Reflections in Ministry Study

Timeline

2020 - 2023

Project status: In Progress

Description

COVID-19 and its associated restrictions around in-person gatherings created unprecedented challenges for religious congregations and those who led them. While several surveys have attempted to describe how pastors and congregations responded to COVID-19, these provided a relatively thin picture of how COVID-19 is impacting religious life. 

The Reflections in Ministry Study is based on a longitudinal series of interviews with current and some former United Methodist Church pastors in North Carolina. They were sampled from our Statewide Clergy Health Survey and interviewed on different topics three different times. The first two interviews took place between June 2020 and January 2021. Interview 1 focused on COVID and its impact on them, their congregations, and their ministry. Interview 2 was a longer reflection on their trajectories/careers in ministry and any major challenges they'd faced. Interview 3 was conducted between fall 2022 and summer 2023 and focused on updates on COVID's impact in the two years since Interview 1. In the final interview, there was also an extended section on polarization and politics.

This study provides a baseline for assessing whether changes in ministry implemented during the early stages of the pandemic remain in place in the post-COVID world.

Team

Members

Logan Tice, M.A., Research Manager

Glaucia Salgado, M.A., MSc., Research Analyst

Anna Holleman, Ph.D., Collaborator and Assistant Professor of Sociology at Appalachian State University

 

Leaders

David Eagle, Ph.D., Principal Investigator

Erin F. Johnston, Ph.D., Senior Research Associate

Sponsors

The Duke Endowment

Contact

Erin Johnston

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Categories

CHI, RaSCL