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Catholic Leadership Institute requests a four-year grant for partial support for its Revolutionizing Pastoral Placements: A New Way to Match, Appoint and Transition Catholic Priests to Parishes program. This endeavor seeks to move beyond the limits of the current diocesan placement system – often reactive and based on “plugging holes” – and create a leadership context in which priests build awareness of their strengths and a path for professional growth, parishes understand their unique charisms and ministry needs, and dioceses can think strategically into the future, armed with better information to align pastors and parishes. Catholic Leadership Institute will leverage innovative technology to assess the strengths and competencies of both priests and parishes in a diocese, as well as identify potential best-fit alignment between them. Catholic Leadership Institute will then work with diocesan personnel teams to proactively identify leadership needs and develop a transition and development plan for priests and parishes. Through this process, priests will have access to mentors and a network of peer and diocesan support. Catholic Leadership Institute will seek funds from diocesan partnerships and raise contributions from new donors to sustain this program.

Indiana Ministries of the Church of God has been awarded a five-year grant to support its FULFILL the Call: From Surviving to Thriving program. Working with pastors at different stages of their careers, this program fosters and supports one-on-one mentoring relationships for young and/or new pastors serving in small congregations or new church starts, mid-career pastors in transition to another congregation, and seasoned pastors nearing the end of their careers who are seeking to finish well.  Program activities include regular mentoring sessions between new and seasoned pastors, quarterly cluster gatherings of mentor-mentee pairs, and retreats and other resources for pastors in seasons of transition. To sustain this effort, Indiana Ministries will, over the grant period, seek to integrate FULFILL the Call: From Surviving to Thriving into the life and mission of the organization.

St. Thomas University, a Roman Catholic university founded by the Augustinian Order, seeks a five-year grant for its Investing in Pastors: Thriving in Ministry in South Florida program. This program will gather ecumenical cohorts of early career pastors who serve multi-ethnic churches in South Florida for monthly daylong sessions that seek to strengthen the pastors’ abilities to respond more effectively and gracefully to contemporary challenges of ministry. An ecumenical group of experienced pastors will form a council of elders to meet with the cohorts to share wisdom about their experiences of ministry in South Florida. In addition, St. Thomas faculty from a variety of disciplines (such as business, law, and psychology) will work with the pastors to help them understand more broadly the challenges of ministry in South Florida. To sustain this effort, St. Thomas will seek funding from donors and identify denominational and institutional resources.

Massachusetts Baptist Multicultural Ministries (MBMM) is a 501(c)(3) organization whose vision statement is “Weaving God’s Love Across Cultures.” And our mission is simple; we call it “ACE”: Advocacy for, Celebration & Empowerment of New Americans.

Since 2007, MBMM has assisted immigrant pastors with a number of cultural, linguistic, practical and socio-economic challenges with designing and implementing programs that meet the diverse challenges of ethnic pastors and their most imminent needs. Both the small white churches’ pastors and immigrant pastoral leaders benefit from our programs that challenge them to step out of their comfort zones, culturally and theologically, to assist them in improving collegial relations, intercultural and ecumenical, professional and personal growth, and learning. To this end, Lilly Grant resources would aid us in the Thriving Pastoral Ministry Program (TPMP) to support these pastors, allowing them the framework to appreciate and embrace diverse theological and cultural ministerial praxis, empowering pastoral agency to thrive in the ministry. Establishing dynamic teams of different cultural and theological backgrounds, supported and facilitated by a trained coach, each Ethnic Clergy Group (ECG) and Intercultural Clergy Group (ICG) bridges the cultural and theological silos, providing an intercultural peer network to: pray for and with, learn from one another, offer opportunities for thinking together and working with richness of theological and cultural diversity, address solutions to issues present in current ministerial settings in the US, and doing so within a climate of embracing hospitality and mutual accountability. TPMP immersion will imbue pastors with a spirit of radical hospitality, becoming pastoral agency for change, able to lead their respective faith communities, imitating the values of the Kingdom of God. The principal of the TPMP program objectives is to provide the ECGs and ICGs with a 4-year development plan. MBMM will hire a Program Manager and Consultants, including: Cultural Advocates, Peer Coaching, Program Evaluators; and train coaches to run the TPMP, which will be resourced and supported by MBMM. Aligned with the Thriving in Ministry Initiative 2020, we pray for the opportunity and resources to support the full scope of this work outlined herein.

