Baptist churches may soon face clergy shortages like other faith traditions. Emily Brown, in a February 2022 Relevant article, “The Great American Clergy Shortage is Coming,” noted: “Roughly 3,544 Catholic parishes in the U.S. lack a parish priest,” and “in…
Leaving church, part 2: The Great Baptist Resignations and COVID
The recent surge of COVID cases led one of my (Carol) pastoral colleagues to lament, “It feels like we are living a terrible version of the film Ground Hog Day.” In Columbia, Mo., where I live, we have more COVID…
Leaving church: So many Baptist resignations
This is the first in a series based on new research by Pam Durso and Carol McEntyre conducted among Baptist pastors who have left their congregations during the pandemic. In May 2020, during the early days of the global pandemic,…