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,…
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…
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 377 years of ministry. A small group of faithful souls still gathered every Sunday morning. A preschool met in the downstairs hall on weekdays. More than 40 area residents tended…
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 of Leading Ideas Talks from the Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary, Scott Thumma shares insights from ongoing research on the pandemic’s impact on congregational life and…
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 Talks podcast episode from the Lewis Center for Church Leadership, small church vitality expert Dr. Lew Parks explores perspectives and practices that can help ministry flourish even in a church…
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 recent. Until the middle of the last century, for example, the whole mindset in the Methodist tradition was that clergy were not overly identified with any one congregation and everybody…
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. How has the pandemic shaped the vitality and resiliency of congregations? Did it really prompt large numbers of pastors to leave ministry? Doug Powe, director of the Lewis…