The Process of Forced Termination: Couples in Ministry Share Their Experiences

Abstract

The stressful nature of ministry work has been well documented by researchers and professionals. However, both have generally failed to examine what is perhaps one of the most detrimental and psychologically traumatic experiences a minister may have associated with ministry work: forced termination. Forced termination should be considered an under-studied area of research and should be distinguished from choosing to leave the ministry or being fired from a ministry post. Forced termination is both the process and result of psychological, emotional, social, and spiritual abuse directed toward paid and non-paid ministry leaders by members of a congregation or denominational leaders, such that there is no other option for the minister but to leave the post. This qualitative study used a grounded theory approach to describe the experience of forced termination of couples where at least one individual is a vocational minister. Twenty-one couples agreed to participate in the study, and 14 were interviewed. The data of four couples are presented as representative of the saturated data from all 14 couples. Four important themes or stages the couples experienced emerged from the study: honeymoon, betrayal, harassment, and leaving the church.