Project Directory

Orthodox Church in America (OCA), a denomination of more than 700 Eastern Orthodox churches across North America, seeks a five-year grant for partial support for its Thriving in Ministry Initiative 2018 program, an effort to strengthen the leadership practices of OCA clergy and equip them to be joyful, creative and thriving pastoral leaders for the parish communities they serve. Based on a successful pilot program started in the Diocese of Eastern Pennsylvania in 2015, OCA will establish facilitated clergy peer learning groups throughout the United States. Trained facilitators will guide priests through regular discussions around self-care, spiritual growth, vocational joy and leadership. Clergy spouses will meet with trained facilitators as well. To sustain this program, OCA will charge participants a fee and will ask each diocese to support their participating priests.

The Center for Courage & Renewal will use its Circle of Trust® approach to help pastoral leaders develop and nurture the collegial relationships vital to thriving in ministry and sustaining the work of faithfulness.  We will create and convene five communities of practice made up of twenty-five early career clergy and six to eight seasoned clergy and trained facilitators each.  These communities will gather for three, multiple-day retreats and monthly, small group peer learning calls over the course of a year-long program.  To sustain this project, the Center will incorporate the project into its operating budget and seek funding through partnerships, grants, individual donations, and project revenue.

Flourish San Diego exists to help the church of San Diego love her neighbors to life. Central to this effort is helping pastors, congregational leaders, and church planters navigate the adaptive challenges of leading in today’s environment. The Ministry of Thriving Initiative is a collection of programmatic offerings designed to support ministry leaders both professionally and personally. Professionally, Flourish San Diego offers learning environments to help leaders develop the missiological lens useful to clarifying congregational vision and mission. Personally, Flourish San Diego offers supportive environments designed to support the spiritual formation, well-being, and overall resilience of leaders in ministry.

The Flourish Collective Academy is the learning community designed to help pastors focus the efforts of their church, church plant, or ministry to contribute to the shalom of the city. Small group cohorts of pastors and church planters provide relational support in spiritual formation and peer coaching in the challenge of congregational culture. Workshops and webinars provide encouragement and direction with regard to the organizational change. A partnership with The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology will bring language and expertise around emotional intelligence and well-being. The Ministry of Thriving is designed to help both ministries and ministers thrive for the sake of a thriving city.

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.

Macedonian Ministry Foundation (MMF), an ecumenical organization, seeks a five-year grant to establish the Pastors in Community for Renewal and Leadership Development program.  This effort will build on and expand a successful program in which groups of 10 to 15 pastoral leaders are formed into cohorts and commit to meet monthly for three years.  Each cohort is guided by a trained facilitator who functions as both a mentor and a “pastor to the pastors” and who leads the pastors through a leadership development curriculum focused on pastoral health and leadership, congregational development and community engagement.  In addition, the pastors will attend a series of retreats focused on deepening their sense of pastoral identity and vocation and travel together to the Holy Land and other locations for leadership immersion experiences.  MMF anticipates that it will launch 21 new pastoral cohorts during the next five years, 7 of which are supported directly by Thriving in Ministry funds. To sustain this program, MMF will incorporate key elements into its operating budget and raise funds as part of its ongoing fundraising.

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.