Andy Rowell

Church Leadership Conversations

  • Clergy are the most satisfied in their jobs

    Check out this excerpt from an April 2007 article in the Chicago Tribune:

    According to the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, clergy ranked by far the most satisfied and the most generally happy of 198 occupations.

    The worker satisfaction study, set for release Tuesday, is based on data collected since 1988 on more than 27,500 randomly selected people.

    Eighty-seven percent of clergy said they were "very satisfied" with their work, compared with an average 47 percent for all workers. Sixty-seven percent reported being "very happy," compared with an average 33 percent for all workers.

    Jackson Carroll, Williams professor emeritus of religion and society at Duke Divinity School, found similarly high satisfaction when he studied Protestant and Catholic clergy, despite relatively modest salaries and long hours.

    "They look at their occupation as a calling," Carroll said. "A pastor does get called on to enter into some of the deepest moments of a person’s life, celebrating a birth and sitting with people at times of illness or death. There’s a lot of fulfillment."

    Source:

    Money really can’t buy happiness, study finds
    Clergy are the most satisfied with their jobs; lawyers, doctors down on the list

    By Barbara Rose
    Tribune staff reporter
    Published April 17, 2007
    Chicago Tribune

    But it would be naive and misguided to think that pastors are having an easy time out there.  For a more complete picture, check out some of the resources below that have looked at why clergy leave the profession.  Loneliness, conflict with denominational officials, difficulty managing change, burnout, lack of mobility in rural settings . . . these are significant issues.  The authors conclude that seminaries need to do a better job preparing students for practical issues, clergy need to continue to monitor self-care issues, and real issues that plague clergy need to be addressed in the open as opposed to being hidden.   

    See some good clear research that has been sponsored by Duke Divinity School’s Pulpit & Pew: Research on Pastoral Leadership. 

    Reports.  Summaries and full reports available at links below. 

    Factors Shaping Clergy Careers: A Wakeup Call for Protestant Denominations and Pastors
    By Patricia M.Y. Chang

    Assessing the Clergy Supply in the 21st Century
    By Patricia M. Y. Chang

    Book.  Reviews available at link below:

    Pastors in Transition: Why Clergy Leave Local Church Ministry

    By Dean R. Hoge and Jacqueline E. Wenger

    For another article on the job satisfaction survey see:

    April 20, 2007
    Service to others not just a job
    Clergy happiest in U.S. work force, survey indicates

    By KRISTINA HERRNDOBLER
    Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

  • Starting Doctor of Theology (Th.D) at Duke Divinity School in the fall

    Update: see my March 2009 post: Advice about Duke Th.D. and Ph.D programs in theology

    Original post:

    Lots of news: This fall I am starting Duke Divinity School's Doctor of Theology (Th.D.) program.  We bought a house today in Durham, NC.  And we are having baby 2 in September!    Duke

    Below I have answered the basic questions. 

    What is the Th.D.? 
    The Th.D. stands for Doctor of Theology.  It is the equivalent to the Ph.D.  Duke University's Graduate Program in Religion has offered an outstanding Ph.D. program for many years.  The Th.D. will be headquartered in Duke Divinity School.  This is only the second year that the Th.D. degree has been offered by Duke Divinity School.  Like Duke, Harvard University has a Ph.D. and Harvard Divinity School has a Th.D.  I will be able to take courses at Duke University. 
    This degree differs from the Doctor of Ministry or D.Min. which is offered by many seminaries.  The D.Min. is a degree which can be done by pastors while they are in full-time ministry.  The D.Min. takes about three years and pastors spend a couple of weeks a year on campus at the seminary.  It is loosely equivalent to another masters degree.  The Ph.D. or Th.D. are 4-7 year full-time academic degrees that prepare people for work as professors.
     
    What do you hope to do with the Th.D.?
    I hope to serve as professor of Christian ministry at a Christian college or seminary.  I also hope to continue in church leadership. 

    What are you going to study?
    My area of concentration is ""Scripture and the Practice of Leading Christian Communities and Institutions."  I'm hoping to do qualitative research on a few innovative churches and effective church leaders and analyze them through the foci presented by Duke professor Richard Hays in his book Moral Vision of the New Testament.  The foci are cross, community and new creation.  Duke has an outstanding faculty and I hope to learn from many of them. 
     
    How long is the program?
    The first two years I take three courses per semester.  I'm trying to decide what to take next year.  Here is the list of courses.  The third year I prepare for comprehensive exams and nail down my dissertation proposal.  The fourth year I crank out that dissertation.  However, most people in the Duke University Ph.D. in Religion take 5-7 years so we'll see. 

    When are you moving to North Carolina?
    We bought a house today in Durham and the closing is June 15 so we will move from Upland, IN around then.  We were in Durham last week for a Th.D. orientation day and house-hunting.

    What will Amy be doing?     
    My wife Amy Rowell is going to be having Baby Rowell #2 around September 26th.  We're excited.  Hopefully she won't have this one two months early like last time.  We're very excited about baby 2. 
    We are also really praying that she will find a pastoral position in a church.  She is interested in the areas of adult discipleship, preaching, women's ministry, small groups and pastoral care.  Amy is currently serving as a professor of Christian Ministry at Taylor University where she teaches courses such as Personal Foundations for Ministry and Ministry by Women in the Contemporary Context.  She has her MDiv from Regent College and won the preaching award there.  She has served on the pastoral staff at a number of churches.  Thanks for praying that she will find a position where she can use her gifts.

    Do you have any advice about applying for Ph.D. programs in church leadership?
    I wrote blog posts about my Ph.D. application process and my advice about the GRE and my CV.   

  • Spoof on Consumer-driven Church

    This video called Me Church has been on YouTube since December 2005 but it is still worth sharing because it is not offensive and it is funny. 

    It is 1 minute 22 seconds long but you will have an hour’s worth of a smile.  It is a commercial for a church called "Me Church" that is all about you.  It is light-hearted and fun.

    For those of you who are quick to throw stones at megachurches who try to meet "felt needs," you should know that one of Andy Stanley’s Seven Practices of Effective Ministry is "Narrow the Focus: Do fewer things in order to make a greater impact."  As they get large, many of these megachurch leaders see clearly the absurdity of trying adjust their ministry approach to the needs of complainers. 

    To some people it seems that Stanley almost disregards the needs of people because of his narrow focus.  No, this need to please people and meet their every need transcends denominations, sizes and styles. 

    What needs are legitimate and need to be addressed by the compassionate, justice-seeking church and which are driven by our consumeristic culture?  That ladies and gentlemen is the question. 

    For more humor, see my post about Purgatorio.