Research and Validity of the LPLI
The Lewis Pastoral Leadership Inventory™ is grounded in the expertise of the Lewis Center for Church Leadership and its director, Dr. Lovett H. Weems, Jr. Since its founding in 2003, the Lewis Center has become a trusted and respected resource for church leadership ideas, research, resources, and training. Dr. Weems, who is a distinguished professor of church leadership at Wesley Theological Seminary, is a preeminent expert on leadership practice and theory in the United Methodist Church today.
The Lewis Center developed the Lewis Pastoral Leadership Inventory™ (LPLI) in response to a growing interest in leadership effectiveness among clergy and denominational leaders. The motivating interest was a desire to help clergy grow in effectiveness. While there are numerous secular leadership inventories available, many clergy felt something tailored to the specific demands of pastoral ministry was needed.
How the LPLI was Developed
The initial phase of developing the LPLI involved defining criteria of effectiveness in ministry. The Lewis Center began gathering information from denominations and judicatories on how they defined clergy effectiveness with the objective of identifying those elements held in common. The Center also drew upon studies of clergy performance and the literature of pastoral effectiveness. Through a content analysis of all this information, a three-fold framework began to emerge around the core concepts of character, competence and contribution.
The first iteration of this framework included 70 specific criteria of effectiveness. Conference leaders, seminary faculty and clergy were asked to review the criteria and provide feedback to help refine them. The Lewis Center also consulted with an organizational psychologist and secular experts in the field of human development.
Field Testing
This framework became the basis of the first pilot version of the LPLI which was field tested in 2006 with more than 500 clergy. Participating clergy, their denominational leaders, and observers were all invited to give their feedback on the process. Based on feedback and results from the first pilot, the Lewis Center refined and expanded the criteria of effectiveness, bringing the total to 75. Adjustments were made to questions, procedures, software, and the reporting format. Out of this work came a second pilot version which was field tested in 2008 and 2009 with approximately 1,000 clergy from across the United States.
Statistical Validity
Various tests of statistical reliability have been applied to the field test results and they have been verified through comparisons with external evaluations of effectiveness. Statistical analysis indicates strong internal reliability (coefficient alpha was over .80) for the measures. Where this was not initially present, additional clarifications have been made to the LPLI questions and reports to enhance reliability.
The LPLI and the “halo effect”
A challenge for some leadership assessment instruments, particularly in the nonprofit sector, is the tendency for scores to skew toward the high end of the scale. This tendency can be exacerbated when assessing clergy, since a “halo effect” can color people’s perceptions of their pastor. Because responses to the LPLI tend to cluster at the top end of the range, differences that might seem slight—say between a score of 6.1 and 6.4 on a 7 point scale—can actually be significant.
To help put scores in a larger context, individual LPLI results are presented side-by-side with a Standard Deviation Graph that permits an individual to gauge where his or her self scores and observers scores fall within the range of national averages for those who have used the LPLI in the past. When LPLI results are viewed in this context, significant variations are revealed, even when scores are at the high end of the scale.
