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Background: In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, churches in the United States were forced to stop meeting in person and move to remote forms of worship and congregational life. This shift likely impacted congregational finances, which are primarily driven by individual donations. Initial research has suggested that there is a great deal of heterogeneity in the financial impact on congregations, but there has been scant research examining how pastors and congregations are managing finances during this period. Purpose: This research examines the impact of COVID-19 and its associated restrictions on congregational finances and the strategies pastors used to adapt their church's finances to the health restrictions. Methods: We conducted in-depth, qualitative interviews with 50 pastors in the North Carolina and Western North Carolina Conferences of the United Methodist Church appointed to 70 congregations. Using applied thematic analysis, we analyzed transcripts at both the pastor and congregation-level to identify similarities and differences in financial impact, financial strategies, and pastor experiences during the pandemic. Results: Most congregations reported small decreases in giving that were offset by federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans and other grants from the denomination. Some congregations, mostly urban and fairly large, reported significant increases in giving, while several other, predominantly small congregations, reported their church's finances had been negatively impacted by the pandemic. Even in cases where the net impact of the pandemic was small or non-existent, pastors were forced to adopt a host of new strategies to manage finances. In general, small and large congregations experienced and responded to the financial impact of the pandemic very differently.and Implications. Conclusions: This research suggests that the pandemic's impact on congregational finances were more than just on the bottom line. And while most churches weathered the economic challenges without severe impacts, questions remain as to the long-term impact of the pandemic on church finances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: COVID-19 and its associated restrictions around in-person gatherings have created unprecedented challenges for religious congregations and those who lead them. While several surveys have attempted to describe how pastors and congregations responded to COVID-19, these provide a relatively thin picture of how COVID-19 is impacting religious life. There is scant qualitative data describing the lived reality of religious leaders and communities during the pandemic. Purpose and methods: This paper provides a more detailed look at how pastors and congregations experienced and responded to COVID-19 and its associated restrictions in the early period of the pandemic. To do so, we draw from 26 in-depth interviews with church-appointed United Methodist pastors conducted between June and August 2020. Pastors were asked to describe how their ministry changed as a result of COVID-19 and interviews were analyzed using applied thematic analysis approaches to identify the most common emergent themes. Results: Pastors reported that COVID-19 fundamentally unsettled routine ways of doing ministry. This disruption generated both challenges and opportunities for clergy and their congregations. In the findings, we describe how clergy responded in key areas of ministry–worship and pastoral care–and analyze how the pandemic is (re)shaping the way that clergy understood their role as pastors and envisioned the future of the Church. We argue for the value of examining the pandemic as an "unsettled" cultural period (Swidler 1986) in which religious leaders found creative ways to (re)do ministry in the context of social distancing. Rather than starting from scratch, we found that pastors drew from and modified existing symbolic and practical tools to fit pandemic-related constraints on religious life. Notably, however, we found that "redoing" ministry was easier and more effective in some areas (worship) than others (pastoral care). Conclusions and Implications: The impact of COVID-19 on pastors and congregations is complex and not fully captured by survey research. This study provides a baseline for investigating similarities and differences in the responses of pastors within and across denominations and traditions. It also 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Research has established that salary disparities exist between men and women pastors in the United Methodist Church. However, little work has been done examining the root and trajectories of these differences within the denomination. Purpose: In this report, we explore systematic salary differences between United Methodist men and women elders (i.e. ordained clergy) serving in one of the two Annual Conferences in North Carolina. Methods: We used six rounds of survey data the Duke Clergy Health Initiative collected as part of the Statewide Longitudinal Study of United Methodist clergy serving in North Carolina between 2010 and 2021. We restricted our analysis to elders serving in active, full-time appointments. We ran four models to assess salary differences between men and women elders. First, we calculated the average salaries by year and gender among all elders. Second, we did the same for elders with five or fewer years of experience. Third, we modeled the average percent salary growth between survey waves by gender. Finally, we modeled elders' salary trajectories based on the year they started in ministry, their years of experience, and their gender. Results: Although we found a gender salary disparity among all elders—women do not earn as much as men—the gap is slowly closing. However, this disparity did not exist among elders with five or fewer years of experience. When we considered the average salary growth respondents experienced from one survey wave to the next, we found that, on average, women receive slightly larger (but not statistically significant) increases than men. The final model assessing elders' salary trajectories suggested that salary disparities between men and women were more prominent several decades ago. Assuming a career span of 30 years, the model projects that a woman starting in ministry in 1990 will have earned an average of $6,200 a year less than a man starting in the same year. This gap narrowed to $3,600 among those starting in 2000 and disappeared completely by 2010. And yet, the same model predicts that salary disparities still exist between men and women in the United Methodist Church—a decade after the denomination reached a point where our model projects no gender disparities between the salary trajectories of new pastors. Conclusions and Implications: Our analysis suggests that, while male elders have significantly higher salaries than their female counterparts, these two groups have been equitably compensated for the past decade. These two phenomena can both exist because past gender disparities reverberate long into the careers of clergy. This is because, even though salaries across genders may be treated equally now, they are not making up for lost ground. For example, women starting in ministry in 1990 may have experienced the same rate of salary growth as men from 2010 to 2020, but earned less during this timeframe because they entered this period with lower initial salaries than men. For this reason, our model predicts that, although the salary trajectories for men and women were equal starting ministry in 2010, it may be another decade before there is no difference between the average salaries of men and women pastors. Nevertheless, this projection assumes that recent trends persist—something that remains to be seen. Only time will tell if this continues or if women will hit a glass ceiling as their careers unfold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Past research reveals mixed results regarding the relationship between gender and charitable giving. We show gender plays a significant role in giving but only when considered alongside marital status and religion. Using the 2006 Portraits of American Life Study, we model a household’s propensity to give and the amount given. We extend past research by disaggregating unmarried households to look at divorced, widowed, and never-married households, and by including multiple religion measures. Results indicate households headed by never-married females have lower giving levels compared with those headed by divorced and widowed women. In households headed by single males, these differences are largely absent. Religious attendance has a stronger association with giving in male-headed households. The respondent’s gender is also related to the amount married households report giving to charity. Future research on giving should consider both gender and marital status to more fully capture increasing diversity in American families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study we examine how the process of relocation affects the mental health of United Methodist clergy and the extent to which relocation is associated with changes in clergy perception of the workplace environment and feelings of self-efficacy. We analyzed data from a longitudinal survey of 1375 clergy, one quarter of whom experienced a move between the baseline survey in 2008 and the follow-up survey 2 years later. Contrary to expectations, we find that mental distress decreased for those who recently moved compared to those who had moved 2 years prior. We also find strong evidence of a 'honeymoon effect.' Recently relocated clergy report higher levels of self-efficacy and higher workplace morale compared to those who do not relocate. This study underscores the importance of examining the short and longer-term impact of moving on mental distress and presses scholars to consider the ways in which, under certain circumstances, relocation may improve mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reviews the book "Places of Faith: A Road Trip Across America's Religious Landscape" by Christopher Scheitle and Roger Finke.