What pastors read (or, Is pastoral theology marginal to the parish?)
If the Barna Group can be trusted, the discipline of pastoral theology doesn't have much influence on pastors already working in the church.A survey of books and authors that parish pastors identify as most helpful (published in May but unnoticed by me until Christian linked to it at faithasawayoflife) suggests that most Protestant clergy read books about:
- "discipleship" and personal spiritual growth (54 percent)
- church growth, congregational health or ministry dynamics (23 percent), and
- leadership (22 percent)
These results ought to give pause to pastoral theologians.
The books and authors with the greatest influence on parish pastors could be considered, in some ways, works of practical theology. But they are far outside the interests and methodologies that shape the academic discipline of pastoral theology.
Consider, for example, the titles cited as most helpful: The Purpose-Driven Life and The Purpose-Driven Church.
The most influential authors included Rick Warren, John Maxwell, Phil Yancey, George Barna, John Eldredge, Henri Nouwen, and Leonard Sweet.
No pastoral theologians in that lists. And no pastoral theology texts cited, either.
I do not want our discipline to become more "market driven" than it is already (and it is driven by market concerns, both because of expectations for tenure and promotion and the limited resources of publishers).
But it might be prudent for members of our guild to talk about what this survey suggests for our work and our field--the relevance of pastoral theology to the day-by-day practice of ministry, its accessibility to those who have been out of seminary for some time, and its ability to address the pastoral concerns that are primary among those surveyed.
For example, the survey results make me wonder how the field of pastoral theology addresses spirituality and spiritual formation, topics related to the concerns most important to the broadest range of surveyed pastors. Do we adequately address these areas through theological reflection, theological praxis, and critical scholarship? [An answer to this question might be a topic for a longer post.]
The survey is particularly interesting for what it suggests about pastors under 40 years of age. These pastors, says researcher Barna,
lean toward books and authors that extol adventure, shared experiences, visionary leadership, supernatural guidance and relational connections. If their choices in reading are any indication, they seem less obsessed with church size and more interested in encounters with the living God. They are also less prone to identifying the most popular books in favor of those that are known for their passionate tone. The fact that less than half as many young pastors considered the Purpose Driven books to be influential in their ministry suggests that the new legion of young pastors may be primed to introduce new ways of thinking about Christianity and church life.
.: Posted by Duane Bidwell on Tuesday, October 25, 2005
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