During the past several years, churches across the nation have embraced October as Pastor Appreciation Month. With more than 500,000 pastors serving in Christian churches in the United States, including some 300,000 Senior Pastors, newly-released survey data from the Barna Research Group of Ventura, California provides insight into the background of America’s Protestant clergy.

Pastors’ Self-Perceptions

The survey data reveal some surprises regarding the self-perceptions of pastors. For instance, more than four out of five Senior Pastors (83%) describe themselves as “evangelical.” Large majorities of clergy representing churches not generally thought of as evangelical embraced that label, such as seven out of ten who serve mainline churches, eight out of ten located in the Northeast, and eight out of ten who pastor churches that attract fewer than 100 adults.

Equally surprising is the fact that four out of five Protestant Senior Pastors (81%) say they are “theologically conservative.” This includes three out of five mainline pastors (60%) and three out of four in the Northeast (75%).

Although many of the nation’s best-known denominations are associated with Reformed or Calvinist theology, a slightly larger share of pastors claimed to be Wesleyan or Arminian in their theological views than Calvinist (37% versus 32%, respectively). Pastors serving churches in the western states were considerably more likely to associate with Wesleyan theology (44%) than with Calvinist theology (28%). Pastors who were not seminary graduates were also more likely to associate with a Wesleyan view (39%) than with a Calvinist perspective (29%). Pastors of non-denominational churches were twice as likely to embrace Calvinism as to endorse Wesleyanism (30% vs. 14%, respectively).