Leadership in the Church: An Assesment of a Pastor Training Program
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Abstract
Christianity, the church, and pastors are undergoing a number of changes in the 21st century, and therefore a number of challenges. Although Christianity is growing in the global south, membership and attendance in churches in the United States are declining. What church growth there is seems to be in both smaller and larger churches, posing a different set of challenges for pastors in those respective venues. Many pastors are leaving their churches, primarily because of the perceived expectations and even demands being placed on them by their congregations. A number of new leadership initiatives are currently being offered to pastors to help them deal with this changing and challenging environment. This paper is an assessment of the first cohort in a new executive training initiative called LEADERLABS, the 10 Essential Skills Executive Leadership Program, which is built on a foundation of both biblical and social science research. A quantitative analysis of pretests and posttests suggests that the training had a substantial, and at times statistically significant, impact on the participants, with potential for this new knowledge about leadership to be integrated into staff and congregational operations.Â
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Keywords
leadership, pastors, 10ES ELP LEADERLABS
##article.references##
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“The Credibility Crisis of Today’s Pastors.†2017. The Barna Research Group, March 16. Accessed 2/4/2018. (https://www.barna.com/research/credibility-crisis-todays-pastors/).
Useem, Michael. 1986. The Inner Circle. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
Weber, Max. 1922/1978. Economy and Society, edited by Guenther Roth and Claus Wittich. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
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Babbie, Earl. 2013. The Practice of Social Research. Belmont, California: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Bell, Michael. 2009. “What is an “Average Church?†iMonk, July 13. Accessed January 6, 2018. (http://www.internetmonk.com/archive/michael-bell-what-is-an-average-church).
Bendix, Reinhard. 1963. Work and Authority in Industry: Ideologies of Management in the Course of Industrialization. New York, New York: Harper & Row, Harper Torchbooks.
Bennis, Warren. 2009. On Becoming a Leader, 4th Edition. New York, New York: Basic Books.
Blake, Ivan Charles. 2010. “Pastor for Life†Ministry: International Journal for Pastors. August. Accessed January 6, 2018. (https://www.ministrymagazine.org/archive/2010/07august/pastor-for-life).
Blanchard, Ken, Patricia Zigarmi, and Drea Zigarmi. 2013. Leadership and the One Minute Manager: Increasing Effectiveness through Situational Leadership II. New York, New York: William Morrow.
Burgess, Katherine. 2013. “Report: Church Giving Reaches Depression-Era Record Lowsâ€. Religious News Service, Reported in The Washington Post, October 24. Accessed January 6, 2018. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/report-church-givingreaches-depression-era-record-lows/2013/10/24/b2721a56-3ce9-11e3-b0e7716179a2c2c7_story.html?utm_term=.48036beaba6d).
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Gardner John W. 1989. On Leadership. The Free Press, New York, New York: Simon and Schuster.
Green, Lisa Cannon. 2015 “Despite Stresses, Few Pastors Give Up on Ministry.†Lifeway Research. September 1. Accessed 9/4/2016. (http://lifewayresearch.com/2015/09/01/despite-stresses-few-pastors-give-up-onministry/).
Green, Lisa Cannon. 2016. “Former Pastors Report Lack of Support Led to Abandoning Pastorate.†Lifeway Research, January 12. Accessed 9/4/2016. (http://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2016/January/Regent-Universitys-Online-ProgramRanks-First-in-Virginia).
Guillen, Mauro F. 2010. “Classical Sociological Approaches to the Study of Leadership,†in Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice, edited by Nitin Nohria and Rakesh Khorang. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation.
Hadaway, C. K. And Marler, P. L. 2005. “How Many Americans Attend Worship Each Week? An Alternative Approach to Measurement.†Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 44: 307–322.
Hallowell, Billy l. 2016 “He Was Researching the Decline of Churches in America and Noticed a Parallel That Truly Stunned Him.†The Blaze, April 28. Accessed 0/6/2016. (http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2016/04/28/he-was-researching-the-decline-ofchurches-in-america-and-noticed-a-parallel-that-truly-stunned-him/).
