Esperanza is launching Renovación Pastoral (Pastoral Renewal) a program funded by the Lilly Endowment. Esperanza is a faith-based nonprofit organization driven by the biblical mandate to “serve the least of these.” We strengthen our Hispanic community through education, housing and economic development, immigration legal services, job training and advocacy. Renovación Pastoral supports new pastors in their first years of service to the Latino communities of Philadelphia, Allentown, Bethlehem, Lancaster, and Reading. Through Renovación Pastoral we offer these pastors a sacred space to be affirmed, to learn, and to be nurtured through mentoring that is focused on both spiritual and practical matters. Esperanza connects pastors in their first years of ministry with active and retired long-term pastors who have demonstrated longevity and success in local ministry, helping the younger pastors to transition successfully into congregational leadership, while building a pastoral legacy for the well-seasoned religious leaders of the Latino communities of Southeastern Pennsylvania.
Convencion Bautista Hispana de Texas (Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas) requests a five-year grant for the Conexión Pastors Initiative program, an effort to provide Hispanic Baptist pastors opportunities to form healthy relationships with their peers and to explore together the unique challenges and demands of their ministry settings. Building on the success of its Compañerismos program (which supports local Hispanic fellowship groups), the program will organize up to 400 pastors into 40 pastoral fellowship groups during the five-year grant period. Each group will follow a learning plan designed by the participating pastors that address the various challenges they face in ministry, including intergenerational and first-generation immigrant issues, diverse language usage, and the rapidly changing cultural needs of their communities. The 40 fellowship groups also will meet annually at a large retreat. To sustain this program, Convencion Bautista Hispana de Texas will work closely with key churches in the Hispanic Baptist Churches of Texas and collaboratively with key partners, including the Baptist General Convention of Texas and the Baptist University of the Americas, to solicit contributions from donors and raise financial resources.
Project Name:
Together We Thrive: Nurturing Pastoral Leadership
Description:
The Southern New England Conference seeks a five-year grant for the Together We Thrive: Nurturing Pastoral Leadership program. Working in partnership with the Connecticut and Rhode Island UCC conferences, the Western Diocese of the Episcopal Church in Massachusetts and the New England Synod ELCA, Lutheran, the program will offer a variety of opportunities for pastors to build relationships with peers and strengthen their leadership practices, including: 1) facilitated clergy cohorts to hone the practices of ministry; 2) clergy affinity groups to provide opportunities for intentional relationship building between clergy for mutual support and accountability; and 3) clergy coach training opportunities for seasoned clergy to work with new pastors. An annual colloquy will draw all the clergy groups together to reflect on challenges of pastoral ministry. The development specialist within the conference will oversee the fundraising to solicit donations from individuals, partner churches as well as additional grant sources to sustain this program.
The purpose of the SHIFT Leadership Network is to provide specialized training, guidance and support for early career pastors and persons who are matriculating through the Board of Ministerial Training. SHIFT is an acronym for Supportive, Healthy Innovations for Thriving in Ministry. The program is intended to guide and support each minister/pastor as he or she creates and carries out a dynamic individualized three-year learning experience. Learning will take place on multiple levels, including mentoring, group sharing, training, evaluating and planning. After acceptance, each minister/pastor will propose an individualized learning contract that will address four areas: spiritual formation; emotional maturity; leadership skills; sub-cultural sensitivity and mental models of systems and change processes.
Sojourners, a faith-based nonprofit organization, is leading an initiative to support the expansion of the Matthew 25 (M25) Network program. Matthew 25 seeks to connect experienced clergy with newer clergy to help them learn from each other through inter-generational exchanges. The program will form and support peer learning communities for 50 African-American pastors in the greater Washington, D.C., region and 100 Latino/a pastors in Southern California. In the second year, we will draw from lessons in year one to work with African-American and Latino/a pastors in an additional city. The pastors will engage in mutual mentoring, prayer, study, hands-on leadership education, and advocacy activities. These learning communities work in collaboration with seminaries and are designed to develop ecclesial imagination, engaging the congregations in the pastors’ learning process. These pastors of color and their congregations will be equipped through the program to respond effectively on multiple levels to the pastoral crises happening in their communities particularly immigration and criminal justice issues. We will share lessons learned from the project and highlight local efforts on our national media platforms. To sustain this work, Sojourners will work with its partners, the Christian Community Development Association, Centro Latino at Fuller Seminary, and Matthew25/Mateo 25 SoCal, to solicit support from individual donors, congregations, external partners, and through earned income.
California Lutheran University received a five-year grant to create the Thriving Leadership Formation Program. Working in partnership with Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary and 11 synods of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), the program will help pastors and church leaders strengthen specific practical leadership skills not learned in seminary while encouraging them to deepen their engagement with their congregations and communities. This effort will emphasize collaborative learning in cohorts (in person and online) that cultivate mutual support, practices, and accountability, and provide pastors and church leaders with mentoring, spiritual direction and coaching. To sustain this program, California Lutheran and its partner organizations will monetize mentoring and leadership development resources developed through the program and solicit financial support from its network of synods and congregations.