Case Studies
Study of Excellence in Pastoral Leadership. This study is yet to be designed. At present, we intend that it will start with utilize data and insights from the National Survey of Pastoral Leaders (See Surveys), identifying leaders of congregations that score high on vitality. We will compare leadership characteristics of these pastors with congregations that score lower on vitality. We will then select a sample of leaders of vital congregations (perhaps as many as 75-100) and conduct follow-up interviews that will look in more depth at their leadership styles, their theology and practice of ministry, and the ways that they sustain themselves in ministry. We then hope to select no more than twelve clergy for field visits to their congregations for observation and further interviews, especially with lay members of their congregations.
Rationale: This study will be a primary way that we try to answer the question of what constitutes good pastoral ministry. How is good ministry a congregational rather than individual achievement? What kind of pastoral leadership is necessary to encourage and support good ministry? What can seminaries and denominations do to recruit, train, and support pastors who can offer such leadership?
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Pastoral Leadership in public ministries. Study of the leadership styles and strategies of pastors of congregations who are engaged in public ministries. The research is being conducted by Mark Constantine, a consultant to several charitable foundations and a sociology Ph.D. candidate at the University of North Carolina. He has considerable experience in working with congregations engaged in such ministries.
Rationale: Congregations and clergy increasingly have opportunities to assume greater responsibility in public, not only as the result of welfare reform but also in developing various other kinds of faith-based ministries with persons experiencing economic and social injustice. Often this involves collaborating with governmental and non-governmental agencies, and often it involves establishing new ministries. Constantine is currently observing a sample of these ministries and conducting in-depth interviews with the clergy involved in the ministries. What opportunities exist today for faith-based public ministries? What have these pastors learned? What resources have they found to help them in this work? What are good practices in public ministries? What mistakes have they made? The study will make an important contribution in its own right, but it should also advance our understanding of what constitutes good ministry.
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