Mother Karin MacPhail has one of those part-time clergy jobs that transition officers say are increasingly common — and difficult to fill. As rector of St. Elizabeth’s Church in Roanoke, Virginia, she’s paid for the 30 hours a week that she works on average.
But MacPhail says she’s thrilled with the arrangement, which she’s held for seven years. It allows her to be both a priest and an attentive mother for her two teenagers. She’s been able to see her kids after school, work a lighter schedule in the summer, and still afford “everything we need and most of what we want.”
It helps that Roanoke’s cost of living is lower than in other parts of Virginia, she said, and that her husband, the Rev. Alexander MacPhail, works full time. He’s rector of Christ Church in Roanoke.
“The biggest benefit and what makes it so appealing to me is that three-quarter-time builds in flexibility,” she said. “There’s an understanding that because I’m three-quarter-time, I won’t be at everything. … It’s a mutual expectation that doesn’t seem to cause the sort of tension or stress or conflict that it can cause for a full-time person.”
If part-time status is conducive to thriving in ministry, then the Episcopal Church could be on track for a bumper crop of healthy, happy priests. Most clergy job openings are for part-time positions at a time when 64 percent of Episcopal congregations have no full-time priests. Among active clergy, 53 percent do not have a traditional cure — a full-time, permanent position in one local setting — according to the Church Pension Group.
This landscape is promising for clergy wellbeing because, according to a new national survey, pastors who serve part time are a significantly happier, healthier bunch than full-timers. To wit: 80 percent of part-time pastors rate their overall health and wellness as either good or great. Among full-time pastors, only 62 percent say the same.
These data come from the Hartford Institute for Religion Research’s fall 2023 survey of 1,700 pastors. Researchers found the part-time clergy cohort doing better than full-time clergy across the board in all of 17 categories, ranging from physical and emotional health to moral consonance and sense of purpose. They’re also twice as likely as full-timers to say they’re committed to staying in pastoral ministry.
“Most of the people that are part time are doing it more or less intentionally,” said Scott Thumma, director of the Hartford Institute and lead researcher on the national survey.
To make ends meet, he said, these part-time clergy are apt to have other income streams, such as a full-time job outside the parish, a retirement pension, or a spouse who works a full-time job. They’re generally not depending on income from one, part-time ministry position to support an entire household, he said.
“It’s almost always by choice” that they’re serving part time, Thumma said. “They’re viewing it as a hobby: an additional, meaningful service to a community or something. And that’s a completely different dynamic than maybe somebody who was full-time in an Episcopal church and now it’s so small that they have to go half time, where they feel that they’ve been imposed upon but they still have the same amount of work. That’s often how part time is described, but I don’t think that’s the biggest chunk of part time at all.”
The notion that part-timers are hobbyists is drawing pushback.
“People make significant sacrifices to be in ministry, even when it’s part time,” said the Rev. Megan Froehlich, director of the Office for Transition Ministry. “It is not a hobby. It is a calling. … The time commitment, the thought commitment, the energy commitment, the soul commitment, is huge. I don’t think anybody would do this ‘for fun.’ That’s not why people do this ministry. … It’s something you are dedicated and formed for and dedicated to.”
No matter how their work is characterized, part-time clergy say they’re flourishing even in areas where they’re often presumed to struggle. Take money, for example. Financial health is the category in which part-timers’ wellbeing exceeds that of full-timers by the greatest margin.
It could be that many who accept part-time priest roles are already financially secure. Or, because the scope allows time for other paid work, some part-timers earn more through multiple jobs than they would in a single, full-time ministry position.
As more becomes known about how part-timers put the pieces together, more priests are picturing how they too might thrive without a full-time paycheck. For many, it comes down to having multiple income streams and savoring what part-time work has to offer, both in sharing ministry with laity and leading a rich life outside of church.
“It’s my older leaders who are the happiest, are the most satisfied, and the most able to balance being part-time clergy,” said Alicia Hager, community and communications curator of Gathering of Leaders, an initiative for developing Episcopal leaders. Because priests in midlife and older tend to be more established than their younger peers, she observed, they’re more likely to opt for part-time roles and to be glad they did.
