Fieldnotes Blog - Religious Workforce Project

The Fieldnotes Blog

Fieldnotes. /fēld nōt/ Noun. 1. Notes recorded in the field by researchers. In qualitative research, field notes may also include early insights or self-reflexive observations.

Here at The Fieldnotes Blog, you will find updates on our project as well as behind-the-scenes reports on our research process as it unfolds.

May182023

Types of Call Stories among Religious Workers: Part One

By RWP Staff May 18, 2023

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…

May112023

Black Church Congregational Demographics

Remaining Relevant in a Post-Christian and Urban Culture

By RWP Staff May 11, 2023

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…

May52023

Congregational Demographics Congregational Finance Congregational Vitality Immigrant Churches

Latinx Congregations: Case Study #1 — Iglesia Episcopal San Juan

By RWP Staff May 5, 2023

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…

Apr252023

Administration Congregational Finance Congregational Vitality

7 Suggestions for Outsourcing Your Church’s Staffing Needs

By RWP Staff April 25, 2023

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…

Apr52023

Congregational Vitality Covid-19 Response

Coming Out of the Wilderness: Case Study #2 — Reimagining a Church’s Facilities

By RWP Staff April 5, 2023

“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…

Mar302023

Clergy Demographics Clergy Wellbeing Leadership

How are Clergy of Color Faring in White Protestant Denominations?

By RWP Staff March 30, 2023

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…

Mar162023

Congregational Demographics

Changing Patterns Among Nazarene Churches with Multiple Clergy

By Lovett Weems March 16, 2023

In Church of the Nazarene, congregations report the number of clergy serving the congregation. The clergy may be full-time, part-time, paid, unpaid, active, or retired.…

Mar82023

Clergy Demographics

Changing Patterns among United Methodist Churches with Multiple Full-Time Clergy

By Lovett Weems March 8, 2023

This article examines changes in the number of United Methodist churches with multiple full-time clergy between 2000 and 2019 and the changing makeup the associate…

Feb162023

Clergy Wellbeing Leadership

Pastor holding both a Bible and a briefcase

Podcast Episode: “Bivocational by Choice” featuring Ben Connelly

By RWP Staff February 16, 2023

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…

Feb92023

Clergy Demographics

Insights Learned from Interviewing Agnostics Who Go into Ministry

By RWP Staff February 9, 2023

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,…

Feb22023

Congregational Vitality Women in Ministry

From Lay Ministers to the Pulpit

By RWP Staff February 2, 2023

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…

Jan272023

Congregational Vitality Covid-19 Response

Coming out of the Wilderness: Case Study #1 — Rethinking How to Staff Ministries

By RWP Staff January 27, 2023

“…I believe that we are in a wilderness moment. … Just as the people of Israel were in a wilderness moment long ago, we are…

Jan122023

Clergy Demographics Women in Ministry

Image courtesy National Catholic Reporter at https://www.ncronline.org/news/celebration-whole-church-lutheran-women-reflect-50-years-ordination

Clergywomen in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

By Amy Kubichek January 12, 2023

Lutheran women in the United States first gained the right to become ordained clergy in 1970 when the conventions of two predecessor denominations to the…

Jan62023

Clergy Wellbeing

Image from DOWNLOAD COVER REQUEST REVIEW COPY REQUEST EXAM COPY Caring for Clergy -- Understanding a Disconnected Network of Providers book cover

Who Cares for Clergy?

By RWP Staff January 6, 2023

By Dr. Ann A. Michel Religious communities through history have always found ways to care for and support clergy. And this need is arguably greater…

Dec162022

Administration Congregational Finance

Job applicant shaking hands with interviewer

Churches Continue to Increase Lay Staff

By Lovett Weems December 16, 2022

By Lovett H. Weems Jr. As congregations seek to carry out their missions faithfully, they will want to assess their spending on personnel. In that…

Dec62022

Administration Congregational Finance

Is Your Church Spending Too Much or Too Little on Personnel?

By Lovett Weems December 6, 2022

By Lovett H. Weems Jr. Church leaders often ask if their spending on personnel is reasonable in relation to comparable churches. This question is not…

Nov282022

Clergy Demographics

Changes in Seminary Enrollment Patterns, 2000-2020 | Part 5: Observations and Implications

By Lovett Weems November 28, 2022

The previous four posts discussed seminary enrollment trends among were Roman Catholic students and students from selected clusters of denominations from Black Protestant, Evangelical Protestant,…

Nov172022

Clergy Demographics

Changes in Seminary Enrollment Patterns, 2000-2020 | Part 4: Roman Catholic

By Matt Lyons November 17, 2022

The previous three posts discussed seminary enrollment trends among students belonging to some Black Protestant, Evangelical Protestant, and Mainline Protestant denominations. In this post, we…

Nov72022

Clergy Demographics

Changes in Seminary Enrollment Patterns, 2000-2020 | Part 3: Mainline Protestant

By Lovett Weems November 7, 2022

The previous two posts discussed seminary enrollment trends among students belonging to some Black Protestant and Evangelical Protestant denominations. In this post, we discuss seminary…

Oct312022

Clergy Demographics

Changes in Seminary Enrollment Patterns, 2000-2020 | Part 2: Evangelical Protestant

By Lovett Weems October 31, 2022

The previous post discussed seminary enrollment trends among students belonging to some Black Protestant denominations. In this post, we discuss seminary enrollment trends among students…

Oct112022

Black Church Clergy Demographics

The Rev. Daniel Hayes gives the sermon during worship at John Wesley United Methodist Church in Nashville, Tenn. Photo by Mike DuBose, UM News.

