Project Directory

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.

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.

Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, a multidenominational evangelical theological school, requests a five-year grant to support its Thriving in Ministry in New England program. The theological school will create cohort groups of working pastors from across New England, including Gordon Conwell alumni, and gather them regularly to form relationships with mentors and peers and improve their overall spiritual, relational, emotional, physical and vocational health. Each cohort will be led by two pastoral mentors and address a particular career stage in ministry or specific congregational setting. Cohorts will meet for a two-year period, and activities will include retreats, gatherings at Gordon Conwell, monthly group meetings and semiannual learning development opportunities. Sustainability for this project will come from a combination of support raised from congregations and new donors – as well as from support generated from a new center devoted to coaching pastors and congregations.

Resilient Leaders Project at The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology strengthens the three streams of resilience — people, practices, and purpose — in the lives of Christian leaders. Over one year, cohorts of 8-16 church workers gather for four multi-day learning modules and monthly peer groups. Resilient Leaders Project provides clergy with opportunities to build relationships; practice spiritual, physical, and emotional fitness; and discern their vocational next steps to build generative communities. Leaders leave the program with deeper self- and other-understanding, expanded capacity to manage stress and change, and tools to create redemptive narratives from their personal and congregational stories. The project is committed to learning about the practice of pastoral resilience and its impact on congregations and communities. To sustain this work, The School’s advancement team will work with a development consultant to cultivate major donors interested in supporting this project.

Azusa Pacific University (APU), an evangelical school rooted in the Wesleyan theological heritage, requests a five-year grant for partial support for its Thriving in Ministry program, an effort to expand leadership resources and provide mentors for pastors serving congregations in urban communities, especially women in ministry and pastors of color.  The university will develop and implement an educational program that includes three modules that help pastors: 1) assess their health and well-being; 2) foster and support peer and mentoring relationships with colleagues; and 3) identify and develop their leadership strengths.  Program activities will include coursework, workshops, webinars, assessments, reflection exercises and one-on-one coaching.  In addition, the effort will invest significant time and resources into identifying and training experienced pastors to serve as mentors.  To sustain this effort, APU will build program elements into its operating budget, form strategic partnerships with external organizations, solicit donations and charge modest program fees.

Gustavus Adolphus College, affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), operates the Continuous Growth Pathway (CGP) program in partnership with the Southeastern and Southwestern Minnesota Synods of the ELCA. Since 2004 Gustavus and the synods have offered a clergy wellness resource called Pastor-to-Pastor. The CGP builds upon this successful program and significantly expands it to create a comprehensive leadership development structure for the ELCA rostered leaders of Southern Minnesota.  The CGP program offers rostered leaders: 1) on-going leadership development and mentoring opportunities sensitive to their tenure in ordained ministry to help them engage in a more focused professional development strategy; and 2) additional leadership support resources and focus for those serving congregations in rural, multicultural, and pioneering contexts to help them gain greater understanding and clarity about ministry in these particular settings.  The CGP includes opportunities for rostered leaders to conduct self-assessments and professional inventories, participate in peer-to-peer small group opportunities, build relationships with mentors, receive spiritual direction and pursue advanced leadership development.  To sustain the program, rostered leaders participating in the CGP pay an annual membership fee and the CGP appeals directly to congregations and individuals for financial support and shares a portion of the program costs with the synods. Membership in the CGP is limited to rostered leaders serving in the Southern Minnesota Synods of the ELCA.