Pastoral Openness to Interaction with a Private Christian Counseling Service

Abstract

Recognizing the important “gatekeeper” role of clergy in relation to the mental health field, the purpose of this research was to identify, among pastors of clients at a private Christian counseling service, characteristics which would predict the degree to which those pastors were open to interaction with mental health resources. The concept of Openness included both interactive behaviors (e.g., referrals) and attitudes suggestive of a willingness to interact. After establishing the reliability of the criterion variable, mailed questionnaires obtained data on 73 pastors of recent clinic clients. Using stepwise multiple regression, three of 10 predictor variables (pastors’ counseling activity, education, and style of ministry) were found significant predictors of Open Behavior, p < .001, accounting for 53% of the total variance. Open Behavior was greater among therapeutically-active, well-educated, and non-isolated pastors. The relationships of other variables (e.g., denomination, congregation size, and whether pastors had referred parishioners to the counseling service) to Openness were analyzed by one-way ANOVA and simple correlation. Implications for local program planning and future research were discussed.