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.
Project Name:
Fostering Clergy Mentoring and Collegiality
Description:
The Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida comprises 85 congregations divided into five deaneries across 15 counties in Central Florida. It includes more than 200 active priests, approximately 100 active deacons, and more than 27,000 parishioners. The Diocese is one of a few of the 110 domestic dioceses in the Episcopal Church that have grown in recent years while most are declining. The mission of the Diocese as an institution is to serve and share the Good News of Jesus Christ in a myriad of ways throughout our neighborhoods and communities, and to raise up new leaders to continue this work. The Diocese, as an extension of the diocesan bishop’s ministry, supports the development, health, and well-being of diocesan clergy and churches. The Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida was awarded a planning grant for summer 2020 to listen carefully to the day-to-day personal and professional challenges and then to explore possible approaches to these challenges. From the activities supported by the planning grant, we have determined that thriving ministry can be realized in the Diocese by intentional programs that foster robust mentoring, collegiality, and continued clergy development. Currently, the Diocese has some programs in place to work with newly ordained priests and priests in ministry transitions, to support clergy’s ongoing development, and to foster the growth of community among clergy. However, these programs are underfunded and insufficient to meet the needs of the diocesan priests. The Diocese desires to expand the existing programs and add new components or programs. It will provide mentorship to newly ordained priests, foster robust collegiality among the clergy, promote clergy peer support, enrich clergypersons’ professional life, strengthen their ministry, emphasize the importance of clergy developing as preachers, expand the opportunities for clergy continuing education, and provide context-specific ministry training.
Project Name:
Thriving Throughout the Seasons of Pastoral Ministry
Description:
International Pentecostal Holiness Church (IPHC), a denomination of more than 1,700 churches in the United States, seeks a five-year grant for partial support for its Thriving Throughout the Seasons of Pastoral Ministry program. Through this program, 180 to 200 pastoral leaders — women, men, pastors serving multiethnic/multilingual congregations, church planters, and those in transition from rural to urban ministry settings and vice versa — will engage in multiple-year peer learning and mentoring communities with pastors serving similar size congregations so they might build a peer network and explore together leadership challenges posed by their settings. To sustain this effort, IPHC will launch a deferred giving and capital campaign effort dedicated to this program and will incorporate elements into its operating budget.
Project Name:
The R.E.A.L. Black Women in Ministry THRIVE Fellows
Description:
Union Baptist Church, in the Village of Harlem, New York (Rev. BD Scott, Pastor), is home to The R.E.A.L. Black Women in Ministry THRIVE (REAL BWIM THRIVE 50) FELLOWS: a 4-year, national, personal, pastoral and professional formation and development mentorship cohort, specifically designed for 26 Black women Senior pastors to mentor 26 Black women in ministry who are newer to ministry, but who have the desire to serve in parish ministries, for enhancement, advancement and placement in parish ministry. Through sharing resources, opportunities and networking, intentional attention is placed on strengthening current senior pastors, planting new pastors, and creating a succession of next-generation Black female leaders, equipped, exposed, and ready to be 21st-century leaders, both in person and virtually.
Union Baptist Church is also the home of the Grant program Director, Rev. Dr. Suzan Johnson Cook, who was the first woman licensed and ordained in the Christian ministry there, and who later went on to direct the first Black women in ministry program of the Lilly Endowment, and also become the first Black woman pastor in the 200-year history of the American Baptist Churches, USA.
In cohort format, through prayer, personal and group interaction, video recordings, journaling, presentations, social media instruction, mentoring, guest speakers, retreats and monthly Sister Sessions, this initiative allows participants to enjoy their creativity and their journeys, as whole and healthy leaders.
Representing 11 different denominations and from 11 different cities, we have already seen growth, reduction of stress and a hunger for interaction and learning. Most of all, a new sisterhood has developed for pastors who had been in isolation, serving congregations of color in America’s urban cities. They know they are not alone and thank the Lilly Endowment for this amazing opportunity.
Spelman College, an historically black college for women, seeks funding for the WISDOM Center Fellowship program. Building on the activities of its successful WISDOM Center (which was launched in 2003 with Lilly Endowment support), this endeavor seeks to provide African-American millennial women in ministry, especially Spelman alumnae, with opportunities for peer learning, rest and creative engagement. The program will focus on younger black women clergy who are serving as associate pastors and discerning paths toward senior pastoral leadership positions. The pastors will form cohorts and meet for one year with mentors who will lead their retreats and gatherings. To sustain this work, Spelman will incorporate the program’s costs into its operating budget and solicit contributions from donors.
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.