Erskine Wellness sponsors every other year a Congregational-Clergy Wellness Day in order to highlight the need to pay attention to clergy health and congregational ministries that focus on the whole person.

We focus on Congregational Wellness because we want to help local churches understand that being a Christian is more than just attending to spiritual disciplines, important as they are. It also includes attending to matters of the heart, mind, and body. We include in our focus on Congregational Wellness such things as Parish Nurse, Stephen Ministries, Wellness programs, and screening services.

We focus on Clergy Wellness because healthy pastors produce healthy congregations. We also focus on clergy wellness because Erskine Seminary has as its mission to prepare persons for service in the Christian Church. From national research studies we know that clergy persons have:

• the highest rates of obesity
• the highest rates of depression
• the highest rates of heart disease
• the highest rates of adult onset diabetes
• the highest rates of high blood pressure

than any other profession.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America study discovered recently that their typical pastor had the following profile:
•    A 51-year-old male with symptoms of depression
•    High blood pressure and overweight with heightened risk of
 heart disease and other illnesses
•    Works 60-70 hours a week in a sedentary job, lacking physical
 exercise and reporting considerable work-related stress
•    Married with three children, one of whom expresses interest
in following their father into full-time ministry; the pastor, however, expresses little enthusiasm for encouraging a child to do so.

Previous Congregational-Clergy Wellness Days have included representatives from:
          Abundant Living Program Palmetto Health Baptist Easley
          Congregational/Parish Nursing Ministry
          Trident Medical Center
          Stephen Ministry
          Abbeville County Hospital