Located in Harlem, New York City, City Seminary of New York seeks in its five-year grant to support its Thriving in Ministry Initiative project. This is an effort to cultivate an expansive community of pastoral practice across often disconnected ministries and church traditions in the metropolitan area. Through collaborative inquiry and praxis reflection groups, spiritual direction retreats, portraiture, and annual gatherings, City Seminary hopes to connect pastors in similar and different seasons of ministry to a community of support and encouragement. The project proposes to nurture clergy faith and spirituality, invite clergy to listen to their congregational members, explore the importance of their family and intergenerational interactions, and make space for them to reflect on their congregation’s mission and purpose in a complex and ever-changing urban setting. City Seminary will incorporate project activities into its ongoing graduate and non-degree programs and its operating budget. The overarching vision is to make Thriving in Ministry part of the fabric of our seminary life now and into the future.

The Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Communities Churches (MCC) requests a five-year grant for its Thriving in Ministry program.  Seeking to break down the isolation experienced by many pastors in the denomination, this program aims to recruit, empower, and support clergy from diverse communities and theological traditions in forming a national ministerial network for mutual peer-support.  The program will focus on pastors who are in the midst of a professional transition and pair them with wise pastor-mentors.  The pastors will participate in a series of retreats to explore together practices of pastoral leadership and deepen their relationships with each other.  To sustain this effort, MCC will ask participants to contribute to offer the program to future participants, incorporate costs into the operating budget and raise funds from donors.

The University of Notre Dame seeks a five-year grant to establish a new project to support pastoral leaders and help them thrive in ministry. Based at its McGrath Institute for Church Life, this project will host annual, weeklong retreats for 12 pastors each who are nominated by diocesan bishops and organize regular continuing education events to support priestly renewal. The Institute also will host eight-day retreats to connect mentors and pastoral leaders in the first years of ministry to help prepare them for long-term ministry through professional development, financial and career planning, and personal and relational support. Mentors will meet with these early career pastoral leaders for two years. Ongoing engagement through digital resources will extend the reach of the initiative. The Institute will incorporate project activities into its operating budget to sustain the project.

The LiV program at Trevecca Nazarene University provides vital support for pastors in the transitions of the first five years of ministry: from education, to first placement, through the ordination process and into established ministry. The aim of the program is help pastors live (LiV) as complete persons, by promoting personal wellness (spiritually, physically and emotionally), by encouraging the development of interpersonal relationships (with a mentor, with other pastors and with lay leaders in the congregation) and by teaching the best practices for professional success through affinity group gatherings, context-based group mentoring programs and practical-skills workshops. Trevecca serves predominantly Nazarene churches in the southeast US. The title “Laborers in the Vineyard” (LiV) alludes to a phrase attributed to the Reverend J. O. McClurkan, the founder of Trevecca, who referred to the school as “a vine of God’s own planting.” The parable of the workers in the vineyard (Matt. 20:1-15) is the account of a landowner who hires workers in the 3rd, 6th, 9th, and 11th hours. At the end of the day, the landowner pays all the workers a daily living wage. The “Laborers in the Vineyard” program seeks to promote life for Christian laborers, especially those have arrived most recently to the field and who most need support to not only survive but thrive in ministry.

Belhaven University, affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), seeks a five-year grant to establish the Rural Mississippi Pastors Initiative (RMPI), an effort to connect, equip, and empower 80 rural pastors from across the state to help them strengthen their leadership skills and thus help their congregations and communities to flourish.  RMPI will recruit two cohorts of 40 pastors each who are serving rural communities throughout Mississippi.  Gathering regularly during a 24-month period, the pastors will build supportive and lasting peer relationships, form mentoring relationships with experienced rural pastors and engage in consultations with experts on specific leadership challenges, such as conflict resolution, finance, governance and communication.  Through these activities, the program seeks to deepen each pastor’s understanding of his or her professional identity.  To sustain this program, Belhaven’s development office will cultivate financial support from their network of large churches and their alumni/ae donor base.