Religious Priests/Pastors
OBJECTIVE The purpose of this research was to discover possible correlations between graduate ministerial education and successful pastoral leadership. METHODOLOGY Respondents were pastors in the North American Division of the Seventh-day Adventist church. Sixteen (of 23) conferences recommended 66 pastors as being outstanding and 66 as being “more average” in meeting a list of pastoral success criteria. Three lay leaders were selected from each congregation and asked to complete the Leadership Practices Inventory (Observer), resulting in a sample of 120 responses on 62 pastors in the outstanding group and 79 responses on 47 pastors in the average group.
KEY FINDINGS The average scores of outstanding pastors on all five leadership practices were significantly (p < .001) higher than those generated about average pastors. The authors conclude: “using superior leadership practices enables pastors to be more successful in their ministry. This study has demonstrated a strong correlation between the two. Thus, it would seem wise to devote a portion of graduate ministerial education to inculcating and developing the leadership practices described herein” (p. 290).