ELCA Involved in Comprehensive Study of Pastoral Leadership

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is participating in and benefitting from a comprehensive study of pastoral leadership conducted by the J.M. Ormond Center at the Duke University Divinity School, Durham, N.C. A key component of the "Pulpit & Pew" research was a 2001 survey of 1,450 clergy across the United States.
The Rev. J. Elise Brown, Advent Lutheran Church, Manhattan, New York, and the Rev. A. Craig Settlage, associate executive director, ELCA Division for Ministry, represent the ELCA in the program's "church leaders group" -- about 40 people from 24 denominations who meet twice each year to assist the project staff in identifying issues and reviewing research reports.
Each meeting of the church leaders group includes a presentation on such research topics as clergy burnout or what lay people are looking for in a pastor, said Brown. One dealt with the overall health and wellness of clergy, she said.
One speaker described the wide variety of health and medical benefits that churches offer their ministers. Settlage said he saw greater advantage in the ELCA program, which provides all its lay and ordained ministers with the same benefits package regardless of where they serve or the size of their congregations.
Some church bodies involved in the research speculated on the relative health of their ministers, said Settlage. The ELCA Division for Ministry just completed its "Ministerial Health and Wellness Report, 2002," he said, and was able to provide Pulpit and Pew with actual data on such subjects as the levels of physical activity, stress and nutrition among ELCA clergy and lay ministers.
"Pulpit & Pew: Research on Pastoral Leadership" is directed by Dr. Jackson W. Carroll, an ordained minister of the United Methodist Church and Williams Professor Emeritus of Religion and Society, Duke University Divinity School. Pulpit & Pew is an "umbrella" program for 20 research projects, collecting and presenting information for the purpose of strengthening the ministries of ordained and lay leaders in U.S. churches.
The research is designed to "identify the changes that have affected pastoral leadership in recent years, suggest how to form pastoral leaders with the capacity for continual learning and growth in response to these changes, and identify policies and practices within denominations and theological education that will support good ministry as clergy and lay leaders respond to a changing social, cultural, economic and religious environment," according to the program's publicity.
Early findings gleaned from the survey show a great deal of "job satisfaction" among clergy. However, 70 percent of Christian clergy say they are having trouble bringing the gospel to people. The survey also documents that the average age at ordination has gone up by an average of 12 years in little more than a generation.
"I still believe there are very few areas of work that provide as much satisfaction and sense of significant work being done than pastoral ministry," said Settlage. "Somehow the word has gotten out that people are unhappy, underpaid, under stress," he said. "We need to say there is another picture, another part of the story."
The Rev. James P. Wind, an ELCA pastor and president of The Alban Institute, Bethesda, Md., participates in "core seminars" of the Pulpit and Pew project three times a year to help staff broaden and deepen the central questions of the program. The Alban Institute is an interfaith organization which supports congregations through consulting services, research, book publishing and educational seminars.
Wind said he believes the ELCA will benefit from its participation in the Pulpit and Pew project. "First, there is considerable new knowledge being generated through the various parts of this project," he said. "We have the chance to temper conventional wisdom with more rigorous research.
"Second, the ELCA can gain comparative perspective on its own experience and see how it fits into a larger picture," said Wind. "Third, this study should give all who ponder its findings new questions and concerns about the state of ministry in our time."
Pulpit and Pew has looked at various reasons why people leave the ministry in "mid-career," said Brown, such as salaries, burnout and "force out." She described "force out" as resigning the ministry under pressure or duress -- not being "fired" or removed for discipline reasons.
Settlage said the ELCA Ministerial Health and Wellness Report confirmed that ministers sense growing levels of stress, and some pastors could be resigning to escape "conflicted congregations." He said one way to deal with "force out" is to promote conflict resolution in ELCA congregations.
Brown said she hopes the research will, at some point, address the question: "Is there a place at which an intervention could occur that would actually salvage the situation and promote more health both for the congregation and for the pastor?"
Much of the research so far has supported what the ELCA is doing to prevent conflict, said Brown, with such programs as First Call Theological Education -- a structured program of theological education designed to assist new leaders during their first years of ordained or lay ministry.
"The first three years of ministry is a very critical time," said Brown. "The habits a person develops in those first three years is essential to their future -- coping skills, conflict-resolution skills, communication skills and their work ethic," she said.
"I haven't heard of any other denomination that has that First Call Theological Education program," said Settlage. "It's fairly new for us as well, but I think it's one of the more effective things we have going to try to fend off some of this deep conflict that people can be mired in," he said.
Dr. Dean R. Hoge, professor of sociology, Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., is coordinating surveys of Catholic priests, who were ordained within the past five years. Settlage said the ELCA will benefit from data that research collects.
The National Federation of Priests Council, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Pulpit & Pew researchers will sponsor a discussion of a Hoge's "Recently Ordained Priests" study Sept. 9 at Catholic University of America.
As part of the Pulpit & Pew program, the National Opinion Research Center of the University of Chicago conducted telephone interviews with the leaders of the congregations participating in the U.S. Congregational Life Survey Project of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
Pulpit & Pew is researching leadership patterns in what it calls "new paradigm" churches, such as Vineyard, Calvary Chapel and Hope Chapel congregations. Dr. Joyce Smith, a specialist in religion and the media and an editor at the Toronto Globe, is analyzing the ways the media portray clergy. Other surveys will review the status of women and of African American and Latino leaders in U.S. churches.
Lilly Endowment Inc., a private, Indianapolis-based foundation that supports community development, education and religion, is underwriting the four-year research project. -- -- --
The Duke Divinity School maintains information about the Pulpit & Pew program at http://www.pulpitandpew.duke.edu/ on the Web.
The ELCA Ministerial Health and Wellness Report, 2002, is available at http://www.elca.org/dm/health/healthReport2002.pdf on the Web.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
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