Benedictine Women of Madison, an ecumenical religious community, received a five-year grant to support its Ecumenical Center for Clergy Spiritual Renewal program. This endeavor seeks to offer pastors in the early- and mid-stages of their careers the opportunity to experience spiritual renewal through immersions in Christian contemplative practices and the forming of supportive relationships with clergy peers. The pastors will participate in two immersions to experience the rhythms, people and sacred space of Holy Wisdom Monastery. Between immersions, pastors will stay connected to one another through video conference calls and a variety of leadership resources and activities sponsored by the Center. The Benedictine Women will sustain this program through partnerships with congregations and external organizations, grants, earnings from its endowment and modest participant fees.
Project Name:
Mentoring for Thriving in Ministry in the City
Description:
New York Theological Seminary (NYTS) seeks a five-year grant for its Mentoring for Thriving in Ministry in the City project. This three-pronged project seeks to develop effective mentoring for pastors serving in urban ministries, especially NYTS graduates as well as other pastors in the New York City metropolitan region. The project will include a research component to examine and understand the effective mentoring practices for pastors in diverse urban ministry contexts. NYTS also will introduce mentoring for all ministerial candidates in its degree programs, many of whom already serve congregations, and increase resources for mentoring for graduates and other pastors in the region. To sustain this project, NYTS will fully integrate mentoring into degree programs for pastoral ministry, create a permanent office that provides resources for mentoring to pastors, and share the findings of its research through academic publications and other appropriate media.
Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Inc. (CBF) seeks a four-year grant to create the Thriving in Ministry Initiative program, an effort to help clergy build and sustain collegial relationships to enhance their leadership capacities. Pastors who are at the same stages in their careers or serve congregations in similar contexts will form peer colleague groups and meet monthly with experienced pastor-mentors, called CBF Pilots. An initial gathering of all the cohorts will launch the program, and a capstone retreat will conclude each year. Throughout the year, each cohort will collect their best insights and reflections and combine them into published leadership resources (called Gleanings for the Journey) to share with other pastors and congregations. These resources may include written entries by both CBF Pilots and participants, podcasts, blogs, webinars and curricula. To sustain this initiative, CBF will incorporate this program into its operating budget and solicit gifts from donors.
Project Name:
Sacred Roots: Thriving in Ministry Project
Description:
Taylor University, a nondenominational school in the evangelical tradition, seeks a five-year grant for its Sacred Roots: Thriving in Ministry Project. This effort will form at least 20 locale-based pastoral mentoring groups for pastors serving congregations in under-resourced urban, rural and incarcerated communities to foster ministerial friendships and build relationships between new and experienced clergy. Working collaboratively with external partners, Taylor will host four consultations for pastors to identify potential mentors, collect best practices for leading under-resourced congregations and explore Christian classic literature in spirituality to find sources for pastoral nourishment and support. Facilitated by mentors and clergy recognized for their wisdom, the program will invite clergy to join peer cohorts of up to 10 pastors each to explore together leadership challenges posed by particular ministry contexts. Each session will focus on a guided reading from among 16 Christian spiritual classics identified at the opening consultation. To sustain this effort, Taylor’s development office will identify and solicit funding from individuals and partner organizations.
Project Name:
Thriving Pastors in Revitalizing Congregations
Description:
The Illinois Conference UCC is an exciting spirit-filled community of 241 churches spread out across the top 2/3 of Illinois from the bustle of Chicago to the stretching farmlands of central Illinois, rural, suburban and urban with every expression of human diversity possible. Our Conference mission is to equip pastors and lay people to grow as Christ’s disciples and serve the pressing needs of the world around us. This grant application program, Thriving Pastors in Revitalizing Congregations (TPIRC), dovetails in a timely manner with our current mission revisioning, our desire to offer leadership resources, and our need to focus our Conference on the task of serving pastors and churches. TPIRC will offer up to 45 pastors best practices of faithful leadership with a trained Clergy Coach and facilitated CCOP support-learning groups. We believe it is far more effective to involve key lay leaders from the pastor’s church than to offer resources only to the pastor. Consequently, our program offers annual Learning Summit Events for clergy and lay leadership as well as follow-up Cohort gatherings of 5-7 pastors and lay leaders to strategize the application of best practices. These cohorts will build partnerships and community among pastors and churches. This program comes at the right time to benefit the Illinois Conference and to grow into a continued ministry for years to come.
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.