Asbury Theological Seminary’s Thriving in Ministry Project is an effort that will form and support small groups (“thriving bands”) for clergy to provide mutual encouragement, mentoring, education and continuing peer relationships. Rooted in the Wesleyan tradition of class meetings, Asbury’s “thriving bands” will be composed of clergy in particular professional transitional moments, including: 1) women clergy in their first five years of ministry as well as those transitioning to senior leadership; 2) Latina/o bi-vocational pastors in their initial years of ministry when the challenges of establishing a clear identity, managing time and creating healthy family contexts require unique training, peer support and mentoring; and 3) church planters, during their inaugural period of ministry, with a focus on managing change as well as family relationships. To sustain this project, Asbury will draw on the existing financial resources, test participant-fee structures and develop cost-effective strategies to foster connections through video conferencing resources and mobile device applications.
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.
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.
United Methodist Foundation of New England’s “Innovate, Integrate, Elevate” program expands and enhances a successful peer learning experience by offering nine cohort gatherings over a five-year period. The cohorts will be offered to pastors in cross-cultural appointments, as well as part-time licensed local pastors, and full-time clergy serving in a variety of settings and stages of ministry. Each cohort will have nationally recognized conversation partners and facilitators, time for individual and communal reflection, and the ability to work with peers to create leadership tools and resources for their mutual and individual use. Each person will participate in frequent group coaching calls. The goal of this program is to provide a space for pastors to grow in their relationship with Christ, explore their personal ministry, create a network of colleagues, and develop leadership skills to share across the annual conference.
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:
Spaces for Thriving: Cultivating Authentic Pastors for Small Membership Churches and Communities of Color
Description:
Methodist Theological School in Ohio (MTSO) is excited to have been awarded a five-year grant for its interdenominational Thriving in Ministry initiative: Spaces for Thriving: Cultivating Authentic Pastors for Small Membership Churches and Communities of Color program. The program seeks to help pastors serving small membership churches and communities of color flourish in ministry and vocation. The goals of our project are to improve pastoral thriving through attention to holistic well-being, authenticity in vocation, and connections to fellow pastors through collegial mentoring and interdenominational small clergy peer groups. A key characteristic of our program is the formation of cohorts of 8-12 persons committed to building supportive relationships with other clergy for two years, based on contextual interests and needs. Alongside these clergy peer groups, MTSO will offer educational engagement for mutual learning, spaces for retreat, and opportunities for spiritual renewal, including conferences that create spaces for growth in knowledge and practice that supports long-term pastoral thriving and insights for communal resilience in a time of rapid change, persistent stress, chronic trauma, and protracted moral injury.