Models of Clergy Spouse Involvement in Protestant Christian Congregations

Author(s): Lenore M. Knight Johnson

Source: Review of Religious Research , March 2012, Vol. 54, No. 1 (March 2012), pp. 19-44

Published by: Springer

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41940762

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Rev Relig Res (2012) 54:19-44 DOI 1 0. 1 007/s 1 3644-0 1 1 -0038-x

ORIGINAL PAPER

Models of Clergy Spouse Involvement in Protestant Christian Congregations

Lenore M. Knight Johnson

Received: 6 January 201 1 / Accepted: 2 November 201 1 / Published online: 20 November 201 1 © Religious Research Association, Inc. 201 1

Abstract While all adults in the paid labor force face the difficult task of man- aging the competing pressures of work and family life, clergy families encounter an added dynamic in the way spouses are integrated into the church. Yet spouses approach involvement in unique and varied ways, making intentional choices over how much or little to participate in the congregations their husbands and wives pastor. Drawing from in-depth interviews with 46 pastors and clergy spouses in five Protestant Christian denominations, this study describes three models of clergy spouse participation showing the diverse ways women and men interpret and enact their role through the ongoing management of boundaries. I consider several social factors informing the model a clergy spouse embraces – pressure from congregants or one's own ideas, congregational precedent, gender and stage in the life cycle – shedding light on the interaction between individual preferences and contextual factors. In doing so, I argue that although the women and men in this study are continually recreating what it means to be a clergy spouse, they remain heavily rooted in a traditional expectation that pastors' wives and husbands provide support to their spouse's church and calling to pastoral ministry.

Keywords Religion • Clergy • Families • Gender

Introduction

In 2006, guest writer Eileen Button shared her personal reflections on becoming a pastor's wife in Newsweek' s "My Turn" column. She titled her contribution "Thou Shalt Not Turn Me Into a False Idol," an appeal that acknowledges how her husband's occupation comes with significant meaning and impacts her life in far

L. M. Knight Johnson (El) Department of Sociology, North Park University, 3225 W. Foster Avenue, Chicago, IL 60625, USA e-mail : lmknightjohnson @ northpark.edu

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20 Rev Relig Res (2012) 54: 19-44

more numerous and complex ways than his previous job as a banker. It might seem odd that a column in a major, mainstream news magazine is devoted to a woman's thoughts on her husband's work, yet Button's reflection draws forth questions over the impact of pastoral ministry on family life. Indeed, there is a significant body of literature on ministry as an occupation (Kuhne and Donaldson 1995; Lee and Iverson-Gilbert 2003; Mueller and McDuff 2002; Mueller and McDuff 2004; Nesbitt 1995) and its impact on families (Blanton and Morris 1999; Finch 1983; Frame and Shehan 1994; Hartley 1978; Hartley and Taylor 1977). Furthermore, research effectively acknowledges the significant ways ministry has evolved in recent decades, especially in response to the ordination of women (Carroll 1992; Charlton 2000; Chaves 1997; Finlay 1996; Lehman 1987; Lummis and Nesbitt 2000; Nesbitt 1997; Olson et al. 2000), a trend that no doubt affects these dynamics. However there is a need for expanded study into the ways both women and men enact the role of clergy spouse within a contemporary context, engaging a unique form of work-family integration that also includes religious life.

Managing the demands of and boundaries between work and home is an ongoing struggle for people seeking to balance multiple responsibilities. Research cites an incompatibility between paid labor and the responsibilities embedded in personal life (Blair-Loy 2005; Christensen 2005; Folbre 2001; Garey 1999; Gerson 1985; Hochschild 1989, 1997; Jacobs and Gerson 2005; Nippert-Eng 1996; Townsend 2002; Williams 2000) – most notably parenting (Correli et al. 2007; Crittenden 2002; Deutsch 2002; Gornick and Meyers 2003; Williams 2000) and the lack of adequate and affordable childcare (Edin and Lein 1997; Hansen 2005; Uttal 2002) – making efforts at achieving balance more like a juggling act. Clergy families are no different than other contemporary families in this regard where handling an overload of responsibilities pushes them toward the limit of time, energy and resources.

Yet for clergy families, managing church responsibilities alongside personal life is not just a task for a pastor – clergy spouses are also brought into the fold. Indeed, people frequently contribute unpaid labor toward their spouse's success at work through such practices as entertaining clients at home (Kanter 1977; Finch 1983) but clergy spouses (and in some instances children) are often intricately connected to the ongoing operations of a church – not just as members of a spiritual community but as participants in the "family business" that is vocational ministry. There are definite consequences stemming from the integration of family into the churches and work lives of clergy. The lack of boundaries clergy families encounter negatively impacts marital and parental satisfaction, and moreover clergy families may experience stress from the lack of social support in churches (Morris and Blanton 1994).

In this paper, I examine the integration of spouses into the lifestyle and demands of vocational ministry and show how clergy wives and husbands make intentional decisions as to the level and type of participation they embrace in their spouses' respective parishes. Looking at marital satisfaction among clergy wives, Hartley (1978) predicted that the clergy spouse role would continue to diversify into multiple forms. Hartley's claim is reflected in this present study, yet I go a step further in explicating the specific dynamics of clergy spouse involvement. First, I

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Rev Relig Res (20 1 2) 54: 1 9-44 2 1

show how clergy spouses vary greatly in the ways they participate in and support the churches their wives and husbands serve as pastors, falling into three general categories – the partnership model, the layperson model and the independent model – each representing a unique perspective on the relationship between a calling to ministry and a pastor's family. While any typology will always include outliers and this study is no exception, overall the spouses I interviewed all fit fairly closely into one of the three categories. My utilization of grounded theory (Glaser and Strauss 1967) informs the development of these three models, as they emerged from the data and open coding processes (Strauss and Corbin 1998) rather than from a prior perspective I sought to prove. Beyond describing the three models of clergy spouse participation, I also

consider the key factors influencing each model rooted in an individual's environment. I discuss how clergy spouses develop particular strategies, informed by personal interests but coupled with social expectations and norms. On the micro- level, expectations from congregants and ideas from a clergy spouse's past experience help shape the ways they choose to integrate into churches. Local church culture also plays a role, where the specific context – especially precedence set by previous clergy spouses – impacts the choices people make around involvement. Finally, broad, macro-level social issues help determine the approach a spouse takes, namely gender, denominational affiliation and stage in the lifecycle. Studies integrating boundary theory (Kreiner 2006; Kreiner et al. 2009; Nippert-

Eng 1996) provide a theoretical lens for understanding the ways clergy spouses are active agents in processes weaving work, family and religious life. Boundary theory readily acknowledges the individual in establishing distinctions between work and home life, particularly stressing the unique ways people enact preferences for either integration of home and work or segmentation between these realms (Kreiner 2006; Kreiner et al. 2009). Individual preferences, set alongside environmental factors such as the level to which a workplace encourages integration or segmentation, profoundly influence one's sense of work-home conflict (Kreiner 2006; Kreineret al. 2009). As I found through speaking with clergy spouses, one model of participation does not neatly align with all families or churches as people have a variety of preferences, exist in diverse contexts and thus continually create and recreate what it means to be a contemporary clergy spouse in a multitude of ways. Boundary theory also underscores active engagement in balancing individual

preferences and contextual factors around the demands of work and home life. Explicating the concept of "boundary work," Nippert-Eng (1996, p. 7) explores "the process through which we organize potentially realm-specific matters, people, objects, and aspects of the self into 'home' and 'work,' maintaining and changing these conceptualizations as needed and/or desired." Concrete objects and practices both maintain and blur the lines between home and work, breaking down the perceived dichotomy between the two. People dress differently in each realm, for example, subsequently drawing a distinction between home and work, just as conducting personal business at work serves to break down barriers (Nippert-Eng 1996). As I argue, the ways clergy spouses both articulate and enact their roles in the church serve as representations of their particular view on the boundaries between work, family and religious life.