Hansen, Collin. 2016. “Why Are Pastors Leaving Churches So They Can Pastor?†The Gospel Coalition, January 28. Accessed January 6, 2018. (https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/why-are-pastors-leaving-churches-so-theycan-pastor/).
Hatch, Mary Jo, Kostera, Monika, Kozminski, Andrzej K. 2004. The Three Faces of Leadership: Manager, Artist, Priest. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell.
Kouzes, James M., Barry Z. Posner. 2017. The Leadership Challenge: How to Make Extraordinary Things Happen in Organizations, 6th Edition. Hoboken, New Jersey: Jossey-Bass.
Krejcir, Richard J. “Statistics on Pastors: 2016 Update,†2016. ChurchLeadership.org. Accessed 2/4/2018. (http://www.churchleadership.org/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=4545&view=post& articleid=Statistics-on-Pastors-2016Update&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0) “Leaderlabs Website.†Accessed October 11, 2016. (http://www.leaderlabs.com/what-is-the10es-elp).
MacDonald, Jeffrey G. 2013. “As denominations decline, numbers of unpaid ministers rise.†Religion News Service, September 18. Accessed January 6, 2018. (http://religionnews.com/2013/09/17/denominations-decline-numbers-unpaidministers-rise/).
Michels, Robert. 1968. Political Parties. New York, New York: Simon and Schuster.
“Occupational Employment and Wages 2010-2011 Clergy.†2013. U.S. Department of Labor. May. Accessed 10/8/2017. (https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes212011.htm/).
Pooler, David K. 2011. “Pastors and Congregations at Risk: Insights from Role Identity Theory.†Pastoral Psychology, 60:705712 DOI 10.1007/s11089-011-0356-5. Accessed January 6, 2018. (http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.southern.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=2 &sid=11cc429c-1078-44c9-bf97-f53aae422f82%40sessionmgr4008).
Regehr Henry J. 1979. “Leadership in the Church: A Sociological Perspective,†Directions, April 1979 · Vol. 8 No. 2 · pp. 10–18. Accessed 2/25/2018. (http://www.directionjournal.org/8/2/leadership-in-church-sociological.html)
Shattuck, Kelly 2017. “7 Startling Facts: An Up Close Look at Church Attendance in America.†ChurchLeaders.com. December 14. Accessed 8/31/2016. (http://www.churchleaders.com/pastors/pastor-articles/139575-7-startling-facts-an-upclose-look-at-church-attendance-in-america.html).
Spencer, J. Louis, Bruce E. Winston and Mihai C. Bocarnea. 2012. “Predicting the Level of Pastors’ Risk of Termination/Exit from the Church.†Pastoral Psychology (2012) 61:85– 98. Accessed January 6, 2018. (http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.southern.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=3 &sid=d83b4abe-2290-4101-8c9a-1e08f5683c5f%40sessionmgr4006).
“Spotlight: Pastors Fight and Flight.†2012. Christianity Today, May. Accessed January 6, 2018. (http://web.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.southern.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=5 &sid=765f49f6-dd34-404f-96cf-5375842940d1%40pdc-v-sessmgr01).
Stetzer, Ed. 2015. “That Stat that Says Pastors are All Miserable and Want to Quit,†Christianity Today, Oct 14. Accessed January 6, 2018. (http://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2015/october/that-stat-that-says-pastorsare-all-miserable-and-want-to-q.html).
“The Credibility Crisis of Today’s Pastors.†2017. The Barna Research Group, March 16. Accessed 2/4/2018. (https://www.barna.com/research/credibility-crisis-todays-pastors/).
Useem, Michael. 1986. The Inner Circle. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
Weber, Max. 1922/1978. Economy and Society, edited by Guenther Roth and Claus Wittich. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Whiteford, Scott C. and Natasha M. Ganem. 2015. “Is There Such a Things as ‘A Sociology of Leadership?’†Work in Progress, October 27, 2015. Accessed 2/25/2018. (https://workinprogress.oowsection.org/2015/10/27/is-there-such-a-thing-as-asociology-of-leadership/comment-page-1/.
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Research Articles