The Wabash Pastoral Leadership Program (WPLP) is a two-year, early-career, mentoring program for Indiana pastors. Because my research focuses on demographics and religious change in Indiana, I have spoken to all nine WPLP cohorts, and I routinely join their annual alumni reunion. Through these twenty years, I have learned that most pastors do not…
Communities across the US are facing challenges that may seem too great to overcome. The streets have become dangerous, even deadly, and it’s tempting to think that congregations have nothing to offer. But nothing could be further from the truth. Hard times are not the moment for underestimating the resources congregations bring to the…
We hear a lot about ‘food deserts’ or ‘health care deserts.’ But are there ‘congregation deserts’? That is, neighborhoods where there simply aren’t any nearby places for religious gathering. When the Boston Globe did a story about a neighborhood grappling with questions about a major redevelopment project, they noted that neighbors had a hard…
I’ve been thinking a lot about history lately – how we tell complicated stories and how we know about the past. Maybe that’s because I’m cleaning out my attic! How do we know? Students of congregations have a great new data source available at The ARDA. In the first half of the 20th century, the…
When we think about why clergy might leave their positions, we often focus on the obvious challenges: long hours, modest pay, or theological disagreements. But new research I conducted, forthcoming in the Review of Religious Research, reveals a clear and perhaps surprising finding—the single most important factor in whether ministers stay or go isn’t about…