Announcing Preaching Survey: Ministry, Preaching, And Social Issues

First Preaching Survey, 2017

In 2017, I launched a survey on ministry, preaching, and social issues and received a little over 1,000 responses from clergy all over the U.S. It was just after the contentious 2016 election, and I wanted to get a sense of how preachers were navigating the political divides within their churches and communities. What I learned helped to inform my work on the book, Preaching in the Purple Zone: Ministry in the Red-Blue Divide (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019).

You can read some of the things I learned from that first survey here:

Top 10 Taboo Topics for Preachers (the “hot topic” preachers avoided in 2016)

How to Preach When You Are Afraid (the reasons preachers give for avoiding certain topics in sermons)

Preaching in Trump’s Shadow (the backlash some pastors receive when preaching the gospel)

The Climate Crisis is Coming and is Already Here. So is Jesus. (where environmental issues ranked for preachers in 2016 [spoiler alert: they ranked at the bottom of the list of priorities])

Second Preaching Survey, 2021

Following the 2020 election, I launched the second wave of this longitudinal research project, this time with the help of colleagues in the areas of sociology and social work. The Rev. Dr. Amanda Wilson Harper, Assistant Professor of Social Work at Tarleton University, and Dr. Wayne Thompson, Professor of Sociology at Carthage College, along with The Rev. Dr. Katie Day, Professor Emerita of Church in Society at United Lutheran Seminary provided invaluable input on the survey. We wanted to compare and contrast the ways clergy were handling “hot topics” such as racial issues, abortion, guns, and environmental issues. We received a little more than 2,000 responses.

Results from that research helped me to write the chapter “Preaching about Race and White Privilege: 2017 v. 2021,” in Unmasking White Preaching: Racial Hegemony, Resistance, and Possibilities in Homiletics, edited by Andrew Wymer and Liz Valle-Ruiz. (Lexington Books, 2022).

Check out these links for some of the insights I learned from that second survey:

Interview with Nick Taliaferro, WURD Radio, Sept. 7, 2021, on the collective silence of the Progressive church on abortion. https://soundcloud.com/onwurd/evening-wurds-9-7-21-dr-leah-schade
Abortion and the Progressive Church: Is It Time to Break the Silence?
Clergy Report Preaching More about Climate Change: National Survey

Third Preaching Survey just launched

Now I’ve launched the third survey in the Ministry, Preaching, and Social Issues project. My team and I decided not to wait until the next presidential election because of the momentous events over the past two years, including the mid-term elections of 2022, the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, continuing culture wars, and the rise of Christian Nationalism.

All preachers, including active clergy, seminarians, lay preachers, and retired clergy are invited to participate in this research project on ministry, preaching, and social issues that is now in its 6^th year. My goal is to receive 2,500 responses. I’m especially hoping for clergy who are Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Asian to respond to the survey, since these groups are historically underrepresented in research.

Your responses will help further research about preaching and ministry at this unique time in American history. This survey is anonymous and estimated completion time is 11-16 minutes. The survey is open through February 28. You are also encouraged to share this with other preachers in your network. Respondents who complete the survey can enter a drawing to win either 5 copies of my Lenten devotional, For the Beauty of the Earth or 1 copy of Preaching in the Purple Zone (your choice).

Here is the survey link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/PreachingSurvey2023

Look for future posts where I’ll share insights from the survey.

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. Dr. Schade does not speak for LTS or the ELCA; her opinions are her own. She is the author of 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 newest book is Introduction to Preaching: Scripture, Theology, and Sermon Preparation, co-authored with Jerry L. Sumney and Emily Askew (Rowman & Littlefield, 2023).