The roles of self-reflection and religious coping in strengthening resilience: a study of Australian Protestant ministry workers

The frequency, and the personal and vicarious nature of stressors faced by ministry workers have been identified as contributing factors to burn-out in ministry. In response, students at theological colleges are increasingly taught to self-reflect with the aims of improving their practice of ministry and sustaining them in service. However, self-reflection may also be an important contributor to the refinement of individual religious coping and the strengthening of resilient capacities required in ministry.

This study sought to investigate the roles of self-reflection, insight and religious coping methods in the resilience and well-being of ministry workers. We hypothesised that, over and above the attainment of insight through self-reflection, use of religious coping methods that are aligned to a Protestant religious framework would predict both resilience and well-being in this sample. 277 Australian Protestant ministry workers completed a single, cross-sectional online survey assessing ministry stressors, self-reflection, insight, six religious coping methods, resilience, and well-being. The mean age of participants was 46.7 years (SD=11.1) with a range of 22-73 years and 19.9% of the sample was female.

…results demonstrated general support for our hypotheses particularly with regard to the role of collaborative religious coping as a method positively related to both resilience and well-being.

Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were run. The results demonstrated general support for our hypotheses particularly with regard to the role of collaborative religious coping as a method positively related to both resilience and well-being.

This presentation will: provide an introduction to the Systematic Self-Reflection (SSR) model of resilience strengthening; describe the measurement methods used in the study; share results of the analyses, and; discuss these findings with a view to enable the refinement of ministry reflection programs to support the resilience of theological students.