That’s the case for the Rev. Dr. Jim Lile, who at age 67 serves as the part-time rector of All Saints Church in Nevada (pronounced Ne-VAY-da), Missouri. After 35 years teaching in the theater department at Missouri Southern State University, Lile has eased into retirement by working 15 hours a week at All Saints. St. Philip’s Church in Joplin covered the cost of his part-time training at Bishop Kemper School of Ministry while he was still an active professor.
“After 35 years of an academic schedule, it’s kind of nice to have a little flex,” Fr. Lile said. “Part time is really all I’ve ever wanted to do [in ministry]. But at the same time, I still do the things that a full-time rector does. The projects are there. The things that need to be done are there. But I like having time to do some other things.”
Ministry makes him feel his theater skills are still needed through, as he says, “a different way of being of service.” He speaks, for instance, of using “the illusion of the first time,” an acting device that makes audiences feel as if they’re witnessing something — no matter how ancient or familiar — that’s never happened before. He uses it every week when celebrating the Eucharist.
“It’s always exciting, it’s always new, and that’s not an illusion. It’s not made up,” Lile said. “You realize what you’re doing — the language and the gestures that you use — it’s always fresh.”
The part-time arrangement comes with challenges. All Saints is an hour’s drive from Lile’s home, but it’s manageable because he’s there only Sundays plus a half-day on Wednesdays. He’s always on call for pastoral emergencies, he says, but those are rare in his small congregation. Laypeople handle much of church life (building issues, mission projects) without needing frequent consultations. The extra income helps in retirement, he says, as does his wife’s part-time income.
Meanwhile, younger priests find it challenging, Hager said, to build a family life on a part-time income. They’re apt to carry student loans, mortgages, car payments, and child-rearing expenses. But they too are finding opportunities as dioceses such as Newark, South Dakota, and Southwestern Virginia guide congregations in how to share a priest — which leads to full-time equivalent compensation for the cleric serving part time in two or more congregations.
“Multipoint calls are becoming more and more popular,” Hager said, noting that she considered accepting a two-point charge in Vermont, where two congregations had pooled resources to create an attractive opportunity. “I think it’s a hopeful sign that clergy are willing to do that and parishes are willing to collaborate and not hold on so tightly to what they perceive as theirs.”
Whether serving in one position or several, part-timers tend to benefit from high levels of congregational engagement. Laypeople in congregations with part-time clergy expect to volunteer and do some of the ministerial work, which could entail leading Morning Prayer or another type of ministry, Thumma said. Other scholars have observed the same dynamic.
“In theory, a part-time clergyperson would be serving in a church with a more activated laity, and that could be a positive factor for their sense of wellbeing and flourishing,” said the Rev. Dr. Christopher James, a professor of evangelism and director of a clergy coaching program at the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary.
Even more intrinsic to pastoral wellbeing is feeling reassured that the Holy Spirit works through many channels, not just the pastoral leader, said. Because part-timers naturally share the ministry load with willing congregants, they’re disposed to see their work in a healthy, collaborative perspective.
“A part-time clergyperson is more likely to recognize that ‘this whole thing is not up to me,’” James said. Such a perspective helps the person not become overwhelmed by feelings of responsibility for the local church’s trajectory.
What’s more, James added, part-timers are “more likely to have relationships that are not structured by their identity as a clergyperson, which I think creates possibilities for more mutuality, and not, sort of, this critique or moral scrutiny that’s always present in pastor-to-congregation relationships.”
While part-time ministry takes many different forms, one constant is that it allows time for other pursuits. That facet can be a major draw, MacPhail said, whether one wants time for a second career, child-rearing, elder care, artistic endeavors, or other things.
“For people who are looking at this and can make the financial piece work, I just think it’s a really lovely way to get out of the workaholic mindset and to not feel that I have to do everything because it all depends on me” in the parish, MacPhail said. “It’s not just good for the priest. It’s good for the laypeople to have their own vocations and have that be honored.”
G. Jeffrey MacDonald is an award-winning religion reporter, United Church of Christ pastor, church consultant and author of Part-Time is Plenty: Thriving without Full-Time Clergy (WJK Press, 2020). His website is gjeffreymacdonald.com.