The decade of the 2010s will end in just a few days. To celebrate my lived experiences this decade, I created a list of my Top 20 Experiences of the 2010s. Rather than present a single lengthy list of twenty items, I've grouped the top twenty into four categories. The first two are primarily professional in nature (employment and education) while the final two (homes and happenings) are primarily personal. Employment (9) In addition to working as a consultant, I worked for nine Read More …
education
What Students Think of Me (#1755)
A few weeks ago I shared some reflections on my life as an adjunct professor. Since writing that post, I've spent some time looking back over the last eight years. Student Evaluations In higher education, students are usually afforded the opportunity to evaluate their professors. In my case as an adjunct professor at Hodges University, my students were provided an opportunity to complete an optional online questionnaire near the end of the semester. These anonymous Read More …
Will Mainline Protestantism Disappear by 2039? (#1684)
A week rarely passes when one or more of my colleagues doesn't share with me some new bit of news about the poor health of American Christianity. Some of these pieces are based on nothing more than personal opinion or inappropriate generalizations from very small samples while others are reflections on richer data sets alongside more thoughtful reasoning. In my very informal review of the last dozen pieces of news others shared with me about the future of the American church a total Read More …
The Least Educated Americans: Christians (#1664)
A few weeks ago the Pew Research Center published a detailed chart showing a nation by nation breakdown of the educational attainment of those identified with select world religions. United States In the United States, the average educational attainment of all adults aged 25 and older was 12.9 years. In rank order by average educational attainment in number of years the report shows: Hindus - 15.7 Jews - 14.7 Muslims - 13.6 Buddhists - 13.4 Read More …
Leaving Parish Ministry (#1586)
For the last fifteen years I have served in a variety of parish based ministry positions in Mainline Protestant congregations ranging in size from a few hundred to a few thousand. My job titles have included Director of Ministries with Children and Families Youth Director (and Youth Minister) Associate Pastor Interim Senior Pastor Transitional Pastor Director of Education (and Director of Adult Education). The job title I have held the greatest number of times is Read More …
Growing Seminaries (#1547)
Nearly every regular reader of this blog is well aware that American Christianity has been in decline for many years. Given this reality one would expect that seminary enrollment would also be declining since this schooling is often required of those seeking ordination (and in traditions where such advanced degrees are not required they have long been an attractive and helpful professional credential). According to a new report from the Association of Theological Schools, more Read More …
Education Level & Declining Church Attendance (#1543)
As I read W. Bradford Wilcox's recent Acts of Faith article in the Washington Post I found myself drawn to a graph illustrating a decline in church attendance. While the decline in American church attendance in America since the mid-1970s is well documented and much discussed by lay religious folks and scholars alike, few have given any real consideration to how the rate of decline differs based on education. A few years ago I shared W. Bradford Wilcox's finding that "since the Read More …
Marketing Adult Ministries (#1481)
Last week the fourth annual Naples United Church of Christ Adult Enrichment brochure was published. While this booklet is shared with around 1,000 households by old fashioned postal mail in a single mailing, the electronic version is shared with an even larger audience over a much longer time period. History Like most newer initiatives in an established congregation, this marketing piece has developed over the years. A basic timeline: 2012 - a simple booklet offering information about Read More …
Education & Low Wage Work (#1311)
It is a widely held assumption that higher levels of education are associated with higher paying jobs. This data has long been used to argue for the vale of higher education. A new study by the Economic Policy Institute finds that low-wage workers (those in the bottom 20% of income) have far more education now than they once did. More specifically, the percent of low-wage workers with varying levels of educational attainment has shifted a great deal from 1968 to 2012, Read More …
College Educated 20-Somethings (#1135)
While it is widely known that more young people are attending and graduating from college than ever before in the United States, many people are less familiar with just how dramatic the change is for those in the 25-29 year old cohort. In a recent New York Times' article, Catherine Rampell notes that the National Center for Education Statistics data shows that the percent of 25-29 year olds with a bachelor's degree or higher rose more rapidly over the last two decades than in the Read More …