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(OPINION) The size of the paycheck is not the only predictor of whether we’ll be satisfied with our job.

Another way to measure the worth of our employment is by the psychological or spiritual fulfillment it gives us. I would argue this second measure is at least as important as the first, and probably more important over the long term.

I’ve always wanted to do work I felt had meaning, that benefitted others around me and that, in some tiny way, helped society as a whole.

I stumbled into that job when I became a minister more or less against my will. I soon discovered that, indeed, the clergy may have the most fulfilling vocation there is.

Turns out, that’s statistically verifiable.

Recently The Washington Post looked at data from AmeriCorps, an independent agency that funds the Civic Engagement and Volunteering Supplement, which is part of the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey.

In 2021 and in 2023, researchers working on the Civic Engagement and Volunteering Supplement asked Americans whether they agreed or disagreed with four statements:

— I am proud to be working for my employer.

— My main satisfaction in life comes from work.

— My workplace contributes to the community.

— I contribute to the community through my work.

“There is this expectation or this desire for people to find meaning in the work that they’re doing and feeling like it contributes to some greater good,” AmeriCorps research and evaluation director Mary Morris-Hyde explained to the newspaper.

The Post’s Department of Data crunched a lot of numbers from the supplement and looked in detail at 100 occupations.

Their finding: “Clergy were most likely to strongly agree on every question.”

That is, ministers were proud of their employer, said their work gave them great satisfaction, felt their workplace contributed to the community’s well-being and believed they personally were making a contribution.

This might be surprising at first glance. Most ministers are modestly paid. They’re also in a declining profession: Church membership and participation have been falling like stones. Preachers often have to navigate among surly board members, demanding parishioners, immature youth leaders and temperamental music directors.

Being a minister isn’t an easy job, for sure. Some preachers get burned out. I’ve been burned out at times myself.

But dig a bit deeper into the data and these high-satisfaction numbers aren’t so surprising.

The Post said research shows “Americans rank religious and spiritual activities as the happiest, most meaningful and least stressful things we do” — even more so than sports, which sometimes seems to be America’s true religion.

Americans also rank places of worship as literally the happiest places on earth, the Post said, more joyous than the outdoors or socializing with friends.

If all that’s true, it kind of stands to reason that the clergy who lead those spiritual activities and preside over those houses of worship would, more often than not, share in the joy and sense of peace.

Economist Olga Popova and other scholars “have found a strong relationship between religion and well-being,” the Post explained. “And they’ve found that active participation in religion — beyond simple affiliation with a mosque or temple — increases the well-being boost. And nobody participates more actively in religion than the clergy!”

Listen, I’ve been a minister for 45 years. I have first-hand experience with this.

Consider the four areas of job fulfillment that the Civic Engagement and Volunteering Supplement asked Americans about.

Am I proud to be working for my employer? An unqualified yes — since I’m working for G.O.D. There’s inordinate satisfaction in that, and as they say, the retirement plan is out of this world.

Does my main satisfaction in life come from my work? I’m not sure how to even answer that one. Since God is everywhere all the time, permeating every atom of our being, every breath in our lungs, I find life and work inseparable — in a good way.

When I’m preaching a sermon … God’s there. When I’m standing by a coffin … God’s there. When I’m laughing across the dinner table with my wife … God’s there, too. When I’m watching my granddaughter ride in a horse show … God’s there.

My life is my work and my work is my life. It’s all God, all the time.

Does my workplace contribute to the community? At the church I lead, people get their hearts changed by the Holy Spirit. They find hope. Occasionally somebody kicks an addiction. Somebody else’s hopeless marriage gets restored. We contribute to a local food bank. We visit the sick. We raise money for schoolteachers. We make a difference every day.

Do I contribute to the community in a meaningful way? Re-read that last answer. I’ve been allowed the honor of leading the folks who are doing all those wonderful things.

Who wouldn’t be fulfilled by a job like this?

Paul Prather has been a rural Pentecostal pastor in Kentucky for more than 40 years. Also a journalist, he was The Lexington Herald-Leader’s staff religion writer in the 1990s, before leaving to devote his full time to the ministry. He now writes a regular column about faith and religion for the Herald-Leader, where this column first appeared. Prather’s written four books. You can email him at pratpd@yahoo.com.