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22 Rev Relig Res (2012) 54: 19-44

Clergy spouses do not blindly respond to a monolithic image of who they are supposed to be in the church, but rather actively engage with congregations and members to develop a role fitting their particular context and interests. They continually do "boundary work" (Nippert-Eng 1996) to establish who they are as a clergy spouse – some volunteering on countless committees to represent their view of a shared partnership while others attend separate churches to emphasize a more segmented approach. While clergy spouses pursue these strategies alongside various contextual influences such as gender and stage in the lifecycle, they remain individual, active agents in the ongoing process of constructing the role of a contemporary pastors' wife or husband.

Data and Methods

Data for this study are drawn from in-depth interviews I conducted between September 2008 and April 2009 with married Protestant pastors and their spouses as part of a larger exploration on the boundaries between public and private life for clergy families. The couples reside in a Midwestern city and the surrounding area and represent five denominations: The Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC), the Free Methodist Church (FMC), the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA), the United Methodist Church (UMC) and the United Church of Christ (UCC). My selection includes both mainline and evangelical Protestants and is limited to congregations that are part of organized denominations who ordain women and men. This approach resulted in a sample with enough difference to provide interesting contrasts, but at the same time enough similarity for effective comparison.

The list of potential contacts came through the public listings of local churches available online from each of the five denominations. The Free Methodist Church is

the smallest of the five denominations and therefore I included all of the clergy in the regional area in the list of contacts. I took a similar approach with the Evangelical Covenant Church, also a small denomination, though I eliminated several people with whom I have prior acquaintance. The three mainline denominations are much larger in size so I drew a random sample from all churches within a 50-mile radius of the city, and an additional group within a one hundred mile radius to include smaller communities.

I sent letters addressed to pastors at their respective churches describing the objectives of the study and asking, if they were married, to discuss with their spouse the possibility of participating. Emails or phone calls using contact information found through church websites followed the letters. After the initial letter and two follow-up attempts, I eliminated those pastors who did not respond. Some were eliminated immediately when they responded that they were not married. I also had several pastors in same sex relationships, a group that would be interesting to study but created a much wider scope of issues than I sought for this project. I noted as well that participation is voluntary and did not attempt to persuade people who said they were uninterested. Nevertheless, I provided additional clarification and reassurance for people who seemed intrigued but skeptical, with confidentiality and time commitment being the most common concerns. Out of 102 couples invited

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Rev Relig Res (2012) 54:19-44 23

to participate, the final sample includes 23 couples for a total of 46 interviews. I did not turn away any potential participants who indicated an interest in being part of the study.

Among the couples, 15 reside in suburban contexts, six live in an urban context and two couples live in small towns over 50 miles outside of the city. With two exceptions, all of the couples live in similar contexts as the church (in other words, those serving urban churches also live within the city, while suburban pastors reside in the same or neighboring suburbs to the congregation). At the time of the interviews,

eight of the couples had children living at home. Nine had adult children (this includes parents of college students still marginally living at home) and six couples did not have any children. An unintentional but nonetheless interesting aspect of the final sample is that six of the couples I interviewed were ministry couples where both partners identified as pastors or were employed in some form of ministry position at a

church (for example, a children's program director or music minister). By gender, the sample includes 16 men pastors and 13 women pastors, including

the individuals who are in a ministry-type vocation at a church. Sixteen of the remaining 17 individuals are presently involved in some kind of work outside the home, with the one exception being a teacher taking a break from work. Thus, all the couples in this study identify as dual-income families – clearly a testament to the shifts in religious family life (Bartkowski 2001; Gallagher 2003) and one that is particularly significant for studying pastors given traditional assumptions that clergy spouses are unpaid, supplementary employees of the church.

One of the major shortfalls in my sample is the lack of diversity around both race and class. My sampling methods were such that identifying race and class position when developing the original list of contacts was extremely difficult. It is also important to note the educational status of clergy and its link to social class position, at least among the pastors in this study. In my final sample, all participants are caucasian but there are some differences in economic position among the families. Several people discussed financial strain, noting the typically sparing salaries of pastors while others openly shared how the spouse's salary compensated for this, putting the family in a very comfortable position. Despite these differences, the fact that these clergy have all obtained advanced degrees in seminary as a requirement of their work levels the class distinctions.

I conducted one-on-one interviews with each of the 46 participants, each conversation lasting between 1 and 2 h. Conversations took place in locations suggested by the participants, mostly in churches and people's homes although some occurred in restaurants or coffee shops. The interviews were semi-structured but largely open-ended with questions focusing on work, family life, church participation, social relationships (particularly with congregants), identity and religious practices. Much like Wallace's (1992; 2003) work on alternative leaders of priestless Catholic parishes, I sought to explore multiple facets of pastoral ministry, integrating work, family, religious life and relationships into the discussions. Furthermore, as Wallace (1992) specifically notes in studying the experiences of Catholic women leaders, I rely on the individual's own interpretation of their experiences as the basis for understanding the relationship between work, family and religious life among clergy families. The questions served as a framework for

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24 Rev Relig Res (20 1 2) 54: 1 9-44

the interviews, but each individual narrative was greatly shaped by the unique experiences of the subject. While I carefully steered the interview to ensure discussing the key themes, I drew upon participants' responses to shape much of the conversation.

I audio-recorded each interview, transcribed the recordings verbatim and subsequently coded for key themes using open coding methods rooted in grounded theory (Strauss and Corbin 1998). Grounded theory is a methodological approach in which the researcher develops theory through data analysis, integrating the tasks of data collection, coding and analysis, in turn informing a fluid research process (Glaser and Strauss 1967). As a qualitative study based on in-depth narratives from clergy families, I draw heavily from this particular approach. It is important to note that I was the lone interviewer and coder, which necessarily informs the analysis. In particular, my own standpoint as a clergy spouse plays a role in the shape of the interviews and the analysis. However, I see this as a positive inclusion as my perspective allowed me to consider questions and issues that might not be evident to a researcher completely separate from the lives of clergy families.

