As mentioned in previous posts, we interviewed over 40 religious leaders from different Christian traditions for this project. Each religious leader in our study had a “call story” to share—a story of how they came to understand a calling to vocational ministry. We observed three types of call stories: Sense of call followed by challenges:…
Pastors in historically Black Protestant churches generally agree that both their influence as pastors and their churches’ influence in their communities has been declining. Although a recent Pew Research Center study explains in detail the reasons behind this issue,[1] in this post, I will focus on a single church to show how difficult and necessary…
Immigration is a major component in the changing U.S. religious landscape. According to the Pew Research Center, the percentage of Latinx Christians increased from thirteen percent in 2007 to sixteen percent in 2014.[1] For this reason, the Religious Workforce Project includes qualitative data from eight Latinx congregations. In this post, I will introduce Iglesia Episcopal…
What are some options to consider when church staffing needs exist, but, as scripture states, “the laborers are few?” Oakmont Baptist Church in Greenville, North Carolina, where I formerly served as senior pastor experienced two significant staff changes within a 10-month time frame. What are some of the benefits of outsourcing church staffing needs? What…
“We don’t need the building [for our mission]. Other people do need the building and should be in the building because there’s possibilities that God’s Spirit is going to be doing something in there.” — Pastor, Open Hearts UMC The Religious Workforce Project’s team has conducted interviews with 44 congregational leaders in the greater Washington,…
Racial and ethnic inequality is well documented in many aspects of daily life in the United States, such as in educational and employment opportunities, home ownership, and access to credit.[1] Despite all the evidence of racial inequality in a variety of arenas of public life, much less research has been done on whether there are…
Can bivocational ministry be a strategic choice and not just a reluctant concession to financial constraints? In this episode of Leading Ideas Talks from the Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary, Ben Connelly shares how bivocational ministry can enhance collaboration, deepen engagement with the mission field, and even promote the personal spiritual…
As mentioned in one of our previous posts, the Religious Workforce Project team interviewed more than 40 congregational leaders for this study. In most cases, a path to ministry seems to begin in childhood through church participation with one’s family. In other cases, pastors may have come from a family in which there were one…
While the main research question in the Religious Workforce Project interview deals with how congregations in the Washington, D.C., area harness their financial and human resources to carry out their ministry, some questions address the life experiences of church leaders. Among the 44 religious workers who have been interviewed for the qualitative component of the…
“…I believe that we are in a wilderness moment. … Just as the people of Israel were in a wilderness moment long ago, we are going to a place that we do not yet know what it will look like — life coming out of the pandemic, into an intentionally hybrid church, into a church…