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The purpose of this study was to develop an Exceptional Brethren Ministers Scale for the California Psychological Inventory. This scale was designed to differentiate between effective and ineffective parish pastors in the Church of the Brethren.;The procedure involved the identification of two groups of parish clergy in the Church of the Brethren. These groups were formulated using a Pastoral Effectivenes Rating Form, (PERF). A list containing 160 items was circulated among a group of experts in ministry in the Church of the Brethren for their appraisal. The experts rated each item according to its efficacy in discriminating between effective and ineffective parish pastors. Forty-two items were selected for PERF. The PERF was then tested in a pilot study and was submitted to district executives within the denomination. The district executives used the PERF to rate the pastors in their respective districts. The accumulated ratings were rank-ordered, and the 80 pastors who received the highest ratings and the 80 with the lowest ratings were selected as subject for the study. These 160 subjects were contacted and were asked to complete the California Psychological Inventory. Ninety-three agreed to participate and were divided into the two criterion groups for the development of the Exceptional Brethren Ministers Scale.;The hypothesis for the study was that a valid Exceptional Brethren Ministers Scale could be developed for the California Psychological Inventory that would discriminate between effective and ineffective Church of the Brethren Parish Clergy. Although validation samples were unavailable, a scale was produced using a 2 x 2 contingency chi-square analysis. The new scale consisted of 45 items which reached statistical significance. A oneway ANOVA was used to compare the two criterion groups on the 18 standard CPI scales. Significant differences were obtained on eight scales which included Capacity for Status, Sociability, Social Presence, Self-acceptance, Tolerance, Achievement via Conformance, Achievement via Independence, and Intellectual Efficiency. With each of these scales the scores received by the most effective criterion group exceeded those obtained by the least effective group.

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While clergy are at the forefront of providing mental health counseling services, many lack confidence in their ability to provide adequate care for those suffering mental health issues and many, across denominations, question the validity and reliability of mental health counseling and are reluctant to make referrals to professional counselors. There remains a gap in the current research literature regarding the views of Southern Baptist pastors. Using conflict theory as the framework for this study, the purpose of this exploratory quantitative study was to determine how 225 Southern Baptist pastors' conservative views, church size, and educational level (the independent variables) impacted their attitude towards counseling (the dependent variable). Data were collected using the Religious Attitude Scale and the Attitude Toward Seeking Professional Help Scale. A three-way ANOVA was performed to measure interaction effects among the independent variables. The results of this research indicated that a pastor's level of education and conservative views, but not church size, had an impact on attitudes about counseling. While future research could better inform the kinds of education that influence counseling referrals from pastors, this research supports the idea that more educated pastors are more likely to use diverse resources for addressing congregants' issues of mental wellness. The results of this research can influence social change because Christians needing mental health counseling often go to their pastor for help. Providing further education to pastors about the benefits of professional counseling will result in improved mental health for those congregants and their families.

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