All names and other potentially identifying information are replaced with pseudonyms or removed from quotes. The quotes I share represent key themes within the interviews as drawn from the open coding process, and I select examples that best represent these prominent issues or ideas. Finally, it is important to clarify that as a qualitative study, my findings do not necessarily represent clergy spouses in general, but rather show many of the intricate details unique to this role in the church and social life in general. As noted, an important point of this study is to illustrate the individual variations in creating and maintaining boundaries. While there are certainly important questions that a study including a larger sample size and quantitative analysis could address, the aim of this present study is to delve into the individual narratives of clergy and spouses, examining the nuanced ways they weave together work, family and religious life in their own, lived experiences.

The Partnership Model

Mark is so heavily engaged in the mainline church where his wife, Lisa, serves as solo pastor that when I asked him to describe how he is involved in the church, he replied "Let me count the ways I'm not involved in my church." He went on to list an extensive array of volunteer responsibilities, formal committees – deacons, the building committee – along with tasks he covers as needed like miscellaneous repairs or cooking for church events. In Mark's view, there are no boundaries between church and other realms of his life:

In some cases I see some things that aren't being done and I just do them. If somebody ain't going to do it and it needs to be done, it gets done. So that's what I mean when I say "What boundaries?" And then last weekend Lisa was sick. I did the sermon. I ran the service. When she gets sick at midnight, you can't get a pulpit supply so I do it.

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Rev Relig Res (2012) 54:19^4 25

Mark represents one approach to church participation – the partnership model – where a spouse embraces the idea of a shared calling and is deeply involved in the church beyond most members. Although Mark has other responsibilities like teaching as an adjunct instructor at a local college, he is heavily committed to Lisa's church and does whatever is necessary to keep it running smoothly, even to the point of filling in as pastor on a Sunday when she is sick. Mark's willingness to deliver the sermon in his wife's absence is unique, but his

approach to involvement is not. For some clergy spouses, participation is a way to establish a place in the church and build connections with people, seeing ministry as a partnership. Both Carla and Paula, evangelical clergy spouses, prepare dinner for roughly one hundred congregants on a weekly basis, coupled with other ongoing responsibilities. Along with providing childcare for a young mothers group, Carla also teaches Sunday school to the youngest children so she can get to know them early on in their lives. Her reasoning for doing this fits with her highly integrated presence at the church – learning the children's names now means she will always know who they are as they grow up. Paula also volunteers as a youth leader and regularly holds dessert gatherings at home for church members so she and her husband Ryan can get to know people better. It was not unusual for spouses to talk about ministry as a shared calling, believing

they, too, have a significant responsibility to contribute to the church. In talking about Kurt's work as a mainline pastor, his wife, Bev, indicates, "everything revolves around his job." For example, in her role as a substitute teacher, she periodically declines work requests in order to attend a church funeral. I asked for her thoughts on the way their family of four revolves around Kurt's job and she replied, "I'm not uncomfortable because I think that you're called to it, too. I mean, if you're going to marry a pastor, you better be called to that or else don't do it." Penny, an evangelical pastor's spouse, used similar language:

I felt as much called to be a pastor's wife I think, as he felt called to be a pastor, which is really the best way for it to be. I know it probably isn't always that way. I really felt like we were going to do some ministry together.

Framing ministry as a joint effort, and more broadly a shared, sacred calling means that spouses perceive almost as much accountability in the success of the church as the pastor. They are clearly incorporated into the lifestyle of vocational ministry and enthusiastically embrace the role of clergy spouse. Partnership spouses reach beyond church activities and also provide indirect

support, resulting in greater space for pastors to fulfill the demands of church, much like Kanter' s (1977) analysis of corporate wives. For example, while Carla talked about how much she enjoys her work as a nurse because it gives her a focus of her own outside the church, she also appreciates the flexibility of working the overnight shift leaving her daytime free to cover needs at church. Penny likewise found ways outside the church to support Robert's work and adapted her schedule and that of the family in a way that places church at the center of the family:

I feel as for me and my role as a pastor's wife, my priority is to be a support to him and so when the kids were little and stuff like that, I mean my goals were

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26 Rev Relig Res (20 12) 54:1 9^4

just to manage the house. I still had to work but just kind of manage the house. If I could manage the house and make sure he had a meal when he was supposed to have a meal that I was doing as much for the church, and keeping the kids under control, that I was doing as much for the church as I could.

Penny and Carla both apply the partnership model inside and outside church, adjusting schedules and responsibilities around the needs and demands of their husbands' ministries. While these spouses have successful careers of their own, it is clear they adapt their occupations around the church – a process that emphasizes their interest in a highly integrated lifestyle. These practices mimic Becker and Moen's (1999) suggestion that contemporary families often take a one-job, one- career approach to weaving work and family life. Rather than pouring energy into two demanding careers, they argue couples often choose one person's work in which to invest the most energy as a family. A common trend within the partnership model is a spouse referring to church

support or participation in terms of "gifts" or things they enjoy doing, a concrete strategy for establishing and reinforcing boundaries much like what Nippert-Eng (1996) describes as boundary work. Penny said that "plugging in holes" is her spiritual gift, and thus she felt like it was natural to perform so many different tasks at Robert's church. As a theologian and mainline pastor's spouse, Martha's involvement also directly relates to her professional expertise and she frames her contributions in terms of these skills. She teaches Sunday school for adults and regularly assists Trey with his sermons, which he feels are better because of Martha's contributions, as he describes here:

We work together on a lot of my sermons. We'll sit down and I'll say, "Here's the text. Give me your insights." She'll go over what she sees as a theologian and then I'll get her insights and then I'll put it together and I think that makes my sermons unequivocally stronger sermons because there's a whole other layer added by a theologian.

Although Martha has a demanding writing career of her own, she is extremely committed to Trey's vocation, taking her skills and interests and applying them to his ministry. As such, church becomes almost as central to Martha's life as it is to Trey.

While Martha tries to focus her energy on ways she can connect her own interests to the betterment of Trey's ministry, she acknowledges a willingness to cover tasks as needed like other partnership spouses, such as preparing dinner for a weekly meeting of new Christians or helping decorate the church:

I'll do whatever I need to do. I'm now on the decorating committee and I've been doing stuff there. So you know I'm very happy to be involved but I also realized I have to be involved deliberately in very key things that I can kind of do quickly and well and then I've got to pull back and focus on this, because my research is really where I'm going to benefit the church, not by doing supper after supper after supper. Though I'm happy to do it if I'm needed. In fact, it's a nice break from studying to do something with my hands because I'm always in books.

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Rev Relig Res (2012) 54:19-44 27

Spouses who utilize the partnership model are constantly looking out for areas where help is needed, suggesting that "picking up slack" is an important if not crucial contribution. At the same time, these spouses do not appear overburdened by church. In their view, vocational ministry is much more than a husband or wife's occupation – it is a lifestyle where spouses in particular are deeply embedded in the ongoing operations of the church, "filling holes" as Penny describes. And supporting the church in these ways means they are not merely helping their spouse do a better job at work as Kanter' s (1977) research suggests or fulfilling their own interests, but also responding to a sacred calling.

