Psychological Wellbeing of Pastors in the Three Adventist Divisions in Sub-Sahara Africa

Abstract

The study investigated the Pastor’s Psychological Well-being (PWB) using a quantitative descriptive design on a sample of 304 pastors in the East-Central Africa (ECD), West-Central Africa (WAD), and Southern Africa-Indian Ocean Divisions (SID) of the Adventist Church. Data from the self-constructed questionnaire was analyzed using SPSS 27 and SmartPLS 4.0 for statistical treatment. The self-constructed PWB scale demonstrated poor internal consistency and reliability, as indicated by its low Cronbach's alpha of .543, which falls below the commonly accepted minimum threshold of .70 to .80 for a reliable scale, making it an unreliable inference about PWB. The pastors in the three Divisions (ECD, WAD, SID) exhibited a high level of psychological wellbeing. Regardless of age, territory, and current workstation, pastors exhibited a high level of optimum psychological functioning in ministry. The pastors have a high level of positive relations with others, a high level of autonomy, a high level of self-acceptance, and a high level of personal growth. The pastors in Sub-Saharan Africa have healthy optimum psychological functioning and take ministry as an opportunity to develop their potential. Despite the workload, pastors can have optimum psychological functioning. However, they have a low level of environmental mastery. The study confirmed the applicability of the new tools of PWB in the ministry. Future research would study the level of PWB among ministerial spouses.