Flourishing in Ministry · A research initiative of Biola University
Helping ministry leaders flourish.
For the leaders who care for everyone else. Flourishing in Ministry helps pastors and ministry leaders build wellbeing that lasts — through coaching grounded in research.
15+ years of research · 20,000 ministry leaders studied · ICF-accredited coach training
What is Flourishing in Ministry?
You didn’t lose your calling. You lost your margin.
Most of the ministry leaders we study still believe in the work. What has gone is the reserve underneath it — the sleep, the rest, the friendships, the sense that someone is holding you the way you hold everyone else.
Flourishing in Ministry is a research initiative at Biola University studying what actually helps. Fifteen years, more than 20,000 ministry leaders, and a model of five dimensions that describes how flourishing really works.
The Flourishing in Ministry model
Five dimensions of flourishing in ministry leadership
Our research points to five dimensions of flourishing. Four of them — Daily Wellbeing, Resilience, Thriving, and Authenticity — grow inside the fifth: your Relational Ecosystem, the web of relationships that holds everything else together.
One — Daily Wellbeing
The quality of your everyday life — sleep, rest, health, and renewal. It’s usually the first thing to drop, and when it stays low, it pulls everything else down with it.
Two — Resilience
The capacity to move through hard seasons and grow, not just endure them. It’s built through emotional intelligence — self-awareness, reflection, and regulation.
Three — Thriving
A living sense of meaning and connection — to God, to your purpose, and to people. For many leaders, connection to people is the hardest and most important piece.
Four — Authenticity
Living and leading congruently with your true self — a quiet confidence that grows through self-acceptance and shaping your role to fit who you are.
The fifth, that holds the other four
Relational Ecosystem
The web of supportive relationships across every part of your life — your closest people, peers who get it, your congregation, and those who lead you. It surrounds and sustains the other four, and a healthy, mutually supportive relationship with your congregation is the single biggest predictor of whether you’ll flourish.
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Start here Take the free Flourishing in Ministry Leadership assessmentTwenty minutes. A clear read on how you're doing across all five dimensions. |
Begin → |
Our story
From research to resources to relationships.
Flourishing in Ministry began more than fifteen years ago at the University of Notre Dame, where Dr. Matt Bloom led a research team — including our executive director, Dr. Chris Adams — studying what actually helps clergy thrive.
Today the work continues at Biola University’s Mental Health and the Church Initiative, and it draws on the broader global body of human flourishing research — not just one study, but decades of science on what makes people and communities flourish.
Everything we make — coaching, training, courses, and free resources — comes straight from what the data shows. We’re committed to measuring what actually works and studying the effectiveness of our own coaching model, training, and resources, because evidence-based care has to keep earning that name.
“Our research indicates that it is possible for ministry leaders to flourish when they intentionally cultivate their own Christian formation and key relationships. If you are feeling stuck, alone, burned out, or simply want to take your leadership to the next level, Flourishing in Ministry Coaching is for you.”
— Rev. Chris Adams, PhD, Executive Director
We understand
Ministry has a way of distracting leaders from their own formation.
You pour yourself into people in their hardest moments. You carry things you can’t say out loud. You’re expected to do everything well, and you may not feel equipped for all of it. Somewhere in there, your own wellbeing quietly slipped down the list.
“I’m a spiritual leader, I shouldn’t be feeling this way.”
“I can’t really tell anyone what I’m carrying — I didn’t expect to feel this alone.”
“I thought ministry would feel more joyful.”
Here’s what fifteen years of research makes clear: ministry leaders flourish when they intentionally tend their own Christian formation and key relationships — not when they simply push harder. That’s exactly what coaching helps you do. You don’t have to figure it out alone.
Flourishing in Ministry Leadership Coaching
Whether you’re looking for support or ready to offer it, the two main ways we help are simple: get a coach, or become one.
Get support
Get a FiM coach
Walk with a trained Flourishing in Ministry coach who helps you tend your formation, your key relationships, and your wellbeing — one conversation at a time.
Offer support
Become a coach
Train through our ICF-accredited program to coach ministry leaders toward flourishing — 65- and 45-hour tracks built for this work.
Not sure where to start?
Begin with the assessment, then let your results point you to your next step.
| ✓ |
Start here Take the free Flourishing in Ministry Leadership assessmentTwenty minutes. A clear read on how you're doing across all five dimensions. |
Begin → |
Beyond individual coaching
We help whole organizations build cultures where ministry leaders flourish.
Flourishing in Ministry does more than coach one leader at a time. We run private coach-training cohorts, provide group coaching for your team, keynotes, presentations, and webinars, and offer a research-based review of your organizational ecosystem — with recommendations to enhance the flourishing of your leaders.
Coming soon
Flōreō: The Flourishing in Ministry Leadership Podcast
A new podcast blending wellbeing research, Christian spiritual formation, and real coaching practice — guiding ministry leaders from surviving to thriving.
Get notifiedFrom the blog
Fresh thinking for ministry leaders.
Research-backed articles on wellbeing, resilience, and ministry life.
Not Just a Newsletter
The Weekly Well
A place to pause, breathe, and draw water for the week ahead — real research, practical tools, and honest encouragement to help you sustain ministry for the long haul.
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