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:…
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…
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 Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) voted to approve the ordination of women that year[1]. In 1981, more than 10 years since Lutheran women in the United States gained the…