Religious Priests/Pastors
OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to evaluate leadership components in seminary curriculum and the relationship between leadership-enhanced curriculum and the leadership practices of seminary-trained pastors.
METHODOLOGY The sample consisted of alumni (N = 619) from three representative seminaries (one school had a leadership-enhanced curriculum and the other two did not) who were invited to participate, and 291 agreed by completing the Leadership Practices Inventory (47% response rate). The typical respondent was male (75%), Caucasian (91%), 46 percent were in the 40-54 age range, and nearly all were currently pasturing (93%).
KEY FINDINGS Contrary to expectations graduates from the two non-enhanced leadership curricula schools (N = 177) reported engaging more frequently in the leadership practices (overall) than did those from the leadership-enhanced curricula (N = 114). While the average score for participants from non-enhanced schools were higher on all five practices compared with those from enhanced-schools, the only statistically significant differences found were for Inspiring and Encouraging.
Analysis of the five leadership practices by gender, ethnicity and M.Div. tracks revealed few differences. While LPI scores from females were higher than males, higher from non-Caucasian participants than Caucasian participants, and higher from graduates with a general M.Div. track than graduates with a specialty track in the M.Div. program, these differences did not reach statistical significance. LPI scores did increase significantly with each increasing age category.