The Layperson Model

While the strategies used by partnership spouses represent highly integrated boundaries, a second group stressed more of a balance between the notions of integration and segmentation central to boundary theory (Kreiner 2006; Kreiner et al. 2009). Charlie laughed as he recounted an exchange he and his wife Kimberly, a mainline pastor, had regarding her career path before they were married:

I feel fortunate in that way that she didn't wait and spring it on me ten years down the road. "By the way, I think I want to change my career and go into ministry." You know? And she never hesitates to remind me "You had your chance. You could have gotten out. You knew what I was doing." Before we got engaged, she was talking about seminary. I know I had my chance.

They did eventually marry and Charlie has indeed experienced some changes stemming from Kimberly' s vocation. Most notably, Charlie left the congregation in which he was consistently involved for over ten years, a change he did not want but one he took on nonetheless because of his wife's new job. He is involved in their new church in ways he feels comfortable – playing piano for the youth choir, providing freelance design work at no charge – but he does these things because he is used to being active in his spiritual community and by virtue of his marriage, Kimberly' s parish is that community. Charlie's experience is not unlike other spouses who are brought into a role more by default than choice and he represents a second approach of participation – the layperson model – where spouses participate in the church, but as a member rather than a partner in ministry. Layperson model husbands and wives are committed to their spouse's churches

but they do not articulate the same shared sense of calling to ministry as in the partnership model. They suggest that ministry is the pastor's work and calling, separate from a spouse's work, family and personal responsibilities and their actions reinforce these boundaries. For instance, Jane describes her relationship to the mainline church her husband, Howard, pastors this way:

[Y]ou know, when they accepted him as their pastor, he was their pastor and I had my own life. And I was a parishioner and I would be involved however I chose to be involved but they didn't get a twofer. And he never had to say that and there was never, ever any "Yeah, buts" from the church leadership or the

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28 Rev Relig Res (20 1 2) 54: 1 9-44

church community. There was never any of the "But so and so always did it that way." There was never any of that.

She went on to say how much she enjoys being a leader in the Stephen Ministry program, especially now that her work schedule is much less demanding. Her volunteer commitments stem from personal interests and skills, like partnership model spouses, but it is limited to those areas. In other words, while spouses like Penny and Mark (who fit the partnership model) enthusiastically cover almost anything at church as needed, layperson model spouses are much more selective and willing to say "no," thus emphasizing an interest in greater segmentation and clearer boundaries.

Layperson spouses still articulate a sense of a sacred calling, but in a way that is clearly separate from their wife or husband's calling to vocational ministry. The spouse's calling is far more general and directed at the church as a religious institution active Christians should feel compelled to serve. Thus, this sense of calling is similar, if not the same, as the desire other members might feel in relation to their own participation and commitment to a church community. Jen, an evangelical pastor and her husband, Scott, serve as a good example of this distinction, as Jen states here:

[0]ne of the things that we did early on is make very clear that Scott had a job and it wasn't at the church. Scott is a professional, that he has work that he does, that

he would be involved in some things in the church, but those things would be of his choosing and of God's calling of him, just like for average Joe member.

Here, Jen uses the term "calling" to refer to Scott's engagement with the church, but in a more general sense around his personal beliefs that church participation is important for Christians. And from Scott's perspective, he is comfortable picking and choosing activities to support, such as an evening bible study or a justice- focused committee, based on what he finds personally fulfilling, not out of pressure from his role as the pastor's husband. Ian, a mainline clergy spouse, took a similar approach, which his wife, Sasha, supports:

I think she's glad that I have been involved as much as I am but she doesn't seem to be calling on me to do a lot more or anything. She seems pretty comfortable with letting me find my… I think she and I both appreciate how important it is for people to say no when they need to for involvements and not do things out of obligation, so I think that's pretty solid in her and I share that and we appreciate each other that way.

Pastors are generally affirming of layperson model spouses who prefer to integrate into the church in more limited ways and for these couples, there is a definite balance between the view of ministry as a job compared to a sacred calling. Whereas partnership model spouses embrace ministry as an all-encompassing lifestyle, frequently using the language of a shared calling, layperson model spouses draw clearer boundaries between church and family in both their language and actions, leaning closer toward the notion that ministry is a job for which they are not responsible.

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Rev Relig Res (2012) 54: 19-^4 29

Yet layperson model spouses claim they enjoy church and clearly want to be involved. The key distinction from the partnership model is that layperson model spouses see the church much like a voluntary activity rather than a responsibility and shape their participation around this view. Describing Jane's involvement, Howard says, "She comes to Sunday school if it's a good class. If it's a boring class, she won't come. But she kind of does what she wants. She does what feels fulfilling to her." Similarly, Hannah considers her participation in the evangelical church her husband, Evan, pastors to be in line with other members, teaching Sunday school out of her own interest. She also chooses which of the multiple services to attend based on their daughter's schedule, rather than attending both the Saturday evening and Sunday morning gatherings. Be it personal fulfillment or working around a child's schedule, layperson model spouses approach church as an enjoyable part of their week but put limits on how fully they tie into the workings of the congregation

itself, establishing boundaries around personal preferences. There are some instances, however, where layperson model spouses take on tasks

out of pressure more than interest, though this is much less common compared to the partnership model. Hannah has been trying for some time to end her leadership with children's church (a separate activity time for youth during the worship service) but continues helping because of limited volunteers. Bruce began as a partnership spouse, but now embodies the layperson model as Eva's congregation has grown in size and participation. Here, he recalls his experience as a willing but reluctant partnership spouse:

If activities needed an extra body I was pretty much always here. Fortunately that's changed a lot too because there's more critical mass here now. Before, you know, there's a skating party, you go to the skating party. The men's group. You go to the men's group. There's a men's retreat now. I don't want to go to the men's retreat, but I go to the men's retreat.

Bruce is still involved in ways he does not necessarily enjoy – he sings in the choir because they need more men – but he notes that these demands have lessened now that Eva's church is more established. Roy, an evangelical clergy spouse, is also drawn into things he would rather not do, like shoveling the church steps in the winter:

Somebody's got to do it. I have, again because of some health issues, had to occasionally just leave it and either somebody else will come and do it or people will come and try to walk into church through the snow. And that's not very inviting. I try to do what I can to make the church an inviting place because I want Helen's ministry to be successful. So you know, if it means the walk and the steps need to be shoveled before church on a Sunday morning, I'll grumble about it and go do it.

Roy's comments highlight another key distinction between the layperson and partnership models. Bruce, Hannah and Roy willingly participate in ways they would rather not for the sake of their wife or husband's ministry, but they openly express that this is not their preference and in fact are clearly bothered by the pressure to pick up added work at the church. Whereas spouses like Martha, Carla

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30 Rev Relig Res (2012) 54:19-44

and Penny seem eager for the chance to serve on a committee that needs more members or cook a meal on short notice, layperson model spouses approach these situations begrudgingly and describe the tasks as chores. Indeed, they still help but with much less excitement and take an opportunity to quit an undesirable committee or activity if that chance arises. Thus, while layperson spouses enact particular strategies around their desire for a certain level of segmentation, other practices point toward a level of integration between work, family and religious life.

