Project Name:
Institute for Advanced Pastoral Studies
Description:
Christ Church Cranbrook has received a five-year grant to re-establish the Institute for Advanced Pastoral Studies (IAPS) with its partner congregation, Hartford Memorial Baptist Church. Originally founded by Christ Church Cranbrook in 1957, the Institute for Advanced Pastoral Studies aims to build clergy leadership capacities, connections and networks in Metro Detroit. Gathering intentionally ecumenical and racially diverse groups of clergy into cohorts, IAPS will host an annual conference, a five-day summer intensive seminar, and monthly learning and support groups that explore adaptive leadership and its potential for building the Beloved Community. The program will therefore provide participants with the opportunity to develop the spiritual grounding and skills necessary for personal growth, congregational leadership, and civic engagement. Administered by Christ Church Cranbrook, learning sites will be located in local congregations and allied organizations throughout Metro Detroit.
The University of the South (Sewanee), affiliated with the Episcopal Church, seeks a five-year grant for its Thriving in Ministry Mentoring Network and Continuing Education Program. Based at the university’s School of Theology, the program seeks to facilitate effective collaborative mentoring for clergy serving rural communities, clergy in Latino ministries, clergy in African-American ministries, and clergy with nontraditional theological educations. The pastors will meet annually at Sewanee to receive training in the mentoring model and in topics of particular interest to the participants. Throughout each year, conveners in each group will facilitate ongoing group reflection on pastoral leadership through online discussions, conference calls and in-person meetings. Sewanee will establish and actively manage an online network to allow for further communication within and among mentoring groups between annual summits. To sustain this effort, Sewanee’s development office will solicit contributions from donors and charge participants modest fees.
Project Name:
Pastoral Innovation Network of New England
Description:
Hartford Seminary’s five year clergy grant program, Thriving in Poor Soil: Creating a Pastoral Innovation Network of New England (PINNE), is an effort to foster and sustain clergy excellence by enhancing the creativity and leadership skills of innovative pastors. Younger clergy who are three to ten years into their ministry career and who are engaged in innovative congregation-based ministries will build and sustain relationships with peers and mentors where they can explore challenges of ministry in New England, share creative ideas, and receive support from each other. Through regular gatherings, coaching, ongoing virtual communication, and the voluntary undertaking of a project of congregational change this project hopes to increase the level of creativity and spiritual energy of participants while also disseminating the learnings to clergy and denominations across New England. In addition, PINNE will host two conferences, create a website, support a Facebook page and participate in judicatory events where we will share the most innovative ideas on thriving in ministry and vital approaches with other pastors throughout the region. To sustain this effort beyond the grant, the Seminary will seek denominational funding for participants and incorporate elements of the PINNE program into its doctor of ministry degree program.
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.
The Benedictine Sisters of Cullman, Alabama, a Roman Catholic religious community grounded in the Benedictine tradition, seeks a five-year grant to support its Women at the Wellsprings: Drawing from Timeless Springs to Nourish Ministry Today program. Through this effort, the Benedictine Sisters will help ecumenical groups of women pastoral leaders thrive in their congregational leadership role by sharing with them the Benedictine values of hospitality and community and engaging them in the spiritual practices of prayer and hospitality from the Benedictine monastic tradition. The program will gather groups of women pastoral leaders five times in two and a half years for eight day sessions of worship, prayer, peer group reflection, presentations and rest. In addition, the pastoral leaders will develop a plan to engage in spiritual practices that they will implement when they return home. To sustain this effort after the grant period concludes, Benedictine Sisters will invite participants to raise funds through their congregations and denominations.
Omaha Presbyterian Seminary Foundation (OPSF) requests a three-year grant for its Pastoral Leadership Revitalization Program, an effort to recharge the spiritual energy of pastors with the overall goal of revitalizing congregations. The program is an integrated mentoring and spiritual regeneration initiative for ordained clergy and lay pastors in the Central Nebraska, Missouri Union, and Missouri River Valley presbyteries and will involve both Presbyterian Church (USA) and a diverse ecumenical mix of clergy who serve as local pastors and lay pastors in small rural and urban congregations. The pastors will have opportunities to receive mentoring and coaching from experienced clergy, participate in pastor peer-to-peer networks, engage in retreats and spiritual rejuvenation activities and benefit from targeted actions to support their families. To sustain this work, OPSF will solicit funds from new donors and seek foundation grants.