Adversity in pastoral leadership: Are pastors leaving the ministry in record numbers, and if so, why?

Verbum et Ecclesia

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Adversity in pastoral leadership: Are pastors leaving the ministry in record numbers, and if so, why?
 
Creator Elkington, Robert
 
Subject Theology; Practical Theology; leadership; pastoral leadership; adversity; pastoral burnout; pastoral attrition
Description As churches in the West grapple with the rising tide of secularism, post-modernism and individualised spirituality, the leaders of those churches become casualties of these macro-environmental factors. Statistics show that three pastors in North America leave the vocational ministry every day to move into a different career path. This ongoing loss of leadership must prove detrimental for churches, which in turn are confronting declining attendance figures, declining income and low volunteerism from the membership. It would seem that pastoral leadership is vital to the health and sustenance of the church, and yet churches all over North America are losing pastoral leadership on a daily basis. This article attempts, through the use of Osmer’s heuristic, to review why it is that pastors are leaving the ministry and what might be done to stem that tide. A missional ontology in contrast to a Christendom ontology together with a review of workplace adversity and the Scriptural data on suffering in the ministry are developed for the reader as potential solutions to stem the tide.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor NA
Date 2013-08-12
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Osmer's Heuristic; Qualitative Research; On-Line Survey of 50 pastors
Format text/html application/octet-stream text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/ve.v34i1.821
 
Source Verbum et Ecclesia; Vol 34, No 1 (2013); 13 pages 2074-7705 1609-9982
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/821/1684 https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/821/1685 https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/821/1686 https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/821/1683
 
Coverage Western Society; North America Post-Modern Era; 21st Century 20-60 yr old; Male; Multi-Ethnic
Rights Copyright (c) 2013 Robert Elkington https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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