How is a clergyman's perspective on happiness different from the average person's?

How is a clergyman's perspective on happiness different from the average person's?

Neal Tadken ( Associate Rector for Pastoral Care) gives expert video advice on: How is a clergyman's perspective on happiness different from the average person's?; What can others learn about happiness from a clergyman?; How does religion address the issue of happiness? and more...

I think one of the key things about working as a pastor is that you are often there for pivotal moments in people's lives. You're there at their weddings, you're there at baptisms, you're there at births, you're there at death. People come to you with all kinds of problems or with their joys. So you really experience the sort of heightened moments, quite often, in people's lives. Those moments can be incredible insights into what makes us tick as human beings and in what brings us joy, and what builds us up, and what breaks us down. So I think as we look at happiness in our own lives and in the lives of other people, I think just because of the place we are at, in terms of people's willingness to open up or be vulnerable with you, that you get a lot more opportunity and insight.