The Independent Model

Soon after Chris began serving as pastor of an evangelical church, his wife, Lindsay was asked to join the church, an invitation for which she was not prepared. She describes her reaction saying, "His first week, they sent me an email. 'Oh, we're starting a new members class on Sunday. It starts at 10 a.m.' I'm like, 'Holy crap. How did you people find me?"' Lindsay and Chris are both pastors, however while Chris serves a church, Lindsay has been unable to find a full-time position in a church or ministry. As a discouraged pastor in an unfulfilling, secular job, Lindsay struggles with her role as a pastor's wife and found it extremely difficult to see Chris's church as a spiritual home. Therefore, she decided the best solution to alleviate this tension was to find a different church to attend. Lindsay represents what I call the independent model where spouses choose to attend separate churches, distinguishing clearly between personal religious practices and their spouse's place of work. These spouses lean heavily toward very clear segmentation between work, family and religious life and actively pursue ways to reinforce such boundaries.

Unlike layperson model spouses who take on responsibilities by default, sometimes hesitantly fulfilling tasks out of need, independent model spouses are firm in maintaining their preferences toward segmentation. For example, Lindsay is periodically asked to help at Chris's church but says, "I'm leery of things that give me any sort of official position. Like I got an email about would I like to greet and welcome people at the door and I turned that down." Furthermore, independent model spouses commonly utilize a no-apologies approach when limiting their involvement. Gwen and Eric, a mainline clergy couple, work at churches in two different suburbs, and while Gwen' s current position is both part-time and temporary, she is only minimally involved in Eric's church as she explains here:

I was on the super secret sub list for Sunday school. You couldn't count on me front line but if you called and you were desperate I would help out. And then also right away they asked me to sing in the choir and I said, "I don't do that. I don't sing." I don't go to all the old ladies luncheons. That's not me. So just helping the church understand that. It was not new to them. The previous pastor's wife worked full time downtown and was never there.

Although they consider Eric's church the family's congregation, Gwen says she actually uses her part-time position as a means for easily opting out of activities

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Rev Relig Res (2012) 54:19-44 31

without explanation. As evidenced in her comments above, she is adamant about her limits and does not take on responsibilities in which she is not interested. While layperson spouses frame involvement around what other congregants

might do, spouses who take the independent approach actively create a role that is even more disconnected compared to church members. Elsa attended the suburban mainline congregation where Adam previously served as pastor but did not feel like the church was a fulfilling spiritual experience; therefore she became involved in an urban congregation that met Sunday evenings, which better fit her interests. Elsa justified her decision by separating herself from other members, suggesting she had less responsibility to participate in Adam's church than the rest of the congregation:

[I] really felt like the best thing for me to do, although I wanted to attend church, was to not take on any responsibilities at all. It was to just sort of be there, be supportive, get to know people but that's it. You know, I'm not here to take on a lot of responsibility or anything like that. I feel like that's really up to them. This is their church… I'm not a member of the church so I feel like

it's up to the members of the church to take on those responsibilities and I'm just the family of the pastor.

Elsa feels neither called to be a pastor's spouse nor an active member because, like other independent spouses, the church is strictly her husband's job. Although she acknowledges Adam's calling, she does not fit herself into that notion. Her congregation meets on Sunday evening, freeing her mornings to attend with Adam, but beyond this her participation is limited. By maintaining clear lines of separation, she reinforces the boundaries she feels best fit her preferences as a clergy spouse.

Sam draws a similar distinction, choosing to remain at his long-time church even after his wife, mainline pastor Barbara, made a career change into vocational ministry:

I really didn't want to cut all the ties to our church because as close as you have to be when you're a pastor, A, you need a little space and B, eventually she won't work there and that probably won't be our church of choice.

Again, there is a strong emphasis on the church as Barbara's place of work – a place to which she is called but her job nonetheless – as in Eisa' s narrative. As a long time member and active participant in music programs, it makes sense in Sam's eyes to stay involved in their "home church" knowing Barbara will one day retire.

Yet even for spouses who adhere to the independent model, there is some level of support for their wife or husband's vocation, illustrating the difficulty in completely avoiding the integration of work, family and religious life. Sam occasionally visits Barbara's church for special events, like weekly summer picnics or occasional movie nights, noting the importance of getting to know the congregants. Elsa attended church with Adam mainly out of her own perceived expectations from members:

I still went to the church in [the suburb] where he was a pastor most every Sunday and just would go to this other church in addition. We used to joke that

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32 Rev Relig Res (2012) 54: 19-44

I was the one that was more prayed up between the two of us because I went to church twice on Sunday. But yeah, I did both. Although I think he would have been fine with me not coming to church with him, it was an older, more traditional congregation. I do think there would have been… It might have reflected not as well on him if I hadn't come on a fairly regular basis with him to church. So I did both.

And Joanna, who attends her own, separate church from the mainline congregation her husband, Ralph, pastors, finds ways to connect with people in his church:

I'm always happy on a Sunday afternoon to go to the hospital with him or something like that or eat out with people, but I don't do it every week. I have my own church and my own life and work it out.

Ralph works as an interim pastor, spending short periods of time in churches going through transition, but Joanna prefers to stay part of the same congregation in which she has participated for many years. But along with joining him on visits, she attends services roughly once per month and repeatedly mentions that her monetary success allows her to give generously to her own church as well as Ralph's. Even among spouses taking a highly separate, independent approach to involvement, there is still a level of engagement with the church that reinforces the distinction between a job and a pastoral calling.

Social Influences on Clergy Spouse Participation

Clergy spouses represent much more than passive support people who neatly fit into an abstract, universally defined role and instead choose unique and varying approaches (Hartley 1978) often rooted in the particular context of the church (Detwiler-Breidenbach 2000). While clergy spouses make concerted choices over how to participate in churches, these decisions are rooted in pressure from expectations, as well as broader social factors like gender and denominational affiliation. As Kreiner (2006) and Kreiner et al. (2009) emphasize, individual preferences for work-home integration or segmentation interact with the particular environment in which one lives and works. As such, people enact a variety of strategies to respond to this interaction, as evidenced by the three models described above. In this section, I consider several factors influencing the varied approaches spouses take toward their role in the church, stressing the way individual preferences interact with contextual factors in both creating and maintaining boundaries (Kreiner 2006; Kreiner et al. 2009).

External and Internal Expectations

External pressure from congregants – either perceived or actually experienced – represents one source of influence on clergy spouses, informing the fact that all three models of spouse participation include some involvement in and support for

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Rev Relig Res (2012) 54: 19-44 33

the church. Several clergy spouses note that churches have very particular ideas about how they should look, act and participate. For example, Evan's congregants question his wife Hannah's choice to attend only one of the two weekend services:

[I]f Hannah and Grace aren't there on Sunday, these old people who have expected, who have a vision about what a pastor's wife is supposed to look like and be, they notice. And it's not a good enough answer for them to say, "She's been to church. She came on Saturday." It should be, but it's not.

