Director of Spiritual Formation Research

Back to the Bible measures whether people are actually growing spiritually, and then tells them what to do about it. Dr. Arnie Cole has led that work for two decades, and this role exists to work alongside him.

The Director supports Arnie across the full range of the Center's work: proposing where the research should go, running studies hands‑on, and co-hosting the daily podcast. It is research with a microphone attached, and the person in it does the hands‑on work as well as the thinking.

The role is built to grow. The Director co-hosts Spiritually Fit Today from the start and takes over hosting over time, learning the work from the person who built it.

The Center for Scripture Absorption is the research arm of Back to the Bible. Its instrument, the SALT Index (Scripture Absorption and Life Transformation), has been used around the world. Rather than counting attendance or downloads, SALT measures whether Scripture is changing behavior, character, and disciple‑making in real people.

That research feeds Spiritually Fit Today, a daily podcast that turns findings into one plain step a listener can take that day. Every prescription traces back to a finding. The ministry's standard is straightforward: reach without changed lives does not count as success.

This is a wide role, and Back to the Bible wants to name that honestly. The Director proposes the research agenda and where SALT goes next, with Arnie making the final call. The Director works alongside a seasoned social scientist who guards the accuracy of every study and a survey lead who keeps fieldwork clean and on time, while staying hands‑on in the data personally, building surveys, cleaning datasets, running analysis, and maintaining the dashboards that carry findings to leadership and donors.

The Director also co-hosts a daily episode of Spiritually Fit Today.

The right person will see that combination as the appeal rather than the obstacle, and will want to learn this work from Arnie rather than arrive with it already figured out.

• Propose the research agenda for Arnie's decision: which questions matter, what the Center studies next, and where SALT goes globally
• Work alongside the research team, holding a high standard for the work and asking good questions of specialists
• Interpret results for the Church, including whether stated belief is showing up in how people actually live
• Help pastors and believers close the gap between what they believe and how they live

• Carry survey design, data collection, and data cleaning for major studies, including the State of Christianity in America report and the SALT Index
• Build and manage surveys in Survey Monkey, including distribution and export
• Conduct literature reviews and background research for new initiatives such as the Harvest Project
• Maintain data integrity, clear documentation, and organized research files

• Build and maintain Tableau dashboards that visualize research findings, engagement trends, and behavioral data for internal and donor‑facing use
• Conduct statistical analysis, including descriptive statistics, cross‑tabulations, and segment comparisons, to support published reports and white papers
• Prepare research briefs, white papers, and presentation materials for donors, church partners, and media

• Co-host the daily podcast alongside Arnie, with a path to taking over hosting over time
• Write episodes that turn Scripture and data into something a listener can do the next morning
• Keep every prescription traceable to a finding, without hype or vanity metrics
• Work with the production team to keep the daily cadence sustainable