According to the Call to Ministry Report, the latest report to come out from the Minister Study conducted by PC(USA) Research Services, which is available in English, (with Spanish and Korean versions to be posted soon), half of all ministers heard the call to ministry before the age of 20.
A recently-released 1001 New Worshiping Community 2020 Leader Report continues to show that NWC’s are more racially diverse and younger than PC(USA) congregations.
It comes as no surprise that Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) ministers, like many people, face financial challenges. Most ministers report being financially stable, owning a home, paying their bills, and planning for (or living in) retirement, according to research conducted by PC(USA) Research Services. Available in English, Spanish, and Korean, the Minister Finance Report, which does not include educational debt, shows that about half of all pastors report that their household incomes are sufficient to meet their needs and manage debt. In fact, 25% of non-retired ministers report no consumer debt. However, about 1 in 4 pastors report they cannot afford vacations and big-ticket items.
The Office of the General Assembly (OGA) wants to hear from all who are currently serving, have served, or have retired from service in the field of Christian education or Christian formation. The OGA has partnered with Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Research Services to create a brief questionnaire to gather this information. The questionnaire should take about five minutes to complete.
What do we know about the ministers who serve the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)? Where do they serve? Do they have families at home? Where do they stand politically, socially, or theologically? What age are they? Research Services set out to answer those and related questions.
While congregations and new worshiping communities are facing unprecedented challenges as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, they are also innovating by learning new technologies, starting new missions and finding new ways to be the Church while social distancing. A new report from PC(USA) Research Services describes some of the challenges that worshiping communities are facing and provides a peek at the new things that are springing forth.
The ecumenical U.S. Congregational Vitality Survey (USCVS) is designed to help church leaders understand the attitudes, opinions and perceptions of worshipers and leaders in congregations. Created through a collaboration of sociologists, theologians and Christian educators in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the survey has been helping congregations from many denominations measure their vitality since 2001.
In general, smaller- and medium-sized congregations in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), together with their counterparts in the Episcopal Church, assigned themselves higher scores as part of a vital congregations survey than larger congregations.