Hannah also notices pressure and says she tries not to let the congregation's expectations force her to do something, maintaining her position as a layperson spouse. But she mentions the need to justify her choices, just like Evan has to explain her reasons for attending only one service, showing the power of external expectations in relationship to her own preferences. It is difficult to determine how expectations impact the partnership model since

these spouses are typically very involved at the outset. In addition, such pressures are often more perceived than actually experienced, since partnership spouses can only speculate about how a church might respond if they were less involved. Before Courtney joined the staff at Austin's church, she represented the partnership model and when asked about pressure from the church, she did not feel like her role as pastor's wife came with specific responsibilities: "I don't think if there was something I really didn't want to do, they'd be like 'You need to do it because you're the pastor's wife.'" However, she immediately began helping in a number of areas at the church – teaching Sunday school, volunteering with the youth group and helping with the mid-week dinner programs – and admits she would likely feel pressure if she had not become so active: "I got really involved right away because I wanted to be. I think there probably would certainly be pressure if I weren't involved." Claire, a mainline clergy spouse, expresses a similar idea:

So I think it's a good thing that there aren't… That I don't feel like there are these expectations, but I have a feeling if I weren't involved it would still be sort of a "His wife never comes to anything" kind of thing.

Partnership model spouses often overlook expectations because of their heightened engagement with the church. And while these expectations may not be a primary source of pressure, they do exert a subtle, perhaps indirect influence as evidenced by these examples. Expectations and pressure are not just external social factors, as clergy spouses

also share their own, internal views over how a clergy spouse ought to be involved in the church. Sometimes these internal expectations create even more powerful pressure than what comes from the congregation. For instance, Eisa' s participation in Adam's former church stemmed more from her own ideas than any overt demands articulated by congregants:

I don't think they had any particular expectations for my involvement besides I think they probably expected me to be there on Sundays, although they certainly never said that to Adam or said that to me. I think they would have been disappointed if I hadn't come to church on Sundays. But other than that,

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34 Rev Relig Res (2012) 54:19-44

there were no particular expectations that I would lead groups or I don't think anyone expected me to set up the coffee hour or something like that. I just did it because it was not that hard and it made sense and I was there.

Similarly, Bruce' s level of support, which began as a partnership approach and eventually moved toward the layperson model, is couched in his own perceptions of a clergy spouse:

[W]e've spent a lot of time thinking about it, both Eva and I, because Eva was raised with I think a little bit different expectation about church than I was. For

us, it was absolutely all consuming. My father had three churches when I was a kid, so we were always in the process of something. Everything focused or rolled around that. Eva's father treated it a little bit more like a job and had some boundaries around it.

Eva and Bruce are both the children of pastors, but grew up in dissimilar households with parents who approached ministry in distinct ways. From this, Eva notices the pressure Bruce puts on himself, also acknowledging how his past experience affects his relationship with her church:

He has these self-imposed expectations that I think are deeply seeded in his own parents' experience. His dad was definitely of the era that when you answered a call, your wife was part of that. And it was a package deal. And that was not the case with my mother. Although she was heavily involved in the church, she never felt like she had to live up to anybody's expectations about anything. So I think that's colored how much he has done or not done more so than my expectations of what he's done, which that gets all tangled up a bit, too. I'm not sure where it comes from.

As this example highlights, pressure does not need to come from the congregation per se in order to impact the pastor's spouse and lead an individual to shape their involvement in a certain manner. While pressure from the church is strongest in the stories people share, there are noticeable, internal expectations that also inform the level to which clergy spouses engage with the church.

Local Church Precedent

Established congregational patterns serve as additional factors playing a central role in shaping clergy spouse participation, in particular, precedence set by previous clergy spouses, which almost all spouses reference in our discussions. Congregations are influenced by the local context in which they exist (Ammerman 2005; Chaves 2004) and vary greatly in how they operate (Becker 1999), and these patterns interact significantly with the individual strategies clergy spouses use to reinforce their views on participation. Scott does not feel like the church where his wife, Jen, pastors has many expectations of him, but he senses this is partly because the previous pastor was a single woman. Likewise, Eric's church has few expectations on Gwen since the previous pastor's wife was rarely involved:

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Rev Relig Res (2012) 54:19^4 35

I just acknowledged that she will be as involved as she wants to be. Probably not as much as some have been and probably more substantively than others. My predecessor's wife, I don't know what she did professionally but was seldom here. So it's kind of a low bar to come in, so it was good.

Gwen's independent approach, therefore, fits well within Eric's church, as does Scott's slightly more engaged layperson model of participation. Overall, spouses appreciate minimal expectations with Scott saying, "I wouldn't mind people coming up to me and asking me if I want to be involved in something or different ways to get involved in the church. That's fine. But I think I just haven't felt pressure, which has been nice." When there is no one in the immediate history to whom a spouse is compared, or if the previous clergy spouse was mostly absent, spouses often articulate a greater sense of flexibility in the church. However, the approach spouses take is somewhat dependent on the dynamics

within the congregation, again highlighting the interaction between individual preference and environment (Kreiner 2006; Kreiner et al. 2009). The ability for a spouse to take a highly independent approach or even one of layperson relies on a lack of expectations from that congregation. Indeed, depending on the church, a seldom-involved former pastor's spouse can have a different impact. Hannah attended a breakfast meeting with Evan while he was interviewing for his current position and noticed the church definitely had expectations for her engagement:

[0]ne outspoken lady, she at some point during breakfast, she said, "Well, you seem like the kind of person that would be very involved at the church and really support your husband." And it's like, I'm not sure what to do with that. And it kind of became clear from anecdotes that Evan shared with me, it became clear that people were a little frustrated that the previous pastor's wife was not involved much at all. So I knew there was kind of that expectation but for me, I've tried to be involved in the same way that I would if I was just an average layperson.

The fact that Hannah was asked to attend the interview is telling of the specific congregational patterns, and this is not uncommon in churches (especially among the evangelical clergy with whom I spoke). Along with this, Hannah also noticed long-standing ideas about clergy spouse involvement and found that precedence set by the previous pastor's spouse, who was barely visible, actually created more pressure on Hannah than seen in the other instances. Standards set by past clergy spouses serve to reinforce the amount of

involvement the current spouse accepts and enacts, illustrating the interactive dynamics in constructing the role of clergy spouse. At Trey's church, Martha feels people are hesitant to ask for her help since the former pastor's wife was very distant and rarely participated in church functions. She uses this example to justify her partnership approach:

They think that I'm more fragile or my boundaries are more fragile. They're like "Should we ask Martha?" I'm like "Yeah, don't worry. I'm fine. I'm not like the other pastor's wife." She wouldn't… She'd sit up in the balcony. She

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36 Rev Relig Res (2012) 54: 19^*4

just didn't even want to be mentioned in a sermon or anybody draw attention to her. It was a really odd relationship. I don't get it.

A spouse's experience with a previous church can also serve as a factor in shaping their response to the local church culture. Like Martha, Penny finds it surprising that Robert's current church has so few expectations:

At this church, I didn't feel like there was any expectation. It was a really unique situation for me. They were just used to, I guess because they didn't have a pastor for a little while, they were just used to doing. So they didn't seem to really care if I did anything, which was totally bizarre and I totally didn't feel right just showing up to stuff and not doing anything. I'd never had that before.

