Julius Lester is emeritus professor at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. He has had appointments in both Afro-American and Judaic studies. An African-American who was raised as a Christian, he converted to Judaism and found that he also has Jewish ancestry. His books include Lovesong: Becoming A Jew (Bullfinch Press,1988).

Terry C. Muck is interim executive director of  the Louisville Institute in Louisville, Ky., which encourages the revitalization of American religious life, including among clergy.

Capers C. Funnye Jr. is chief rabbi at Beth Shalom B’nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation in Chicago and is a member of the Chicago Board of Rabbis.

Leadership Network in Dallas fosters church innovation by working with leaders in a variety of denominations. It  has support groups for pastors in different stages of their careers, and its website includes resources related to burnout.

Anne Marie Miller (pen name Anne Jackson) grew up as the daughter of a pastor and later experienced serious stress as a church leader herself. She is the author of Mad Church Disease: Overcoming the Burnout Epidemic (2009). Miller is based in Iowa.

Wayne Cordeiro is the founding pastor of New Hope Christian Fellowship, a fast-growing Honolulu megachurch. He served three decades in ministry before burnout caused him to take a break. That period of rest and reflection re-energized him, and he shared his experience in a 2009 book, Leading on Empty: Refilling Your Tank and Renewing Your Passion. Cordeiro’s […]

Patrick Bellegarde-Smith, a professor in the department of Africology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, is an expert on Haitian Voodoo and on religion, gender and class issues in the African Diaspora. He edited Fragments of Bone: Neo-African Religions in a New World (University of Illinois, 2005) and co-edited (with Claudine Michel) two volumes on Vodou, Haitian Vodou: Spirit, […]

Read a Jan. 8, 2005, Resources for American Christianity interview about the state of pastoral leadership.

A national shortage of Protestant clergy is taking its toll on rural congregations, according to a Kansas City Star article published June 11, 2005, by The Washington Post.