‘A gift rather than a curse’: Married couples in ministry navigate sacred, secret spaces

(RNS) — The Rev. Jamal Bryant, senior pastor of an Atlanta-area megachurch, and his wife, the Rev. Karri Bryant, an executive pastor at their church, have learned to keep parts of their life private.

For example, they make a practice of not having staff parties or meetings at their home, and they realize that friendships can and should exist outside the church.

“If you honor the fact that God has allowed both of you to be in that space together to serve together, it can be a gift rather than a curse, depending on how you navigate it,” said Karri Bryant.

Theirs is a kind of relationship that is rare but prominent enough that the Progressive National Baptist Convention has a fellowship, launched more than four years ago, to bring together clergy couples — as well as other ministry partners — to talk about the challenge of how to serve a congregation together while maintaining boundaries between the church and their marriage. Couples spoke candidly at the historically Black denomination’s recent annual meeting in Washington, D.C., about their experiences, as well as in follow-up interviews with Religion News Service.

Communication and privacy — or lack of it, often — were…