For both Martha and Penny, their current churches appreciate their heightened level of involvement, likely because it represents a new, more active model of participation in that particular congregational community. From the perspective of partnership model spouses, comparisons to the previous clergy spouse provide reinforcement for the notion of a shared calling and the strategies these spouses use to establish such blurred boundaries, especially when expectations are low. The only instances where spouses truly seem to avoid any pressure or expectation

are larger churches where the clergy family is less publically visible. The mainline church Beth pastors has a precedence of pastors' spouses being involved as much or little as they please and thus she feels there is minimal pressure on her husband, Tom (who is also a pastor, but serves in a ministry that meets during non-traditional hours):

People believe that they are hiring one person and not magically two. Some of that I think is about size, class, history of expectation and I don't think that has been the case. Then the folks that have been here have had wives and/or

husbands that are also employed and have whole other things that they have to do and people get that I think. But they're always glad to see him.

This may be related to Tom's work as a pastor elsewhere, but he also links the lack of expectations to the church's established patterns:

It is a larger church and more on a corporate model so I think it is more of a feeling of these are our pastors, and not in all the negative stuff but our paid employees. But there hasn't been any sort of expectation like the two for one deal. I don't feel that.

Charlie, Jane and Ian all share similar experiences as Tom, supporting the correlation between large churches and lower pressure on the pastor's spouse. Furthermore, spouses in smaller, tighter knit congregations (particularly those with solo pastors) like Hannah, Roy and Elsa experience more noticeable demands rooted in long-standing congregational ideas and practices.

Religious Factors

Along with the expectations of individuals and the various church patterns, several broad social factors impact the approaches spouses take with church involvement.

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Rev Rei ig Res (2012) 54:19-^4 37

Overall, I noticed few patterns among layperson model spouses, likely because this approach is a balance between the notion of a shared calling and the more distant relationship some spouses develop with congregations. However, in both the partnership and independent models, there are several trends that help explain why a person might take this stance on the role of clergy spouse. While some mainline spouses embrace the partnership approach, the independent

model is more common among these families. However, a higher proportion of evangelical spouses utilize the partnership model. These trends are not surprising given the traditional family structures embraced by conservative Protestants (Ammerman 1987; Christiano 2000; Wilcox 2004) and the more progressive bent of mainline churches. Although several studies reference the shifting structures of evangelical families, traditional ideologies remain quite strong in conservative contexts (Bartkowski 2001; Gallagher 2003; Gallagher and Smith 1999). It is not surprising, then, to see remnants of these ideas present in the church, especially around such central, public positions as the pastor and spouse. The exceptions to the denominational patterns are clergy couples, which most

frequently include independent model spouses regardless of denomination. For example, Lindsay (an evangelical pastor) attends a separate church from the one Chris, her husband, pastors and couches her decision in the challenge over reconciling her identity as a pastor with that of clergy spouse. Annette, an evangelical pastor married to Jeff, also a pastor, likewise admits to struggling over similar role conflict in an evangelical denomination and finds that serving a separate church from her husband helps alleviate some of the tension. It is important to point out that all but one clergy couple in the study –

evangelical and mainline – exhibit an independent model for spousal participation. The exception is Austin and Courtney, who work at the same church. Thus, there is an obvious logistical issue for clergy couples that comes with working in separate congregations. Yet some spouses who take an independent approach indicate this as a preference regardless of the schedule conflict, such as Gwen who seems relieved at finding a part-time ministry position that allows for some distance from Eric's church. As such, the correlation between clergy couples and the independent model is not simply an outcome of logistics. Instead, I suggest it stems more from the conflict between multiple, competing roles central to one's identity.

Gender

The gender patterns in the models provide further backing for this argument. The majority of spouses embracing a shared calling and partnership model are women (Mark being the one exception) but interestingly, with the exception of Sam, women also comprise the majority of independent model spouses. The sample in this study is small, which could account for these trends, but given that gender has long served as a contested realm in religious institutions (Ingersoll 2003), especially more conservative evangelical contexts, I suggest these connections are more about the historical gendering of the clergy spouse role and what I see as recent resistance to that gendering.

While there is a wealth of sociological research addressing the experiences of women as pastors (Carroll 1992; Charlton 2000; Chaves 1997; Finlay 1996; Lehman

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38 Rev Relig Res (20 1 2) 54: 1 9-44

1987; Lummis and Nesbitt 2000; Nesbitt 1997; Olson et al. 2000), research extended to clergy families is more limited in its inclusion of both women and men as spouses (Finch 1983; Frame and Shehan 1994; Hartley 1978; Hartley and Taylor 1977). Moreover, within the narratives I collected for this study, almost all participants point to gender as a defining factor in the image of pastors and clergy spouses. Despite the reality in most denominations, there remains a dominant cultural view that pastors are men married to women.

Given that pastors and spouses still frequently cite this traditional yet powerful assumption, it makes sense that the spousal participation approaches follow certain patterns around gender. Just as evangelical spouses show a stronger leaning toward the partnership model, women fall into this category as well due to continued gendered perspectives on religious authority, a trend exhibited in previous research. Walmsley and Lummis (1997) note the gender differences in clergy experiences around family, stressing that clergy wives are much more likely than clergy husbands

to prioritize their spouse's career in ministry over their own career. Considering more specific contributions and expanding on Hochschild' s (1989) model of the "second shift," Blanton and Morris (1999) suggest that clergy wives work a third shift as well, incorporating the demands of their role in the church into the equation. And the frequent need to relocate is shown to be particularly difficult for clergy wives who take on the majority of tasks in adapting the family into a new home and community while their spouse is preoccupied with a new job (Frame and Shehan 1994).

Although the five denominations included in this study ordain women, research documents the way views on gender and authority among members in local congregations do not always shift alongside broader church policies (Chaves 1997; Wallace 1992; Zikmund et al. 1998). Furthermore, studies highlight how some women in religious contexts interpret a supportive position as empowering (Brasher 1998; Griffith 1997; Kaufmann 1991; Pevey, Williams and Ellison 1996). While the spouses in this study do not exhibit the same submissive tendencies, they are by no means passive subjects of historical gender ideologies and do make concerted choices (albeit within a particular context) over their level of participation in the church.

The trend toward more women in this study exhibiting an independent approach sheds additional light on the ways women actively pursue a particular role in the church, highlighting the relationship between individual preferences and contextual factors in creating boundaries (Kreiner 2006; Kreiner et al. 2009). Here, I suggest that women have become so aware of the dominant images and stereotypes of a clergy spouse that they are especially determined to carve out new ways of defining this role. The male spouses of clergywomen are much less insistent on claiming a particular position, perhaps because they feel they are already paving new roads as men (again, a remnant of a dated gender order in the church). Roy, for example, recalls with humor some elderly women in the community accidentally calling him the new pastor's wife when Helen started at her church. While he, like other husbands of clergywomen, is highly aware of the gender dynamics in their roles, they exhibit a more lighthearted approach to the situation compared to women.

