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ANNOUNCING: National Preaching Survey Launched

ANNOUNCING: National Preaching Survey Launched

Last updated on: January 29, 2025 at 12:41 pm by Leah D. Schade

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ANNOUNCING: National Preaching Survey Launched 2025-01-29T12:41:32-04:00 Leah D. Schade

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My team and I have launched a national preaching survey on ministry, preaching, and social issues. All U.S. preachers are invited to participate.

U.S. preachers are invited to take this national preaching survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/PreachingSurvey2024-25

National Preaching Survey: Ministry, Preaching & Social Issues

All preachers in the U.S. are invited to participate in a research survey being conducted by myself and my team, Dr. Wayne Thompson, Professor Emeritus at Carthage College, and Amanda Wilson Harper, professor of social work at Tarleton University.

This is part of an 8-year-long project begun in 2017. Your responses will help further research about preaching and ministry at this unique time in American history regarding topics such as racism, environment, immigration, abortion, guns, and LGBTQIA issues.

The survey is anonymous and estimated completion time is 15 minutes. Please share this with other preachers in your network. Free book drawing for those who complete the survey!

Here’s the link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/PreachingSurvey2024-25

Why are we conducting this national preaching survey?

In 2016, I began work on a book called Preaching in the Purple Zone: Ministry in the Red-Blue Divide to help preachers address justice issues through a process that I call the sermon-dialogue-sermon method.

I learned that social scientists studying religion have found that there are a myriad of reasons pastors and church leaders do not engage in dialogue or engagement around social issues. Some want to avoid congregational dissension. Other try to steer clear of denominational or congregational schisms. And some try to protect their comfort zones.

I also heard stories from preachers about the pushback they sometimes receive when they preached a “dangerous sermon,” as Frank Thomas calls it. I suspected these were not merely isolated incidents. But I knew I needed quantifiable data to get an clearer picture of the landscape when it comes to preachers addressing social issues.

Why a national preaching survey now?

Because the 2016 election both exacerbated and created new social and political divisions that impacted churches, I launched what became a longitudinal study about preaching, ministry, and social issues in January of 2017, just after the contentious 2016 presidential election.

Wanting to continue this study after the next presidential election, I worked with two researchers, Dr. Amanda Wilson Harper and Dr. Wayne Thompson on the 2017 data analysis, who then helped me design another survey in early 2021. For that one, we received just over 2,600 responses and were able to compare and contrast what we saw happening four years prior.

And we didn’t stop there.

Because of the volatility of the 2022 midterm elections, we decided to send out yet another survey in early 2023 so that we could track changes, patterns, and trends in light of the political, religious, and social upheavals happening at the time. For that survey, we garnered just over 900 responses.

The current survey continues our study of these issues as our nation is plunging into a time of Constitutional crisis and extreme government overreach. ICE is targeting churches under harsh new immigration policies. The rights of women, LGBTQIA, people of color, and Native Americans are under attack. So we want to capture this snapshot of what preaching is like for ministers during this time.

Our goal is to reach at least 2,000 respondents.

What is this national preaching survey studying?

The results of these surveys have given us important insights into what it’s like to be a preacher during a time of social stress such as the rise of white Christian Nationalism, Trumpism, and political polarization. We also explore how preachers are navigating racial reckoning, conspiracy theories and disinformation. As well, we factored in gender, sexuality and LGBTQIA+ issues, climate and environmental crises, and the Covid-19 global pandemic.

We want to know what difference each election has made in preachers’ willingness to address social issues in the pulpit. What are the reasons clergy either engage or avoid social issues in their sermons? What kind of training and support do pastors seek to foster healthy dialogue about public issues in their congregations?

Key learnings from these national preaching surveys

We learned a great deal from the preaching surveys, including what the “taboo topics” were for preachers. For instance, here were the 2017 findings:

We will be very interested to see what the taboo topics are for 2025!

So far, we’ve learned that despite the many factors that might inhibit a preacher’s prophetic voice, many are speaking out courageously with a gospel-centered witness.

But there are also some preachers who would like to preach more on social issues, yet feel inhibited.

One of the strongest reasons for hesitation was the mismatch between the preacher’s political leaning and that of their congregation. If the preacher is more progressive and their congregants lean conservative, for example, they are more reticent to delve into social issues.

Other factors that increase hesitation include being female, being a preacher of color in a White congregation, being new to ministry or the congregation, and concerns about the long-term viability of the church.

In these cases, finding support can increase a preacher’s confidence in addressing social issues. According to our surveys, there are four primary sources that provide the most encouragement and support when ministers decided to preach on a contemporary issue. In order of importance, they are: 1) family, 2) clergy groups or networks, 3) congregational leaders, and 4) their denomination or central church office.

Have we published any findings from the preaching surveys?

Results from the first three survey waves informed my recent book, Preaching and Social Issues: Tools and Tactics for Empowering Your Prophetic Voice.

Based on the survey results, I developed an assessment tool for preachers to gauge what approach to take. [Preachers can take the 5-minute assessment here.]

And we’ve written some articles which you can read here:

Do you have a story to tell about ministry, preaching, and social issues?

We want to hear from you! This national preaching survey gives respondents an opportunity to share what it’s like for them to preach in their particular congregations and communities at this particular time.

Again, the preaching survey is anonymous and estimated completion time is 15 minutes. Please share this with other preachers in your network. Free book drawing for those who complete the survey! Here’s the link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/PreachingSurvey2024-25

In the meantime, blessings on your preaching ministry!

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The Rev. Dr. Leah D. Schade is the Associate Professor of Preaching and Worship at Lexington Theological Seminary in Kentucky and ordained in the ELCA. She is a past president of the Academy of Homiletics. Dr. Schade does not speak for LTS or the ELCA or AOH; her opinions are her own. She is the author of Preaching and Social Issues: Tools and Tactics for Empowering Your Prophetic Voice (Rowman & Littlefield, 2024), Preaching in the Purple Zone: Ministry in the Red-Blue Divide (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019) and Creation-Crisis Preaching: Ecology, Theology, and the Pulpit (Chalice Press, 2015). She is the co-editor of Rooted and Rising: Voices of Courage in a Time of Climate Crisis (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019). Her book, Introduction to Preaching: Scripture, Theology, and Sermon Preparation, was co-authored with Jerry L. Sumney and Emily Askew (Rowman & Littlefield, 2023).

BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/leahschade.bsky.social

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LeahDSchade/

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Leah-D.-Schade/e/B018UH18EQ

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