A Quantitative Comparative Study of Employee Engagement Among Full-Time Seventh-day Adventist Pastors in the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists and Its Relationship to Level of Participation in Annual Pastoral Continuing Education (CE)

Problem Research was needed to determine the relationship between pastoral CE and employee engagement to guide policy implementation as well as future efforts for pastoral professional development within the Adventist organization. Method This study presents a new theoretical Adventist pastor development model integrating several theories and concepts including: the call, the Seven Core Qualities of an NAD pastor framework, andragogy, CE, SDT, and employee engagement. Employee engagement was measured using Herzberg's hygiene-motivation factor employee engagement theory. Comparisons were conducted on six groups of pastors related to selfreported participation in annual CE. Results Major research findings indicate that pastors, perhaps inevitably as humans, are complex, and several factors seem to work synergistically to result in positive hygiene and motivation (employee engagement) scores including: The call, age, having adult children, ethnicity, a combination of CE and age, and a combination of children and CE. Of key importance, increased knowledge and specific life experiences work together to create a more engaged pastor. CE as a stand-alone factor did not have a statistically significant positive impact on hygiene or motivation employee engagement scores based on this data. Factors that have a negative impact on hygiene and motivation scores are family suffering, feeling like leaving ministry, doubting God’s call, ethnicity, and children at home or no children at all, and. The most popular CE activity of Adventist pastors was conventions, the least favorite was creating CE content for peers. Conclusions Recommendations for pastoral professional practice are related to five areas of focus: education, CE policy, coaching and mentoring, work environments, and pastoral family supports. Recommendations for future research are specific to four areas: pastoral CE, pastoral development factors, work environments, and family support. More scholarly research on pastors is urgently needed utilizing a factorial approach.