Monday, March 26, 2007

The Typical Protestant Pastor

In the 3/24/2007 RTS newsletter the following stats on a “typical protestant pastor” were listed. I thought some of you might be interested.

BARNA GROUP RESEARCH ON THE TYPICAL PROTESTANT PASTOR
The findings below are surprising and contradict earlier research from several other sources. There are "straws in the wind," which indicate that a sea change in church growth research may be underway; this is one of them.
• Only 5% of Protestant pastors in America are women.

• Almost all pastors are married.

• While 13% have been divorced almost all of these are remarried, and if you think that is a surprisingly high percentage, remember that it is half the percentage for the entire population.

• The pastoral work force is aging. The average age of Protestant pastors was 44 in 1992 and is 48 in the most recent survey.

• The average number of years spent in full-time pastoral ministry jumped from 14 years in 1992 to 17 years in the most recent survey.

• The average tenure in a church is 5 years.

• A substantial share of those pastors who stay with a congregation for a long time lead churches that are not growing.

• Many long-term pastors rate their own teaching and preaching skills as average or below average.

1 comment:

Josh said...

I think that last stat says as much about the humility of long-term pastors as it does about their preaching ability. Maybe that's an assumption on my part, but I'm glad to see that it didn't say, "Most long-term pastors rate their own teaching and preaching skills as excellent."