Researching the Future: A Conversation with Matthew Price, PhD

Matthew Price, PhD, Senior Vice President for Research & Data, joined CPG in 2001 as Director of Analytical Research, a one-man show. He previously served as Associate Director, Duke Pastoral Leadership Project, at the Duke University Divinity School and a Research Associate with the Religion in Urban America Program at the University of Illinois, at Chicago, and he taught at both universities.

Now leading a team of data scientists and qualitative research experts and preparing to retire at the end of the year, Dr. Price considers various ways that mining Church and client data has enabled CPG to discern trends that affect our work:

What was the genesis of CPG’s research and data efforts?

Data is the crude oil of the 21st century. CPG was sitting on this oil field but wasn’t doing anything with it. People around the Church had begun to ask questions that we had the data to answer, but not the capability. So, in 2001, CPG’s leadership decided to bring someone in-house.

One of the earliest questions I was charged with was about the formula we used for clergy pensions. How might we change it to enable clergy who have worked many years in relatively low-paying areas to have reasonable income replacement upon retirement? I ran 21 different models, and the 21st was the one that hit. It’s the formula that we’re still using today.

Around 2006, in response to the Lay Employee Pension Feasibility Study requested by General Convention, I began looking at lay employee retirement readiness and was heavily involved in helping CPG respond to the resulting General Convention resolution mandating lay pensions. 

Since the creation of a mandatory lay pension system in 2009, we’ve seen tremendous progress in lay employee retirement readiness and confidence: Today, some 93% of eligible lay employees have a CPG-administered pension and there’s been a 450% increase in retirement savings by lay employees. I was honored to participate in this work.

Why are research and data so important to CPG and the Church?

If you’re not making data-driven decisions, then you’re just guessing. The Research & Data team helps our three lines of business make informed choices about our products, programs, and services.

For example, we conducted an analysis of social determinants of health to help our Benefits Policy team decide whether to revise the resources we offer. Our property and casualty risk analysis and mapping tool resulted in the ability of Church Insurance Companies to see the impacts of climate events in real time and respond more quickly to weather-related damage. And recent research for Church Publishing helped us figure out how best to engage various audiences and authors with our three imprints.

What are you most proud of during your time at CPG?

It was wonderful to participate in the creation of a Lay Pension System, since it had such a direct positive impact on people’s lives. When I started at CPG, we had only some 6,000 lay employees in our pension system. We now have more than 12,000.

What are your plans once you retire?

I’d love to teach again. I would like to continue to contribute to the life of The Episcopal Church. And possibly finish the articles I set aside in 2001—on a floppy disk, in Word Perfect—on religion, management culture, and politics.