Do Clergy Peer Groups Help Pastors and Their Congregations?

The article below confirms my belief that active participation in a peer group improves the pastor and the church. On the Lynchburg District, I belong to such a group that meets every Thursday morning at 8:00 AM at Court Street. All of us have received real benefits and the ideas coming out of the group have benefited many of our churches. I am aware of several other such groups that meet regularly. Our cluster groups are designed to encourage meeting and sharing. I pray that every pastor on our district will enthusiastically participate in such a group. -- Larry

"Do Clergy Peer Groups Help Pastors and Their Congregations?"

By Lovett Weems - "Update" Lewis Center for Church Leadership
Clergy are often encouraged to be part of an ongoing group of peers for support, learning, and accountability. Busy pastors sometimes wonder if they can spare the time for such groups. And congregations can be skeptical of yet another activity that takes time away from their church responsibilities.

Now we have some evidence about the benefits of such groups. It turns out that not only do the pastors benefit but their congregations also benefit in tangible ways.

For a number of years the Lilly Endowment, Inc., has funded a wide range of clergy peer groups. As part of their own evaluation process, the Endowment engaged researchers Janet Maykus and Penny Long Marler to examine the difference peer group participation made. Their research drew not only from a survey of Lilly participants but also from a larger clergy sample reported by the Faith Communities Today Survey. With both groups they examined a range of characteristics of pastors and their churches to discern the impact of a pastor’s participation in a peer group.

Churches and pastors will be pleased to know that a relationship exists between pastoral participation in a group and the growth of congregations. But the authors point out that just being in a group is not enough. Two specific characteristics of a pastor’s participation strongly relate to numerical growth in the congregation. One factor is the length of time a pastor has been in a group. "The longer a pastoral leader has participated in a peer group," the report finds, "the more likely is his or her congregation to experience growth." The other factor related to growth was that the groups have a certain degree of structure including good facilitation and/or a plan of study.

Another important finding of the study was that participation in a carefully planned peer group legitimizes activities that pastors know they should be doing but find hard to schedule. Prayer, meditation, Sabbath time, study, laughter, and fellowship with friends now become a part of their ongoing patterns of life and ministry. So for pastors and congregations, the benefits of clergy peer groups can be, as the report says, "quite tangible."

A free downloadable version of the report can be found online at Austin Presbyterian Seminary.

Lovett H. Weems, Jr.