North Park Theological Seminary’s Thriving in Ministry grant is focusing on three main areas: Thriving Prophetically, Thriving Spiritually, and Thriving Vocationally. Our goal is to develop and implement programs and initiatives that will support our pastors in these key areas of their ministry. We intend to do this by: Developing peer-mentoring programs; Providing opportunities for pastors to explore the connection between their pastoral calling and social issues facing the church and world today, and; Creating continuing education opportunities for trained spiritual directors who are either themselves pastors or are providing spiritual direction to pastors, helping them enhance their interior life. To fulfill this goal we are committed to working with our pastors to determine how best we can serve them in reaching this goal and ensuring that the efforts we invest in through this grant will have a long lasting impact on the ability of our pastors to thrive in ministry.
The PLNU Center for Pastoral Leadership is excited about the potential to further its mission to resource pastors and partner with them in ministry through the Ministerial Coaching Initiative. The purpose of this initiative is to provide professional developmental coaching to church-planting pastors, pastors serving small-membership churches and pastors serving congregations serving communities of color. Through a personal and cohort coaching model, encouraging peer-to-peer connection and resourcing between pastors, this initiative provides tailored training that addresses the specific leadership challenges these pastors encounter. We hope to help pastors navigate the unprecedented challenges they face today with congruence, authenticity and courage.
Project Name:
Mission Immersion Program for Pastors
Description:
Catholic Church Extension Society of the United States of America (Catholic Extension) seeks a five-year grant to provide partial support for its Mission Immersion Program for Pastors. This effort will create mission immersion experiences that will foster life-giving and mutually enriching relationships among midcareer pastors and mission communities. Research suggests that midcareer priests are searching for new inspiration, especially those who are busy in their parishes and have begun to feel a sense of isolation from the larger church or are feeling hemmed in by the many demands placed on them. Through this project, cohorts of five to seven priests will travel to mission communities for several days to experience firsthand the church’s missionary work in distressed regions of the United States. The aim is to broaden their theological and pastoral horizons, facilitate spiritual rejuvenation, and develop deeper relationships among priests and faith communities. To sustain this work, Catholic Extension will absorb the project into its normal operations and invite congregations to increase their mission investment.
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.
Project Name:
Cultivating Enough in the Care of Clergy
Description:
Cultivating Enough in the Care of Clergy is a two-year program for pastors who are serving small churches, churches in communities of color, and church plants and re-plants. Part of the Presbytery of Philadelphia’s Ministry and Leadership Incubator, this program is based upon the conviction that healthy leaders shape healthy congregations. The program uplifts a “theology of enough” both within the pastors and these contexts, which are often under-resourced and with their leaders facing burnout. Through cohorts of 10-12 pastors each, participants intentionally focus on “being enough, practicing enough, and offering enough” by being resourced through regular small group gatherings, retreats, deep rest, and one-on-one support. After completing the program, pastors are encouraged to be resources for incoming cohorts, spurning a larger culture of wellness within the named contexts of the presbytery by nurturing a connectional spirit alongside their peers of pastors. Inspiring pastors in these particular settings encourages health and vitality among these congregations in order to better transform their communities with the love and justice of the good news of Jesus Christ.
Project Name:
Ecology of Support for Pastors From and Serving Marginalized Communities
Description:
Chicago Theological Seminary (CTS) —affiliated with the United Church of Christ— in an effort to support new pastors in their first years of ministry after seminary graduation, hosts a program specifically curated for new and bi-vocational clergy who are serving congregations in economically disadvantaged and marginalized communities. The CTS “Resilience in Leadership” initiative will gather pastors into five regional cohorts across the country that will meet quarterly for two years and convene annually at a consultation featuring exemplary pastors and experts. Each Resilience in Leadership program participant will also meet monthly with an experienced pastor-mentor to cultivate a vision for and negotiate the challenges of leading a small and under-resourced congregation.