George Fox University seeks a five-year grant for its Portland Seminary to launch the Institute for Pastoral Thriving. This effort will build one-year peer cohorts of eight to twelve pastors each to foster authentic relationships, offer safe spaces for exploring pastoral leadership challenges, nurture spiritual disciplines, and provide a network of allies to support their own thriving in ministry. The Institute will directly address challenges to pastoral thriving, particularly professional transitions and the rapidly changing demographics of the Pacific Northwest. It also will offer an annual symposium for all cohorts to gather as a larger body alongside the seminary community with the intent to foster fruitful conversations regarding pastoral spiritual renewal. To sustain this project, George Fox University will seek funding from denominations and congregations and provide advanced standing credit in the seminary degree programs for project participants.
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.
Project Name:
Enhancing Mission: Thriving Pastors and Beeson Divinity School
Description:
Beeson Divinity School of Samford University, an interdenominational theological school within a Christian university rooted in the Baptist tradition, seeks a five-year grant to support its Enhancing the Mission: Beeson Divinity School and Thriving Pastors program. The program aims to help pastors thrive in congregational leadership by improving the quality of mentoring and peer relationships for pastors, especially during seasons of transition in life and ministry. Led by a faculty director and associate director, the program will: 1) organize pastoral peer groups for Beeson alumni to meet monthly for fellowship, prayer, and vocational development; and 2) host conferences and workshops for pastors to address leadership challenges encountered in specific ministry settings and transitions. Such settings include church plants or revitalizations and bi-vocational settings. Initially the program leadership will focus on three ministry transitions: 1) new pastors in the first five years in ministry; 2) clergy making a transition from assistant/associate roles to lead/senior pastor roles; and 3) pastors enduring various kinds of trauma, tragedy, or other involuntary transitions. Through its established faculty and staff and growing alumni network, Beeson aims to serve churches by enriching and supporting their pastors. Program leadership and development officers will work with school and university administration to make the program sustainable in the coming years.
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.
Project Name:
Charis Collective (Center for Thriving Leaders)
Description:
Grace Theological Seminary (GTS) is building the Charis Collective for Thriving Leaders (CC), an organic network of leaders from Charis Fellowship partner organizations formed to collaborate in the flourishing of church planters and small church revitalization pastors. The Charis Collective's primary initiative is the establishment of the Center for Thriving Leaders at GTS. The Center will facilitate mentor-based cohorts, annual events, ongoing training events, digital resources, and academic programs geared toward equipping pastors and encouraging their spouses.
Leaders from the Charis Collective will participate on an advisory board for the Center and lend their expertise as cohort mentors, speakers, and contributors. As a result of participating, church planters, small church revitalizers, and pastors-in-training will develop the skills, competencies, and relationships needed for thriving in ministry. Grace Theological Seminary believes this program will contribute to the flourishing of local churches within the Charis Fellowship, expand the reach of the gospel in North America, and develop a new generation of seasoned pastors who, in turn, mentor fellow pastors.
Grove City College, a Christian liberal arts and sciences college in western Pennsylvania, seeks a five-year grant for its Project on Rural Ministry (PRM). This effort will convene pastors who minister in denominationally diverse but geographically and demographically similar contexts to receive and share accrued wisdom concerning the practice of ministry in rural settings. The PRM will form three cohorts of 10 pastors each who serve rural and small town congregations in the Agricultural, Rust Belt, and Appalachian regions served by the college. Key program activities include: an opening and closing conference for combined cohorts; participation in a virtual network with clergy peers; regional single-cohort meetings; customized single-church site visits by consultants specializing in social work, entrepreneurship, and Christian ministry; and the provision of student interns and service learners who will respond to pastors’ requests for more concentrated resources based on their communities’ needs. To sustain this work, Grove City College will seek to establish and extend the work of the PRM by funding an ongoing Ministry Institute to foster engagement between college, church, and community. Project details may be reviewed at www.ruralministry.org.