said the decline might reflect society's decreasing reliance on clergy and corresponding increased hope in physicians as healers. "We tend to project good qualities -- like trustworthiness -- on those in whom we trust," he said.

Christa Brown, Baptist outreach director for Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), said a little skepticism toward clergy may be a healthy thing.

"Historically, the problem with clergy has been that people trust them too much," Brown, who tracks confirmed reports of sexual abuse by Baptist clergy, wrote in her blog. 

While not all clergy are con men, she said, some are, and Baptists don't have the kind of self-monitoring used by other professions to bolster public confidence in their field.

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This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

Previous ABP story:

Clergy drop in poll rating honesty and ethics of professions (12/11/2009)

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