This argument accounts for the relationship between clergy couples and the independent model. The clergywomen married to pastors in this study exhibit much

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Rev Relig Res (2012) 54:19^4 39

more tension in negotiating the dual roles of pastor and clergy spouse compared to their male counterparts. Not only do some wrestle with their role as clergy given ongoing resistance to women's ordination (mostly in evangelical contexts) but they also experience tension as a clergy spouse and uncertainty on how to balance the two positions. Lindsay appears frightened of losing her own pastoral identity in relation to her husband's ministry. She rectifies the situation by attending a separate church, a decision she describes here:

I come from a long line of pastor's wives and I'm very scared of that and what that might be. Not because I don't think I'd be good at it but because I think I know exactly what… that I'd actually be really good at it and be really unhappy with myself five years later by falling into that. And part of it is just this difficulty in balancing our calls and just the importance of me needing a space to worship and to have a place to be that isn't an extension of who he is right now.

Lindsay's identity – not just as a pastor but also as a woman married to a pastor – significantly shapes her decision to remain independent from Chris's congregation. Men in clergy couples did not bring up the same concerns as women like Lindsay who felt "defeated" attending Chris's church, highlighting the part gender still plays within the church in general and these women's experiences in particular. The need for a separate identity is evident in the way independent spouses articulate and enact their approach to church participation. In particular, embracing the independent model helps eliminate the tensions for women, especially those with pastoral identities.

Age and Lifecycle Phase

Finally, age and phase in the lifecycle influence spouses who engage an independent approach to involvement. Barbara became a pastor much later in life and at that point she and Sam had already been invested in a church for 25 years. His choice to remain active in his previous congregational community stems from this long- standing connection. Similarly, Joanna has actively participated in a congregation for many years, and since Ralph frequently moves between churches as an interim pastor, she feels the need to stay settled in her church. As people advance through the lifecycle, balancing work and family responsibilities becomes less burdensome, particularly for women who exhibit greater stress while raising young children (Higgins, Duxbury and Lee 1994). Consequently, the couples in this study nearing retirement express little tension over the spouse taking a highly independent approach because there are fewer competing demands to manage at this point in life.

Conclusion

This study responds to the need for further exploration into the varied ways clergy spouses engage with the churches their wives and husbands pastor, recognizing how shifting structures of both church and religious family life inform new models of

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40 Rev Relig Res (20 1 2) 54: 1 9^4

participation. Among formal religious institutions, some Protestant Christian denominations have altered their stance on women's ordination, symbolically portraying where they stand in relation to gender and egalitarianism (Chaves 1997), and subsequently restructuring religious leadership (Charlton 2000; Nesbitt 1997). On a more "private" or informal level, the gendered organization of family life has also changed, partly in response to feminism but also economic realities (Ammerman 1987; Bartkowski 2001; Gallagher 2003). But while sociological discourses highlighting these ongoing developments within religious communities largely focus on either public or private life, this study emphasizes the importance of bridging this divide and examining how boundaries between work, family and religion are deeply intertwined for clergy families. It is to be expected that the role of clergy spouse would change over time,

evolving in response to broader shifts in the relationship between religion, gender and families. Indeed, clergy spouses are a highly diverse group of people who engage this role in ways that integrate interpersonal preferences alongside contextual factors such as expectations, established church patterns and broader demographic factors. These women and men craft very intentional and unique strategies for fulfilling this role, creating and reinforcing varied boundaries and highlighting the fact that religious people and institutions are set within a particular social context that has tremendous impact on both action and interaction. But despite the many changes within formal and informal religious institutions,

clergy spouses remain rooted in traditional practices where they are involved in some capacity in the churches their husbands and wives pastor. Noting the relationship between individual preferences and broader environment in establishing and maintaining boundaries (Kreiner 2006; Kreiner et al. 2009), the environmental factors seem to play a particularly central part in shaping the experiences and practices of clergy spouses. Kanter (1977) describes well the demands on corporate spouses (mainly wives) to contribute to the business by entertaining clients at home or completing unpaid secretarial tasks – pressures clearly shaped heavily by environment. However the sacred aspects of vocational ministry make this interaction between preferences and environment especially complex. For clergy spouses in this study who support the sense of call experienced by their wives or husbands, the integration of work, family and religious life is more than a preference. The fact that all spouses in this study are in some way involved in their pastor wives' and husbands' congregations speaks to the significance of a pastoral calling in shaping their understanding of the clergy spouse role. Even independent spouses who intentionally seek a high level of segmentation revert in some ways to the notion that a pastor is called to the church along with her or his family by attending events, getting to know parishioners, reading sermons and simply making themselves known to the congregation. Thus, along with the environmental factors discussed above, the broader factor of spirituality and commitment to a sense of call deeply informs clergy spouse participation on all levels. In deconstructing and reshaping the conventional model of clergy spouse

participation – where clergy roles are occupied by men and their wives serve as unpaid, second employees of the church – spouses still reinforce many of the assumptions embedded within this integrated lifestyle. The fact that most clergy

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Rev Relig Res (2012) 54:19-44 41

spouses assume there is an expectation, even when they do not directly feel such pressure or prefer a more segmented approach to managing boundaries, is a sign of the continued power of the traditional model. Thus, while this research sheds light on the diverse ways clergy spouses interpret and actively construct roles in the church, it also highlights the ongoing process in balancing the varying pressures of life in the "family business." There are several limitations to this study, which draw forth questions for future

research in the area of work, family and religious life. While I include both mainline and evangelical Protestants, because the five denominations in this study all ordain women, I eliminate a large number of churches – particularly those with more traditional, conservative theologies than the five I discuss here. A broader inclusion of more diverse denominations would necessarily impact the findings of this present study, likely with the inclusion of more gendered family structures and clergy spouses adhering to traditional expectations within the church. The fact that the couples in this study are all, for the most part, two-career or two-income families reflects this particular limitation. Along these lines, the couples I interviewed all reside in the same metropolitan area. Although there are urban, suburban and small town churches all included in this sample, cultures vary greatly regionally. An expanded sample with clergy families in other metropolitan areas would enhance the results of this work. Finally, the spouses in this study are all practicing Christians, thus eliminating the reality that clergy spouses may be grounded in other faith communities or identify as atheist or agnostic. Despite these limitations, this study offers important contributions to research on

managing boundaries, specific discourses on work, family and religious life and more broadly the efforts of pastors and denominations in alleviating the demands of vocational ministry. This study highlights the lived experiences of clergy families, showing how spouses deliberately create specific roles to deal with the competing pressures of work, church and family life and enact strategies to reinforce preferences around integration or segmentation. Recognizing these nuanced models of clergy spouse participation, churches and denominations may better understand the difficulties brought on by ministry work not just for pastors, but for their families as well. Indeed, clergy spouses – even those embracing an independent model of participation – are deeply intertwined in the family business that is the church. Seeing the diverse ways contemporary clergy spouses socially construct their individualized roles alongside the powerful influence of contextual factors will allow churches and denominations to see the ways this unique place in the church has evolved and identify new and innovative ways to support clergy families.

Acknowledgments The author wishes to thank The Graduate School of Loyola University Chicago and the Arthur J. Schmitt Foundation for funding this research.

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