Correlated Outcomes and Servant Leadership Behaviors in the Lutheran Parish

Abstract

This quantitative correlational study aimed to examine the connection between the presence of servant leadership behaviors and quantifiable ministry activity measures, ministry professional burnout indicators, and the willingness of ministry professionals to continue to serve as ministry professionals within their current ministry context. Religious ministries face many challenges (Jones, 2019), including the COVID-19 pandemic (Bryson et al., 2020; Evans, 2022; Wildman et al., 2020), and ministry leaders are looking for answers. This study expands the literature on organizational success and servant leadership in religious ministries by utilizing questions from the Servant Leadership Scale-7 (Liden et al., 2015a), Bergen Burnout Inventory - 9 (Salmela-Aro et al., 2010), questions around ministry professional retention, and public ministry statistics around quantifiable ministry activity indicators to investigate possible statistically significant correlations from the final sample of 178 current pastors serving in the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod at the same North American congregation between 2018-2021. While there were no significant findings when comparing against quantifiable ministry indicators, the statistically significant results between servant leadership behaviors and burnout indicators, intent to serve as a pastor, and intent to serve at their current ministry location all paralleled similar findings for other populations around the potential positive influence of servant leadership on those indicators of success. The results cannot indicate causality, but they encourage further study into the potential for servant leadership behaviors to positively influence religious ministries and, perhaps, be a part of the solution to the challenges facing religious ministries today.