Changes in Seminary Enrollment Patterns, 2000-2020 | Part 1: Introduction and Black Protestant

By Lovett Weems October 11, 2022

Mark Chaves and researchers from the National Congregations Survey note that “clergy are a highly educated segment of American society,” with a majority of clergy…

Oct62022

Clergy Demographics News

Still Fewer Young United Methodist Elders in 2022

By Lovett Weems October 6, 2022

By Lovett H. Weems Jr. For seventeen years, the Lewis Center for Church Leadership has issued annual reports on clergy age trends in the United…

Sep292022

Clergy Demographics News

Collage of photos of older pastors and older people

Does an Aging Population Explain High Clergy Ages?

By Lovett Weems September 29, 2022

By Lovett H. Weems Jr. A significant concern within many faith communities in recent years has been the increasing age of clergy in the United…

Sep232022

Clergy Demographics Congregational Demographics Congregational Finance

How are Clergy of Color Faring in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America?

By Amy Kubichek September 23, 2022

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has had goals and policies in its churchwide office and synods since the late 1980s to increase racial and…

Sep142022

Congregational Finance Congregational Vitality Leadership Pastoral Imagination

Pastor preaching from the front of a church

Congregations That Thrive without Full-Time Clergy

By RWP Staff September 14, 2022

By G. Jeffrey MacDonald From the outside, First Parish Church (United Church of Christ) in Newbury, Massachusetts, appeared to be chugging along reasonably well after…

Sep12022

Clergy Demographics Leadership

Pastoral Staffing Arrangements in Small United Methodist Church Congregations

By Amy Kubichek September 1, 2022

It should come as no surprise that over the past few decades Christian congregations have been shrinking in terms of their average weekly worship attendance.…

Aug162022

Clergy Wellbeing Congregational Vitality Covid-19 Response Leadership

Masked pastor conversing with masked church member

Podcast Episode: “The Pandemic’s Real Impact on Clergy and Congregations” featuring Scott Thumma

By RWP Staff August 16, 2022

How has the pandemic shaped the vitality and resiliency of congregations? Did it really prompt large numbers of pastors to leave ministry? In this episode…

Jul292022

Congregational Vitality Leadership

Leading in Small Church or Multi-Church Settings

By RWP Staff July 29, 2022

Are you a pastor serving more than one church? Or a leader in a congregation that’s part of a multi-church ministry? In this Leading Ideas…

Jul202022

Administration Congregational Vitality Leadership Pastoral Imagination

Map showing the locations of two churches

2 Churches — 1 Pastor

By RWP Staff July 20, 2022

By Lewis A. Parks It’s important to remember that in some denominations, the normative expectation of a local church to have a resident pastor is relatively…

Jul142022

Clergy Wellbeing Congregational Vitality Covid-19 Response Leadership

Masked pastor speaking with a masked church member

The Pandemic’s Real Impact on Clergy and Congregations

By RWP Staff July 14, 2022

This article shares highlights from an in-depth interview with Scott Thumma, available in Leading Ideas from the Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary.…

Jun302022

Congregational Demographics Congregational Finance Congregational Vitality Leadership

Pastoral Staffing Arrangements in Small Nazarene Churches

By Amy Kubichek June 30, 2022

Over the past several decades, the average weekly worship attendance of Christian congregations has been decreasing. In 1998, the median number of regular participants of…

Jun222022

Clergy Demographics Leadership Pastoral Imagination

Four Incarnational Benefits of Bivocational Ministry

By RWP Staff June 22, 2022

By Steven C. Van Ostran It has been my experience that bivocational ministers see themselves and are looked upon by others as second-class ministers —…

Jun152022

Congregational Vitality

The Resilient Small Church

By Lovett Weems June 15, 2022

One of the most thoughtful gestures related to my ministry occurred a few months ago. I received an email from a United Methodist district superintendent…

Jun92022

Congregational Vitality Covid-19 Response

Person wearing a mask sitting in a pew during a worship service

How Has COVID-19 Impacted Religious Participation?

By Amy Kubichek June 9, 2022

How are congregations faring two years after the outbreak of the COVID pandemic in the United States? Has the number of worshipers who attend services…

Feb222021

Clergy Demographics

Clergy Age Trends Have Paved the Way for the Religious Workforce Project

By Lovett Weems February 22, 2021

Several research projects by the Lewis Center for Church Leadership paved the way for the current Religious Workforce Project. The longest continuous effort by the…

Feb222021

Clergy Demographics Clergy Wellbeing Congregational Vitality Theological Education

Previous Research by the Lewis Center Related to Religious Workforce

By Lovett Weems February 22, 2021

Several research projects by the Lewis Center for Church Leadership paved the way for the current Religious Workforce Project. Most of these involved the United…

Feb182021

Immigrant Churches

A Mobile Religious Workforce?

By Tim Snyder February 18, 2021

Early on the Religious Workforce Project (RWP), like other congregational studies, faced a sampling challenge: what list of congregations would we work from for recruiting churches…

Apr232019

News

Lewis Center Launches Major Study of the Nation’s Religious Workforce

By RWP Staff April 23, 2019

WASHINGTON, DC — The Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary has launched an initiative to study the makeup of the religious workforce…